Author: Nick Kempinski

Just because I’m thinking it, or typing it doesn’t mean that it should be published right away. ( oh! gasp!
really??) Nope. So, what I’m going to play with over the next little while is using some of the features that
have been put in wordpress, for they were designed for. Who knew? I’m going to use
the timestamp…( oh! gasp! )…and the “draft” ( more gasping and maybe a couple of murmurs ). Matter of fact
I’ve already started…this
post alone was actually entered in 2 days ago, but didn’t show up till now ( ooo! aaah!).

• I do not choose to be common.
• It is my right to be uncommon – if I can.
• I seek opportunity – not security.
• I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled, and dulled by having the state look after me.
• I want to take a calculated risk, to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed.
• I refuse to barter incentive for a dole.
• I prefer the challenges of life to guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of Utopia.
• I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity of the handout.
• I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat.
• It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid, to think and act for myself, to enjoy the benefit of my creations and to face the world boldly and say:
• This, with God’s help, I have done.
• All this is what it means to be an Entrepreneur.

Official credo of the American Entrepreneurs Association

It seems that with the launch of the new Podcast Subscriptions through iTunes, they had more then One Million subscribers in less 2 days. That’s just the number of subscribers. How many are out there that submitted their podcasts?

I must admit, it’s something that I’ve been thinking about. Could I have some form of regular weekly PodCast? I’ve got the software and the hardware to do it…hmmm. Maybe something for the idea block, maybe I could piggy back between blogging and podding.

Ah, a small moment of self promotion

Recently I joined a Swing Band, and last weekend we had our first performance. We’ve got another one coming up Friday July 8 at Tree’s Cafe (450 Granville St). Here’s the promotional stuff that Blue has put together.

Available bootleg songs

1. Deed I Do – (MP3, 6.0 MB)
2. All of Me – (MP3, 6.2 MB)
3. You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To – (MP3, 4.5 MB)
4. Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me – (MP3, 6.3 MB)

Cat’s in the band

• Aaron “Blue” Morris – guitar
• Carly Jepsen – vocals
• Greg Lui – tenor sax
• Nick Kempinski (Me) – baritone sax
• Kevin Wilkie – drums
• Some Other Cat – bass

What a quote…only George can get away with saying that in the news.

But in seeing this, it makes me think just a little. Could something like that happen with today’s generations? This is a secret that was kept by 4 people for 30 years. It would have been easy for the reports or the editor just to stand up and give it away, but they “promised” to keep the secret.

I sure as hell don’t have an inkling into an answer, but I sure will ask the question. Do promises and vows still exist?

Not going to give out too much details, mainly because with my financial situation I don’t want to be one of those who are dismissed from their job, but my new company got the hatchet. Somehow, I seemed to have come out the other end, unscathed and still alive. Through this little experience I’ve come to label the lessons of this year.

Last year, was my year of the snake. Regardless of the Chinese year or not, it was my year of the snake. it was my year of transformation and shedding skin. Time to learn and grown, and try new things. This year, hasn’t been that so much. I’ve been going through all this rocky terrain of emotional and financial ups and downs. So I realized, that this year is my year of the tumbleweed.

As for the spongy part, along the way, I need to learn and soak up information. I’m pretty sure the imagery captures it all.

I think this idea of one theme for your lessons is nice. Rather then coming up with a bunch of resolutions, come up with a theme, that way, you can use it hopefully to help you guide yourself through the year. Or, in my case, help the wind guide me.

Well today ends the first day back in the company I left so long ago, actually only 6 months. Getting the phone set up, email working, applications installed, making the imprint into the chair, cleaning the desk, that was pretty much the day. I did some signing of some documents and some going around to say “hello”. SuperPages has gone through some changes, but I think in a whole I’ll get back in the groove as usual, after all it was my groove for 5 years previous.

It was definitely a surreal feeling. It felt familiar like going to the town you grew up in. But at the same time, it was a new town. I guess the best kind of analogy might be, your home town has changed it’s name. Or maybe your home town community used to be a lot of 20 somethings who’ve know grown up to 30 somethings and the feeling isn’t the same. Maybe the local night club has been torn down. Maybe since they closed the university, it just doesn’t feel the same. Regardless, it’s an odd feeling that you only need to go through yourself to really understand.

A sense of security even if falsely placed can open up some new drives and passions. It’s funny how with the past month, tension and stress has been building to the point of paralysis. I’m sure in our lives we’ve all felt it. I’m also sure it won’t be the last. It’s that point where stress builds to the point where a little snap goes off in your head. And instead of allowing your primal instincts of survival kick in, it becomes an, “oh well, time to die”. You give up. Rather then do what you should, you sit back and wait for the inevitable blow of death to strike you. Why should you be in full panic when it ends, why not be in a state of calm bliss?

Well, I’m hoping that today is my end of that. I know have a false sense of security. I know that I’ll get money. I know that I’ll have benefits. I know that things are turning around and will be alright.

I’m all wrapped and consumed in my own little world. It’s funny how when you have no money how blinders on thought easily pop up. It’s tunnel vision for your life. It’s a good task to keep up the journaling and blogging, because it allows me the weekly pleasure of getting things down and out into the world. It’s a small moment where I take them off and say…oh, that’s what that is. Or, hey, that was pretty cool.

For example this past week I’ve been on a mission. I’ve probably been on a hap hazard one, but nonetheless, I need a job. And so, I’ve been going about town, dropping off resumes, getting hooked up with temp services, going for job interviews. I’ve been doing everything. As the week progresses, you just think, hey, I’m not getting anything out of this, but when you least expect it, or when I take the blinders off, I really realize what I’ve done.

This week I created a new and improved www.creativetoolbox.ca. Me, Willy and Trish have been working really hard to get this site out the door and done. I’ve upgraded it so that they can make content alterations themselves. It’s a nice piece of work, if I do say so myself. We only did it and about a week. Wow, about a week for a site. That’s pretty intense, if I do say so myself. Plus I have a few temp contracts along the way. And just today I heard back from Starbucks and I could have a job. So when I sit back and look at the past week, I say wow…

It’s nice to really look at the things I done and say “I rule!” And only by taking that moment to step back can I do that.

Not much writing going on over here. I’ve been going full steam to trying to get me all settled in this world. Trying to find ways to make the green, while not trying to focus on the green (well, it’s not always green here in Canadia, we have monopoly money … like a lot of other countries). I’ve been working with temp agencies, and I’ve got an interview with Starbucks tomorrow. So, we will see how it all turns out.

I’m going by a really powerful philosophy ( I can’t remember if I’ve shared or not, but oh well, I’ll share anyway. After all, that’s the reason for this blog anyway…isn’t it? ). So the idea is not to resist anything. It’s a very powerful one, and yet, it’s very difficult for people to do it. It means giving up control over everything in you life to the universe. What this means is, if someone asks you out, you go. If someone says left, you turn. It you’re stuck in traffic you wait. The idea is to give up complete control to the universe to guide you. It’s like floating in the sea. You have no control over where you’re going, the tide will guide you. It take’s practice, especially for those control freaks out there. The idea, of not planning, of not knowing, of not freaking, is…well..freaky. The truth is, other then my interview tomorrow, I have no clue what I’m doing. I will lead it to the universe to decide.

Now this isn’t just sitting in my living room waiting for a phone call or sign. There are moments where I do things ( Matter of fact, the less money I have, it seems the more I’m doing). You need to fill the time waiting for a sign. But when it comes, don’t say “oh, but I was right in the middle of…”. Just go! The sign has spoken. And in this time of letting go, and giving up to the flow, I’ve met some wonderful and powerful ( in a spiritual sense ) people. I don’t see everything happen now…it doesn’t work like that. But as I keep this up, things will click, and they already are. After all. I’ve got an interview with Starbucks tomorrow.

For the past 8 weeks, I’ve been going through a self-help process known as The Artists Way. It’s an interesting approach to rekindling your creative perspective/power/confidence. The intention is for me to be able to use it, to help figure out what it is that I want to be when I grow up. Or, in my generalist way, to figure out the things I don’t want to be, and then to have the vision to do everything else.

The not so good thing is, that in this 8 week process, I’m only on week 6. Why? Because life has decided to kick me in the nuts. It’s a bad soccer replay where the entire world ( not really, it just seems that way ) is watching as I fall to the ground holing my privates and praying, “please, oh please, let it still work.” And so, I’ve been repeating week 6 over and over. I’m now at the point of trying to figure out, do I skip and go on to week 7 or am I supposed to be stuck in limbo until I figure it out.

Well, what is the problem, some out there might be asking. What is it that makes week 6 so challenging. Ah yes, week 6 is titled “Recovering a sense of abundance”. So as I’m to the point of incredible penny pinching and paying for the kindness of strangers, it’s no wonder that this is a challenge.

So, back to the conundrum, “should I stay or should I go…” ( na na na na na, oh yeah, I’m a singer ).

I seem to remember in my brain of mine a lesson about needing to see things from all perspectives. For example, if you take any item, and place it in the center of the circle. You need to walk the whole of the circumference before you know what it is. If you just look at it, from say the east, you don’t necessarily know what it is. You could slowly move to the south and still be lost. You could even sit at one part of the circle for day’s trying to figure it out, but still because the other sides of the object are unseen you’ll continue to be baffled. Sometimes, you need to carry on, regardless of whether the picture is in perfect clarity, so that the clarity and understanding comes in hindsight, “oh yeah…now that I’ve seen it from this angle, what I saw over there makes perfect sense!”

On the other hand, the coincidence of the section, and my personal challenges, seems to line up way to much. It’s as if this is one of those cosmic lesson times. The ones that slap you over and over the side of your head until you get them. The kind of lessons that you need to learn to truly be stronger to handle what’s next to come. Just at the time when I’m supposed to learn about abundance, mine “seems”, or should I say “feels”, to dry up. As I think about this out loud, I don’t think it has dried up. It’s just changed. When we think of abundance, we think about the good old green and purple and blue paper we like to hold in our wallets. It’s all about the 1’s and 0’s in our bank accounts. But, maybe that’s the wrong abundance. In my time of need, I’ve had so many people reach out with help and guidance. Maybe it’s time I put the money aside and look at everything else I have in abundance, and work with that. I find when things flow, and you actually learn the lessons given, things fall in line. It’s like the whole trust, “leap and the net will catch you.” Well, if I focus on the other things I have in abundance, I’ll get what I need.