notjason

I'd like to be a more active member on this website. I'd like to have all these friends who I actively check up on that I can trade comments with and all that stuff. I can't bring myself to take enough initiative. I'm a long time veteran of internet message boards, yet these ones still intimidate me. I think it's the relatively broad sampling of people on them, which makes them completely different than most internet forums. For example, I post on band message boards, and that often times limits the type of person posting quite dramatically. Every fan of Whoeverthefuck might not have everything in common, but odds are, there is a lot of assumed common ground. The only thing you can assume about anybody on these forums is that they are interested enough in naked girls to pay a small subscription fee. The nature of the content might put a slight spin on what that demographic is, but it's still far more broad than I'm used to. So I haven't felt comfortable posting, for the most part. The few times I have bothered, I've been mostly overlooked, which is fair, but not encouraging.

So I don't know really. Save for message board action, I don't see much opportunity growing my social network in this community. I figure, however, maybe it would be a good idea to use this blog/journal more actively. Use it, perhaps, to post the kind of rambling bullshit that I hate posting on my livejornal. Nobody actually reads this thing, so there is nothing to risk.

I got another job recently, which is basically the same job I had before, only at another location in the chain. This store is a lot slower than the other store I work at, so I have a lot of free time during my shifts. Since I started working there, probably in February, I've managed to read 8 books, almost entirely while on the clock. Not bad! I think I may have mentioned all of that in my last post, but nobody actually looked at it, so there's no harm in redundancy.

The list of books I've read at this job is as follows (somewhat arbitrarily ordered):

Cash (Johnny Cash)
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (Dave Eggers)
Neverwhere (Neil Gaiman)
Voyage Along the Horizon (Javier Marias)
Going Postal (Terry Pratchett)
Franny and Zooey (J.D. Salinger)
The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
Dress Your Family in Cordory and Denim (David Sedaris)

This reading list has had its ups and downs, but nothing so far has sucked. The closest anything got to sucking is probably Voyage Along the Horizon, but even that had it's moments. Second to that, the only other book deserving criticism might be Going Postal, which was almost too British, and too quaintly cute, for it's own good. But in spite of that, it was an enjoyable read that forced me to let down my guard long enough to really appreciate the story. It's an interesting case, because while elements of it did annoy me, it was one of the most engaging of the entire list. I could probably bring myself to read more by that guy.

Neverwhere was a book that I entered into with a lot of nervousness. My mom bought me it for Christmas, and the title and cover was so suggestive of something that would really, truly suck a lot of ass. I turned out to be dead wrong about it though. Hindsight seems to have turned the volume down on this a little, so perhaps it was just the shock in contrast to my expectations, but I really enjoyed this book. Similar to Going Postal, it's not a perfect book, but it succeeds similarly. Definitely an enjoyable story.

The most mind blowing thing I've read in the past few months, without a doubt, is Franny and Zooey. I'm no stranger to Salinger, but I'd previously been mistaken about the extent of his talent. Everybody's been masturbating all over Catcher in the Rye for as long as I can remember, and when that book seemed ludicrously over hyped to me (upon my first full read, in early college), it left me with low expectations for his other work, which had received contrastingly little attention. This book changed my mind about J.D. Salinger. Like any piece of shit hipster fuckbag in the country, it annoys me when I have to admit to liking the things everybody else likes too. But you know what? I like Arcade Fire, I play a microKORG, and I think Salinger is a damn good writer. I do, however, think it's criminal that this book is overshadowed by Catcher in the Rye. Upon rereading the latter, I think Franny and Zooey is clearly superior. I did, however, on this read, gain an increased appreciation for Catcher. As somebody who failed out of college, and finds himself swelling with hatred over nearly everything he sees, I found it somewhat easier to relate to at this point in my life. I rather hate talking about this book though. I don't even want to explain my reasons why, cause they're pathetic. I don't want to project myself as some profoundly deep individual for relating to a classic novel. I also want to differentiate myself from all the assholes I can't stand who talk about things like that. In other words, I want to point out that I'm somehow sincere, and they are not. Contextualize that against the very book we're discussing, and it's unclear how I can even stand to live with myself. I don't know. This is one of the reasons I usually keep quiet about this sort of thing. Why am I so filled with hate? I should probably read Franny and Zooey again.

If only I believed in Jesus...

Anyway, I got a haircut. I don't have any pictures of it though.