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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: "Shadows Within", courtesy of sunnystarr. Hello friends! Great prompts today and a lot to get into, so buckle up, because here we go! I don't know where we're going though. Shadows within. We're all trying to hide something; we're scared of the stains left behind becoming seen. We draw paths around it so the world can facilitate its charms throughout. Crippled emotions and stunted growth...the fermented layers of the onion reveal more onion when peeled back. As alone as we are in a world that won't let you be, every scab becomes fodder for someone looking to build a new you in their eyes. Every detail and nuance. You are the new hero, having overcome illusions and mouth-breathing assailants. For those who want to be you, now they can. But there's one lingering flaw. There's something they can't live with, and a spec that can't be replicated. Doubts are user-specific. The past is not a part of another's machine. You are not I, and I don't know who are you. You can't cry for my days of yore or exalt in the joy I've known. You cannot build me a shadow of me. You can make me, break me down, and restructure me with the hope that I'll conform, but there is no twin nor equal in my journey. My symphony is married only to the light cast upon me by darkness, unattainable to all but the ears that envelope my surroundings. I'm a tortured sin reflected upon the humanity, passed over and neglected as "just another"...but I'm anything but. I see the worrisome underbelly. I [soak in] the cries, sponge-like and flaccid along walls and stairs and stares. This is you when you're not you, or so you think. BCF PROMPT: "Riddle me ...All about, but cannot be seen, Can be captured, cannot be held, Can be heard. What is it?" Voices carry weight, dark and unrecoverable. Every day is a riddle when you let life become complicated by outside forces you can't control. Blame and contemplation. Everything tells you to be something other than what the shadow of you knows. Are you alone? You're not, even in the darkest of indulgences. You're still in the presence of you...whether you like it or not; whether you like you or not. Your will to listen to reason knows right from wrong and can advise you of the best path to choose; your unhinged desires spit opposition and promise immediate gratitude in exchange for the sacrificing of long-term security and future benefits. A tangled party becomes an ordinary soul...what we want is not what we need, and what we need becomes increasingly harder to come by. Answers come via the first rapid purveyor of transient enjoyment, often, leaving the shadow to determine the least-desirable outcome when nothing else is left to count the remaining days upon. If you hear a regret, you must first wash it against yourself and ponder its significance. Is it worth my worry? Am I in the wrong? There may be devils in the details and proofs in puddings, but it's safe to say the condemning treasure consists of actualization once the aura of enlightenment casts its dark eyes upon your person reflected in a sullen light. As it continues to seep within, your boundaries are blurred and your mouth dries at the thought of something higher than you knowing your [deeds, attributes and drawbacks]. Voices carry weight, as long as the shadow within is in tune to hear all of them. MUSICAL BREAK!! My shadow... THE DAILY BOX SCORE:   "Why did you do it? The details are yours to discern."But no. No, no, no, no, no! I won't let my nature be drawn into this discussion. I won't be sullied into admitting something that simply isn't true just because it's assumed. I'll take it to my grave that I did nothing wrong and nothing of the sort of misdeeds represented. Believe what you hear about me if you will, but there is only one person who knows the truth, and that's me. Maybe there's not a bank you can take that to anymore, but fuck it, I don't care. Life and death, sex and checks, you can't take my innocence from me. Dark hair, hat covering the eyes, quietly speaking only when spoken to...you can't lump me in with the guilty party; I don't even know who they are! You ask me what and I'll tell you what it is...for me. I've got nothing to hide and I never have. I'll appreciate it that you leave me where you found me, so I can get back to tearing down my own life one or two drinks at a time, instead of this unnecessary intrusion on my time and the wasting of yours.  I'm not a superstar, and I'm not a [has-been, washed-up wannabe] reclaimer of such gifts, but if I ever come to your town to promote myself, better believe I know where I am . In Shaggy's defense, I have absolutely no clue about the wisdom he was trying to dispense . All I know is...it wasn't me. Here's an anxiety primer on what not to do , courtesy of a cousin. If you try to smack me upside the head with any of these, don't be surprised if I retaliate with introverted silence and/or [whatever it is that gives you the willies]. If you love books, this is awesome . And amazing, in that someone took the time to put this gallery together. Went over my schedule at Capco with my supervisor this morning. Ladies, here's a hint for ya: if you're gonna put streaks of a non-traditional color in your hair, and you're not capable of cleansing that color off your body, please do not wear a shirt that scoops low on the shoulders. My bosslady is really nice, but wow with the unsightly pink stains in her dark hair and her nape and shoulder area. I fuck with my hair from time to time but even I know enough to clean up on and around the area of dyage. Poor lamb, even if she did it for a good reason. But anyway, next week I go back to my regular hours, so we'll see how that goes.  Peace and Happy Birthday to Fran 💜 💜 💜   , a positive supporter and occasional judge of the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" . Many more, Fran!  I may actually tweet this entry today...last entry I tweeted out I was in the midst of being scorned by PandaPaws Licensed VetTech  over at "Invalid Item" . It's been fun being a [pseudo-rambunctious, quasi-fictional] spitter drawing on my personal life and current events stuff long enough to hold your interest if you made it this far.  Don't be that Panda. Anyway, it's all good. Peace, see my shadow changing, and GOODNIGHT NOW!! |
30DBC PROMPT: "It's THE SUNDAY REVIEW!! Tell us about your favorite blog entry of the week three favorite breakfast cereals, and most importantly, why. If you don't like cereal, you can share that feeling with us as well. Here's a link for reference. ", courtesy of Fivesixer  .What up blog fam? By now you've probably heard me complain tens of times how much I'm not a fan of creating prompts, and today's is no exception. I even gave myself a few days' notice, telling myself I had to come up with something halfway decent. I stayed up later than I normally do the last two nights, hoping for some kind of inspiration. And yet, when it came down to the point where I had to get something posted, I had nothin'. I really don't know how the rest of you guys come up with these incredible, thought-provoking, soul-searching queries that lead people to write tremendous things. I literally was sitting over my laptop last night when I looked up and around and saw my collection of unopened cereal boxes and thought, "There's your prompt." Nothing else came to mind; or nothing that could supplant the thought of food. At least it's a one-day, easy, opinion-based prompt rather than a two- (or more) day, "tell us a story and then resolve it" serial nightmare extravaganza that we usually see at the end of official "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" months.Without further ado, here's my Top 3, in order from third-best to best: 3) (tie) Honey Bunches Of Oats With Almonds/Frosted Mini Wheats When I really thought about it, I had a hard time picking three. And thankfully, the adult version of me is making the choices, because the kid-sized me would have three totally different choices (none of which would be as remotely healthy as anything I'd choose now). It's true...I don't eat cereal often, but if I'm gonna, I want something that's kinda good for ya. Both of these cereals balance out nutritional value with just the right amount of sweetness...Honey Bunches Of Oats probably has an advantage though because it's not the same thing in every spoonful...it's not just flakes or round things or little biscuits or anything like that; it's variety. 2) Cheerios You can't go wrong with Cheerios at any time of the day, really. And it doesn't matter what variety (ok, except Multi-grain...Multi-grain Cheerios sucks and if you like Multi-grain Cheerios, we're not friends)...I'm partial to plain ol' regular Cheerios, and if I'm feelin' a li'l sassy I might go for Honey Nut. Remember when those were the only two kinds of Cheerios you could get? Now there are just as many flavors of Cheerios as there are different scents of deodorants and laundry detergents, but that's ok. I challenge you to find a more versatile breakfast cereal; it's the perfect on-the-go snack anywhere and anytime...just fill up a zip-lock bag and you're all set. No mess, no cleanup, satisfying, and it won't put you in a diabetic coma if you eat too much at one sitting. 1) Reese's Puffs Ok, so here's where the kid in me wins out, because I absolutely love peanut butter cups and have been known to eat them in meal-like proportions at times. This could possibly be the greatest cereal ever invented, if we judged cereals solely on taste and nothing else. Imagine that...a sweetened kids' cereal that doesn't need a dumb cartoon mascot or some goofy gimmick...it just gets by on its own virtues. We should all strive to be like Reese's Puffs. Bonus: when you're finished and you drink the milk, it tastes like melted chocolate/peanut butter ice cream. There's my three selections...I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else likes. The beauty of a prompt like this is that there are no wrong answers, and nobody's gonna judge you for leaning toward a particular side or sect. Unless you willfully put Multi-grain Cheerios in your mouth, which will lead me to question what other disgusting things you've put in your mouth.  BCF PROMPT: Since it's Sunday and there are no prompts in either the "Blogging Circle of Friends " or "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise" , and I really didn't have much of an exciting week worth recapping, I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all the dads out there a Happy Father's Day...and that goes out to all you single moms too, for pullin' double duty tryin' to raise your kids right.MUSICAL BREAK!! I'm fairly positive I've never heard a song that name-dropped a bunch of different cereals in such a creative fashion. Ever. THE DAILY BOX SCORE:  Special shout-out today to all the deadbeat dads out there who wonder why their kids have grown up and don't love them anymore. RIP to the legendary American Top 40 DJ Casey Kasem, who passed away this morning at age 82. He was a staple of my childhood, encouraging all of us at the end of every broadcast to "keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars". I sincerely hope no one eulogizes him like this . Heartwarming interview on ESPN's SportsCenter that ran this morning with Jim Kelly's daughter Erin, who describes what it's like to be #KellyTough and has sorta been the public face of her dad's battle with jaw cancer.Not much more to say today...I've got a busy week coming up so I'm gonna get out of here and see how much trouble I can stay out of. Peace, go party, do some minglin', and GOODNIGHT NOW!! |
30DBC PROMPT: "'All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.' (Edgar Allan Poe) Write a story, a poem, your thoughts, or an essay. It's Saturday so be creative and have fun with this prompt.", courtesy of Prosperous Snow celebrating  .What's up folks? Happy middle-of-the-weekend to you all, and like Charlie ~ said late last night in case you missed it, we survived Friday the 13th and we're all awesome. Right? Hope so.I'm a fan of Prosperous Snow celebrating ...I enjoy her poems and her blog entries, and her choice for today's prompt is very nice. I definitely got up on some Poe in my younger days- I remember writing an essay about him in college- and I'm familiar with his mainstream works in more of a fleeting sense now, but I still can appreciate his writing anytime someone mentions him. The quote is an interesting bit of surrealism...everything is something else viewed through the lens of different realms. You and I can be looking at the same exact thing and still see it differently. The way we hear sounds, view colors, and feel textures...nothing is universal. Do we even know we're alive, or are we just sequences and scenes in a play being acted out for forms of higher intelligence that watch us like we watch television? We know history because it's passed down over time through books we're given in school, and we accept it as truth because we're supposed to trust authority and elders...which in reality becomes "It's true because this book and I say so." Yet the mantra in the age of the internet seems to be "Pics or it didn't happen", and even then everything is subject to a Photoshopped skepticism, so why should we believe history happened a certain way? What if everything that happened leading up to our arrival in this universe was the dream within someone else's dream, and that lucky bastard won a contest where the prize was the understanding that his tales became the accepted version of the history of all mankind? If you woke up tomorrow and found out that everything you had learned was in one way or another complete fiction, what (if anything) would change for you going forward? As technology advances, we're blurring the lines every day between reality and make-believe. What society only dreamed of fifty years ago is, for the most part, what we're living today...and the things we dream of for the future will someday be commonplace, so much so we'll often wonder what we did in "the good ol' days" without such conveniences. And a large percentage of us, for as long as the Earth shall live, will just be a replaceable part that stays the same; a necessary anomaly in a world of constant upheaval and change. Largely unnamed and faceless in the grand scheme, we'll do our time here until the next batch rolls in to do life slightly better than we did in a time of even greater expectations. We the people...living in infinitely dreamed dreams. BCF PROMPT: "Is your personality more like your mother's or your father's?" In all honesty, I'm not even sure how to properly answer this...I've always, well, for large parts of my life at least, had a fractured relationship with both my mom and my dad, who divorced long before I can remember anything. Those who know both me and my dad have said (albeit not endearingly) that I'm just like him, and my mother says that between my biological brother and I, I'm more like her. There are times I can see both and times when I'd prefer to see neither. I'd rather be known for being myself than a resemblance of someone else. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. About fifteen years ago I was in a transitional place in life. I was on my own for the first time...my dad and stepmom had kicked me out of their house, where I'd been living since I graduated high school. I hadn't really been on speaking terms with my mom in a few years, so it was all on me to decipher this whole "adulthood" racket. I think I had a lot more figured out back then than I do now, actually. But somewhere along the way, in the first year or two of living on my own, I stopped and allowed myself to do an assessment of my life up to that point (I was 23 years old). It turned into a stream-of-conscious firestorm with a machine gun cadence and an air that suggested an old soul hardened by a wisdom the narrator may not have necessarily wished he had. It's one of the longest items I've ever written, but believe it or not it didn't take very long to come up with...lines hit me as quickly as I could get them down on the page. If you've got a few extra minutes, you can check out "Nobody's Son" .MUSICAL BREAK!! I couldn't seem to get this out of my head during the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" prompt...THE DAILY BOX SCORE:   "Tell us three things that you absolutely love about yourself." Anyone that knows me knows I have a really hard time with stuff like that. I just don't see myself in those kind of terms, and I subscribe to a theory that if I have to tell you I'm good at something or superlatively notable, then I'm probably not what I think I'm saying I am (for example: if I tell you I have people skills , but you see that I'm obviously lacking in that department, are you gonna believe me or your judgement?) If it doesn't come naturally and I have to remind you, then it's not there. See what I'm sayin'?Anyway, it's not really my thing to talk about myself like that. Maybe it's self-esteem issues, mixed with some humility and a general lack of self-awareness (or I kinda don't care). And remember yesterday how I briefly mentioned my anxiety's circle of life? There's also an ego/egoless circle of life that goes like this: people will tell you to be your own advocate at certain times, but when you are, other people get turned off by that because you're "too full of yourself", and when you're accused of being like that a natural reaction is to overcorrect or undercompensate in the opposite direction so as not to say too much, because nobody likes the guy who toots his own horn so loud that they can hear him over the rest of the ensemble even though we're always encouraged to be the one who stands out from the crowd. So it's a struggle, and it is very real.  Is "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise" open on Sundays? Damn near everything else I know of is either closed or has some kind of screwy hours. I know there's the "Blog City Sunday Social Book" , which looks like a good time. I'll have to check it out. If you're like me, you love cheese. And if you love cheese, you're concerned that there might be a cheese shortage epidemic in the near future. Something to do with unsanitary conditions and bacteria...but aren't some cheeses supposed to be made with trace amounts of unhealthy-to-the-max particles? Isn't that kinda what makes some cheeses cheesy? If this is just an excuse for when the price of cheese starts to skyrocket, well, then get me a helmet, 'cuz I'm goin' up after it.I think that's all I've got for today...it's been quiet around here and I haven't really felt like going anywhere. Trying to stay off my leg as much as possible because I don't wanna deal with the soreness or the moodiness it leads to when I do actually use it like it's intended to be used. Would you believe I've had a splint since Monday and I haven't worn it yet? I probably should...but the only place I've really been to in the past week was PT, and they frown on me wearing stuff like that. I guess I'll hafta lace that sucker up sooner or later, because I'll be needin' it a little more in the coming days. Anyway, well, hey, thanks for spendin' your Saturday night here with me...you could've been anywhere on the internet, but you chose this , so I'm not the only one who's lacking for things to do this evening. Peace, all you create, and GOODNIGHT NOW!! |
| 30DBC PROMPT: "Can you make real friends online? How are online friends better or worse than offline friends? Sound off about online friendships. Now go!", courtesy of Mitchopolis . Good evening folks! I've decided to end my self-imposed silent protest of the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" ...after two days of mix-ups and whatnot with prompts, we're finally back (hopefully) to a more timely approach in that regard. Seriously, I did try writing an entry each of the last two nights, but let's just say I was incredibly "up here" when I really should've been "down here", and the anger was dripping off my words like excess melted cheese. I'm over it now...moving on...Mitchopolis has given us one of the more interesting prompts of the month so far, in my opinion. It's a valid question, and I'm sure everyone's gonna have differences about whether or not it's something to be truly concerned about.I say yes, but I say it with some trepidation. You don't hang out on a site like WDC for as long as I have and not make a few friends along the way...and I wouldn't even consider myself to be one of the more outgoing members of the community. I can only imagine what it must be like for some of the more active WDC participants, who're in or running every other contest and blogging in 15 different groups and writing books and updating their newsfeed twenty times a day and still managing to work full-time while raising, feeding and educating their kids. I'm the kinda person who, when I see that, backs off and is like "You sure you had time to comment on my entry? Don't you have, like, 421 emails to tend to that are way more important, or something?" But back to my point...I don't think you go anywhere in life for a significant amount of time and not make a friend or two. Online though...it's a little tricky. If I had to guess, I'd say the breakdown in relationships (again using WDC as my example) are probably something like 90%/10% casual, site-only friends versus physical friends (or more, for those of you who include your spouses or partners in with your online habits). You share enough information over time and you're bound to feel a friendly closeness with certain people. So what do you call them? Is there a word for people you only know via the internet, and only see when you're a visitor on a particular website? Someone start researching this and get back to us...you can catch up on the rest of this later. There are a handful of WDC members I've had the pleasure of meeting in person, and others I've talked on the phone with. Some of us are Facebook friends as well. And there are a good number of people here that I know I'd feel comfortable hangin' out with ("Invalid Item" , anyone?). Sure, there are pros and cons (just like any other relationship), and maybe I sound like a jerk for sayin' this, but perhaps the easiest thing about a standard, typical online friendship is when the time comes to terminate that partnering. There's practically zero physical attachment to speak of, and while emotional attachment is always harder to deal with, it's not as complicated as, say, dealing with dating someone you also work with. There are tools built in to technology that make it simple for us to ignore people we don't like, and they're available at the push of a button...unlike a restraining order, which is a fancy way of saying "Leave me alone!" and has been proven at times to be just as effective seeing how it doesn't always prohibit physical contact like it was designed to do. Imagine how awesome life would be if you could just remove people from your personal existence as if they were someone on Twitter you no longer wished to follow!I still think that you need to be careful though, and use stuff like common sense and good judgement and all that. But yeah, I don't see why people can't be real friends online...as long as we're just friends . BCF PROMPT: "Name one thing you had the opportunity to do but didn't, and wish you had. Also name something you did do that you wish you hadn't." Is it cheating if I can name that tune in one note cover this prompt with pretty much one blanket answer? Too bad; my blog, my rules. The first part is easy...twenty years ago I had the opportunity to go to college and have it all- tuition, books, and supplies- covered by financial aid. I went, but I really didn't take it seriously enough and wound up flunking the majority of my classes (full disclosure: I had a two-hour commute each way, and I was also working full-time after classes). The following year, I wasn't gonna get any financial aid, so I dropped out believing I'd have all the time in the world to go back. That never happened. And here's where I admit I sort of misread the prompt...because now that I have the opportunity to go back to school, I'm taking it, and I don't exactly wish I hadn't made that decision  . But I do regret basically wasting my first year of college...not that I'm planning on any of my credits transferring over to the school I'll be attending in the fall, but maybe that'd be that many classes less I'd have to take now toward my degree. I'm also gonna use this venue to complain a little about that whole college admissions process briefly. I've had to arrange for the school I attended in 1994-'95 to send my transcripts over to the school I'll be going to now, and I can't register for classes until this happens. My old school has yet to release them. Why does it matter? I'm not even gonna be majoring in the same subject. And I could see it being necessary if I'd actually gotten decent grades, but I hardly went to class at all during my second semester. I wonder if I would've just been better off telling the college I'm going to that I've never gone to an institute of higher learning before. Is it really that important? MUSICAL BREAK!! Why not? It's Friday the 13th... THE DAILY BOX SCORE: I'm pleased to announce that I'll be renting a little bungalow for the summer in "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise" ...Lyn's a sly fox  did a fine job of talkin' it up so I accepted her offer to join the group. I'll try to be a good neighbor and keep the music at a reasonable volume, but I'm making no promises. And you kids better stay off my frickin' lawn  . I may not have something to contribute daily, but if I do you'll find it here. "It is Friday the 13th. Are you superstitious? Have odd things ever happened to you or someone you know on Friday the 13th? Where do you think all the crazy hype about Friday the 13th began? Avoiding the 13th floor? Was it about the number that makes people nervous?"For me it depends on what the situation is regarding superstitions. I have some quirks (mostly sports-related), but other than that I'm not really superstitious. I think a lot of habits and routines are born because they worked once, and when something works you're less inclined to make changes because you want to replicate your success. I do try to avoid the number 13...maybe it's out of habit, or it's something someone beat into my head at an impressionable age that "13 is bad luck", but so is breaking a mirror and it's not like I actively seek to smash glass whenever I can, so can I say I don't like 13 because I like other numbers better? 'Cuz that's a more pleasant fit for me. I can't speak for others as to why 13 makes people nervous, but it's a real thing. My best friend growing up had severe triskaidekaphobia (Wikipedia ) when we were kids...he'd never come to school on the 13th of any month, and during the 13th minute of every hour he'd just stare at the clock. It sounds funny at first, but to hear people talk about how seriously they're affected by it, it almost creeps you out. Because I'm a fan of lists, here's The Hockey News' Top 10 NHL Players Who Wore 13 . And I came across another Buzzfeed list I empathize with...31 Realities All Western New Yorkers Know To Be True . Wow...YouTube is loaded with videos of online friends meeting for the first time . Like, there's a lot there. I can't even joke about it. I'm starting to wonder if it's a generational thing, to be honest. I can't even watch these videos...these people are serious. Like, tearfully reunited serious, yet they've never met in person before. [Sidenote: I love the new look of YouTube with the bigger viewing area. That's sweet.] I'm really hoping we've got the whole prompt situation over in the 30DBC fixed (yes, I'm on that again, because I felt like a giant a-hole reminding people when it was their turn because I thought I was doing right by the group, and then I was told not to worry...annnnnnd then a prompt didn't go out, and you know had I not said anything the offending party probably would've been all like "Well, if someone would've reminded me..." but naw man, we're adults and we know how computers and forums and emails work, and reading isn't hard)  and that's how my anxiety's circle of life works, ladies and gentlemen...that's all I'll say about that topic from here on out.Ok...well, I think I've said enough for one evening. If Friday the 13th's not your thing, don't worry...it's almost over (at least it is on the east coast...we can't all be like Elle - on hiatus  and live in a perpetual tomorrow in relation to almost everyone else ). I think I'm gonna read a little and call it a night. Peace, I gave you the warning, and GOODNIGHT NOW!! |
| 30DBC PROMPT: "Invalid Entry" , courtesy of BillieGail memory of Cheyenne . What's up y'all? Interesting prompt from BillieGail memory of Cheyenne today, who asks "How would your life be different if you didn't have children? Or, if you don't have children, how would it be if you had children?" That's a good question, because once you have children there's no going back to how life used to be- it's a permanent decision. On the other hand, I suppose you could choose not to have kids, or put it off and keep puttin' it off until eventually you can't have kids- that's permanent too, but on slower build.Now, I don't have kids but I know a lot of you do (at least most of you that I've known through here for a decent amount of time. I know Charlie ~ doesn't. Some of you, I'm not sure of...maybe I knew at one point and forgot. Lyn's a sly fox 's kids are grown, and so's Brother Nature 's. But your lives aren't the purpose of today's entry (sorry not sorry), so I'll continue.It's hard for me to speculate what life would be like at 38 with kids. It'd mean erasing every memory from a certain point on and imagining that void filled with my babymama and however many kids we'd have...and the older I get the harder that is to do. I think (and this is just my opinion) that while being a parent is a wonderful and awesome and rewarding thing, you parents have the easier answer here...oh sure, you love your kids and wouldn't trade them for the world, but about twenty seconds later y'all be ramblin' off fifty-six different things off the top of your head you and your spouse would've done had you not had them. And you laugh because you know this!! Gotta say the right things first..."such a blessing", "changed my world", "never in my life I'd imagined I..."; but then you're all like "Bungee jumping!" "Road trip to Vegas!" "We probably wouldn't even be together." "We'd have so much time and money and food and less stress!" True story, and I know. You don't live to be 38 and not at some point wind up dating a woman who has kids of her own. Meanwhile, I'm over here watching the last 5-15 years or so of my life flash in front of my eyes as it evaporates into "I had an accident in my pants", "I fell out of a tree and I think it's broken" and "Can you pick us up from practice and take us to the mall?" It's depressing because that doesn't come with the actual joy one feels when they bring a child into the world for real. It's something that you can read all the books in the world about, and think you're prepared, and you know life's gonna never be the same, but until you're holding that life that you helped create, you really don't know what it's gonna feel like. I know this much though...babies change people (most people, at least). You see it all the time, and even when you look back at friends who've had babies five or ten years ago, you can tell their identity is completely different than it would be had they not become a parent. I don't know what kind of dad I'd be or how having kids would've affected me...for a multitude of reasons, I've never reached the point with someone where we were mutually comfortable with introducing another life into this world. And while that was the right choice for the time, that's not to say I wouldn't have been able to adapt or accept or learn what parenthood was all about. Nowadays, I'm not really upset over it. I'm looking at a life-altering long-term decision about my own future coming up that might end any hope of me ever becoming a father...and I'm ok with that. Will part of me feel like I'm missing something? Sometimes. But I figure I know enough folks with kids already, so I can enjoy all the fun aspects of childhood again and eventually they'll get tired and go home and become their parents' problem concern...sounds like a win-win situation to me. BCF PROMPT: "Are you a better sport as an adult or more competitive than you were as a child?" I think it all depends on the situation (wow, what a copy/paste answer that is!). If we're over at "Invalid Item" and we're throwin' darts, I'm gonna wanna kick your ass. If we're shootin' baskets down at the park, I'm gonna wanna make it home in one piece and be able to move the next day. Twenty years ago both scenarios would've been a lot different...probably the exact opposite. Competitiveness is based on our nature, I believe: some are born determined not to lose at anything, no matter what, while the rest of us don't care as long as we're having a good time. Some people prioritize winning almost to a fault because it hurts too much to accept less, and some never had much and learned to make do with whatever's available. Me? I'm a yapper. I'm not havin' fun unless I can talk a little trash, and ya can't flap gums if you're not runnin' game. Losing sucks like that. But as long as the game's fair and the attitude ends when the competition's over, it's all good. MUSICAL BREAK!! "50 percent of all American households are destroyed by divorce." That's what the sentence at the beginning of this video says. There's no guarantee that my life right now would be any different had I had kids. Maybe I'd be divorced instead of just single, and there's a chance if that were the case that I'd still be living where I am regardless. Obviously my outlook on life would be substantially altered, having children that were a bigger part of my life for so long, but the possibility that I could end up in the same place would still exist under those circumstances...kinda mind-blowing. THE DAILY BOX SCORE:  So was yesterday/today like some big crazy weekend where everyone got married when yesterday/today fell on a weekend however many years ago? I finished up my entry last night, opened Facebook, and there were like six different people who were all wishing their spouses a happy anniversary. And some of those weddings I was at! Did the Farmer's Almanac predict good crops and pleasant weather for June 9th-10th during the late nineties and early aughts? Anyway, a very Happy Anniversary to everyone who's had an anniversary in the last year or so. There...I'm good for another year regarding that.  So I'm on the bus this morning on the way to PT, and I've got the bus to myself. I'm anticipating a nice, quiet ride...I'm tired, and hearing people's random bullshit has been a trigger lately for anxiety and aggravation. So we pull into a retirement complex, and here comes a whole posse of old ladies, ready to board. If I wasn't still sleepy I may have gone through the roof, because they all have to talk at the same time, they're all right about whatever they're discussing, and of course each of them wants to gossip with the bus driver. I believe it was a sneak-preview of what my personal Hell will look like when I'm no longer a member of the Earth's society...because Hell is karma, and I haven't always gotten along so well with most members of the generations that have walked this world before me. Oh...two things on the ledger I've been meaning to advertise here but keep forgetting. Spread the word if you know someone who might be interested. As many of you are aware, Emily  is leaving WDC and the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" will need someone to take her place on a full-time basis. Thankfully 30DBC Creator/Founder has stepped up in the meantime to help with the transition to the next leader of the longest-running group of bloggers on WDC and he's done a fantastic job, but I'm worried that future rounds may be cancelled if Earl can't continue and no one else is willing to accept responsibility for the group. So contact Emily if you're interested. Also, many of you are subscribers of The Blogging Bliss (WDC's Unofficial Blogging Newsletter)- and if you're not, what are you waiting for?- and Wordsmitty ✍️  is looking for an intern editor to take Emily's position. Currently Smitty's got me and Brother Nature helping him out...gathering features, suggesting entries we'd wish to highlight, proofreading, all that stuff. We're reorganizing a bit and if you think you'd like to join our team, we'd love to hear from you (and as always, don't forget to give us some feedback over at the "Blogging Bliss Newsletter Forum" as well...you might see your blog featured ).Ok, glad I got all that off my chest. Put it in the books. I'll see you guys tomorrow. Peace, hope you enjoy it this time, and GOODNIGHT NOW!! |
| 30DBC PROMPT: Earl's June 9th Prompt , courtesy of 30DBC Creator/Founder (Note: Earl's link will take you away from WDC). What's good, y'all? Lots to get to this evening, so if you don't mind I'm gonna have right at it. Our man Earl wrote a stellar entry on his personal/business website, based on the premise of I Can. I Will. End Of Story. The anecdotes he drops between the inspirational splices of his poetry are insightful and lead a beautiful path through a thick forest...picture a large cornfield where the owner has trimmed a maze into it in the shape of something (you can see examples here and here ) you can't quite see from the surface but from a distance becomes much clearer. In the true spirit of the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" 's Follow Me round, what comes next is where Earl's words have led me.In life, we're responsible first and foremost for our own health, happiness, and well-being. It's nice to have the luxury of being able to count on others for help, comfort, laughter, and togetherness...but sometimes that's not possible; we're human beings after all, and we're prone to letting others down just as much as we're liable to be disappointed at times. When there is no hero, or no friends, it's just you and your thoughts. Your soul. Whether it's just a moment's worth of peaceful reflection or an emergency situation that can't be put off, you have to find a way to seize positive momentum and move forward through whatever's holding you back as best you can. It can be easy allowing ourselves to get caught up in bleak moments and troubled times, especially when it seems like they're not letting up. I think we've all been there at some point. If you can honestly say you've never faced adversity in your life, close this browser window, pat yourself on the back, and GTFO ya frickin' liar, because you know you've had to come out from behind somethin' at least once. It could be someone telling you you're not capable of doing something, or lacking in physical means to accomplish something, or you're just stuck in a spot where you can't easily get out of...being able to look back and say, "Well, I've had it worse before..." is one way of reaffirming your strength. Once you're back on solid ground, you can use that gained confidence to help someone else who might be in the same place you were, even if there was nobody to give you a hand. I know it seems so obvious, but it's often overlooked. We're only here for so long, and we spend so much of that time fighting for positions and working against each other before we realize we'd make better teammates than enemies. And that's just with the rest of society...how many times have you felt like you were competing with a spouse or a friend or a loved one, when in reality you should've been on equal footing working toward the same goal? We don't get as many opportunities as we think; before we know it, there's another pitfall or obstacle or milestone (or gravestone). There's no shortage of wasted time in the past, but there's no sense in letting that ruin the present and the future with the "What if's". I know it sounds so cliché, but it's true every day that today is the first day of the rest of your life, and life is what you make of it, and so on. I'm not a motivational speaker nor a model citizen. I'm just a guy with a blog who's seen a lot of things and done a lot of stuff, and somehow manages to write coherently about it once in awhile. BCF PROMPT: "Use the word serendipity in a poem or story." As I mentioned yesterday, I don't believe I've ever used the word serendipity in casual conversation, formal conversation, blogging, or anywhere else before. It's just not a go-to word for me, and I don't know why it's not, because it sounds like it'd be a fun word to say. Even if it does conjure up images of trashy Harlequin romance novels from the seventies and eighties. I'm not even sure if I'm saying it right (in my head at least...I'm not gonna go knocking on my neighbor's door all like "Hey, ummm, how do you pronounce this word?" with serendipity written on an index card). Is it "surrend-dippity" like "surrender" and "Doo Dah Dippity" , or is it "saer-en-deh-pity" as in "rhymes with Serengeti"? I don't even know, so I'm gonna see what Google says... Guess I was sorta right...Dictionary.com's definition says it's "ser-uhn-dip-i-tee", which kinda meets me halfway. And I was hella off on what it really means versus what I think of when I hear it..."1) an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident; 2) good fortune; luck; 3) the faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident." Wow. Glad I didn't try to get all fiction-y with a story, because that would've been embarrassing...although I'm sure many people (please, no show of hands, thank you) have found certain romantic encounters leaning toward the erotic side to have been "serendipitous" before. I have, but I never would've called it that (no offense, "serendipity").I'm not even gonna attempt a poem...normally I'd be able to freestyle at least a little bit of somethin', but my head's not on the line and typically I have even the slightest bit of understanding beforehand what the word really means as opposed to going through however many years of life silently believing it to be one thing only to find out five minutes ago it doesn't quite mean the same thing. Dear language, you've won again, but I'll get you next time...<insert evil laugh here>. MUSICAL BREAK!! I think this about sums it up: Life > Not Life. I don't like to bring math lessons into writing things, but I can make an exception for today's purposes. THE DAILY BOX SCORE: Well, I had a check-up on my ankle today. The nurse asked me how it was and stuff, so I told her where it hurts when I do therapy and how bad. She asked if I'd gone for blood work regarding an arthritis scan because she couldn't find the results, and I said I had. The doc came in and was all like "No swelling! Bends at 30 degrees! Looks great! See ya in six months! You can go back to work. If it still bothers you, there's not much more I can do for you. You're gonna have to get through it. Continue your PT. Would you like a splint for it?" He doesn't leave much room to get a word in, and the way he asked me about the splint you'd think he was givin' out lollipops. I'm not entirely happy because I can't obviously wear the splint at PT, and I still don't have the strength or confidence in the joint to treat it like I normally would beat on it a normal person would. We'll see. If I can get through PT this week then I won't be as worried about getting cleared to go back to work...but if it swells up like it's been doing afterwards and feels tender and crunchy the next day, I'm gonna have concerns. Anyway, I called up CAPCO and let my supervisor there know I'm medically cleared and will be able to come back starting next week...too many things already going on this week to add that to the mix. She's a hard person to figure out. Seems super nice, but I get the feeling like she'd be just as thrilled if I'd not called her and told her I'd be able to come back ever. I'mma try not to think deeply about that. I always miss the cool stuff. While I was cashing out at the supermarket today, a car drove through the front window of the adjacent Dollar Tree store next door (or about 10 feet from where I'd be waiting for the bus). Because no one was seriously hurt, I don't feel bad making jokes about it. There were no news crews there and only one cop car, even though there was significant damage to the building. In Buffalo. the World Capital Of Drivers Crashing Into Buildings (no seriously, it is ), it's the rare occurrence where something (old people hitting buildings with cars) happens so often, yet you're never desensitized to it (and more often amused by it, if anything...unlike, say, murder). It made me kinda miss WNY a little more.  Success! Sorta. I did manage to fall asleep fairly quickly last night, and I slept almost all the way through the night...plus, I actually needed my alarm to go off for me to get up this morning, which has been quite the rarity lately. And it's 11pm now, which is past my bedtime, so I'll probably need to set the alarm again for PT tomorrow. I know, I know, bedtime, right? What am I? The...wait for it... The Six Year Old Me never stayed up past 8:30pm. I don't think I've gone to bed before 11 as often in my twenties and thirties as I have since I turned 37 or 38. But that's life, right? I guess. Anyway, I'm gonna clear outta here, proof this, and catch up with the rest of you cats tomorrow. Peace, it's waiting for you, and GOODNIGHT NOW!! |
| 30DBC PROMPT: "Prompt for June 8" , courtesy of Janine . Good evening folks...I have to admit, after thinking about it off and on throughout the day, I'm flat-out bailing on this prompt ("June 8 is Send A Postcard Day. The US Congress approved the penny postcard on June 8, 1872. Choose someone and write a postcard message to them. How do you feel about others reading your message? People really do read the postcards on their way to the recipients."). Why? It's simple. I'm not on vacation, and even if that weren't enough to stop me, there's no one currently that I feel like going out of my way for...I'd have to find a place that sells postcards (because I personally can't abide by the plain ol' whatever the Post Office is passing off these days), and then I'd have to plan a trip to said Post Office (which really isn't a big deal in that it's a block away, but sometimes leaving the house is a big deal). And anyone have an idea how much the postage on a postcard is now, in 2014? Ain't a penny, I know that much. Granted, it's still negligible. But that's not the point. Texting and Tweeting are the 21st century postcard. Think about it. How much can you really fit in the space you're allotted on a postcard? Not a lot, unless you're one of those people who feels like they have to write as small as humanly possible so they can fit in every detail of their vacation that they can't wait to get home to tell you about anyway (although they'll probably arrive before their correspondence does). and if you're one of those hypercreative fucks artsy types with the elegantly microscopic handwriting, I probably hate you. I'll be fine with a quick "We're here, having a nice time, <maybe insert one wacky sentence fragment for personalization purposes>, see ya when we get home!" kinda thing. It's that simple. I don't want your itinerary, and this isn't the water cooler at work. Anything more than 140 characters better be an emergency, in which case I'd expect a phone call rather than waiting for the postal service to send me a cryptic note about some random situation you can't fully get into because...gasp...  ...The sorters, processors, and mailmen will all be privy to whatever it is you're sending me! Just because the lot of them aren't allowed to open your mail, doesn't mean they're not gonna notice what's on the outside of something that has no inside. And you know that creepy old lady just down the street, who always seems to catch you in the most awkward-looking and precarious positions, will start quizzing the postman if she hasn't seen you for more than two consecutive days. Depending on how buddy-buddy she is with the mail carrier, who knows what kind of gossip could be dangling throughout the neighborhood? Hell, when I was livin' at 542, someone always scratched just enough at the name/address window of my electric bill every.single.month. Why? I don't know, but it barely exposed the balance due. No idea why anyone would care to know that, and it wasn't the mailman, because I lived there for 10 years and it wasn't the same mailman, but every month for 10 years someone wanted to know the particulars of my electric bill. Imagine the paperwork (because you know 95% of an electric bill is bullshit you don't need anyway; and yeah, I know there are paperless billing options, but if you've made it this far through today's entry then keep rollin' with me) your electric company would save if they just sent you a postcard every month with your balance, a due date, and a very basic breakdown of usage (they don't even have to include a customer service number either, because it's not like they're usually useful). But anyway...Never mind. Don't text me if you're on vacation. Don't call or email me either. Just leave me alone. At least until we get this NSA mess figured out so we know who's wires are being tapped. Just get at me like we did it in the old days...drive past my house fifty or sixty times until you see a light on, and show up unannounced. Because if there's one thing I find more intrusive than a phone's notifiers notifying all the time, it's uninvited guests. BCF PROMPT: It's Sunday y'all...no prompt. Check back in this spot on Monday though, where the word serendipity will not be turned into a story or a poem will be featured prominently. I swear for the life of me I don't think I've ever used that word in any kind of conversation before. Ever. MUSICAL BREAK!! It's Sunday, it's raining, and iTunes has sufficiently bummed me out enough this evening, so I'm going old school emo tonight. THE DAILY BOX SCORE: The battle for sleep wages on. Not wanting to chance anything, I took measures to ensure I'd get a solid rest last night, but since I need to be up sorta early tomorrow anyway I'm not sure if I wanna take an Ambien tonight (and I'm supposed to be phasing that out anyway). Problem is, I'm not really sleepy-tired right now. I'm tired, but not to the point where I could count on falling asleep and staying asleep. Plus, I'm kinda scared to go to bed...I had a really inappropriate dream the other night about a girl I haven't seen in like 20 years, and while it was interesting, it didn't end well (do these things ever?) and dreams that leave me freaked out in the morning (not nightmarish, not scary...just...weird) and stay with me throughout the day make me want to avoid sleeping altogether out of fear of more awkwardness. Guess we'll see what happens tonight.Well, for everyone who thinks my entries are too long (trust me, I know the sentiment's out there...I'm self-conscious enough to realize this and I don't care enough to change it ), here's a nice, short post for this evening. Might be the shortest I've busted out in a long time. You're welcome. Peace, don't forget to kiss me, and GOODNIGHT NOW!! |
30DBC PROMPT: "June 7 Prompt" , courtesy of 💙 Carly  .What's up y'all? I'm still tryin' to figure out if I'm overtired...barely slept last night again and when I did it wasn't restful (to say the least), but if I can get through the rest of the day without a nap I might actually start to feel somewhat normal again. Fingers crossed. So how about 💙 Carly 's prompt, which asks us "What book would you like to see made into a movie or miniseries? Who would you like to see play the main characters in that movie/miniseries?"This is hard, partially because I've worked in a bookstore before and have seen a lot of great books turned into trash because the movie is more of an interpretation than a true visualization, and partly because I have a hard time seeing things translated from the author's original intentions. Plus movies bore me, and a miniseries is kinda like a movie broken into supposedly small pieces meant for easy digestion, if you're still willing to invest the time and energy you're supposed to in order to maximize the blah blah blah who cares?? One of my all-time favorite comic strips, as you should know by now if you've read me for any length of time beyond this month's "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" , is Calvin & Hobbes. No doubt it's legendary, and the author, Bill Watterson, has become somewhat of a recluse since he decided he was no longer interested in writing the strip. But there was a very recent Watterson sighting not too long ago, in the form of another comic strip in my all-time top 3, Pearls Before Swine. It turns out that Watterson had been in contact with Stephan Pastis about illustrating a few panels in PBS, and they were revealed this week. I'm really not a comic strip nerd, I swear, but I think that's pretty cool.Oh yeah, the prompt. I said it before, maybe last summer, that Calvin & Hobbes should be turned into a movie. That is something I'd totally pay to watch. I was torn between whether or not I'd prefer it to be animated...sometimes I'd think from the purist's perspective it should be, until I saw this trailer . Now I'm convinced it has to be 110% full-blown, balls to the wall, CGI overkill (and normally that's absolutely everything I don't like about cinematic adventures, but I don't think there's any other way a movie of the same magnitude as the original strip can be pulled off with it not looking like an ABC "After-School Special"). I don't even care who stars in it...does it really matter who's in Hobbes' tiger suit (which is a nice touch, might I say). I think the real star needs to be the special effects as they relate to Watterson's initial artwork...I can remember opening the comics section of the newspaper on Sunday mornings and C&H would just pop at you off the page. This movie needs to be made and deserves to be made right.BCF PROMPT: "A Pulitzer-winning reporter is writing an in-depth piece – about you. What are the three questions you really hope she doesn't ask you?" More like "What are the three questions you don't wanna answer?", right?  Didn't I say something the other day about my chances of winning a Pulitzer? Now that we're covering that in prompts, I'd like to step my game up and win a Nobel Prize for blogging. Or a presidential medal of honor. Hell, I'll even accept travel and accommodations to a country I've never heard of in the middle of the universe for a luncheon where I'm honored for something kinda cool. But I'm getting off-track again.Now, nobody said I had to answer these questions, right? The prompt only wants to know what I wouldn't want to be asked about me. 1) Why do you prefer to be reclusive (outside of what the world already sees of you through your work)? 2) You've been known to take a lot of chances, both with your writing and in your personal life. Any regrets? 3) There've been rumors swirling around for years that a bio-pic is in the works regarding "I'm Studying You" , "Who Do I Think I Am??" , and "Who do I still think I am??" . When will this project finally see the light of day, and who will play you? Should we expect a more traditional movie, a miniseries, or perhaps a sitcom of some sort?Show me the trophy, and I'll show you some answers! MUSICAL BREAK!! Today marks the 56th ( !!) birthday of Prince. Fifty-six! Game. Blouses. THE DAILY BOX SCORE: *cargray* Sad, sad news when I finally came to this morning: one of my very favorite comedians, Tracy Morgan, was involved in a six-car collision , resulting in at least one death and leaving Morgan in critical condition. Fellow comedian Chris Rock said, "Even when he's in critical condition, he's funnier than you." I hope he's able to recover quickly, along with everyone else involved, and my thoughts go out to the family of the deceased. I don't do many impressions (and they're certainly not very spot-on), but (in my head, at least) I can do a pretty good Tracy Morgan. "Oh, you was in a caah acci-dent? Tha's nice. I jus' got hit by two tract-uh tray-luhs, Liz Lem-uhn." Too soon? Yeah, probably too soon.  There's a link I can't seem to find {I thought it was on Buzzfeed, but I guess it's not) that had to do with "Ten Of The Saddest Calvin & Hobbes Moments", and it was really touching and sweet actually. Instead you get 16 Things Calvin & Hobbes Said Better Than Anyone Else . And this Mental_Floss link . I also challenge you to find a link (I can't, and I just spent way more time scrolling through my Facebook timeline looking for it because I thought I posted it awhile ago) that, I believe, is classic book covers re-imagined as Calvin &Hobbes-ish illustrations. At least that's what I think it was...never mind. I think I sorta found it , and it's not what I thought it was.And I think I'm done here...I've taken up enough of your Saturday. Peace, oh no let's go, and GOODNIGHT NOW!! |
| 30DBC PROMPT: "What if calories cost money? That is, what if one calorie costs one cent, adding up to your entire meal? For example, a large Big Mac meal at McDonald's would cost $13.20. Do you think charging per calorie would change people's eating habits? Why or why not?", courtesy of Noyoki . Hey folks...a better day overall than the last two (although let's not get too excited about that yet, as the night is young). Thanks for not rippin' my head off or holding me in contempt of my opinions the last few entries...may someday your restraint be rewarded. I know this prompt technically isn't a "Funny Friday" offering that you see in non-unofficial months of the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" , but that's ok...a lot of fun can still be had with this, I believe. I also think that the idea of one being charged for the calories they're about to consume, in theory, is a pretty decent idea...but it'd never work in practice. In fact, let's even ignore the idea that only those wealthy can afford to get fat off of fast food and poor choices.It's certainly a great deterrent, especially for "the working poor" and others on a budget, to be a little more conscious of what they're putting into their bodies. But how often to people really take the time to read what're in the ingredients of whatever they can buy in a grocery store? It seems like the only labels that matter the most to shoppers are the ones with the prices on them, and "cheaper" rarely implies "healthier"...oftentimes, it's more the opposite. And not only is the information on the packaging sometimes misleading, but it's also unrealistic. For example, I'm looking at a package of Nutter Butters I bought at the store last week. It's the 16oz size, and I probably paid $3.99 for it (depending on if it was on sale or not). According to the Nutrition Facts on the bottom of the package, a "serving" is two cookies, which means there's about 16 serving per container. About? It's a cookie. I think if you're taking a bite of a cookie like this and saving the rest for later, you've got bigger problems than the frequency with which you're putting cookies in your mouth. Anyway, two cookies (one serving) is 130 Calories. But you know you can't have just two cookies, so let's start with four. That's 260 Calories now, or well over half the price of what you'd be paying according to Noyoki 's new caloric guide. In fact, this package would cost $20.80. That's quite the sin tax! Conversely, today I purchased a very large bottle of water (don't get me started on bottled water either...normally I wouldn't because I'm fine with tap water, but I was thirsty and I'm trying to lay off sugary drinks)...a 64oz bottle of Evamor (no joke; I can't even make that name up) was $1.50, and it has 0 Calories Per 8oz Serving. So then, since there is no caloric value, I shouldn't have to have had to pay for it under Noyoki's system, right?And what do we do about foods that aren't packaged with nutritional info? Sure, I guess we could legislate something that says "Everything sold with the intent of consumption must have a label on it that clearly states what the ingredients are and what the calorie count of the entire package is." That's all well and good, until you figure out it costs money to hire people to construct how much of "this" is in "that" and then have a machine programmed to print off a compliancy-ensuring label. The same grocery store I visited today was selling antipasto at their deli for $5.99/lb, scooped by the deli person into a plastic tub and then weighed for price accuracy...because not all tubs are gonna equal exactly one pound, or 1/2 or 1/4 of a pound. Not only that, but I specifically asked if she'd pick out as many of the olives as she could, thus changing the overall makeup of the antipasto and altering the meat calories-to-cheese calories-to-veggies ratio and upsetting the calories-to-price conversion charts. So what does this all mean? I have no freaking idea. People won't change their eating habits because they're being forced to pay by the calorie. Humans are creatures of habit, and they panic as soon as the price of their crap goes up even a few cents...then they buy the cheaper brand, and if they decide they don't like the taste it, then they can justify paying more in the long run for it. I hated paying $.39 thirty years ago for a candy bar that was roughly four times the size of something that goes for a whole dollar more nowadays...yet if I were willing to part with the price difference in order to have a similarly-satisfying size while paying by the calorie, I'd have to adjust somehow, and I don't think a lot of people would change their eating habits dramatically. Look at cigarettes and tobacco usage, for example. A pack of smokes was less than $2 in New York in 1997, when the state decided to start taxing the shit out of them. People swore after the first big price spike "I'll quit when they go up to $5/pack!" Sure, some did...but not really enough to make a difference. And then those same people said again "I swear I'll quit when they go up to $10/pack!"...and they probably still haven't quit. I think you see where I'm goin' with this...habits, whether food or anything else, aren't always sacrificed because they've become expensive. BCF PROMPT: "Favorite board game. Tell us about it." Geez, I probably haven't thought about this since I was a kid and still regularly played board games. And how many of the classics (outside of simple graphic updates) have actually changed much over the years (besides Monopoly )? "Deluxe Editions" and thematic renditions don't count.And speaking of Monopoly, you can probably cross that off of my list of faves because everyone knows after three or four hours it's absolutely not fun . Scrabble? Nope. I'm legendarily bad at it for some unknown reason. And I will likely win a Pulitzer for "Who do I still think I am??" before I start playing its younger, hotter, dumber sister, Words With Friends, again. I can write a blog entry seventy-seven different ways of telling you how much I hate the same thing, but ask me to spell words out of seven letters (give or take) in a manner that's better than you, and I fail miserably. There are no words to describe my ineptitude (and the first person who comes up with one is getting thunderpunched in the triple-word score). Welp, I think we've covered the only board games worth playing by anyone over the age of...The Six Year Old Me. Welcome back, buddy. I'm decent with card games, and by "decent" I mean they're tolerable for a few minutes. Except Poker. Poker got too crazy and weird for my liking with all that "Texas Hold 'Em" hocus pocus. Once something fairly simple turns into options and flops and rivers and variations for in-game shenanigans, and the basic rules go from being printed on the back of one standard-sized playing card to 500-page tomes taking up entire sections of Barnes & Noble, I'm out. Can't/don't wanna do it. I revolted against hockey and football video games when they got too complex for my taste, so I'm not afraid of sayin' "I'd rather not". But Rummy...when I was a kid we could play that for hours. And we didn't play until someone hit a predetermined score. We played until we were done playin', and kept a notebook going of scores so we could pick up right where we left off a day, a week, or months later. Simple rules and game play, a legit scoring system, and nobody has to get knifed afterwards: The three hallmarks of a satisfying evening spent among family and friends. MUSICAL BREAK!! This. This happened. Somebody thought this was a good idea , and someone else signed off on it. And this is what you get when I'm strugglin' to come up with a halfway decent song (because nothing off of this Get Up Kids album seemed fitting enough.  If I can't unsee this, you're not allowed to either. THE DAILY BOX SCORE:  So I guess my interview yesterday regarding the Cortaca Jug Rioting never made it to local television. That's ok, because this story was way more important. Speaking of serving sizes, this kinda blows my mind: the many inconsistencies of Mountain Dew. Go to any grocery store and grab a couple different-sized vessels of the sweet nectar of the gods the Pepsi Cola Company. Line them up by the labels, and you'll notice how the serving size varies between plastic and aluminum cans and single-serve versus multiple-serve containers, and the calorie counts don't seem to jive between various amounts as well. Conspiracy? Probably.And that's all I've got for today. I've rambled on long enough while barely making sense, and the moodiness I've had the last two days is slowly creeping back into my life the longer whomever in the lot next to my building continues to use power tools at an ear-splitting volume even though I'm on the second floor with my window slammed shut to block out as much of the noise as possible. Time to grab a sizable handful of Nutter Butters and wait a little to see if this new sleeping med is any good. Peace, there are rules, and GOODNIGHT NOW!! |
| 30DBC PROMPT: "June 5th Prompt" , courtesy of PandaPaws Licensed VetTech . Good evening, dear readers. I'll have you know that it's hard for me to take many things seriously...I don't know if that's just my overall nature, or there's something about life I "don't get", or some other hidden deformity in my brain that's just so desensitized to outrageous acts against humanity. That might explain why occasionally I may take certain things too far, because I think at the same time there are others who will claim you haven't done enough, and you kinda stop caring about some situations altogether because in the end you're not gonna make everybody happy and eventually you still have to answer to yourself and your reactions (or lack thereof). The reason I'm prefacing today's entry as such is that in today's prompt, we're asked to read an article about the assassination of Robert Kennedy (which happened on this day in 1968) and respond to the question "Is there a moment in history where you felt the same way, or did your parents (or grandparents) share their thoughts on pivotal historic events?" in regards to moments in history that have changed the world as they (or we) knew it.I probably shouldn't write this entry, because I'm in kind of a shitty mood. I should just pack up, close all my browser tabs, and try again tomorrow. But I've committed this far, so I'm not turning back now. I wasn't alive when Bobby Kennedy was shot (and I obviously wasn't when the same thing happened to his brother John in '63 either). And yes, I've heard anecdotes from a lot of respected people about where they were and how deeply it moved them at the time. I don't mean to marginalize or trivialize an event like that in any way, shape or form...but it wasn't the first time someone in the public spotlight was murdered in plain sight, and we all know it wasn't the last. Maybe because it happened long before I'd even know how to process something like this, it really didn't affect me, even though it affected many people who had a tangible impression on me. I don't mean to sound callous or uncaring, but rarely does anything actually impact me emotionally. Political dissent and controversy had existed for decades before the Kennedys were thought of as being the "Golden American Boys" destined to do no wrong in their country's eyes, and anyone who suggests they could've actually turned the United States into some sort of global superpower while still being buddy-buddy with everyone is blindly speculating. There's simply no solid evidence...all we have to go by is largely what others thought could've (or perhaps should've) happened. And that's a foolish way to look at history. The only event in my lifetime that may have resonated with me as much as the Kennedy assassinations did generations prior is probably 9/11...and I know this is gonna piss off a lot of people, but even then the atrocity of it all never really hit home with me (unless you consider the economy failing years later, prices going up while people lost jobs, and the general pissiness of the airline industry in the following years). And here's why: as much as I knew what was going on, I wasn't really allowed to feel much about it. I still had to go to work. My company's owner still wanted to make money. He didn't give a shit what was happening on the other side of New York State, even if one of my co-workers was losing his soon-to-be mother-in-law during that tragedy. My life was not given a chance to be interrupted; just inconvenienced. I wasn't gonna run and hastily join a military branch, nor was I gonna start hating and immediately profiling every single person with dark skin and a turban because they might be related to terrorists. I get it...it was an atrocity. Lots of people lost friends, loved ones, and valued members of their communities. It's unfortunate. But if what happened to The Twin Towers happened in Cairo, or Sydney, or Tokyo; would we still feel the same? Why did it matter more that it was in New York City? Why were the thousands of Americans more important than other members of the global population? Would it matter now if it was just one president, or a bunch of random people in a very large building? What if it was the world's largest homeless shelter? I'm not sayin' I'm totally clueless or a cruel, unpatriotic communist of a soul, but maybe I am. In memorial I might say a silent little reminder to myself of the sadness that day has meant to so many people, and I'll even trade messages of somber remembrance with a few of the people I was with when planes were hitting buildings and we didn't quite know what was really goin' on. The truth is, very few people born after 9/11 honestly know what it was like to be alive that day. They'll grow up accustomed to the freedoms and restrictions we all share, much the same as (regardless of what my history textbooks and parents/grandparents and teachers) I felt about the Kennedys when I was finally old enough for it to register that death and killing and any senseless (and especially politically-motivated) tragedy evokes a wide range of emotions for a lot of people. I'm just not one of them. And maybe I should be ashamed, but that's my battle, I suppose. BCF PROMPT: "What is your favorite activity on WDC (besides "Blogging Circle of Friends " , obviously)?"I have no idea how I'm even gonna try to write the rest of this entry. Like I said, I probably shouldn't have bothered. I'm pretty sure I could say just about anything at this point, and nobody's interested in reading it. Like "my favorite WDC activity involves anything I don't have to wear pants during", or "I like it when Charlie ~ gets huffy when he gets called Charles not Charlie".I guess I'd have to say "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" . I have a thing about participating in many activities...mainly, I don't wanna spread myself too thin. I fear that'd dilute the overall quality of my work and although I'm not perfect, I do kinda tend to pride myself on having things as close to perfect as possible. That sorta drives right into my next point: I'd feel terrible if something I threw my full weight behind failed (for whatever reason). I've been offered the chance to be a part of more than a couple big projects on WDC, and I've turned them down primarily because I'd be crushed mentally and inside (yes, I do have a bit of a heart ) if they were to become unsuccessful. I know that's a part of life, disappointment, but if it's one I can avoid then that's what I'd rather do.And it's not that I'm totally unsupportive...I just don't feel the need to advertise every contest or competition I come across, and every time I donate to one it's not a big deal. I have no problem doing things quietly and anonymously. I don't need the thanks or the validation. There are so many other ways I see it through a lot of different members, daily. And that, my friends, is good enough for me. MUSICAL BREAK!! Remember when this concept was cute, and not an epidemic? THE DAILY BOX SCORE: 3 and 5: TV channels in the Syracuse area you might see me on tonight or tomorrow (and no, it won't be because I'm in any kind of trouble). As I was limping off the bus today after all my appointments, I was approached around the corner from my building by a man with a large video camera and a microphone. Because I'm generally too oblivious for my own good most of the time, I really wasn't paying attention to the idea he was talking to me until he was about a foot from in front of me and wanted to know if I'd answer a few questions. Sure, why not? He asked me about the Cortaca Jug riots last fall , which I barely remember anything of the sort happening, but apparently there was a commission, ummm, commissioned to study underage students drinking, crazy partying in the streets, kids throwing furniture from houses, and basically everything I haven't done since probably 1998. Anyway, the findings of the study were released today, and this reporter dude wanted to know my opinion. I think he wanted something anyway, and started telling me about the whole thing as if he was trying to sell me a religion just so he could get back in his car and go back to the "big city" with some decent copy. He said something about authorities cracking down using Social Media, and I kinda laughed at him and said that wasn't gonna solve anything because if kids wanna do dumb things, they're gonna do 'em anyway. Then he asked how I felt about police and politicians wanting to be more involved in keeping the peace during Cortaca Week, and I was brutally honest; I was hopeful, but I'd be even more hopeful if there were actual results, and he countered with something about coming downtown more if I knew there was an increased police presence or something like that, and seeing as how I'd just told him I live downtown, I just said that I tried to avoid large crowds and that Cortaca Week attracts so many more kids downtown as it is, that I probably wouldn't be changing my plans anytime soon for nearly anything. I doubt they'll wind up using it on any of the news shows if they haven't by now, since it was around 3:30pm when he interviewed me, but whatever, it's cool either way. Who am I kidding? I love a riot as much as the next guy. That's what I should've said..."Sir, can you please tell me where I might find the tossing of large objects into swarming groups of teenagers? Please and thank you!" My PT didn't wanna let up on me today. Yeah, I'm working muscles. Woo-hoo . My entire bottom half hurts, as does the bone in my lower left leg, absolutely not where it should be hurting the most. Yet it's possible my doctor could still clear me from all restrictions on Monday, even though walking seems like a pretty terrible idea right now. Remember the story I mentioned yesterday about the Cheektowaga Racist Stripper Mom? Apparently she'd made some national headlines, as well as inspired a few memes and other random stuff people do on the internet when someone acts like an idiot and gets caught. But this piece of commentary is very well-written and provokes a separate, sensible set of emotions that often get lost in the ether when someone says "racism is offensive". Seriously, check it out. And that is all for tonight. I'll go back to refreshing CNY Central every three minutes until my face shows up for one reason or another. Peace, we didn't start the fire, and GOODNIGHT NOW!! |
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Also, I learn a lot of my random facts by being that one person who reads all those tiny little things especially in nature/science museums. So many awesomely amazing things, and some museums contradict their information and I'll call over an expert and be like... uhhh, contradiction?? 