All right, last night's blog entry was written during one of my random bouts of depression, so I figure I should put something else on here tonight to counter it a bit. Colts lost today, of course, which sucks, but oh well. As I told someone earlier, if being a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan has taught me anything it's how to handle losing. Plus I was really fortunate as a kid to have coaches in all my sports (with a few exceptions, like my jerkoff 2nd grade soccer coach who yelled at us like we were college athletes) who instilled in me and everyone else on the team the importance of handling both victory and defeat with dignity and sportsmanship. So yeah, congrats Chargers. I'm still a little bummed about it all, but at the end of the day it's only a football game, and I'm not even a part of the team.
I'm in an early part of my book where I have to describe an ocean liner, similar to the Titanic but smaller and from a slightly later age. I hate, HATE doing long descriptions like this. I never know what to say; I always want to get on with the story and the dialogue and don't like having to worry about what everything in the world looks like. Plus I also came up with a great idea for where I want to take this chapter (only chapter two) and how to tie it in with the overall story in one of those subtle ways that you don't understand at first but, if you read it a second time after finishing the book, you smile and say, "so THAT'S what that was about." I really want to get on with it, but I don't like skipping parts and coming back to them when I can avoid it; maybe I'll have to here, though.
And now, getting back to my original idea of countering last night's depression post, I'm going to list a few things about my life I feel good about; not to brag, but to reassure myself that nights like last night aren't nearly as common as they used to be. So, I'm gainfully employed, at a job (well, two, sometimes three) that lets me live comfortably and buy a reasonable amount of books, DVDs, and video games, which I love; I have a great girlfriend who's wonderfully weird and quirky (even if she HATES the Colts, which leads to interesting sports conversations); I really like the writing I've been doing lately; and I recently looked over all the books on my shelf and realized that I'm actually a damn well-read person, which makes me proud in a small way. But I'm not ready to say I'm confident about getting into a grad school yet, because it would be a lie, and I don't want to tempt fate....
So, adapting the practice from a few of my friends on here, some questions:
1.) If you're a sports fan, what things (OTHER than your team winning or losing) really makes you happy or upset when you see them?
2.) Did you ever take one of those questionnaires in school that asked where you thought you'd be at 25? Are you anywhere close? If not, does it bother you or are you pleasantly surprised to be in a different place? If you're confused or upset about where you are, what would you do to change it?
3.) How many years (if any) have you worked retail? Doesn't it just make you hate People?
My answers:
1.) I like seeing the "good guy" win. It's a relative term, in that hardly anyone who makes it to the professional sports level is probably a "good" person, but sometimes it's nice to believe the perception. Not to rehash what I wrote about last night, but a lot of times in the world the "bad guys" seem to win; this happens much more often in sports because, let's face it, sports lends itself to the egocentric, Aryan ,"purge the weak" mentality. To make it in professional sports, you kind of have to be an asshole. So whenever someone who seems like a decent person does well, I like seeing it. What really bothers me are those fans who talk like they're actually part of the team and try to denigrate others. I hate trash talk, always have, and hearing it from jackasses on the internet who are protected behind the veil of anonymity that allows them to say things they probably wouldn't have the balls to say face-to-face is almost comical.
2.) Well, when I was in preschool I wanted to be Superman or Han Solo when I was 25, and even though I have another six months to work on it, I don't think I'll end up as either one of those. As time went on, I wanted to be a football or baseball player, but it got to a point in middle school and high school where I absolutely could not stand the other players on the team. They were mostly rich brats who had the maturity levels of two year-olds. It stopped being fun. Around my sophomore year of high school I figured it would be cool to be a writer. I'm still working on that one.
3.) I worked retail (still do, at one of my jobs) for 8 years, and the correct answer to the second part of the question is yes. Anyone who says no must have a different definition of retail than I do because there is no possible way you can have anything close to a positive opinion of People if you've had to serve them.
I'm in an early part of my book where I have to describe an ocean liner, similar to the Titanic but smaller and from a slightly later age. I hate, HATE doing long descriptions like this. I never know what to say; I always want to get on with the story and the dialogue and don't like having to worry about what everything in the world looks like. Plus I also came up with a great idea for where I want to take this chapter (only chapter two) and how to tie it in with the overall story in one of those subtle ways that you don't understand at first but, if you read it a second time after finishing the book, you smile and say, "so THAT'S what that was about." I really want to get on with it, but I don't like skipping parts and coming back to them when I can avoid it; maybe I'll have to here, though.
And now, getting back to my original idea of countering last night's depression post, I'm going to list a few things about my life I feel good about; not to brag, but to reassure myself that nights like last night aren't nearly as common as they used to be. So, I'm gainfully employed, at a job (well, two, sometimes three) that lets me live comfortably and buy a reasonable amount of books, DVDs, and video games, which I love; I have a great girlfriend who's wonderfully weird and quirky (even if she HATES the Colts, which leads to interesting sports conversations); I really like the writing I've been doing lately; and I recently looked over all the books on my shelf and realized that I'm actually a damn well-read person, which makes me proud in a small way. But I'm not ready to say I'm confident about getting into a grad school yet, because it would be a lie, and I don't want to tempt fate....
So, adapting the practice from a few of my friends on here, some questions:
1.) If you're a sports fan, what things (OTHER than your team winning or losing) really makes you happy or upset when you see them?
2.) Did you ever take one of those questionnaires in school that asked where you thought you'd be at 25? Are you anywhere close? If not, does it bother you or are you pleasantly surprised to be in a different place? If you're confused or upset about where you are, what would you do to change it?
3.) How many years (if any) have you worked retail? Doesn't it just make you hate People?
My answers:
1.) I like seeing the "good guy" win. It's a relative term, in that hardly anyone who makes it to the professional sports level is probably a "good" person, but sometimes it's nice to believe the perception. Not to rehash what I wrote about last night, but a lot of times in the world the "bad guys" seem to win; this happens much more often in sports because, let's face it, sports lends itself to the egocentric, Aryan ,"purge the weak" mentality. To make it in professional sports, you kind of have to be an asshole. So whenever someone who seems like a decent person does well, I like seeing it. What really bothers me are those fans who talk like they're actually part of the team and try to denigrate others. I hate trash talk, always have, and hearing it from jackasses on the internet who are protected behind the veil of anonymity that allows them to say things they probably wouldn't have the balls to say face-to-face is almost comical.
2.) Well, when I was in preschool I wanted to be Superman or Han Solo when I was 25, and even though I have another six months to work on it, I don't think I'll end up as either one of those. As time went on, I wanted to be a football or baseball player, but it got to a point in middle school and high school where I absolutely could not stand the other players on the team. They were mostly rich brats who had the maturity levels of two year-olds. It stopped being fun. Around my sophomore year of high school I figured it would be cool to be a writer. I'm still working on that one.
3.) I worked retail (still do, at one of my jobs) for 8 years, and the correct answer to the second part of the question is yes. Anyone who says no must have a different definition of retail than I do because there is no possible way you can have anything close to a positive opinion of People if you've had to serve them.
I say, if you feel like you are especially creative right now .. skip the fuckin lame part with the boat. why WASTE your creativity??? Write as much as u can while u can, because u might just run into writers block soon. THEN u can do the research on the boats appaearances because thats the least fun part, and u can do that while you're having writers block. Right? Right