and so on

    A few weeks ago, maybe a month or more, I wrote a half-assed post about "rules to live by." Needless to say, it didn't generate a whole lot of excitement among the Get It All Down faithful; there were three responses, two by email. I will weave them through this post.
        • 'The worth of a thing is best known by the want of it.'
        • Choose not to wear it on your sleeve.
9. Our Finest Year Better Than Ezra
...If the future leaves you needing
Will you be the one who stayed?
As your life just slipped away?

Don't leave me here alone
You're as close as it gets to home

I'll be there if you fall
Love made suckers of us all....        • Resist the urge to talk about it; 'talk does not cook rice'.
        • When you arrive, say hello. When you leave, say good-bye.
10. Fill Me Up Staind
...It's just like poetry inside to hear you breathing by my side
like I'm in heaven and I've died
so glad you're with me for this ride

you fill me up,
you're in my veins
a look could take my breath away
and all these things, you give away
sometimes I take for granted....        • Don't take things that aren't yours: this means pens, cars, and countries.
        • If there is a limited amount of anything, including water, hot or cold, make sure that you are not using more than your share.
11. If I Run Semisonic
...Keep thinking it'll be alright if I just get on the road
If I run I can free my worried mind
Keep thinking of the day I die when I lose my heavy load
But I wouldn't want to leave you behind.        • Don't send in a knife to do a fork's job.
        • Never argue about sex or money.
12. Where Does the Good Go? Tegan and Sara
Where do you go with your broken heart in tow?
What do you do with the left over you?
And how do you know, when to let go?
Where does the good go? Where does the good go?

Look me in the eye and tell me you don't find me attractive
Look me in the heart and tell me you won't go
Look me in the eye and promise no love's like our love
Look me in the heart and un-break broken, it won't happen

It's love that leaves that breaks the seal of always thinking you would be
Real happy and healthy, strong and calm
Where does the good go? Where does the good go?

Where do you go when you're in love and the world knows?
How do you live so happily while I am sad and broken down?
What do you say it's up for grabs now that you're on your way down?
Where does the good go? Where does the good go?        • Try to understand what "cruel" means for the other person or animal, and don't do it. If you must do it, go away, or make the other person/animal go away.
        • "Please," "Thank you" and "I'm sorry" are not luxury phrases. Use them often.
13. When You Dream Barenaked Ladies
...When you dream,
What do you dream about?
When you dream,
What do you dream about?
Are they color or black and white,
Yiddish or English
Or languages not yet conceived?
Are they silent or boisterous?
Do you hear noises just
Loud enough to be perceived?
Do you hear Del Shannon's 'Runaway' playing
On transistor radio waves?
With so little experience,
Your mind not yet cognizant
Are you wise beyond your few days?
When you dream,
What do you dream about? ...        • Be quiet if other people are asleep, during agreed-upon sleep times.
14. At My Most Beautiful REM
I've found a way to make you smile
I've found a way
A way to make you smile
I read bad poetry
Into your machine.
I save your messages
Just to hear your voice.
You always listen carefully
To awkward rhymes.
You always say your name,
Like I wouldn't know it's you,
At your most beautiful.
I've found a way to make you smile
I've found a way
A way to make you smile
At my most beautiful
I count your eyelashes, secretly.
With every one, whisper 'I love you'.
I let you sleep.
I know you're closed eye watching me,
Listening.
I thought I saw a smile.
I've found a way to make you smile
I've found a way
A way to make you smile        • Don't fix yourself food or drink without offering something to other person/people in the space, unless you have agreed on this.
15. Disappear Hoobastank
Do you know, that everytime you're near
Everybody else seems far away?
So can you come and make them disappear?
Make them disappear and we can stay?

So I stand and look around
Distracted by the sounds
Of everyone and everything I see
And I search through every face
Without a single trace, of the person
The person that I need....        • Deal with all liquids and solids that emerge from your body, and all hair, etc., that you discard from your body, in the agreed-upon manner. Deal with everything that you discard in the agreed-upon manner. This includes care of toilet seats and bowls, and the discarding of used Kleenex and of empty containers.
16. Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) Duran Duran
...You spoilt the game, no matter what you say
...
Blue eyes, blue eyes, how come you tell so many lies?

Come up and see me, make me smile
Or do what you want, run on wild.

There's nothing left, all gone and run away
Maybe you'll tarry for a while
It's just a test, a game for us to play
Win or lose, it's hard to smile
Resist, resist, it's from yourself you have to hide.
...
There ain't no more, you've taken everthing
...
How can you ignore my faith in everything?
When I know what faith is and what it's worth? ...        • Clean up your own messes: this means last night's dishes, hurt feelings, and polluted water.
17. Chasing Cars Snow Patrol
...If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

I don't quite know
How to say
How I feel

Those three words
Are said too much
They're not enough
...
I need your grace
To remind me
To find my own
...
All that I am
All that I ever was
Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see....        • Don't change TV channel or music unless you have agreed with other person/people that it is your turn to do so.
18. Sorry Now Sugar Ray
We'll never know, never know if all we had wasn't true
With me and you
Never really knew if right now was much too soon--
It was much too soon
Why can't you call and say you miss me?
The time we waste, it just becomes history
Why can't you call and say you need me?
The words you wanna hear deceive me
...
Now that she's let me out
I only want back in        • 'The world of pretend is a cage, not a cocoon.'