Monday, December 27, 2010

Dicey Subject

I am apparently really bad at keeping on topic with my other blog. That is to say, I'm bad at keeping it as a blog that documents my life as it pertains to trying to break into the world of comedy, acting, and/or entertaining. I think it's got a bigger audience than this one (twice the number of Blogger.com followers as this one...both in single digits. Baller-status), so I tend to write things in there that belong in this blog. This one is supposed to be my musings on life. So that's what this is gonna be.

I read an article last week, sent to me by my friend Jen (over at http://jenniterjackon.wordpress.com) and written by Ricky Gervais about how he doesn't believe in God. Not a matter of not believing, but more matter-of-factly stating that there isn't a god. I'll get back to this in a moment.

Upon leaving home after Christmas I brought a few books back with me, two of which are nonfiction short-story collections from college. One of which has a couple written by a professor I had, but that's not the point. The point is that I just picked a random story and read it. It was basically about the writer abandoning faith in religion and how it crushed her mother but made her feel a better understanding of the world.

It's pretty clear that religion has a huge hold on American society, as well as it does the rest of the world. I'm not interested in debating the merits of religion, those of you who know me know that I'm not a church-goer and don't really care either way if you are, so don't bother thinking about that.

Instead, think about how many articles and books you've heard of in the realm of popular writing, whatever that means to you. A decent amount of books, it can be argued, are either straightforward books about religion (see: the always-massive religion section at bookstores) or thinly veiled books about religion (see: Narnia and the like). Religious writing is generally a big deal; if it is well written, it becomes an important piece of religious literature (again, go to the religion section and look at how they've all won awards).

So on the flip side, why is it always note-worthy when someone writes about a disbelief in God/religion?

I don't have an answer for this but it's endlessly fascinating. Some of the greatest minds in our world right now do not believe in a god or gods. When they write about it, it's gripping. Is it possible that, if they wrote it well-enough, someone could write a novel where the entire point is that there is no god, and this becomes a best-seller - changing the way a reading population views religion?

It's surely been tried, make no mistake of that, but is it possible in a society that is so dependent on religion?

Makes you wonder, right?


Note: I've mentioned before that I have something in mind when I start writing and invariably end up off-topic. This was on-topic, but oh my god...I can't believe how far awry this idea went. I had some really poignant things that I wanted to put in here and virtually none of them made it and now I can't make room for them/remember what they were. Curse you, writing.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Twitter(o) Killed the Blog(eo) Star

How weird is it to title a blog post after something that is effectively eliminating my post frequency? (not to mention reaching really hard for a Buggles reference)
On a scale of 1-this picture, it's solidly in the Ricky Williams wearing a wedding dress range.
But how did this happen? I originally resisted Twitter...what changed?
Shaq came to Cleveland. That's what changed.
I got on Twitter because I had heard that Shaq would do silly things like give out tickets to fans who found him based on his tweets. I heard he did this kind of thing on a semi-regular basis and I thought it was awesome. Once he was traded to the Cavaliers, I caved. I wanted the chance to be a part of that kind of tomfoolery.
Something happened in the months that followed...I started enjoying the process of tweeting.
It becomes a challenge for me to try to not say incredibly mundane things - or at least not most of the time. I try to be entertaining, although I try to do so without copying anyone else's jokes/style/premises.
As a result of all this, I now tweet a veritable crapload of times per day (I'm guessing close to 10, I don't want to look and find out it's way more than that) about things that I hope other people find interesting. This has killed my blogging.
After spending my entire life being overly wordy and descriptive about everything, Twitter has afforded me the challenge of trying to condense my thoughts into 140 characters despite my habit of using roughly 140 characters in a standard sentence...I've never been a fan of that subject/verb/object/punctuation simplistic bullshit.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that Twitter is a new release for my random thoughts. Instead of expounding on them in a blog entry, I've taken to shrinking them for tweets. It's not good or bad, it just is at this point.
As it stands, Twitter is the sexy mistress to my mildly attractive blog-wife. It's the Sandra Bullock to my tattooed wench.
Wait, what? He was married to Sandra Bullock and banged that fuh-reak?? Is he retarded?? Am I missing something here? Cheated on her (who looks good in nothing-special-about-that-picture pictures) with her. That's a real picture, folks. Seriously, even if you don't click any of the other links here, do that one. It's eye-opening.
Now that, my friends, makes you wonder...

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

A Moment Like This

Anytime you can title a blog-post with a Kelly Clarkson song title, it's a good sign. Bonus points when it's actually what you're writing about, too.

The concept is the perfect moment; have you had one?
You might not remember if you have. You might remember having it, but you might not remember who else was involved. You might even remember the situation and how good it felt, but the details are all fuzzy.

Here's my quick explanation of a fictional perfect moment. (please note, fictional)

It's been a bad day. I slept awfully and had to wake up early for something that I didn't want to do. I spent the day with a crippling headache while dealing with problems that were way over my head. Blah blah blah, a bad day.
Then, by chance, I see a girl who is a very good friend.
She walks right up to me and doesn't say hello. She looks at me as she's walking and says "You look like you could use a hug," and proceeds to give the best hug ever.
In the five seconds of hug, all of the problems somehow melt away. Nothing seems important, it just feels incredible to be held by someone and know that they're not letting go until I let go. It's comforting, it's emotionally relieving, it's beautiful. As my mind races a million miles an hour I realize that I'm not in love with the girl, I'm in love with the moment she has provided me.
In this one simple moment that may have meant absolutely nothing to her, my entire mood, day, and emotional stability changed for the better.
How?

...makes you wonder, right?

Also, it doesn't necessarily have to be a hug, that would just be one of the best ways for me to experience it. Another easy way that this moment could happen would be like a commercial: someone inexplicably and unprompted does something nice for you - gives a compliment when you didn't expect it, picks up your tab at dinner, etc.
Incidentally, I remember that happening once a long time ago. I remember someone explaining this concept to me (not quite as wordy or in-depth) even before that, and then thinking about it when I first experienced it. I also know that it has happened at least one other time, but I can't remember what it was...which is odd. It's very thought-provoking in concept and in practice.