Milestones

An obligatory 5 year retrospective of blogging

kgb

Actually, there’s nothing saying I have to write a blog concerning the fact I have been blogging for five years (however intermittent my posts), but somehow it seemed like an important benchmark of my internet life.  That’s half a decade of writing things of questionable literary quality and thrusting it into the quasi-public sphere of internet readership.  Sometimes I feel angry that I don’t have a million followers and haven’t figured out how to make my livelihood just on the basis that I have a blog with more than zero posts in the archives, but I quickly realize this anger is misguided and born of some delusion that because I am on the internet I should be famous.  That’d be like saying since I lived in L.A. I should be a celebrity.

The internet has this potent magic, a heady mix of entertainment and information; and, somehow, it can easily convince an individual of his massive importance to the world.  It’s even more intoxicating when you realize that it only takes one thing to distinguish yourself amongst your virtual peers.  Heck, sometimes it doesn’t even need to be original.  In fact, the internet is so full of simulacra that even if you thought you had an original idea, it already exists.

So, what to do? Well, in my case I jumped on pretty much every internet fad that has passed through the limelight. (And since internet time is exponentially faster, that count is reaching the septillions.) Consequently, I have been deeply disappointed since about age 12, but I did have a pretty fine mastery over the Geocities html editor interface.  Now, in the third decade of my life, I have come to an understanding that if I am not destined to be an internet elite, I will be its connoisseur.  Like a sommelier, my palette will discern the very best, leading me to the deep and complex underneath a sea of facsimile.  Then, rather than projecting my good taste onto the world via some social networking medium, I’ll keep it to myself, treasuring my snobbery in that tiny reptilian heart that beats so cold in the deepest reaches of the soul.

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Grab an Egg for the Equinox Cometh

kgb

Tomorrow is the first day of Autumn, one of my personal favorites of the four seasons.  In junior high social studies class we balanced an egg, which thinking back seems unusual for a project in social studies.  I believe it was less to do with any vague practice of balancing eggs in ancient cultures and more to do with my teacher’s own apparent fascination with oddities arisen of gravitational force.  So as an 11 year old I squatted in mute awe as an egg sat on its narrow end, quite as if that was its preferred position of rest.  To clarify, these were raw eggs; something about cooking the yolks makes balancing trickier, I guess.  It also works best around noon, so afterwards you can use the egg for a nice luncheon sandwich.

The newest year

kgb

Greetings to all in this new year! 2011 seemed to slip by, as the years always do, before I feel I’ve gotten a chance to really do anything worthwhile and productive.  I guess I was in Japan half the year, and the other half I managed to complete my second to last semester as an undergraduate.  So, it’s not as if I’ve totally squandered a 12 month cycle.  That being said, I’d like to make the most of this year, seeing as how 1) I am graduating from college, becoming a real person, yadayada, and 2) this could potentially be the last year of human civilization as we currently know it.

Of course, saying I want to make the most of the year could be interpreted in a variety of ways.  For instance, in regards to the second point, I could take my reservations to discount completely these apocalyptic predictions of the future and put them to use as motivators for otherwise reckless behavior.  If I perish in the midst of some ridiculous stunt as a result, well, the world might end anyway, so what’s the harm? Would I rather regret in some purgatory all the stuff I’d hoped to do if only I’d shown some more gumption, or live out what I partly assume to be my remaining days in an extraordinary manner? (As one might have guessed, this is a rhetorical question.)

However, in the event human civilization continues as it has, I’d like to maneuver myself through multiple environments, perhaps settling in a place for a bit to enjoy thoroughly the sites.  Particularly, I’d like to learn more languages of a wide variety: Polish, Russian, Korean, French, maybe even some Danish.  I guess now I’m speaking more about what I’ll do with myself in the next few years, as it might be a tad ambitious to study 5 languages simultaneously.  Though, there could be an argument for keeping the brain agile, the more things it attempts to take in at once.  I suppose I’ll just have to give it the ol’ trial and error treatment.

celebrating independence!

kgb

Yesterday was the 4th of July, a day of great import to the history of the United States.  Tommy J. completed his draft of the Declaration of Independence, AKA Georgie, go f*** yourself, and we New World colonists went out for a round of Sam Adams and shot off some Big Cat fireworks.  So, in keeping with such grand tradition I spent the evening part of yesterday nursing some pale summer ales and watching a colorful sky show put on by the neighbors.  I think it’s also appropriate to mention, and somehow foretelling of the direction this country’s headed these days, that my Independence day supper was a delicious chorizo quesadilla followed up with some teensy burgers (sliders in TGI Friday talk).  Really, it was a great day.  Happy America!