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Hello good Jack's Journal viewers. Today I would like to describe my bizarre adventure I had today with you.

It all began actually at 4:00 O' Clock in the morning. I was having a strange time sleeping and randomly I woke up and remembered that I had to wake up early, for the strangest of things. So I switched my clock to alarm mode and slept until it woke me up. My quest was to get to a "Kuh-Bread-Lo's" interview, which happens to be way far out of downtown here.

So disparately I ask a neighbor for a ride. She doesn't have work luckily so she'll drive me, thing is, she refuses to stay during my interview. So basically, I'm there, I get interviewed for like 10 minutes, then I'm done. After that I find myself randomly spat out extremely far away from any decent place, with no money; but I do have a debit card. However I still can't use the ATM machine because I've forgotten my PIN number. Ironic that; since I want to use the money for pinball. Speaking of pinball, I find a machine I've never played or seen before, located at a "Sports Bar and Grill" place. There I order a bacon cheeseburger with fries, with water. I eat n' drink. But I take my time. I have nothing to do, and also I'm stalling because I think somebody might be able to pick me up. Later I learn that they can't.

I then play the pinball machine. It's a "World Cup" pinball machine made by Bally.





I have no clue what that fu**in' dog has to do with it.

Anyways I play that and you can view it. It was simply another dilapidated bally machine; I've played another before. It was quite feeble. Really, the flippers don't angle enough for my taste, and they're also weak, and the glass was really dusty. I wanted to dust it off. So I played that for a half an hour. Then I left and found myself spat once again onto a random stretch of highway; feeling rather silly with nobody else walking; and also most the time there was no sidewalk. I sullied my shoes.

Then I found myself here:

http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail174.html

Then I was on the highway again. Before all this, I had been talking to Colin A.K.A Vajra B. Hairava on the phone, which as you might guess is rather random. So I'm stumbling and coughing, running across awkward stretches of highway, down in ditches, and other such places where no man should ever go. I was really strange for a good while, but then I found the sports bar and the madness stopped for like an hour.

Then I walked again. My next stop was a bench. Then I pondered for a second, then went to a pawn shop. I want to sell all my xbox crap for money. I only use the DVD part anymore. And we have a dvd player. So I went to two places. The first guy seemed to be talking about or to a lady-friend of some sort, and I walked in on his phone conversation rather obnoxiously, but I pretended to not pay attention. I shopped falsely for a bit, then we talked and he said he wasn't interested in my Xbox crap. Very well, I don't blame him. He said to try across the street, and so I did, but this guy couldn't even legally buy stuff from me. Seems silly to me, but he happened to have some sweet guns n' swords. Well, okay, the guns were just pellet guns, and the swords were rather crappy, but they were still good to see. I viewed them all. I will not discuss this matter any further because there's a slight chance I might buy one of these for Colin who will be reading this.

Then after that I went to a music store. Note that these are all really impulsive, just because I'm there and nobody cares, I want to do stuff. I ask for Ugly Duckling, and they don't have any; to keep it short.

Then I head over to a Jewlery place that I've always wanted to go into. I look slightly fancy with my interview garb so why not? I leave my left-overs from earlier somewhere random. It ends up, me and this Gem-ologist guy get into a huge conversation and we talk for a half an hour. It's quite the talk, but both of us had nothing to do, so we talked. We both actually know each other decently now. How random. He talked about really great diamond cutters and really rich people, which I found interesting. Then after that, I headed across the street but then realized I had forgotten my left-overs. Oh well.

Anyways then I walk back to Lincoln High now that it's pretty late. Then I watch the band go, then I take a ride back with Liz. She drops somebody off at their house and the person lets us borrow all three matrix movies plus the animatrix. How convenient. Then we drive back, but my back door isn't opening even though we have the key. Very strange. I take the ladder down and then set it up. I use, find my window; use the space that's already cut out to push the window up, then I cut out the rest of it with my ever-handy swiss army knife. I get through and open the door and all is happy and we eat macaroni and cheese. Then we watch the second half of the first Matrix, do some chores, and by this time the adventure is totally over.

Dang that was a lot of writing, and I gotta sleep now.

This is called "Jack and the Zen of Pinball" as so described by Colin.

I played it for a billion years yesterday and I'm about to do it again. I learned a lot the whole time. Before I go into this, allow me to give you a general metaphor for your theoretical journey through the pinball experience.

First, it's like you're walking up to a mountain (That's the pinball machine.) When you first play you begin to climb it. It's hard because it's uphill (you're unexperienced at the game), but as you ascend it gets a little better after a while (It gets less steep). Then eventually you'll reach the top. There, you can see the green pastures of good fun. You're over the trecherous, expensive, and not-that-fun side, and now it's downhill. You walk down it and it's easier and you're getting better. Then it's even easier when you're in the green pastures. The grass is tall so you can't see the ocean in front of you, but yet it's pleasant. When you're good enough for it to be cheap and fun, you're walking through the pastures. I can make one dollar last one hour. I'm in the pastures. Eventually you'll reach the beach where you can't go any further. At this point, you're so good, you can't get any better (Or go any further into the ocean). Then again, you could, but it's an endless ocean and since you're super bored with the game, it's hard to do. Plus, the waves against you represent other stuff you have to or you'd rather do. So if you're decent, you don't go in because it's dumb. But there's still something left. You can happily walk along the beach; and since the ocean is there, it's fun. Plus you're so far (good) that it's fun the whole time. Walking along this beach is the equivalent of playing different pinball machines. You can only have the fun of walking along if you can find a new one; otherwise you just start wading into the ocean dumbly again, because it's boring. It's boring because you have so much control over the game. I mean, you'd be nailing whatever you want whenever you want. It's really fun to be really good but when you're godly it's boring. Then again, you can swim in the ocean if you choose to try to set a record. Many have done so, so you can join them by doing the obnoxious, but there's a reward to doing really well/going really far. Then when you play all the machines, you hit a cliff wall of doom that is completely unpassable. Luckily you can still go backwards and stuff, playing other machines, but it's not as good anymore. When you stop playing, your little man in this place dies. He sleeps as long as you're going to play again.

Anyways here's what I learned about as far as real-life metaphors yesterday.

Random exists. Random exists in your life, but you don't have to leave it up to random. Through deliberate, mindful acts, you can make your reality better. Mind that this takes effort to do, although you still get good rewards.

People talk about how random life is and they imply that luck has a play in it. Well, you can mess up and luck can save you, or you can mess up and your luck can fail you. Since stuff is random it can be good or bad. Thing is, you don't have to leave it up to that. You can make it much better. The random is only good half the time. In order to be good you must transcend this to get to the goodness, achieved with effort and experience; while keeping a focused mind-set.

This way, the numbers will look good. You will be effective and do well. It doesn't necessarily matter, but you'll do well this way. Also to do well you must cling obnoxiously to it as if every little thing were life itself. This way will lead you to effectiveness, and maybe happiness, but there are other factors involved. If you're not doing the right thing to begin with, you're still doing the wrong thing.

I have many more of these random things, but maybe I'll meditate on them and write them down later.