Text me Goodnight

There are some times when maybe it should be all about me.

I know I'm old fashioned compared to the rest of my generation.  Everyone is a high tech, high speed, multitasking machine.  It's not like I'm in the Stone Age.  I know how computers work (mostly) and I can fix more than basic problems on them.  But I don't have the newest model and I don't shell out big bucks for the latest versions of programs I use.  I have a cell phone and it takes pictures and I can text.  But again, I don't have the latest phone and shell out my paycheck for internet service and apps that are cool once and then I'm over them.

My point?  Those things are cool and if you like them that's great.  But I think too much technology (Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto) really is a problem.  Case in point:  When I'm out with a friend-and this has happened with a couple of different good friends of mine-we'll be walking down the street talking and enjoying the sights or sitting at a table in a restaurant waiting to be served.  They pull out their cell phones and start texting with other people or even answer their phones and start talking to someone else. 

This is RUDE. 
Don't do it. 

At least when you're with me.  How big of an idiot do I feel like when I'm sitting in complete silence while you're having a conversation with someone who's not even there.  Why did you even come out with me?  Should I have saved you the time and just texted to you how the food was or what I did by myself? 

I refuse to pull out my cell phone and ignore them back while I'm out with them.  The amount of time that I get to spend with my friends lately is very small so I look forward to seeing the people I care about.  My cell phone is for emergencies and convenience.  Your cell phone should not be the main focus of your attention, especially when you're on a social outing with someone in the flesh.  I get scared sometimes that this society really is going to be like the predicted future in Wall-E.  Everyone will be an obese baby staring at screens from morning to night.  I'd rather be the quirky robot given my choices. 

Don't get me wrong.  I'm not against using your cell phone EVER while you're out with others.  One text here, a minute or two call with someone there.  But only if it's important and in moderation.  It seems like the rules of common decency are changing.  And I don't like it.  The times that I spend with my friends are special to me. Rare and appreciated.  To be ignored in favor of a little machine that gives a false connection to someone else while I'm having that time hurts a little, I'm not going to lie.  I know no offence is meant, but I guess I just haven't caught up with the rest of my generation yet.  I still think it's normal to have conversations face to face.  What do I know? I'm old fashioned.

Yes. I'm Here. Posting. Yay.

So yet again it's been forever since I posted and blah blah I'm so ashamed, angst. (Seriously I really did want to write in the last six months, it's just, I had this thing...a job...that happened and now... *sigh* I have no excuse)

I got inspired to write again tonight because of another blog on Blogspot called Hyperbole and a Half. It's literally the funniest blog I've ever read (not that I've read a ton, admittedly). Go explore it, you will cry laughing.

Anyway. I figured instead of waiting for a topic to show itself in my overworked, undermassaged brain I would just write so that I could say that I started writing again. So I did. And I am. This is it. Writing. Booya. There, some more writing. I am awesome already.

Seriously there's no topic today. Just mental excrement. It's late and I had a very long day. You understand.


Again in all seriousness, I really would like to get this blog back up and running. Especially since Hyperbole and a Half has proven to me that you don't need an overall theme or direction to keep one going and for it to be successful. (Thanks for the inspiration Allie!) You just have to do it and keep at it. So try I will. No I won't try. I'll do. There is no try. (I learned that from Yoda, my Muppet friend.)

Is there anything that you would like to see from this blog, or want from me? I don't know who I'm talking to but I'm sure you'll know who you are when you read this. All of you. I'm babbling, I'm very tired. But I'm also...oh shit...what's that word where you sleep during the day and are awake at night? Seriously this is scaring me why can't I think of it? Narcoleptic? No that's when you fall asleep for no reason. Ummm... Narcotic. No......... (I had to look it up, I'm so ashamed) NOCTURNAL was the word I was looking for, as I'm sure you already knew and were thinking I was damaged as you read that. I'm sorry you had to see that. At least I was close. Sort of.

As I was saying before my head exploded, I'm pretty much nocturnal so even though I'm wide awake my brain is fully aware that I did a shit ton of stuff today and therefore should be very unconscious right now so as to recharge. But bah. I work evenings during the week so I can sleep in. ("Hah" says fate, as it warms up the lawnmowers that pick a different morning each week to smite my peaceful 9 AM slumber)

Anyway, welcome back to me, says I. Life has been pretty good lately. I've been working steadily for six months, two jobs, working six days a week, new car as of last month, going to Disney World in September so summer needs to end as soon as possible, and as long as things continue like this my plans of moving to Florida within a year and a half are still on track... Life is good.

Hear that? It's the Winds of Change

Part of the problem about having a blog is finding the time to sit down and write something comprehensible on a regular basis. A bigger part of the problem is finding something meaningful to say that often. I mean it's one thing to start jabbering away about what I did today but it wouldn't be all that interesting would it? You can only read the sentence "I went to school today and I'm tired, well off to work!" so many times before you give up on a person and go play online tetris or something. So a lack of interesting topics and and even bigger lack of free time has kept me away (yet again) from writing a consistent and timely blog. Soon, however, school will be over, Christmas will be here, and a new chapter of my life will begin. That of job hunting, budgeting, planning, and making sure I don't let my parents drive me nuts. Focusing on my new career, a new promising path stretching out before me, and my health, which has taken quite a backseat to tests and massage techniques as of late.

I'm very close to being intimidated by school being over. If it wasn't for the fact that most of my teachers make me want to bang my head against a brick wall repeatedly just for some sort of relief I might be sad to leave. Well I am in a small way. I've made some good friends there, and hopefully we'll be able to stay in touch. Besides that though, I'm hopeful, and while I'm a little nervous, I'm a lot more confident in my path than I was this time last year. Wow, what a difference a year makes. This time last year I was commuting every day to NYC to make coffee for self-important editors making commercials for makeup and 3D crayons...for no pay. Nope, no regrets at all about making this change, I have a bright horizon ahead of me for the first time in years, and I'm going to ride out this wave of opportunity that has come my way. And if I wipe out, there's plenty more waves coming my way. All roads lead to Orlando, even the really long ones. Here's hoping. Happy Thanksgiving!

Book I'm Reading: American on Purpose by Craig Ferguson
Random Thought: Japanese ginger dressing gives you bad breath for hours, plan accordingly.

Triumphant Return from Anonymity

So after claiming that I would be posting way more often (ahem, 5 weeks ago), my internet decided to take a coma disguised as a nap. And just tonight after some magical setting configuration it is fixed (shrug). So anyway, I figured I would catch the world (that is, anybody reading this) up on life since then.

I am a massage therapist now! Well, I'm still in school but I can give a full body one hour Swedish massage that has already put many people to sleep. I have my own professional grade table that I have yet to practice on. This is not for want of test subjects; they have been lining up quite patiently. No, it's more to do with the fact that when I am not in school, I am at work. And when I'm not doing either of those, I'm usually sleeping. Or when I'm not doing that, I'm decompressing with a maximum of a few hours with friends MAYBE once a week. But I shouldn't complain. I love my instructors and classmates, I'm actually doing really well both academically and skills-wise. I actually LIKE my job, which is new for me. Yes the hours are long (which is the only reason I'm able to go to school, really) and it can be a little stressful on the feet and back (I'm moving the entire time) but the people I work with are actually intelligent and nice.

So life is good. It feels good to be able to say that after the year in the deep dark hole in the ground (as those who don't know me start to picture an actual hole in the ground with me waiting patiently inside). No, not a literal hole, but figuratively. Applying to job after job that I didn't really want. Trying to get by in a position that I was fighting deep down, until finally the light came on and the fight was over. So I really shouldn't have anything to complain about. And now that I have the internet back I can waste the hours that I would be spending NOT watching the god awful stuff they're selling as television these days surfing the world wide intertubular nets or whatever the proper geek term for them is this week.

And now, your moment of zen...

Trailing behind the footsteps of greatness (OR a tribute to Douglas Adams)

For anyone who has ever gazed on an image or listened to the echoes of the past and wished to have been a part of it. For anyone who has ever been in awe of the genius or accomplishment of a person long dead and shed a single tear from the dual sense of loss and fulfillment that that brings. For anyone who has grasped at the shredded, waving streamers of banners once flown proudly and now all but forgotten…. I understand.

I too regularly discover previously discovered territory and suddenly need to delve into every aspect of it to find some sort of clue as to the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. I watch, read, and listen to old stories with the enthusiasm of a child, only then realizing that scores of others have probably already gleaned some sort of meaning or understanding from them. I see the same emotion in a black and white filmed face as I do in the mirror. I hear the same emotions in the early radio voices as I do in my own. And I feel the same feelings that the authors do in the books I read. I see in them the same desperate search for something beyond ourselves that seems to be universal if not timeless. And out of all this infinite information that there is to glean in the world, and perhaps beyond it, I still can’t help but suspect that it will take more than a lifetime to summarize it into one definitive and neatly edited answer. And if and when I do, I would be content, honored, and somewhat ironically amused if the answer just happened to be… 42.