Frozen Cheese

There are big changes coming in my life as my hypnosis career has taken a giant leap forward for me. I have accepted an offer from a company in Texas to travel around the country to do self-improvement seminars. These will all be done around my show schedule and I couldn't be more excited.
My work life will basically be about helping people overcome bad habits like smoking and overeating and then helping people laugh when I do shows. How can a career get better than that? It is everything that I can ask for in life.

I'll be on the road, perhaps for weeks at a time, at first. I love being on the road. I love the USA and seeing as much of it as possible.

It is not without potential difficulties. I have a very special girl friend whom I will see less and I have a dog which I will miss whenever I am gone.

Fortunately my girl friend is someone who is very supportive, unlike the last one I had, and I can probably bring my dog on the road with me. Obviously, the girl friend can come also, when she can.

So I am on the road right now, currently in Minnesota. I drove out here over the course of two day covering 1241 miles from point to point.

I have never been in Wisconsin or Minnesota, the former through which I had to pass along the way.
Traveling some of these roads, as you probably know, can be very tiresome since there are miles and miles of flatness and currently dead corn fields.

Driving along the Pennsylvania turnpike is fine for a few miles as it passes through a mountain range. Then it levels out again. There are signs for Pittsburgh and some hope that a glimpse of a building can be seen.
After not seeing anything there its in to Ohio and hopes get high that the Cleveland skyline will come into view.

Nothing.

Then more nothing.

Indiana is the next stop as the route traveled was I-80. More dead corn.

Finally, finally, finally, off on the horizon, and about 30 miles away on a clear day, the Chicago skyline starts to appear. I have never been in Chicago either so I woke up from my nap to take in the sights and sit in Sunday afternoon traffic.

Wisconsin, the big cheese state, was the next state and I was sort of dreading seeing cows for 200 miles. But I started seeing billboards advertising all sorts of things in a town called Wisconsin Dells. The town name barely shows up on the atlas which I had with me. But since I was at the end of a day in which I drove over 900 miles I thought I would stop there.

I was pleasantly surprised by what I found there. Although it was basically a ghost town since its a vacation destination, hence the small print on the map, there are all sorts of things to see and do there. Camp sites, waterparks, amusements parks, a zip line, an interactive science center, a paintball arena, laser tag, two theaters with resident magicians, miniature golf, a water skiing show, etc., etc. The main street of the town had just about anything you could imagine also and in case the thought ran through your mind (you dirty boys and girls) signs pointed to about a mile off the main street for a "gentlemen's" club.

While there I went to see one of the magicians/illusionists who had a show that evening. Since this town doesn't really revive each year until May, there weren't a lot of people in attendance, so I was basically in the front row. The guy I saw was Jeremy Allen www.jeremyallensgrandillusions.com  and I had a good time watching him and his hot girls perform for an hour.

The weather report called for cold and snow for Minnesota and as I hit the road from Wisconsin the following morning it indeed was cold and snowy.

Speeds were reduced although it was clear that the drivers from this area are much better at driving in the snow than they are in Delaware which basically has to call out the National Guard as soon as a forecast for snow flurries is made. 

St. Paul and Minneapolis are seen as soon as you cross the border on Routes I-90 and I-94 but I couldn't see much of it since visibility was poor and I had to concentrate on driving.

Once through there it was back to nothingness. The temperature dropped below 20 and the wind picked up in a fierce way. My trip took me off the Interstate, which was closed for about 150 miles west of where I had to get off.
The road that I traveled from the Interstate was a two-way road and for some of it I was driving in white-out conditions.

I have these very stereotypical images in my head of places where I have never been. In my mind when I thought about Minnesota I imagined that it was flat, cold, and full of snow. 




I was right on the money. 





For a couple of days I'll be training for the new opportunity in Willmar, MN. Um...not too much here

There is a lake I can see.

I did find a picture of where I am staying....and I live large when I am on the road!

When my training is complete and the schedule of where I will be is made (usually at least 3-4 weeks in advance) I'll post it along with my show schedule at www.marshalmanlove.com. If I am in your and you would like to come for a session or even take the opportunity to get trained to become a hypnotist, just reach out to me at dehypno@verizon.net

Done

What's That Stench?

There are two things that are bothering me right at the moment so its time to write something here. Ok, well, there are three.

I’ll start with the most important one and that was the Bachelor finale in which my pick didn’t win for the first time in the three years that I have picked winners and final fours.
So my pick, Lindsay Yenter, finished second. But that isn’t really what is bothering me. What bothers me is that the name of the winner was leaked around the time that the show started.
It seems as if there is some dude who has contacts at ABC and while the show was shooting he found out who the bachelor chose to ask to marry him. Then he posted it.

That ruins the whole game! There is a growing community of people who watch this show and make bets about who will make it to the final four, just like in college basketball. And if some dude has the scoop, how can I make any money predicting winners out there?

The one who won, Catherine Giudici, Sean Lowe, and the one who should have won, Lindsey Yenter

The next thing that is bothering me has to do with personal hygiene. I was in the gym the other day and there are signs posted around the gym asking people not to wear too much perfume or cologne.

Huh?

So instead we have to be subjected to nasty arm pit and ass stench all day long? On what planet am I living?

There is this completely bizarre growing movement, I guess by younger people, to go through the day more “natural” like those disgusting French people do. More people are growing fond of natural musky body odors that frankly make me want to puke most of the time.

There is a very good reason why perfume and cologne were invented in the first place – BECAUSE HUMANS STINK WORSE THAN COWS if left in their natural states.

We are now supposed to believe that soaps, deodorants are to be scent free and we shouldn’t use other scent enhancers these days. Otherwise we “smell like grandma and grandpa” or some otherwise insane comparison. 

The next thing that is bothering me is that the Christophobes are out in force this past week as a new pope has been elected.

This country, America, is roughly 85% Christian/Catholic and the Pope is the head of the church. But for some reason these days it is politically correct to bash this religion and its traditions.

I am agnostic, at worst, and don’t belong to any religion. I respect all religions, except one, and their traditions. For the record, I don’t respect Islam because of that little clause that suggests that non believers should be killed. Those who also believe that all Jews should be exterminated pretty much lack any credibility if they are citing any religious belief also.
But God forbid you mention anything like that out loud in this country, in which Islam is such a minority belief. Because if you do you are an Islamophobe, shunned from the mainstream and your clicky social groups, and you have to take the tour of all newspapers, radio and tv stations to repent your transgression.

So why in the world is it some how cool to bash the Catholic Church? I certainly understand that we all have freedom of speech but the church is covered under that same amendment and I never hear the church coming down and forcing people to retract what they have said about them. Muslims? They don’t react the same way. Draw one cartoon picture of their prophet and see what happens. In fact, there is probably a fatwa being drafted against me as you are reading this.

I’ll take the Catholic Church if I had to choose between the two. Besides that is the church that gave us Christmas, and that is the best time of the year for me. So for that reason alone its cool.  

With that said then, shouldn’t we now start to call those who make fun of, or bash, the Catholic Church, Christophobes? I think it’s appropriate. Its about time, in my opinion, that we turn the tables on this sort of stuff.

Pope Francis

For another example, I read the other day about a pickle company that sold real little pickles and called them Dill Midgets.
Somewhere in the last ten years or so the word Midget has become a derogatory name for dwarves, or little people, that is a kin to any other name someone with ill will in their hearts would call someone of another race.
One woman wrote a letter to suggest a different name for their product because she has a child with some sort of illness that makes him small and he will never be of “normal” size. ONE woman wrote the note and the company changed the name of the product.

I don’t get it. But if we are going to continue to be this effed up and sensitive about words then I may as well join the crowd.

I want the all of the following names of products changed…Animal CRACKERS…Graham CRACKERS…Goldfish CRACKERS…Nip Chee Cheddar CRACKERS, etc., etc., etc.

Now since I have done that and I am ONE person there should be immediate change.

Right? Sounds pretty freaking stupid doesn’t it? It’s all stupid. The entire concept of being “politically correct” is asinine. We should all be polite and respectful to all those who deserve it. 99% of the time we should continue to be polite even to those who don’t deserve it. 

This is offensive!

Another thing I can’t figure out is this thing about being allergic to peanuts or nuts in general. Some time in the last ten years or so this seems to have developed out of thin air.
I’m 51 years old and for roughly the first 40 years of my life I never heard of anyone being allergic to, or dying from, peanuts. Because when people my age were kids pretty much everyone ate peanut butter sandwiches. And I never, ever heard of some poor little kid croaking because he ate some Skippy.
Now, I’m not naïve, there are 6 billion people out there so it would stand to reason that its possible, but I have a theory that its psychological more than anything else. As someone who works with people to help them overcome subconscious defects as a hypnotist, I know full well that people can imagine themselves sick. A thought can get planted into someone’s mind that can manifest itself into all sorts of troubles and even physical ones. 

So if you are someone who can send me some actual proof of this I’d like to see it. I would also like to work with anyone who believes they have an allergy to nuts to try to fix the issue for them. Message me at dehypno@verizon.net.

Finally, for today, there is a pretty good chance that I will be traveling the country doing hypnosis seminars to help people quit smoking and lose weight. This will be for an outfit based out of Texas. I’m heading to Minnesota next week to check it out and if it looks like a good fit I’ll train with them there. This will be in addition to my regular show schedule so it could possibly be a dream situation for me.

This does NOT mean that the Dungeon of Manlove will stop though. You know, our adult-rated podcast which you can access here on this page. There are people on the cast who are going to take over more of the production and I can submit segments and reports from the road and certainly take the microphone when I am back home.

Dungearoke I inside CD case

After all, we have about 6 albums worth of dirty song parodies now with more to come. I have to stick around to help create it and promote it. Our first release is available at amazon.com. Its called Dungearoke I. Dungearoke II and III are at the publisher now and will get released some time soon. Take a listen to some of it if you like a good dirty song and to laugh a little. You can find some of them at www.marshcast.com.

That’s all folks. I’m done.