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 |   A third attempt at this blogging business. |
 30-DAY BLOG CHALLENGE WINNER FOR SEPTEMBER 2011 AND APRIL 2012!!  BLOGGING CIRCLE OF FRIENDS "BLOGGER OF THE WEEK" MAY, SEPTEMBER, AND NOVEMBER 2013 JANUARY, FEBRUARY, AND JUNE 2014 After 380 entries and over 17,600 views, it was time to retire "Who Do I Think I Am??"  . Expect more of the same shenanigans and troublemaking you've come to know and love from me over the last few years. Tell all your friends, warn your family and hide this from your neighbors...this isn't your average blog.   
Thanks for stopping by and showing your support!    THIS BLOG IS NOW CLOSED.
Continue along on my journey over at "Still Figurin' Out Who I Think I Am" . |
| 30DBC PROMPT: "What issues would you take a stand on, and what campaign promises would you make, if you ran for Mayor of your current town or city?" What's up y'all? Man, these stipulations in these prompts are straight killin' me. Listen...I prefer being as specific as possible, and I'd probably be the first one to complain when a prompt isn't as pointed as I'd like it to be. And I swear this isn't me just whining to hear see myself type words. I have a valid gripe. What if you don't wanna live where you're living anymore, but haven't had the means to leave yet? It sets a dirty political standard, I'd say. Really. I have no connection to the area I'm living in right now. I'm like a pending free agent or something, who knows he won't be re-signing with his current organization but unsure of what the market has in store for him. And how do I know this? I'm currently in a work experience program being offered by the county I currently reside in, and what was my job today? They drove me off a half hour into the middle of absolute nowhere- no, really, I have no idea where- until we hit a church, and then helped make lunch (well, not quite...more like unpacked lunch from the back of a truck and warmed it up) for about 15 senior citizens, most of which were more than capable (and willing) to do everything themselves (including the dishes). My town doesn't want me, and I don't want it. Ok...<awkward pause>. Well then...onto today's prompt anyway, because that's what we do around here. I suppose if I were to look at my little neighborhood and try to craft some kind of mayoral candidacy, I'd make it easier to recycle. As it stands, there aren't very many places you can take bottles and cans back for a return on your five cent New York State deposit. In fact, there's just one in the immediate area, but good luck actually using it. If there's not a line forming (see yesterday's entry regarding how I feel about lines) for their use, then the do-it-yourself machines are probably full. And if they're full, it's because the store that operates them only has one cashier on, and she's too busy ringing people out. So a couple more of these return centers need to be established, especially in areas of higher consumer traffic. There's no reason why any of the schools, or churches, or community centers can't have some of these machines, and share a cut of the money they make (and yes, that five cents you pay per can or bottle adds up...and someone else pays the person who collected the returned recyclables to take them off their hands). It's a little thing like this that could make a big difference, because people like me just end up get frustrated and wind up throwing soda cans out because there's nowhere within walking distance to be a good community member/human being (although I wouldn't be surprised at all if someone actually came after me and fished my returnables out of the trash for their own benefit and was willing to walk a lot farther than I am to take them back). Then, while I'm at it, I'd tighten up the noise ordinance laws around here. Hey, I'm all for peace and love and understanding, but let's be a little more accommodating of our neighbors. The local hippies like to gather at the corner of my street Saturday mornings, imploring cars to "Honk For Peace!" and "Beep To Bring The Troops Home" and "Toot For Truman" or whatever their great unwashed signs say...and every Saturday morning, when I could be sleeping in, I find myself wondering what the hell is going on outside that everyone's beeping their friggin' horns, until I remember it's the hippies at it again. And you'd think I'd know this by now. It was cute the first time, and maybe the second time...and like I said, I'm fully supportive, but let's just do it at a more reasonable hour, like after 12 noon. Nobody (unless you work 3rd shift, and I don't think very many people in my immediate block or two work anyway) should be sleeping or trying to sleep past noon anyway. From noon 'til, let's say, 6pm, it's a friggin' free-for-all. Make as much noise as your little heart's content making. Then, shut it  . Unless you wanna have an outdoor concert. Or apply for a special "permissible noise ordinance" permit, which extends your merrymaking until 11pm. All proceeds will benefit some worthwhile cause, I'm sure. Finally, someone needs to fix the bus system in this God-forsaken little dump community. Seems like it runs when it wants to, and the routes don't all make sense. Some overlap to the point of overkill, and when they don't, half the time the drivers don't really know where it is you want to go. And have I mentioned before that the actual bus station, where the buses live at night between the hours of 6pm and 6am, isn't actually on any of the bus routes? Get on the closest route and ask the driver to take you there...you'll get halfway across the town and back as many times as you want without getting there, all for the measly cost of one fare. I think the system needs to be changed, and can be, with no loss of service and at no additional cost to the taxpayer. Give me a month, and I'll show you better routes that reach more people and save gas mileage. It's possible. So yay, vote for me! Oh, I have one more suggestion...maybe I should just find another place to live. BCF PROMPT: "'Tis better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.' Is this true?" Is this true? Of course it's true. To love is to give all of yourself over to someone else, and hope they don't destroy it. To love if to know your own worth and hope neither of you does anything to devalue it. Loving is... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTjqz0_wsZo. You don't appreciate how full your cup is until someone empties it (and I'm not just sayin' that 'cuz someone knocked over my coffee cup at the Church Of The Fifteen Holy Senior Citizens today either...but seriously, a total of 18 people in a room that could easily seat seventy-five, and someone had to send my stinkin' little 6oz coffee cup flying, just after it had reached the perfect drinkable temperature. No, I'm still not upset about that  ). It's a chance we all have to take (again, not mad about the coffee cup thing). You can't know loneliness until you've had it launched across a room by ok this is about the damn coffee...why can't people be more careful around hot beverages that have tiny little straws that you can't even drink through sticking out of them??It was probably for the best that it ended up on the ground rather than in my system anyway...and only those who've been in love can say that without flinching. There are so many things you can only learn once you've bought the ticket and taken the ride...like knowing that the person you're most compatible with is yourself, because you've either turned your significant others down or driven them away. No need for examples; I'm that guy, and I deserve all the alone time I can only hope to one day achieve. MUSICAL BREAK!! I'm not even concerned that I may have posted this song before in my varied blogging history. THE DAILY BOX SCORE:  I cannot stress enough that coffee at the perfect drinkable temperature, as once defined by my brother DMFM, is not something to be toyed with or treated lightly. I'm sure I had more to add, but all the rage that was pent up within me over that damn spilled coffee cup took control, and that's how we ended up here.  And in the effort of full disclosure, here's the unfortunate chain of events that occurred. I had just poured a third cup of coffee, and like I stated a few paragraphs prior to this one, the mugs were really tiny. I added some sugar-free non-dairy French Vanilla creamer (because I'm sweet enough, thanks) and set it down in a very out-of-the-way place, which also happened to be next to a wall. On a counter, next to a wall. Got that so far? Some lady comes in, with a box that contains a bag that holds two litres (because half the box was in French) of hand sanitizer. She's ecstatic because it was $2 at Dollar General and it's in the aisle with the soaps and deodorants and what a great deal and if you take the top off and take off this other piece and you just squeeze you can refill all the other hand sanitizer pumps and isn't this great and this went on for almost ten minutes and  . Finally, the woman set the box down on the counter, at least one foot (in inches, because this isn't France) away from my coffee cup. I found it funny that, after giving everyone a demonstration in the kitchen about how great and easy this giant bag of hand sanitizer was to use, she still had written down her instructions on the inside of the top flap of the box. Meanwhile, just before lunch, the director-person was joking around with the other helper-lady about how she should mention the sanitizer as part of her daily announcements, and how the helper-lady would show it off as if she were some kind of game show model and everyone would go "Oooh!" and "Ahhhh!". And that's what she did...only instead of grabbing a box containing two litres of hand sanitizer, she blindly flailed her arm and somehow managed to forcefully backhand my coffee cup without busting her idiot flipper on the wall next to it. And then she looks around and is all like, "Oh, tee hee, who's was that? Tee hee!" Hi...fifteen senior citizens sitting at the tables of the Church Of The Fifteen Hungry Senior Citizens, and three of us helping, and you know who one of them is, and another one of them is you. And that's where the story happily ends, forever and ever. Amen.On that note, tomorrow I can sleep in uninterrupted by anything and it might not be below freezing, so that means the day is oh-so-full of possibilities! Or, I'll probably not really do much of anything, which I'm cool with also. Peace, I don't care where, and GOODNIGHT NOW!! |
| 30DBC PROMPT: "If you had the choice, would you rather be incredibly gifted and talented at one thing, or slightly better than average at lots of different things? Why?" What's up fine people? I'm looking at this prompt for about the twentieth time, and I've decided I'm not going to question anything about it. Not "where did it come from?" or "why God why??" or "does this prompt make me look fat?" (yes, it does, if you were wondering...but don't say that to my face). I'm gonna try to answer this to the best of my ability. Which means we might be in trouble here.  I know roughly 61% of the challengers in this month's "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" are gonna say something like "You know that old saying...'Jack of all trades; master of none'" and go on about how that statement is either true or false. Furthermore, they'll have a 50% chance of being correct. I know that seems like a lot of percents, and percentages are part of math, and I frown upon math while I'm trying to produce daily entertainment for those who've made it this far into today's entry. So therefore, I'm telling you to abandon math altogether and stick with me on this a little longer.While it's good to kinda know a lot of things better than most because it makes you more available to a wider range of people under many different possible circumstances, the truth is, how often will you really be called upon to spit some random knowledge? You can't possibly stay current on all there is to know about everything, or even most things, or some things. Eventually something's gotta give, and you have to realize you know enough to get you by but not enough to solve all of the world's problems. On the other hand, if you're the genius/guru/know-it-all about one subject in particular, you may not get the invite to all the best parties in town, but it's guaranteed to get you where you're needed the most, and probably with better results. Here's an example: I know how to fix battery terminals on very old Motorola cell phones. When did I learn this? Sometime around 1998. And when was the last time I repaired one? Sometime around 1998. And why is this? Because pretty much no one was using that particular model of Motorola cell phone anymore in 1998, and probably hadn't in at least three years. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUcXCH2F8ts And here's another example: It's cool to know more than one language, and it surely can be profitable to be proficient at two or even three. But I'm pretty sure- and stop me if I haven't heard about recent medical advances in this area, because I really don't follow them- everyone who has a mouth only has one mouth, and one mouth means one language at a time can come out of it. Oh sure, you can get away with using two languages in a sentence. like "I'll have the taco salad with a side of French fries" (and I know what you're thinking: what's the point of eating a salad with fries?). And American Sign Language doesn't count, because while you're mouthing words, you're still using your hands, and you can't mouth words at the same time by mimicking hand movements with your lips. It just doesn't work that way. Otherwise, you'd see a little translator guy on the corner of your mobile device or computer screen, translating this blog entry into sign language for the hard of hearing...let me know how that works out for ya, since I can't speak Braille. The point is, it's cool to know a little about a lot, and that's more the category I fall into, but it's better to stick to one thing and know all that you possibly can about it for as long as you can, and be able to learn and evolve alongside it rather than hope 15 years down the road maybe someone will ask you some random thing causing you an "A-ha!" moment like you've been waiting your whole life to show off something you once knew slightly better than everyone else did. Now, who needs their VCR set to stop flashing "12:00"? BCF PROMPT: "Is patience an attribute that you can acquire with practice or is it an innate ability in some people?" You're asking possibly one of the least patient people this side of planet Mars about patience? This could get ugly fast. Allow my informed opinion on the subject do the speaking for me while I figure out how to wait for whatever's coming after it. I think the best answer here is both. Many people are just born oozing whatever it is that allows them to put up with everything and anything and can take it all in stride. Some people, like me, can't go fifteen seconds without fidgeting under the weight of expectations. When I tell you I want something, I want it now. Not in a week. Not tomorrow. Yesterday. Before I even knew I knew you were gonna know I knew I wanted it, I expected it. The pheromones that produce the muscles in my body necessary to perform sulking have already begun manufacturing what they need while the rest of my intentions are gathering information. But enough about me. People are people, and they can be conditioned over time to do almost anything, including learning the art of waiting their damn turn properly. Throwing a fit, causing a scene, and being overly mischievous don't necessarily get you what you want faster; in fact, it's more the opposite. If I have something you want, and you're crying like a sissy because you can't wait for me to give it to you, I'm gonna be less inclined to do so. Because I'm a jerk like that . But if you're polite, and sit tight, you'll get whatever it is because you did the right thing by being patient. I should know...you have to say a lot of mean things to get yourself tossed out of lines at stores in strip malls you're not allowed to step foot in again. From what I hear. MUSICAL BREAK!! Then again, there probably is a whole 'nother set of drawbacks to knowing everything there is to know about everything. THE DAILY BOX SCORE:  I'm pretty sure every store I've ever been actually asked to leave before I was good and ready to has long since closed their doors without any of my hard-earned cash. Sounds like in the end it's more there problem than mine, as I've managed to procure whatever I was pissing and moaning about in the first place elsewhere, and they're just another .GIF in a Buzzfeed "Remember when..." or "20 Things You Forgot About..." column. Winner: me.  And the look on this woman's face is generally the look on mine whenever I'm waiting behind one or more people in line just about anywhere for anything that there could possibly be a line for. While I may be similar in height, I do not lack the capability to look past those ahead of me enough to realize if they are, in fact, real people.  Ok, well, here's where you and I part ways for the evening. I hope you learned something...if not, well, you're a great person anyway for at least having made it down this far in the entry. May your higher power reserve a more special place for you than you imagined; a nice table with no waiting. Peace, it's a brick...it's a phone...it's a brickphone, and GOODNIGHT NOW!! |
| 30DBC PROMPT: "Write about the time you were the most nervous you've ever been." Greetings from snowless but absolutely freezing Cortland, NY, where the temperature topped off at three whole degrees. Since everyone seems to have something to say about the weather today, I'm gonna act like I've seen snow before and talk about something else. The problem is, even though I saw this prompt last night before I went to sleep and again when I woke up eight hours or so ago, I still feel like it's putting me on the spot. That's not to say I've never been nervous about anything before- I do suffer from live with anxiety and panic attacks- but I haven't been able to pull out a single memory (well, ok, one...but I wrote about it a long time ago and I really don't feel like rehashing that weekend over again anymore than I already have) that's rendered me anything more than with your garden variety "bottom of the last inning with two outs, runner on third, and you're at bat" sweat pouring and frazzled nerves. I guess now that I've started typing, I better come up with something. I can already feel my chest tightening under the pressure I'm placing upon myself. Ugh...ok, here goes. Maybe I should check my email again. Or my other email. Or Facebook. Maybe take a walk. No...I should do this. Really. I guess I could talk about that time I played floor hockey with a team I'd never played with before, and I was assigned to shadow one of the best scorers in the league. It was for the league championship, and the only game my new team had lost all year was to the team we were playing, which was undefeated. But I don't remember much about it, other than the long assist I had that blew the game open, and we wound up routing our way toward championship t-shirts, pizza and beer. I played my style of game and the guy I was covering hardly had but a couple of weak shots on net. I may have had another assist or two (though I wasn't really a points guy throughout my playing days), but like I said, I don't remember much else from that game...it had to be 15 years ago. I couldn't have been that nervous though; instinct eventually kicks in. Kinda like with this entry so far. I know I hadn't played hockey in a year or so at the time, and even back then I was usually the goalie, where you don't have to worry as much about whether or not you're gonna mesh with your team as you have to about stopping pucks. I'd played defense years before that on some crappy teams, but I could still hold my own, or at least thought I did, but not having been out there in a few years should've been at least a little intimidating, especially with guys I barely knew. To correlate, I haven't felt this all-in during a "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" in a long time, but once I get settled in and start working out ideas in my head, typing happens and before I know it there's an entry. It sounds corny I guess, but it's true. I think everyone has things that deep down inside scare the over-lovin' outta them until they're actually in the middle of doing it, and then it feels like you never stopped in the first place. For me nowadays, writing aside, it's a lot of little things...and if I look back 10, 15, or even 20 years ago, I can see where I started to feel anxious about certain places and situations that are so common for everyone else, but I didn't know what it was or how to deal with things; I only knew how to go around (if that makes sense). It does to me.And now I don't feel as weird or knotted up about today's prompt. If only the rest of life were that easy. BCF PROMPT: "Tell us what kind of poetry appeals to you? Why? Which poet is your favorite? If you do not enjoy reading poetry why?" This is a much easier prompt. When I was younger and the English teacher in school would say something like "Today we're gonna study poetry!" and everyone groaned, I was secretly excited. I actually enjoyed it. I don't think I've retained a damn bit of it, but hey, that's what happens when you get knocked in the head too many times immerse yourself in so much of it. I like weird, dark, emotional, and abstract stuff. Poems that make you think. Poems that read one way and can be interpreted in many other ways...you know what the words are and what they mean, but they represent something else entirely in the big picture. I'm not a fan of styles or structure...I think they're too confining, especially when you want to do more with less or feel like you want to see through to what it means. I know, again, it's corny and cosmic and "out there, man", but it's true. And maybe it's the skeptic in me trying to always see something that isn't necessarily available to the naked eye (be it that way in anything), but that's how I've always approached poetry. As you can see in my newly-created (after yesterday's prompt regarding our biographies)...ummmm...biography (here, in case you don't want to stray too far: http://www.writing.com/main/profile/biography/fivesixer), the two poets I really appreciate are Richard Brautigan and Saul Williams. Brautigan's Trout Fishing In America/The Pill Versus The Springhill Mine Disaster/In Watermelon Sugar was my introduction to him, and I've read and reread many of his other works. In Watermelon Sugar, especially, while not necessarily poetry, is very poetic in the way it details and mirrors almost a parallel existence of the time it was written in (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2xxGKnZvvk). There's an aching beauty to it. He was a master at what he did, but I don't think he ever really fit in with his contemporaries exactly, which I believe led to later underappreciation and his untimely death. {link:http://www.amazon.com/Richard-Brautigans-Springhill-Disaster-Watermelon/dp/0395500761/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1389132287&sr=8-2&keywords=richard+brautigan+in+watermelon+sugar} Williams' work, on the other hand, feels like a blindsiding, gut-punching whirlwind of force and aggression, and that's just regarding how I feel about the opening of pages of Said The Shotgun To The Head, which to me is more a series of shorter poems unfurling into a giant love story for the universe. Taken from the passage on its cover: The greatest Americans Have not been born yet They are waiting quietly For their past to die please give blood Here is the account of a man so ravished by a kiss that it distorts his highest and lowest frequencies of understanding into an Incongruent mean of babble and brilliance... His work in 2003 felt so next-generation. It felt like it was meant to be published online, like it was what WDC authors were supposed to be doing with WritingML once they got off their computers and started publishing exactly what they meant. And it's amazing to hold and feel and let it take you away into its world so you can lose yourself in its power and mystique. {link:http://www.amazon.com/Said-Shotgun-Head-Saul-Williams/dp/0743470796/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389132753&sr=8-1&keywords=saul+williams+said+the+shotgun+to+the+head} MUSICAL BREAK!! Saul Williams has also put out some music, including a U2 cover of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and several tracks produced by Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor. THE DAILY BOX SCORE: 3: I wasn't kidding...last I checked it was three degrees outside. It's supposed to warm up by the end of the week, but damn near everything today is preceded by a warning or a caution or a closing. Except stores here...but they closed all the major malls in Buffalo and cancelled Bingo, which is when you know it's bad out.  Hah! Come on, you know I can't talk about poetry without linking this song for the 189th time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_RSJ6xuHbE. In my opinion, certain songs can be considered pieces of poetry. Rap music, when done properly and with intelligence, can be sincere, honest and striking. And who better than one of Canada's foremost celebrities, known globally for hosting one of the most enduring trivia franchises all of television has ever seen, to narrate some of Hip-Hop's greatest classic tales, while in the middle of his own program?? Mind=blown. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WmMqi5PTt0. The Carolina Hurricanes' game at the Buffalo Sabres tonight has been postponed due to all the inclement weather downtown (have you heard about it? ). Yes, the Hurricanes were taken out by a blizzard. Don't tell me that's not an anchorperson's dream news headline (and it is, because I stole it from one I saw on Facebook earlier today). Ok, I've gotta get on with my day. I've wasted enough of it procrastinating and putting off one thing in favor of putting off another thing in favor of putting off something else, so I should start trying to tie up these loose ends before they become knotted. Peace, don't tell me what the poets are doin', and GOODNIGHT NOW!! |
| 30DBC PROMPT: "How long has it been since you changed the image on your biography page? Browse around your fellow competitors' bio pages and hopefully they have something up for you to see. "Profile Pictures" are commonplace on most social websites, so I want you to discuss them. What is appropriate? Do you show your face, or display mostly ambiguous pictures? Why?" Hey everyone! Fascinating subject today in the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" , and one that caught me off guard. Allow me to explain...It seems that I'd long since forgotten that WDC actually had a "Biography Page" that's separate from the "Bio Block" that everyone sees the first time they skip happily into your portfolio. I probably meant to set mine up when it was first launched forever ago, and then the thought left me, and I paid it no mind, especially since I don't even look in my own portfolio all that much anymore (an admission that could make me seem like a less-than-desirable WDC user). I know there's a ton of old items I should clean out of there (mostly old photos), and I will...probably about the same time I get around to adding a true biography of some sort. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of times I've actually changed my Bio Block since I joined up. I did manage to take another look at it today out of curiosity once I saw today's prompt, and the link I posted in there to another poetry-themed website includes a picture of me that's at least 10 years old (the picture, not me). I guess I always assumed my Bio Block was more than sufficient info about me than actually trying to come up with all the details necessary that anything requiring reading the entire word "biography" (as opposed to "bio") would entail. Or better yet, I'm lazy. Social networking...well, now, that's entirely different. I've probably changed my Twitter pic three or four times, and my wallpaper once. Facebook though, that one's changed fairly often. Maybe anywhere from one to four times any month, depending on how I feel. Right now, it's just a facial shot of me (a selfie, if you'll allow me to use a term all the cool kids are using these days) from this past October. And I haven't changed much at all since. But sometimes I'll throw something funny in there, which leads me to another point... Here's a good rule of thumb regarding "appropriate": if you get a feeling something's wrong, it probably is. While I tend to play loose with language fairly often pretty consistently in regular face-to-face conversations with people I'm comfortable around, I try (operative word right there) to keep it within reason on Facebook. Sure, I'll occasionally see something I find too funny to pass up, but generally my posts (if they were based on the WDC ratings example) would probably fall somewhere between 13+ and 18+. I guess part of that has to do with me being a WDC member longer than a Facebook user and being conditioned to the ratings standards here, and part of it is just respecting that there might be older friends or family members that will see stuff on Facebook, which reflects back to me in different ways than a blog might...Facebook is a kind of a natural extension of ourselves these days that you sort of have to be careful of what you put out there. I compare it to the first time someone married the concept of the t-shirt and the magic marker and started making their own t-shirts; it was so long ago that if they were to write something obscene on it and wear it in public, it's possible they would've faced being arrested (or at least having to turn their shirt inside-out). Not the same, maybe, because we're so relaxed as a society now, but I still kinda cringe when I see people wearing eff-bombs on clothing more than if I were to overhear it in a private conversation between two people walking down the street. It's probable that people see you more on social media than they would in person...someone can be sitting in church, whip out their phone during a particularly boring sermon, and in seconds access you on Facebook, but would you meet up with them in the church lobby wearing a Megadeth hoodie with cusswords and skulls and blood all over it? Something to think about. But that's just me. I think I stopped caring about how others express themselves a long time ago. It's when people stop expressing themselves that you should really be more concerned about. BCF PROMPT: "The question: Is it harmful to see the good in everybody? Why? Why not?" Switching gears over to the "Blogging Circle of Friends Prompt Forum" , I think this is a pretty good question, and what's right for you might not be right for the next person. It all depends what you've been through.They (Scientists? Reporters? Parents?) say the human baby is the most pure thing in the world: it hasn't been taught yet to hate. It hasn't been lied to with any degree of subjective severity. It hasn't experienced failure at the hands of another. It can see before it speaks, but can't comprehend until a much older age. And it takes longer for some than it does for others. I think we come out of the womb trusting, caring, and hoping everyone else is the same or close to it. And that's not a bad thing. We all know that life isn't fair, and some folks are nicer than others, and some care more than others, and some will hurt you more than others. Depending on how much, or how frequently, or with what depth occurs afterwards emotionally, is what informs us later on...and some are more equipped to balance out the discrepancies better than others. I don't necessarily believe it's the best thing to see the good in everyone, because life hasn't always been good to every person you come across in every situation (unless you're this guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p29jRMHP3G0). It's more about being careful before you open up and let people in. Maybe I'm the only one I know who sees it that way. I don't know. All I do know is I've written a lot of words today, but I'm not sure I've really said much at all. I want to be trusting, and trusted. There are very, very few people I can look at throughout the course of my history where I think the feelings are absolutely mutual. You just don't know where intentions and agendas can turn. But I will say that I think it all starts within; if I'm not buying what I'm selling, I doubt many, if any, others will. MUSICAL BREAK!! And sometimes, people can "get it" and connect in the places it means the most (if you know where those people are and where they hang out, let me know ). Ok, so the song starts about two minutes in...apologies. THE DAILY BOX SCORE: 8, not -8: It looks eight is the number of the day in Buffalo, and it's not the negative wind chill...in fact, this might be an even bigger news story today than the "Polar Vortex" being predicted. After years of being teased by them seemingly at least once every half hour on all the television channels you could turn on in the Queen City, fast food drive-thru chain Sonic has finally announced they're coming to Buffalo (http://www.wivb.com/news/local/sonic-to-open-eight-drive-ins-in-buffalo). That means Buffalonians no longer have to plan their road trips around which cities have a Sonic within their borders. I think this is great news  . The closest I ever came to a Sonic was seeing a sign outside of Cleveland saying "Coming Soon!!" I really hope they're not gonna let too many people down...we all saw last month what happened when Popeye's Chicken opened up downtown, with people waiting for hours in their drive-thru only to find it disappointing (http://www.wivb.com/news/local/popeyes-opening-snarls-traffic). I had Popeye's once on a layover in the Atlanta airport, a few years ago, and it was not great. The line was unruly and out of control, they had run short of some popular menu items, and we couldn't see how filthy the place really was until after we sat down...but we had to try it because it was different. I'm sure eventually the hoopla will die down, and Sonic won't be any busier than your local McDonald's, KFC or Mighty Taco (a Buffalo tradition). What isn't dying down are all the warnings about how cold and snowy it is all over the place. While Emily   was traipsing through hiking trails in Hawaii, the mid-west has been getting hammered with snow and sub-zero wind chills, and it looks like it's already shifted over to the Buffalo/Metropolitan area. Here in Cortland? It was like 45 degrees around midnight last night, and although it's super windy and pretty chilly today, the snow has been negligible. Now watch, it'll be miserable outside tomorrow, when I actually have to go out and do stuff. Spent a better part of the afternoon trying to help a friend set up one of those "Home Theater In A Box" systems, and only having basic info about all the involved components to do it with while communicating over Facebook messages, plus a picture of the diagram it came with. She wants to use it with her laptop, but I'm a little handicapped by not seeing the system, her tv, the laptop's inputs/outputs, and the audio/video ins and outs on her tv antenna box for local channels. I told her it would've been easier for her to call off of work today, leave her place at 8am, drive the three hours to get me, drive back, and we would likely have had the whole thing set up in plenty of time before the snow started falling. It's failures in my thinking ahead about these things that lead me to situations like... Possibly succumbing to setting up the Skype tile on my laptop so I can more easily get this home theater set up properly. I don't like talking on the phone as it is, and I can get bored easily by the sound of my own voice if all I'm doing is laying around talking...at least I have a purpose other than saying "Hi, how's things, blah blah blah, ok, bye". I just don't know how comfortable I'm gonna be with this whole Skype thing. I've seen how the lighting where I live affects pictures I've tried to take with my webcam (all the evidence you'll need is the "profile-type picture" I use at the very top of this blog- look at how well I've tied that into the 30DBC part of today's entry , taken last summer...only it's worse here at night). As things become more convenient, we sacrifice things like being able to go to the bathroom when we're on the phone with someone. Not that I've done that before or anything. Right?So that's where I'm at today. Hope it's warm where you are. Peace, it's been good to me so far, and GOODNIGHT NOW!! (You had to see that one coming.) |
| 30DBC PROMPT: "Blog. Tell us about your week. Include your favorite blog entry from your fellow challengers from the preceding week and, most importantly, why." Good afternoon everyone! It's Sunday, which means it's time for the Sunday Review portion of the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" . There's been no shortage of great entries so far in the first week of January...and you've probably read (if not written) most of them anyway, but a few kind of stick out and deserve sharing for the purpose of today's prompt. Bear with me, because I'm trying to do this while streaming the Chargers/Bengals game (after all, it's not just Sunday, or Football Sunday, but it's Playoff Football Sunday).  The "Creation Saturday" prompts were all pretty impressive, and especially creative, regardless of everyone's various opinions and/or stances on the topic of "How The Universe Was Created". The beauty of the prompt was in the idea that it could be as fictional as you wanted it to be, and therefore there really couldn't be any "wrong" answers. I think sunnystarr with "January 4th Prompt" and Brother Nature  with "Invalid Entry" won the day.Lyn's a sly fox  had a good week too, catching the "Blogger of the Week" award again over in the "Blogging Circle of Friends Prompt Forum" , and has taken on three different blogging groups in her entries, addressing a wide variety of topics each day. Her entries seem like they're getting stronger every day...I don't know that I could say I'd be able to keep up at that pace, so good for her!And then there have been overall strong efforts by all of the newcomers in the 30DBC, especially from pinkbarbie and Jaeff | KBtW of the Free Folk  with "Invalid Entry" and "Day 3: Article About The Past Year" . It takes a lot of strength to be able to reflect on the past year in the ways they did.Well, even though we're still in the first week of 2014, we've passed the first weekly recap in the 30DBC...congrats to those who've made it this far, and hopefully we have a successful run in this coming week! BCF PROMPT: It's Sunday in The Circle, which means it's promptless operating for a day. Which is fine, although I typically don't do much on Sundays and have even less to say about it. I did manage to make a nearly uneventful trip to CVS, which I probably wouldn't have done but I had to grab some groceries 'cuz I was down to the bare essentials and didn't feel like going much farther than across the street in weather that was supposedly considered to be feared (I should've leaned awhile ago not to confuse my Facebook newsfeed with what it's actually doing outside in my neighborhood...I think some of the snow out this way started melting a little this afternoon, when it's sounding like a "run to the store for milk, bread, and panic" kind of experience everywhere else in the world). I say "nearly uneventful" because the trip did pass without incident, but a couple times a year CVS gives you a coupon based on your spending the previous quarter, which is free money. Since I'm there pretty often, I got a coupon for $11. That's pretty sweet...it's probably the only store loyalty card program that actually feels like you're saving some money and being rewarded in a minimally confusing and fairly easy to understand fashion. Of course, I did manage to screw up trying to get my "Save $4 On A $20 Purchase" coupon sent over from my email to my card, and it never printed from their giant coupon machine in-store that spits out approximately three feet of coupons per consumer per week, and having worked in retail before, I know the cashier really doesn't want to hear the sob story about the coupon you didn't bring, and can't do much in the way of helping you out. In perhaps my greatest showing of patience all week, I didn't pursue the matter after stating my case. If you know me, that's a pretty big step, even if I of all people should know better. Oh well...stay warm and enjoy what's left of the weekend, y'all. MUSICAL BREAK!! I'm really not feeling all that motivated or creative today, but I'm looking forward to this coming week's set of prompts. THE DAILY BOX SCORE: 3/4ths: Three of the four Wild Card Playoff games in the NFL are in the books, and they've certainly been entertaining for fans of the winning teams...but I don't think any of the eight teams that will have played by the end of tonight will be in the Super Bowl. Just my opinion though. And that's about enough out of me for one day, I believe. On to catching up on yesterday's evening entries (my time, not yours) and today's...hopefully I can fit them all in before the afternoon NFC game starts. Peace, that's your week in review, and GOODNIGHT NOW!! |
| 30DBC PROMPT: "How was the universe created? Write your OWN creation myth." What's up y'all? It's the first "Creation Saturday" of this month's "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" , where we're given a topic and told to make something up about it. It's not a practice I advocate for in the art of writing blog entries, but I'll be a good little challenger and play along.There are all different kinds of tales about how the universe was actually created, and your personal belief system assigns one to you at a young age. Because I don't follow any particular brand of religious teachings, that makes it a little easier to understand whatever scientific impact played a role in carving a spot in the galaxy where we could put some oceans and trees and people who walk upright with opposable thumbs and opinions. The reality is we really don't know how we all came to be, because it's heresy. Someone listened to some great readings about how they perceived the conception of the planet, and then told three friends, who then told three friends, and that's how The Big Bang Theory (the real theory, and not the tv show) went from being about explosions and asteroids to God opening up a box of Betty Crocker Earth-flavored cake mix and frosting it with atmosphere, taking six days to bake one giant dessert to live and breed on. Um, good job on that one, God. High five. Well, forget about what you were taught in bible study and youth camp. Here's the real deal. Your boy Bob Ross knew the truth about our existence in the greatest universe known to man, and you know who I'm talking about. He's the artist who has created the world in his own vision, with happy little trees and mountains and streams and oil paint. He probably didn't create Wikipedia, but if he did it would look nothing like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Ross. If you were travelling down somewhere over by the Massachusetts Turnpike and someone stuck one of his paintings of scenery against the passenger window, you probably wouldn't know the difference (although I believe obstructing windows is a violation of some motor vehicle laws). His work is that legendary. And if I ever get to host my own tv show about the ways the world was created, next time I'll tell you about how painter Thomas Kinkade created all of the holidays, starting with Christmas. http://www.thomaskinkadeonline.com/?gclid=CITUoYr15LsCFYlAMgod_SsA7Q. BCF PROMPT: "All of us have different interests. Share some interesting trivia details about your passion. Sporting, cooking, gardening, writing, etc. Fans, here is your chance to show us what you know about your interests! Have fun with this.  "I'm gonna come right out and say it: I have no idea what I'm truly (by definition) passionate about these days. I could take the easy out here and say "writing", because I honestly enjoy it more than almost anything, but this is a frickin' writing website and I think most of us on WDC lean that way, which I think the universe has designed for me to push against that. But I think going into detail about that is either an entry for another day, or something I need to discuss with my therapist. I enjoy stuff like cooking, but am I passionate about it, say, the way Elle - on hiatus  is by combining culinary expertise with a love of writing with her "Invalid Item" ? I love sports, but being a fan of the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres in recent years has been an exercise in futility, patience, hope, more futility, and angst, followed by something damn close to apathy (sorta the opposite of passion). I'm not nearly a voracious reader, I'm not crazy about putting in the work it takes to be a gardener, I hate how society bases your worth as a person because of the car you drive, and I get bored easily trying to sit still long enough to watch a movie. I love music, but I still don't have all of my cds from a messy 2012 break-up. Where else does that leave me?I like naps. A good midday snooze, where you wake up and the night has yet to come. I can pull my hat over my face to simulate the darkness, and catch two or three hours of time where I know I can't be bothered (unless something extreme were to occur, but that hasn't happened yet). I used to have the worst time with naps...I'd be about 3/4ths asleep and dreaming, but hearing imaginary noises like people were pounding on my door as the dreams turned to nightmares, like I was covered in ants. The craziest things. I had to learn how to plow through that midafternoon exhaustion because naptime was a mental wreck, no matter how comfortable I got. So yeah, I learned now how to take a good, solid nap (and still sleep at night, although I'm reluctantly hesitant to admit I may be hooked on Ambien in that regard). Too bad the NFL playoffs start today; a small reminder of how bad Buffalo football is during the coldest winter months, and yet a sound reason to avoid a lazy Saturday naptime experience. MUSICAL BREAK!! Crunching metal and horns? Ok. It helps that I enjoy this band. Why can't we just simply be? THE DAILY BOX SCORE:  RIP, Phil Everly of The Everly Brothers. A great bit of nostalgia left my life today. Also, this is a quick, fun little read: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/valentines-day-special-the-10-messiest-b.... If you're like me and don't have a tv, you can watch live sports online with http://www.wiziwig.tv/. I've used it for several Bills games this year, and some other NFL tilts as well...you just have to find the most reliable stream, find the right "x" to close out the ads properly, and occasionally refresh your browser. I may use it to start watching hockey games as well, depending on my level of enthusiasm and how much more of the Sabres seemingly always being outshot 15-3 in the first periods of their games I can take.  Yay!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8_uBTGmOMI Well, we don't have a brain emoticon (and no, I'm not starting a campaign for one...yet) so this will have to do for National Trivia Day. Mental Floss is full of fun, unnecessary bits of info like this. http://mentalfloss.com/article/54379/39-amazing-facts-national-trivia-dayOk, I need to get out of here and catch up on the rest of yesterday's "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" entries before I decide on what else I might get into today. Peace, and a happy little GOODNIGHT NOW!! |
| 30DBC PROMPT: "Look back on 2013. Read your blog entries from early last year and observe how you've changed. If you weren't blogging early last year, think back to that time and imagine what you would have been doing or thinking about. Now, write an article about your past year of life in the voice of a reporter. Remember: making your reader laugh is key, so this can be as outlandish and overblown as you are brave enough to do . Have fun! Hello there dear readers! I have a confession of sorts to make...after posting an entry, reading it over and doing any necessary edits, I don't really go back and read old blog entries. I probably should, just for posterity and perspective. But I don't. I just...don't. It's likely that I'm somewhat self-conscious (who, me?). I'm not the kind of person who craves attention that much, or needs to see my name posted anywhere on the magical box that houses the internet. I know what my past looks like, and there's not much time in this world to be spent on reliving it in the grand scheme of things. But just for fun, let's go back and see what I was up to one year ago this very day..."This one's about the sacred speakings." Interesting stuff. It's a trip to see what I was capable of while jacked on pain meds with a though-provoking prompt. As I've mentioned in some of my recent, previous entries, 2013 was pretty much a wash. I think I may have actually managed to regress as a person, as bad as that sounds. I don't know how I can put on my best reporter face and spin that around. But let's see where this goes... "2013...a year that actually started out on a bad foot (pun intended). A transplanted Buffalonian made his way to Cortland, NY, and horrifically broke his ankle while jumping over a bonfire (several times) on the very same day he received a mental health diagnosis of "Severe Depressive Disorder". After having two surgical procedures on the limb in question, he still walks with a bit of a limp because of the damage done to the ligaments surrounding the ankle, and a return to his floor hockey days as a stay-at-home defenseman are practically out of the question. Advances in the field of mental health have, however, decreased his propensity for verbally lashing out at strangers who piss him off, and have altered his mental state for the better. He no longer "acts out", as he so elegantly stated it to his therapist and psychiatrist, who actually dropped an eff-bomb while trying to describe and properly diagnose his symptoms. All in all, he's looking forward to facing the challenges 2014 will have in store for him...finding a job, reclaiming social graces, and eventually shaving off his monumental beard. Maybe he'll even get lucky and find the next girl of his dreams, but don't count on it...if he's learned anything about love, he knows it's out of his reach. Let's give this guy a hand for knowing his lot in life a little better than he did the year before." Well, there it is, I think. I hope I never have to read that again. BCF PROMPT: "How good are you at letting things go?" Ha! This one is easy. I'm a champ at holding grudges and clinging to past failures in hopes that they might turn around someday. If the law of averages is in fact correct, I shall one day again be better at the game of life some time shortly before I leave this otherwise crippled existence. I'm not a bad person. I just make bad decisions, often at the worst possible times. But that's neither here nor there. This thinking stuff really kind of sucks, actually. But whatever. And that's my feeling about the past and how I choose to move on from it. I can't be angry or bitter forever...it's not a good look on me. I've found myself to be fairly forgiving at times. I'm still probably very naive when it comes to people in that I hope first for the best, yet I remain conflicted because I also tend to expect their worst. I never can seem to find the right marriage of personalities and expectations. Does that mean I'm in the wrong, and need to change? That's what therapists are for, I figure. Let them do their thing, because I can't do it for me. And I'm getting off the point. No, I don't let go very easily. I love beyond words, not just with my heart or body but with everything. It's hard to find people with similar intentions, as crazy as that sounds. I've had it before, and it's a lot of work, and I don't know if I'm capable of surviving more failure. I should be content with knowing how much I tried, but I'm not the kind of dude that plays up his strengths. I never seem to be able to get past that level necessary to the survival of a positive, healthy relationship with people. Maybe I never will. And maybe I've touched lives that I don't even know about. But, like I said, whatever. When did 2014 become so depressing? I'm over this "reflecting" and "being a better person" stuff already. Let's just have fun instead. MUSICAL BREAK!! Can we just adopt this as the theme for 2014? THE DAILY BOX SCORE: -1: The temperature outside when I woke up again for the third time this morning. Yes, things are frozen. I'm thankful for heat, no doubt no frontin' on that.  Yes!! Because I can. No sadness, no depression, and prompts that influence neither in 2014. I think I'm gonna go continue purging the bitterness and hate out of my system. Ugh...I think with that I'm out for today. I've done enough here. It's high time I learn how to relax. Peace, there's a solution, and GOODNIGHT NOW!! |
| 30DBC PROMPT: "If you could go back to when you were 19, would you? Would you prefer to have all the knowledge you have now, or start completely fresh?" Well, good morning to all of you out there! And a very special happy birthday wish to our own Emily , who turns 19 today and is now of legal drinking age in the great social atmosphere of Canada (Brother Nature can back me up on that). Now I can say with actual truth that I am twice her age, and therefore capable to address today's entry from that unique perspective.I actually liked being 19. I was removed from all the pressures and nuisances of high school. I had taken a year off between graduating and starting college, and I made some true lifelong friends away from the environment I loathed. I had a new sense of popularity in that people paid attention to me not because I was notorious one way or another, but because they actually liked me. It truly was a time of change for me, and I was ready to embrace it. Having a driver's license and credit cards helped. But looking back, because hindsight is always 20/20 (sorry for the cliche), I know I would've handled a few things differently. If I knew at 19 what I know at 38, who wouldn't? But hey, it's part of the learning process we go through to become adults. Look at it from this perspective: how many of us would hire our 19 year old selves for the jobs we have now? How many of us would be friends with that guy or gal now? How else would we have navigated life if we chose to alter the paths we actually took? Valid questions. The responses aren't easy. That was a critical year for me, and I feel like I handled it quite well. Ask me about 29, and I'll give you a different answer (I totally bombed at being 29). Hell, I didn't do so great at being 20 or 21 either. But 19 was a pretty good time...I'd go to school all day, work the entire evening, then go out for coffee all night with friends at Perkins, take a ten minute nap, and do it all over again...I'd sleep on the two hour bus ride to ECC South, or maybe do some homework or studying, and my job kinda was my social life being a Team Leader at Arby's...all my friends were there working with me anyway, and the other Team Leader was also my bus mate as she went to another ECC campus, downtown. Yeah, 19 was a pretty stellar year in the grand scheme of things. I just wish I would've kept my attention to detail and carried it over into future decades. But that's what living's for...life, to paraphrase a quote from ex-New York governor (and father of the current governor) Mario Cuomo, isn't joy or happiness, but motion. We have to learn how to ride all of the ups and downs...advice I didn't need back then, but it's always stuck with me when I first heard it in my mid-twenties. Anyway, happy birthday Emily. If your travels in NY during school find you being north of the border, I suggest Clifton Hill. And if Club Paradise is still operating, definitely hit that place also. But most importantly, you'll learn a lot about yourself this year, maybe more than ever. BCF PROMPT: "Give us your personal highlight and lowlight of 2013." Man, I don't think in those terms anymore. I'm happy when I don't have to stagger out of bed, and my lows are NSFW and beyond (which explains partially why I'm so heavily medicated). I think I can sum up both with one simple sentence (and an explanation). I got to reconnect with some family and friends while taking care of my uncle's property in Connecticut after he passed away. I don't know how it gets easier to say that. I won't write a eulogy here, or share details. I hadn't seen him in quite a long time. But CT is gorgeous...while I'm accepting living in downtown Cortland, Windsor Locks seems like a pretty bomb-ass community too. If I knew I could have a job there, I'd totally move into the house and drive his Ford pickup. That would solve the problem of trying to sell his house. I doubt I could finance a motor home and creep up on the left coast if I were so inclined once his house sells. But I'm straying from the point. You want a highlight? Sleeping on someone else's couch rather than my bed (thanks mom). And a lowlight? Not knowing cats would wander out of another house I was staying at. I became an enemy for that misstep (and I'm sorry a million times over, lktropuckr). It cost me a friend and an ally in a place I don't know anything about. Figuring out how to get over that and myself was a big part of the last half of 2013. If I have any regrets from the past year, it'd be not expressing my adoration for the check-in girl at the hotel we stayed in while getting my uncle's place situated to sell. She was certainly adorable, but I think she was occupied by some thuggish-looking dude who always seemed to be around. Well, 2013 is over with anyway. No sense in dwelling on the past. MUSICAL BREAK!! Are we one with believing that another new year will bring us something we didn't get in the past? I think I used up all my resolutions in the last entry. Let's enjoy this instead. How long do we take this chance not to celebrate? THE DAILY BOX SCORE: 2014: Wait, did that really happen? Pics or it didn't happen. Oh wait...it did.  Just because I can, and the Sabres aren't worth cheering about so far in 2014. This year also hasn't started out the way I hoped it would in a blogging sense. When you need to be asked twice to re-log in to your WDC account while writing an entry, something's gotta change. Of course, trying to nap twice while oversleeping this morning didn't help much either.And on that note, I'm going back to bed calling it a day here on WDC. After I check out the rest of the entries in this month's "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" . It's too early in January to feel so worn out...but that's something else I'll have to look into this year. Peace, get your nap on, and GOODNIGHT NOW!! |
30DBC PROMPT: "What has been the craziest New Year's Resolution you've heard to date? Did you make it or was it made by someone you knew? What became of the Resolution? Tell me a story - Kick in the New Year for me  ."What's up friends? Happy New Year! I hope that 2014 finds you well and prosperous. Is it too early to complain about the prompt? I mean, I've only been up since around 8am-ish, and I'm already bored by 2014. No worries...I'll try my best to put my cynicism aside and play nice for a day, after all, aren't we supposed to be turning over new leaves and such today? I don't believe there's a such thing as a "crazy" New Year's resolution, but there's no shortage of people willing to make outlandish and unrealistic threats statements coinciding with the beginning of another year. Look, we all know you mean well by proclaiming a better you when you say you're gonna go to the gym more often, quit smoking and stop beating your kids, but deep down you know in your heart of hearts you're not gonna be able to maintain the pace that's required for all of your healthy ambitions. I'm not trying to kick in another year in all the years of years. I'm gonna break that mawfuggin' wall down and put a foot through it. And that's being realistic. No promises. No stress. No aggravation. No bullshit. No drama. No complaints. A lotta noes, and if history tells us anything, a thousand noes equals one giant yes. That doesn't sound so crazy now, does it? I will share one tale though from my past, in hopes that nobody else has to endure the pain of New Year's resolutions gone haywire. I might be mixing in details of a few different NYE's, but that's what happens when you find too many of them at the bottom of a bottle. Me, Verno and DMFM formed a collective many years back that became known as "The Ruckus". That's because, well, we were. We had a bowling team and an AOL Instant Messenger handle (does anyone even still use AIM?). Around the year 2000, when the world was worried about computers crashing and food supplies dwindling, I deviated from our little clan and went to a coworker's festive gala where everyone was required to wear formal attire. It felt important. Meanwhile, other friends were gathering at a hotel. I left the fancy party to celebrate with my brothers, and we said "F@&# the world! It's Ruckus 2k!!" But it wasn't. I found out a good friend was screwing my ex, and life was somewhat never the same. Only here we all are (metaphorically). Life in its basic sense was actually the same...ups, downs, lefts, rights. We still managed to put pants on and face the world that didn't implode under Y2K fears. We went on with our lives because that's what we do when lives need to be lived. And there's no question today that life doesn't go on; in fact, stores are actually open and I sorta contemplated dying my hair again in the aisle of hair needs at Kinney. The ex in question, who once was the girl of my dreams and pondered my sanity, went certifiably batshit crazy. DMFM is still my boy. Verno...that's a story for when the luster of another new year wears off. Family isn't just defined by blood, but also by the company you keep, and Facebook makes it both painfully obvious and somewhat rewarding. If you were looking for a moral in this story, you can stop reading now. There isn't one. But hey, that's no reason not to enjoy yourself anyway. There's only one new New Year a year. Make it notable if you can...you've got 364 more days to apologize for it be amazing. BCF PROMPT: No prompt for today? Then I'll borrow yesterday's instead (even though we've been advised no longer to). "It is New Year's Eve. Most of us make resolutions every year. Are we ever successful? Do we make the same one each year? Share some of your resolutions that you have made when you were 16, 25, 35, 45. 55. 65. 75... What's different from then to now?" Personally, I don't make resolutions. Seems unsensical. Why set yourself up for failure? Furthermore, I keep reading that people want "personal growth" in lieu of actual resolve. Sounds nice. Seems attainable. And yet I can't stand it. Were you that horrible of a person in the past year that you feel like this one will make you automatically be better? Does this newfangled sense of agenda help, or diminish your past net worth as a human? How good is great, and how bad is awful? Sure, we all want bigger, better, faster, more. Why do we have to draw lines regarding the who, what, where, when, and hows about it? If I've learned anything in my years on this planet, it's "let's not have expectations". Expectations = disappointment, and disappointment < reality (and that's your math lesson for today). Be what you can when you can, ask for help when you need it, and don't be disillusioned by others. Seems simple enough, although some people feel like they need to make a point of reminding you that they strive to achieve something that should just be a given; don't we all want to be better? My 2014 wish isn't that you all adopt my way of thinking regarding resolutions, but that you foster your growth privately and in the fashion that suits you best, without having to tell us all about it. Seeing as how there's no calculatable measure on personal growth outside of physical means, it shouldn't be that hard. Donate privately, live within your means, smile occasionally, and silently rule 2014, or whatever year you choose to live in. MUSICAL BREAK!! Well, you'd think I'd start another year off with this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMflgHGnQwc, but I won't...because I hope you have a good day and year. Instead, let's do this all well and good. Nothing's dead down here; it's just a little tired. THE DAILY BOX SCORE: 2014: Better be better than 2013, or 2003, or 1913. We now have (multiple) hockey emoticons! I won't complain about that. But I love Wordsmitty ✍️  's idea of a gap-toothed grin. Speaking of the man, have you made a resolution to enjoy yourself some of this month's "Invalid Item" ? If not, you should. Please do, and thank you. Binge-watching Arrested Development on Netflix (when the NYE celebrations locally aren't disrupting my life). May make my way into Breaking Bad. I'll need shows to watch. Did I mention we got new emoticons for hockey? Now I need a team worth backing. The Sabres aren't close to being stellar this year. But these are: http://deadspin.com/minimalist-nhl-logos-might-be-even-better-than-the-real-1468.... I will fully support any WDC campaign on licensing concerns to get actual NFL, NHL, NBA, or any other sports franchise logo as an emoticon....how frigging sweet would that be?Ok, I need a nap, and I fully evoke the right to administer myself to adhere to the rules, bylines, and concessions I've made for myself regarding this new extravaganza of a year. Cheetos don't eat themselves, dig? Peace, Plant? Her? GOODNIGHT NOW!! |
| 30DBC PROMPT: <unofficial month> What's up friends? A happy holidays wish to y'all....hope it was merry, or Hanukkah-y, or Kwanza-riffic, or just joyous however you choose it to be. Since this is still an unofficial month in the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" , and there's no real prompt floating around for the day, I'm going to take this opportunity to end any suspense and formally announce my entrancy in January's Blog Challenge. That's right...I'm in, and I'm not waiting until the last possible minute to decide (unlike previous challenges). Furthermore, not only will I be entering, but this time around I plan on making it all the way through the entire month. That is also right...no bowing out three days in, or blowing off a day here or there. I'm in it for the (31 day) long haul. Y'all been served notice. I see some familiar names listed, and some new entrants as well...I'm looking forward to having a great month with this.Now for the hard part: having to come up with three prompts as part of the entrant admission process. Believe me when I tell you that for me, that's harder than actually having the discipline to come up with thirty straight days of blog entries. Any punk with an internet connection and fifteen minutes can spit out a blog entry. But coming up with something for others to write about? I might actually waste an entire afternoon coming up with topics that may or may not see the light of the challenge. Even more disconcerting to me, I find, is having to write an entry based on a prompt I created. Go figure. You'd think it'd be simple, but it's not. It's like test anxiety, and you copied the answer key on the bottom of your sneaker, but decided to jump in mud puddles along the way to the exam...almost a double panic attack. I have this notion that if it's a prompt of your design, it should be that day's best entry out of all the challengers'. Like there's some kind of hidden incentive to prove your point, or the keyboard is slanted in your favor. Truth is, it's not that simple when you weigh yourself down with that kind of pressure. Adding unnecessary expectations isn't healthy (says the guy whose WDC handle includes the words "blog" and "champ", but hasn't actually won in like, two years, and hasn't respectfully finished a challenge in at least 12 months, maybe more). Like a lot of people new to the 30DBC pantheon, I feel like I have something to prove, if only to myself. I need to show myself I can still maintain a solid thirty days' worth of verbal chicanery. I fear that I've personally set the bar for myself very high when it comes to writing a solid entry I can be happy with, but only doing it every once in awhile...I need to bring that same focus and intensity now over the course of one calendar month. Can I live up to my past? Can I be engaging nearly constantly? Will I not embarrass myself? We'll see. Just...don't call it a comeback. Now, let's get them words! BCF PROMPT: "As this year closes pick one and tell us about it: Most exciting event, saddest event, happiest event, most surprising event, event that you wish you could change, and finally an event that you hope will happen but hasn't." Well, 2013 is a year I'd mostly prefer to forget. Any year where half of it is given to walking around on one leg is probably worthy of skipping (no pun intended) over in anyone's personal history. Like every year, there were ups and downs...but I think as humans we generally remember the downs more so. They tend to stick greater, unless your ups were truly noteworthy. Marriage, having kids, promotions at work...those are all pretty high on life's ledger of plus-side experiences. Nobody puts "gaining a pronounced limp" on that list, even if it's one of the few things I did all year. If the "year in review" were graded on a curve, maybe then I'd feel alright about it. But that and an epic beard are about the only places I was able to show growth in this past year. That's not to say this year was a total wash. I did reconnect with some family, and I'm finally dealing with some, ummm, for lack of a better way of saying it, mental health concerns. Life will never be the same in that respect, but in the grand scheme of things it's my opinion that life never should be the same. When it was, and it was great, I guess I was never really satisfied. Even when you fight and struggle to achieve a situation where you no longer have to fight or struggle, you're never immune from complacency. I had to lose everything again because I needed perspective, and she (perspective) isn't very understanding or forgiving. There's no "hey, you learned your lesson, here's your life back". That's not how it works. There has to be a new plan and a new identity, and it has to work. It has to work. There is no lower point anymore. Everything is above. As for 2014, well, we still don't have flying cars like the Jetsons did (with apologies/a homage to Julie D - PUBLISHED! , please reference this: "This one's about what we should've had years ago." ). We have, instead, blankets with sleeves. We have all of the minor, more convenient miracles of life that society wastes millions of dollars on because we're led to believe we need them. Now, I'm not gonna swing the pendulum back to the extreme and say "Science will cure everything known to cause terminal illness!", and it's a nice thought to think, but let's be practical for just one second of my highly impractical existence. Being a dreamer and a realist is hard work; it taxes the mind and body more than you can imagine sometimes.This coming year we'll see advances in technology, like Samsung's watch and Google Glass, or as I like to think of them, "more 'less pervasive' invasions of privacy". Like Dick Tracy, you'll be able to communicate through a timepiece. And the dumbest rich kids will suddenly know everything Google can teach them just by looking up, rather than having someone learn life for them. (I thoroughly enjoyed this article regarding Google Glass: http://www.esquire.com/features/google-glass-tests-1213) Hey y'all, all I know is I want to be healthy, stay alive, lose some inches off the waistline I added during Crutchapaloozer earlier this past year, and get back into contributing to society in a way that satisfies you, me, and them (in certain, and undefinable ways). We won't always be happy, but we can't always be miserable either. And don't bet me on that last point...trust me. MUSICAL BREAK!! Oh, just a little grandstanding by your boy here. THE DAILY BOX SCORE:  Yep...still takes me a hell of a long time to do this. I hate it when Bills games get flexed over to the 4pm timeslot, especially when they have nothing to play for and are starting a QB that was an afterthought on a few other bad teams this season. Although I like the direction the Bills are heading, I'm thinking this last game will be no fun against New England. But I am looking forward to revisiting my NFL predictions soon (see: "This one's about your 2013 football preview." ). I haven't forgotten about that.   No hockey emoticon yet, but I received word that it's being worked on. I'm fully on board with whatever the SM says at this point regarding it...we've caused (in my opinion) too much havoc and unnecessary bs. It's one thing to stand up for what you believe in, another thing to follow through, and at the end feeling drained and curbed. I still have a bad taste in my mouth about the whole thing. Don't forget to drop some names in the hat of the "The Quills" . THIS IS NOT CAMPAIGNING. I scheduled an eye exam for next week. I'm putting that out here in hopes that I remember it, and reschedule other appointments around it. And with that, I'm running out of patience and all the other stuff that comes along with doing this. Plus, I'm kinda hungry. So peace, Happy New Year/You/whatever you're down for, and GOODNIGHT NOW!! |
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