<editorsnote>Hi, I'm Jen Friel, and we here at TNTML examine the lives of nerds outside of the basements and into the social media, and dating world. We have over 75 peeps that write about their life in real time. (Real nerds, real time, real deal.) Sit back, relax, and enjoy some of the stories!!</editorsnote>
In the land of Jen desires a Kokomo checkin, I need a vacation. Desperately. I am being proactive in this scenario, and decided to head to San Diego for the weekend. The best part is that I came up with a frugally responsible plan strictly utilizing public transportation.
First, I'm popping over to the Greyhound station here in Hollywood - and hopping on a bus.
Cost: $16.72(money received via the psychological fugue fund aka friend of the site)
Bus station to Gaslamp district(where I want to go): $2.25
Upon arrival in the Gaslamp district, I negotiated a deal with a hostel to stay in one of their rooms in exchange for some nerdy loving.
Cost: $0
Food: I got a bunch of Zone bars the other day from the gym doing some sort of promo thing. I'm pretty certain I can survive off of a box of 10 for a weekend. I don't think I'll need to eat more than 3 over the course of 3 days. Might be close, but doubtful. Either way, never underestimate the kindness of Facebook friends you haven't friended yet for web favors in return. Fucking FABULOUS!
And there I beeeeeeee in the San Dizzle izzle my nizzle! I'm literally getting out of town for the weekend for under $50 round trip. How AWESOME is that?
If you're in the area and wanna kick it totally hit me up on twitter: @JenFriel and follow my checkins on FourSquare: foursquare.com/jenfriel
Can't wait to meet some of you! Except that dude over there. Yes, yes you. You smell.
I wanna take the Unapologetically Awesome tour somewhere new. I am getting really really really antsy for a new adventure. I'm thinking Seattle? Which is funny because that was where I wanted to take the tour initially, and we wound up going to San Fran instead.
I can go up the coast on Amtrack, or even Greyhound as they have wifi on buses now ... I just want to take it all in ... maybe fly back. I dunno, throw some ideas at me. I can come up with a way to get the transportation sponsored. If you live in the area and have a couch that would be totally amazeballs as well. I'd love to kick it, as this is what these tours are all about.
Throwing this out to the community to see what's out there, and when a good time is to go. I want some new experiences in my Spirithood, and have extras for you all to wear when we hang out as well ... so let's get it on!! Send me some place cool!!!
Wow ... I just had the most interesting conversation on OkCupid today that just made so many things click in my head. Read ...
CLICK!! *lighbulb* I get it.
You all have to understand - everything has been done in real time. Normally people don't start telling a story until the end. Being done in real time creates a different paradigm for all the parties involved. For sure. I have to sit there as the storyteller and with direct intent tell the story so that you can recall it a certain way and retell it the way that I want you to. My problem is, is I don't know the story. I can only tell you first hand that this is my everyday experience on the most incredible ride of my life. That's it. Sounds so simple, but could not feel more complicated.
I've said this before, I will say it again, this website has nothing to do with you. Literally, if not a single person in this world read us - I'd totes mcgotes be awesome with that. I don't know how to stress that enough. I've been scribbling in journals my entire life, and have always been lifecasting to a certain degree before the medium was even established. Lifecasting is unlike anything I've seen before. It's not masturbation, or whatever someone put in the comments recently ... although, hahaa that made me laugh - I was like dude, don't knock masturbation. I do it as often as I can. I am a horny, horny, horny human being.
Lifecasting to me is clearing my head. I have 7,000 ideas, songs, patterns, whatever bopping around in my head all day everyday. Getting to post on whatever I am feeling is just a release. Period end of sentence. If you were here, or you weren't - I'd still need that release. This is just the healthiest and most productive form it can manifest itself in.
What I love though is this by product of a shared experience. By me saying, yes this is what I am feeling, COUNNTTTLLESSSSSSSS others are able to feel the same way and think, wow! I'm not alone!! Get it? That's also why our official hashtag is #nerdsunite! There's always a reason ... My ultimate goal is more about making people understand that no matter who they think they are, what their circumstances were, or are ... they too can change. They are not a product of their past, and they can move forward and do something in the future. I documented a shift in consciousness. That is fucking RADDD!! And something I am so so so so so so proud of. I look back at posts from last year, and think wow - I can see this, or I can see that ... and a year from now, I'm sure I'll look back and say wow, I see this AND that. I faced all of my own fears and recognized my own unapologetic awesomeness - and owned it through and through. That doesn't make me any more special than ANNYYONNNEEE else on this planet, it only makes me awesome. What's your awesome? By you being awesome doesn't make me any less awesome - or vice versa. It's like this quote from my dear TNTML friend Armeni ...
"And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
That was my intention ... liberate my own soul. It wasn't about you, it wasn't about creating a brand even just so much that I just got sick of being so sick and tired all of the time. I wanted to just be happy, and consistently surround myself with AWESOME people.
Being a social butterfly and a complete computer nerd from the womb made that a very very very easy thing for me to do. Social media saved me. There's no doubt about that. Had it not been for every email, every tweet, every facebook message ... I have no idea if I would have been able to keep trucking through the last year. It's been hella stressful, but also hella fun. I made a HUGE HUGE HUGE HUGE HUGE change in my life, and it inadvertently inspired a lot of other people to do the same because of the powers of the internet. I use a lot of I statements, and speak from a lot of personal experience not to say nah ne nah ne nah ne, but to say - yes, first hand, this is what I felt ... but you can get through this like I did, and here's how. That's it. I found my light, and I let it shine bright. It doesn't mean your candle can't be lit just as bright. Please by all means ... if anyone EVVERRRR has a site to promote, or wants me to help them do something in social media or lifecasting - I would be so so so happy to help. I would utterly adore it, and over the years have been able to study a lot of best practices.
For reals, I look to give back and be of service as much as humanly possible. So please, do not ever ever ever hesitate to just ask.
Your awesome is organic, and all I wanted to do was find mine and be happy for the first time in my life, completely independent of outside influences. That's it. Freedom. I wanted freedom from my own negative thoughts and subsequent negative actions. I had no idea if it would work, I just used this site as a sounding board. It then grew ... and grew ... and grew ... where it will go next, is no longer up to me. I'm just kinda riding the wave.
Lifecasting is a glimpse inside my brain. Sometimes it doesn't make sense to you ... but I hope no matter what you can all take away a feeling or an emotion in some capacity. Just FEEL .00005% of the CRAZY UNBRIDLED PASSION that I have for what I do. If THAT is even conveyed in a digital forum for even a millisecond, than I am fine with it.
Look at this ... this moment was shot in October after I had received a call with literally the worst news I had ever received in my entire life.
No joke ... my only instinct was that I needed to hit record. I didn't know what I was feeling, but I knew it was intense - and through shared experience of said emotion, I might be able to help someone else, which will no doubt help myself. Reading your tweets, emails, and comments after totally made my life. That helped me through a very very VERY difficult time in my life. YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, seemingly perfect strangers reached out to offer their support not their sympathy. (Sympathy was actually the last thing that i wanted. I recognize this shit happens to everyone. All I wanted to do was just have some sort of platform where I could release my own voice and process what I was feeling.) It just became this unified force at a moment when I needed it the most.
You can like lifecasting, or not ... I don't take any of it personally ... whatever knocks peoples socks off. I just really really really am PSYCHOTIC about the love that I feel for what I do, and hope that it is able to help others in similar situations, but if not - cool beans. I still wouldn't change it for the world.
All my love, and all my heart TNTML. Thank you for being in my life.
Every day we do little things that we're just too scared to admit to anyone in public. I don’t mean like an ass rash. I mean stupid stuff that we do and stop startled if someone sees us. As nerds we do this even more. We can’t help it. We are genetically predispositioned with more vivid imaginations and are fascinated by far more things than the norm but we’re stupid for worrying about it. If we just owned it, everyone around us would just go along with it…I hope.
Maryanne Williamson wrote, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure…Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you…As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
That’s quote ties right into @JenFriel‘s unapologetically awesome mantra. I caught the bug from her. I ‘m unapologetically awesome. So here’s what I’m proposing. Today’s challenge is to admit one thing you do that’s embarrassed to you but in all reality other people probably wouldn’t care if you just owned it.
I’ll start with a few to get people warmed up. I love bad pop music. In the safety of my own car I blast chick music and boy bands when they come on the radio. I’m deathly afraid of karaoke, like petrified. I talk to myself in the mirror regularly, and I watch waaaay to many romantic comedies.
My Mom's been kind of bummed out lately. She was in a car accident 2 years ago that left her damaged, and the courts just now settled, but her neck will always be messed up. She has a great guy, but the same issues from my dad that screwed me up, screwed her up, too. She never feels like she is sexy or that she deserves his devotion. So I'm taking matters into my own hands!
I think we all need these affirmations from time to time. So I'm going to hide these all over her house and let the universe lead them to her when she needs them. And if you need them for someone you know, or for yourself, here they are!
Print them off, cut them out, and use them! Hang them up, hide them for later, whatever it takes. We are all flippin awesome, and it is time to remember that. So here is today's permission slip to be unapologetically awesome. Use it.
Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 6:29PM
In the land of Jen desires a Kokomo checkin, I need a vacation. Desperately. I am being proactive in this scenario, and decided to head to San Diego for the weekend. The best part is that I came up with a frugally responsible plan strictly utilizing public transportation. 
