BennyEast.Com/Blog The official blog of Kenny West

30Apr/120

Every Little Bit

It's kinda neat.  I mean... I'm legitimately getting music sales!  Like... ok they range from 99 cents to even just 1 cent... and I only get a couple of them a month.  But it's really fun that people actually click buy on my music.  I mean this is music that I've created and put time and effort into and actually posted up for the world to take in.  And people are willing to pay money for it!  Every little bit adds up slowly.  It's not much.  I mean... it's barely anything.  But the fact the people are willing to pay even just a tiny bit for my music really makes me feel awesome!  It makes me sooooooooo happy inside!

I think if I keep at it and keep posting things eventually those little bits will turn into bigger bits.  Then I can do more and more with music.  I can reinvest money into more music and more creative things.  That's kind of been my plan all along.  To eventually even buy a house and turn one room into a creative space and just make creative things all day.  That would just be fantastic.  Anywho yea... I just kinda thought that was excited that I logged in today to my little accounting section and saw a couple more downloads.  OK soooooo technically... I'm still 10 dollars away from breaking even on my second song upload.  So I'm actually still at a loss... but for some reason it just makes me soooo hopeful and happy to see even a couple downloads every time I log in.

I'm kind of an easy please.  haha... I mean you're talking to someone that think the ideal friday night is to order some pizza and put on a movie and I'm happy as a clam.

It's the little things in life that just bring me such joy.  Anywho I'm working on these two new songs.  I hope to finish something in the near future.  It's kinda been slow going for music lately because I've diversified my interests a bit.  I'm just enjoying all the creative things I've been doing lately.  It's all just so much fun and I'm just having a blast.  But hopefully I can focus at little maybe slightly more on music and finish something for everyone to enjoy!

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26Apr/120

TV Is Good Company

So tonight I stayed in and worked on some music.  I also made some salmon for dinner.  I was going to head out down the street to starbucks but I'm kinda comfy in my PJ's!  I think I might work on writing a little bit more.  I'm working on that whole book idea thing which is really starting to take shape faster than I thought it would and I also have an idea for a funny little short story.  I think the short story I might post up on my site when I finish that.

I watched a few random things on netflix and ate dinner and then between each thing I worked on recording some tracks. It's been a pretty relaxing productive night for sure!  Tomorrow night I want to check out the art after 5 thing again.  I REALLY liked going to that so I'm going to head down that way after work tomorrow.  Saturday I'm not working overtime so I can sleep in and then work on more things.  Sunday is my comedy improv class again.  It's the second class.  So I can't wait to learn more and really start getting into it!

I also can't wait to get gelato.  MMMMMMmmmmm. It's soooooooooo good that stuff... seriously it's just yummmy!

I kind of wish I had some gelato right now.

But yea tonight has just been a nice relaxing Thursday evening with a little bit of TV a little bit of food and a little bit of recording.  It's only a little past 9 and I could probably get to sleep now.  But I think I'm going to stay up a little longer and do some dishes and then try writing some.

Some nights you just have to slow it down and watch a few TV shows and enjoy how relaxing it can be to just hang out in your living room!  Sometimes TV is just good company.  I think too that some TV shows can be very motivational and give positive messages and kind of inspire us to do and be more too!  At least that's how I feel sometimes after watching some TV shows and movies.  I'm all like... I want to go do something big and coooool and awesome and cooool... wait I said cool already... well annnnnnyways...

That brings me to a part 2 ish part of this blog post... today I randomly found this little picture while googling for some information:

I love that.  "There is no telling how many miles you will have to run while chasing a dream."  That's something I've been saying to myself lately.  If I just keep writing music, and making videos, and writing or creating anything and just keep doing and going... eventually I KNOW something will happen!

I'm in a super motivational mood lately.  I know that lots of things in life are a super uphill battle, and ESPECIALLY with creativity... but just gotta keep on trying.  I just love making things and doing things and I know if I do it enough... it will lead to something super cool and fun and who knows... I might even positively impact or change the world someday!  How cool would that be?  I think it would be pretty cool.

But even if I positively impact or put a smile on just a small group of friends faces... or even just make one person feel better... I think that's awesome too.

So yea... keep the motivation going in whatever anyone is doing!   Don't get discouraged or any of that yucky stuff.  Keep doing your thing and keep pushing ahead and keep the energy at full steam and in a positive direction!

Chase those dreams... I think that eventually the dreams will get tired of running away from you.  Then you can just walk right up to them.

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22Apr/120

My first comedy improv class

Today was my first comedy improv class with the Philly Improv Theater!  It was a blast.  Seriously I LOVED it.  It's small class.  There's about 10 people I think.  The range is everyone and anyone.  There's people of all different kinds of ages and that are there for just about any reason.  Some just for fun and some are trying to add to their other interests in acting or comedy or anything like that.

So today was mostly intro stuff.  We introduced ourselves and all that.  Then we played these fun introduction games.  Some of them got REALLY involved and we had to stop a few times to figure out where we were.

They were like those games where you get in a circle with everyone and you do this thing or that thing involving actions and names and memorizing what someone else did and copying it.  A lot of it involved mimicking and then changing and then showing to someone else.

Then we started pairing off and were shown other neat fun things.  I'd tell you what that was but it's the secret to improv and soooooooo if I give away the secret well... then it wouldn't be a secret!  Or something like that.

But some of the things with the class that I really liked were that we basically can just be SOOOOOOOOO super silly for 2 hours once we enter that room.

It's like feel free to do anything in the real world that people would make fun of you for or look at you weird.  THAT'S all completely awesome and acceptable and fantastic.  So I love that.  Because I feel like being silly and strange and funny and weird and whatever ALL the time!!! And people just look at me weird.

This is a judgement free zone and everyone is always supportive of everyone else.

It's just awesome.  I wish the WHOLE world was a judgement free zone and everyone was just super supportive of everyone else instead of talkin them down all the time!  I think I'm going to try and bring my into my whole life and try to just not judge people and not cut anyone down and just be completely supportive and cheer on everyone.

Just keep doing your thang everyone out there!  Don't let anything bring you down!  Just find your positive energy and go with it.  Keep doing what you love and let people that wanna hate waste their energy hating and having it just bounce off you like it's nothing.

That's what I'm a gonna do. 🙂  Let those that love me love me and those that don't want to be supportive and loving... can just go ahead and watch and judge and hope I fail... but I'll just give them love and support and cheer them on even if they hate me.

That's kinda the whole idea of the class.  Even if people fail you are supposed to just cheer them on no matter what.

One of the games we played involved us throwing around an imaginary ball and failing to catch it on purpose... but we all cheered each other on no matter what.  Even though no one could catch even the simplest toss of a ball we still just kept the cheering and clapping going on and and on telling everyone how awesome of a job they were doing.

I think that's just a great idea.  Like just be super supportive of people no matter what even if they can't do anything right... not even one thing.  Just keep being there for them and supporting them.

I love that idea and I want to try and keep that in my life from now on.

Oh ok... sooo anyways... I have to attend 2 comedy improv shows as part of the class.  So if anyone wants to go with me let me know!  That would totally be fun.

I'll keep everyone posted as to what goes on next week!

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21Apr/120

A random memory from my very first week of college

I just remembered this random memory from college... So I've decided to write a post about it.

OK, I write songs... but lyrics sometimes don't always come easy to me... well I had an idea as soon as I got to college to write a song without writing the lyrics.  I wanted to see if I could get help writing the lyrics from other people!

So here's how it  worked... I took out my notebook and a pen.

I wrote two words at the very top of the page.  The two words were "light buzz".  Why light buzz?  Because our light in our room was buzzing.  And that's all I could focus on at the moment.

I headed around the dorm and with the notebook and pen.

I asked each person I saw to write an immediate thing to the line item above.  So the first person I encountered wrote something in response to "Light Buzz".  They wrote "bee".

I went to find a second person.  And immediately... they wrote boobies.... it was all downhill from there.

I let the experiment run for about a page.  Then I went back to my room and tried to write more lyrics because my little have everyone else write the lyrics quickly changed to the type of things that people write on the bathroom wall.

You knooooooooow where people just finish each others sentences and finish everything with "In bed".

Ok well so then I tried round two.  I wrote down the word college.  Then I went out and had people only write each line in response to the word college.

That worked slightly better but I didn't have anything good enough to write a song with.  I think I gave up after that.  I think my next step was to go around with  a recording device and record people... but that just turned into the song...

"The College Party (Featuring 20 people from IUP)"

It's on this site.  You can listen to it on my recordings page.

Anywho... SOoooooo that's one of the many things that happened my first week at college.  It didn't pan out too great for me... however it was pretty good for some laughs.  Some of the things people wrote were pretty hilarious and I think we ended up keeping the sheet of paper on our wall for a month.

BUT... if you are bored and live in a dorm like setting you can try the experiment on your own!

Get a notebook or piece of lined paper.  Get a pen.

Try out either each person responds to the thing the person wrote previously.  Orrrrrrrrrr, try out writing down one word or phrase and having each person write something in response to that one phrase.

Maybe if you are into writing short stories or poetry you can then use that to make a poem out of it!  Or you can use it to write a short story!

Either way it's bound to be fun and it's a good way to spend an evening.  It's also a great way to meet new people around the dorms and spark up convo!

 

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20Apr/120

Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it

So this is a quote by this guy Charles R. Swindoll...  He's got a lot of quotes but this is the one I like the best...  Here are some more of his quotes...

http://thinkexist.com/quotes/charles_r._swindoll/

Here's some more information about him...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Swindoll

I've been thinking about that quote a lot.  I guess it's true.  The way I picture this is let's say...

Life is like a bunch of rainstorms... and then sunshine... and then rainstorms... and more sun...

If you react to the rain and sun by preparing yourself and figuing out ok when it rains I need an umbrella.  When it's sunny I need a hat or sunscreen...

You can weather the storm and stay dry, and then enjoy the sun without getting burned.

So if two people are going through the same storm... one could get soaked.  Then when the sun comes out they take off all their drenched clothing and get burned.

But the other stays dry in the rain and then protected against being burned in the sun.

That's the best way I look at that.

I want to try and get better and better at equipping myself for the rainstorms and the sun shine.  I feel as though I'm often caught off guard for either one and I don't react correctly to it.

Although, I think I'm getting better at it.  Yea, I feel like I'm definitely getting better at it.

This is just one of those random thought posts.  Sometimes I like to self reflect and think about what I am and who I am as a person and like how I can be better and do better.  Definitely one of the best things I think I can do is just generally be optimistic about things and really pay attention to the people and things going on around me.

I think things in life happen in waves and are very cyclical and if I don't pay attention to others and learn from them and from experiences I won't understand what to do the next time that situation comes up again!

So if for example with the rain/sun thing... if I never looked at other people around me pulling out umbrella's before the rain and putting on sunscreen in  the sun... I wouldn't be a very happy camper!  I'd always be wet and burned and feeling yucky.

But if I look and learn and really understand what they are doing and why they are doing what they are doing I can sort of have one of those "Ah HA!" moments and say to myself...

wow... I GET It now!  Ok... so I need to start putting on rain gear when it's going to rain and sun gear when it's going to sun!

But... sometimes you have to get wet and burned in life to figure these things out!  Right?  Maybe.  Annnnnd then you see the light.  Or at least a break in the clouds.

And the thing about it all is even if you DO get wet or burned... or your burning wet.. whatever that might be...

You can always buy a towel!  And some aloe vera.

Or borrow from a friend.  And once you understand it all.... you can show others the magic of the raincoat and sunblock...

Or even lend out a towel or aloe vera that you may have had to use once but now you are set with the gear.

That's my "Kenny thought" for today.

 

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20Apr/120

Great Washington’s Ghost!

So I've been running recently in Valley Forge park in the evening/twillight hours just before sunset.  It's WAY less crowded and very peaceful and calm.

I enjoy it.  I still want to join that gym but I just feel like I would get antsy working out in a gym.  I LOVE great wide open spaces.  I especially love Valley Forge park.  I kind of hope that one day when I meet a lady... she'll be keen on doing something wedding related there.  If not though... that's cool too.

But anywho yea I do love that park a lot.  Also the gym costs money and the park is free.  Soooooooooooooo... For now I'll stick to twilight running in the park.

Well... ok so a few nights ago I was just sitting watching the stars come out.  It was nice and peaceful.  I went back again tonight and watched the stars again.  I found a nice little spot that seems to have no traffic and be just great for watching the sun set and the stars begin to glow one by one.  I just sit there and reflect and tonight I even decided to say a small prayer.

I'm going to try and go back to that spot as often as I can.  After I left there I went and wrote some at Barnes and Noble.  It was a good evening.

Soooo here's the thing about that spot.  So when I say try to go back to that spot... I really mean... I'm going to have to try.

Well... when I was there a couple or few nights ago or whatever it was I was sitting on this stone rock stair walkway thing... I was just kind of looking up at the stars and looking out into the distance... THEN...

BANG.  There was a STOMP of what felt like and sounded like a boot next to me.  I jumped up and looked around.

Seriously... nothing.  No one... I'm pretty convinced it was some kind of ghost or something.

Well so I went back tonight and was sitting on the other side so as to avoid the boot ghost.

I'm just sitting there hanging out.  Then I hear what sound like footsteps in the grass next to me coming up and over one side and past me.  But they don't go past me... they stop right next to me.

I sat for a little while longer waiting and listening.  But didn't hear anything further.  A little while after that it was getting super dark so I decided to head back to my car.

I'm going to go back a third time maybe this weekend or one night next week to see if I hear anymore footsteps/feel any more boot stomps.

I'll report back if anything comes up!

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19Apr/120

A lack of allergies this year

For some reason I seem to have a lack of allergies this year.  I'm not complaining... I'm very thankful that they just seem to be absent.  Hopefully I'm not jinxing it by writing about it!  But yea, I just don't seem to have any of the things that others around me have going on.  I hope that everyone's allergies go away soon though!

Also I'm HOPING that it's not just a fluke of nature.  I'm hoping that it's actually possibly something related to my high intake of anti-inflamitory foods.

So basically I eat a lot of foods that are high in anti-inflammation properties.  I've been doing research and it seems like a lot of diseases and disorders and chronic things are caused a lot of the time by inflammation response of the body... apparently your body reacts less to disease if you build up a savings account of anti-inflamation chemicals... sorta.  I mean ok I have no idea FULLY how it works... but if you eat lots of highly anti-inflamitory foods over a long period of time... like over a year or two... your body will start to react less to inflammation diseases... like allergies!

Sooooooo what are these magic foods?  Apparently there are a ton of them.  Just google anti-inflammation foods.

I can tell you right now the number one best food ever is the hot pepper.  And the hotter the better.  But most people can't just chop up hot raw hot peppers and put them in their foods.  I've been doing this now for close to a year and I'm pretty sure that's one of the biggest helper foods that is responsible for my lack of allergies.  But I consume a lot of high anti-oxidant anti-inflamitory foods... and I think it's mostly the combination of those foods.

Although apparently some people can have specific allergic reactions to specific foods even if they are anti-inflammitory.  So eating one of the anti-inflammatory foods could actually make it worse!  So be careful of that.  If you know you have an allergy to something don't eat it!

Here are some of my favorite foods that are supposed to be either super healthy anti-oxident OR super anti-inflamitory:

-Hot peppers!  I usually buy raw Serrano and chop em up and eat them in my lunch.

-Blueberries.  I put these in my cereal every single morning.

-Dark Chocolate.  I buy 90 percent dark and chip it into little pieces and then I just grab random little pieces out of my chocolate container a few times a day.

-Green tea.  I have 1 to 2 cups a day.  I also have a cup of coffee.  Just straight up... I drink my green tea green, and my coffee black.

-Ginger.  I add the little shake spice one to some foods I good.  I hear fresh cut ginger is pretty awesome, but I never buy that.  Sometimes I make ginger tea.

-Garlic.  I don't have this every day.  But I like to add it to my foods.

-Whole rolled oats with Cinnamon.  The rolled oats are actually good for your heart and then the cinnamon is good for other stuffs.

-Turmeric. It's basically curry powder.  I add that to my beans and rice when I make anything like that.  Usually i'll buy a big bag of mixed dried beans and then croc pot them over night.  Then I freeze those up in containers.  I add those to random things.  Or just eat them with rice.  Talk about an under 50 cent meal!  It's mad cheap.  Just make sure to boil the beans first for 10 minutes before croc potting them.  They'll never cook otherwise.

-Salmon cooked in olive oil.  I usually cook it up and then put it over cous cous.  But both salmon AND olive oil are anti-inflammatory!  So that's like a double whammy!  Pretty sweet.

Anywho those are some of the foods I use (although as I write this i'm chowing on a bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream which is TOTALLY probably pro-inflamation).  I'm not sure if that's the reason why I don't have any allergies this year but it could be!  My favorite one is the blue berries in my cereal every morning.  I just LOVE that and can't go a day without it.

The garlic on the other hand?  Sometimes I just have to tone that down.  It's not the best idea to put a lot of garlic in a dish and then go out in public and talk to people.  Same with onions.  Trust me, I know... I've done both.

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17Apr/120

They should make a book with great places to have a picnic

So I'm sitting here in Barnes and Noble writing my book.  I think the other books are getting jealous.  They can see some of the words I'm typing down and I think they are all thinking... maaaaaaaaaan... I can't compete with that!

But seriously... other books: you're cool too!  All books have something to offer!  So don't worry.

Anywho so while I'm writing my book... I had a thought for a cool book...

"Awesome top places to have picnics"

I kinda want to go on a picnic this summer and I was thinking THAT would be soooo coool if there were a book that had like maybe the 100 best places to have picnics.

Then you could go on a summer long super awesome mega road trip and hit all the hot spots for summer sun picnics.

Just driving around listening to some good tunes and then stopping off for a nice good old fashioned picnic.

I think that would be pretty super swell.

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17Apr/120

Contest winners and other random thoughts on winners

So my contest that ran last week ended with 3 people entering.  I decided since there were only 3 entries that I'd just go ahead and make all 3 winners.  Soooo that was pretty super all kinds of fun.  So congrats to all of em.

I may do another contest at some point in the future... but I'm all contested out at the momento.

Not much else to write about at the moment.  I did go and see the movie Bully on Sunday night and thought it was pretty good.  I like this whole movement to try and spread awareness to stop bullying.  What I'd like to see is to have it spread to all aspects of life too.  I think bullying doesn't stop after highschool.  I think people continue it on in to the adult life too.

I just think that everyone should try to spread love and kindness to all fellow humans and that we should just be caring and genuine to each other all the time.

Tonight I just kind of sat in valley forge park and reflected on how calm and peaceful a place it is.  I really like that spot.  I'm a fan of wide open spaces and that's one of my most favorite wide open spaces spots that I've ever been to.

I kinda wish that when I meet that mysteriously mysterious mystery lady I eventually spend the rest of my life with... Maybe she'd be keen on tying the knot somewhere in valley forge.  Or at least being proposed to... or at least just going on walks there. haha... I'd settle for that.

But yea... It's definitely one of those places I'd love to go walkin around holding hands with a special lady.

Well I think I'm going to work on my book a little more.  I'm hanging out now at a barnes and noble just sipping on some unsweetened iced green tea.  It's pretty bangin'.  So until my next blog I'll end with saying... just keep the following things in your life:

Fun

Funny

Humor

Friendly

Safe

Secure

Love

And all the things that just make you feel good.  If you ever meet people that make you feel anything but awesome... don't stand for that... don't ever let anyone make you feel bad and don't feel bad about putting your foot down and standing your ground and cutting them out of your life for good!

Try to be nice and caring... but if it's just not reciprocated?  Don't let those people that are anything but loving back to you bring you down!

Focus on the people that want to focus on you and are accepting and loving of you no matter what.  Those are the ones that matter the most!  Keep the winners and then everyone you know will be only winners!

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15Apr/120

Cyberbullying

"Cyberbullying is bullying that takes place using electronic technology. Electronic technology includes devices and equipment such as cell phones, computers, and tablets as well as communication tools including social media sites, text messages, chat, and websites.

Examples of cyberbullying include mean text messages or emails, rumors sent by email or posted on social networking sites, and embarrassing pictures, videos, websites, or fake profiles."

-Source: http://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/what-is-it/index.html

 

I'm going to go this week to see a movie that recently came out called Bully.  Check out the website at: http://thebullyproject.com/

This is a pretty personal subject for me because I was the victim of bullies when I was younger growing up.  Some of the things I endured were pretty seriously humiliating.   One incident included having my baseball hat taken from me peed on and then forced back on my head.  Another time I had my pants and underwear pulled off me while being held down and then the kids threw the pants and underwear into the trees nearby... I was pysically punched/kicked/threatened several times...

Some days I would be so scared I would literally run home from school the entire way and try to take back roads or side paths to avoid being scene.  Sometimes I would hide out for up to an hour after school let out behind the school gym and then walk a mile out of my way a different way every time so that I could make sure I wasn't seen.

Those are just some of the things I have been through but there are many other people/kids that have been through much worse!

I really think it's great that this movement is happening and some light is starting to be shed on this topic.

The type of bullying I went through was mostly the avenue for bullying available at the time... the good old fashioned playground.  But now there are all kinds of ways to connect with people online so people can really unleash verbal bullying attacks on other via social networking sites.  This can especially happen when one person gets friends on board to start posting harassing comments or posting harassing pictures for all their friends to get on board with the bullying event.

This can be very traumatic for the person.  I think everyone should see this movie!  Let's help to stop bullying be it online or on the playground or anywhere in life.

Like the movie says... it's time to take a stand!

 

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