Free Flow

I am sitting in the coffee shop and wishing that I could collect my thoughts better in my head. If I could get them in some semblance of order who knows I might be able to write a book or something. I have bits and pieces of stories all over the place in their but nothing is built up enough for me to to even want to begin the process of trying to build a cohesive story. I am not even sure what that would actually look like.

I know that I enjoy writing when I do it. But often I do not have a reason to lay it all down on paper and if I do not have a reason then it feels to me like I am just blindly stumbling along without any real sense of direction and focus and I would prefer it if my writing had some sort of focus or goal to it. Maybe that is the problem and I just need to sit down and do more straight free writing and just get it out so that I can begin with a clean slate or have those fragments of ideas written down someplace and use that as a building block to begin from.

It would be really easy for me to just sit here and write an abusive and judgmental commentary about the people around me and the way they look and the way they act. It often seems like that is what blogging is for. But I would rather I not write like that. I would rather build something that people find interesting and enjoyable to read. I would love it if my writing caused and emotional reaction but not one of anger. That does not seem healthy at all. Though Lord knows the internet seems to thrive on just that thing. It really seems like hatred or anger drives traffic or button clicks and if you can touch the right emotion then people will light up your blog or article with all kinds of comments.

I wonder if there is even a place on the internet for the nice guy. It often seems that you have to be snarky or abusive and really that isn't me. It used to be. That is for sure. I am just not so enamored of the purity of my opinions anymore. I am willing to be wrong and am willing to listen to an idea when presented to me in a polite and respectful manner.

Like the Judge said in "Caddyshack" "The world needs ditch diggers too."

Wednesday Rant

I love the internet! There I said it. I am not ashamed of that either. I love what it can do for me. I love that I have instant access to information about pretty much anything and everything in the world. It lets me pursue any interest that pops into my head or track down any little tidbit about anything that I need to find and that I need to find right now.

But, there is a dark side of the internet that I am rapidly growing tired of. That is the fact that it is often just being used as a platform for people to throw out their ideas or opinions about things. Now I realize the irony of that since I use a blog to do the exact same thing. But it seems like more and more these websites and blogs use anger to drive their traffic. It rarely is that they enjoyed something and want to encourage others to give it a try. It is how much they hated something and hey lets all get together and make fun of it or talk about how lame it is. It is just traffic generated by hatred and angst and the breaking down of others and I am so tired of it.

I do not know that there is a lot that I can do about it other then to not add to their traffic and to not stoop down to the level of the commentators. I do find myself more and more calling people out when they make a comment that is asinine or just mean for meanness sake. What really winds me up is when people seemingly read an article and comment solely because they dislike or hate that topic. I see it often on newspaper articles concerning the Portland Timbers. There are people that hate Soccer, which is fine, but they purposely track down articles about Soccer or the Timbers and make comments about how much they hate Soccer. I just do not get that at all. I do not like the Portland Trailblazers or really Basketball in general but I have other things I can do then look for articles and complain about them. It is of no benefit to me at all to do that.

SO STOP IT FOLKS!! Let's all spread love instead.

Monday Morning Post Olympic Blues

Hey everybody, it is Monday and normally I do not ever have a 'case of the Mondays' but I am feeling a little groggy today so please bare with me.

I watched a couple of things this weekend. The first thing was the end of the Olympics in London. I normally do not watch much of the festival and ceremony stuff but I wanted to check out the closing ceremonies because the music portion of the even sounded like it could be pretty cool. I think overall it was a resounding success. If I had any complaints it would be more about how NBC handled the actual showing of the broadcast then the actual show itself. As usual, despite it being tape delayed, NBC dropped the ball. They really have become a horrible network.

The reason that I am harping on NBC is because along with the Olympics I watched a new sitcom offering of theirs called 'Animal Practice'. Now, do not get me wrong. I don't hate the show with the hate of a 1,000 burning sons. I also made a point to myself to watch it with an open mind. But honestly, in the 20 minutes that the show lasted. It was shown commercial free which was a nice move by NBC I thought. But, I laughed one time. ONCE. That is a horrible ratio. It is possible that since the show was laugh track free that I was confused and didn't notice the cues. But I doubt it. The jokes really fell flat for me and even the actors, three of whom I really like, did not work for me. The show is just plain and fine and is professionally done but it is so, boring and bland. There is literally nothing special about it at all and I guess if that is what NBC is looking for then mission accomplished. Well done.

I think I am going to enjoy following the reviews of the new shows on NBC this season because like the twitter hash tag says, this is going to be a year of epic #NBCFAIL

Scandinavian Festival

As most of you know, I live in the great and the beautiful Pacific Northwest. I think most of you know because the majority of my readers live here as well. I love it here and I honestly can't think of places that I would rather live. Though to honest I would, at some point in my life, like to live in Great Britain somewhere or in Sweden or Norway for a little while just to experience it.

So along those lines I went down to Junction City Oregon yesterday for the first day of the 52nd Annual Scandinavian Festival. The link really will give you far more information then I can about the event. But what I really wanted to tell you about was the pleasant nature of the small town atmosphere. I really did enjoy myself. Now it isn't like anything groundbreaking happened and I learned that I descend directly from the mighty Viking Eric the Red. But it was just a nice and pleasant day. The food was excellent and on a high note there was none of the oompa music that is so prevalent at Mt Angel and the Oktoberfest. I think that is basically because everything that Scandinavian's do is far better done and far more interesting then anything that a dirty German could accomplish.

I do have to address one particular food highlight for me and that is the Aebelskiver.

They are basically round balls of dough fried up in a specially made cast iron pan and people put jam on them. I am sure that there is some sort of official definition of them. But, all I know is that they are amazingly good and I wanted to eat a mound of them piled high on a plate with melted butter and powdered sugar dusted all over them.

To close out my blog post pandering to Scandinavians I will leave you with a few music videos showcasing some different types of music from that part of the world.

That was a more traditional number....

I like curling and metal but this one left me kind of speechless

Lastly the Icelandic band 'Of Monsters & Men" who I totally love. 

Job Hunt

Hey there loyal readers, I hope you are well. As you can see I am having a hard time getting back into the swing of things when it comes to blogging on a daily basis. I am back at my beloved Broadway Coffeehouse and trying to stay on top of things with a daily schedule so hopefully this is going to help me get onto more of a schedule as well as get me writing again.

The biggest obstacle for me right now is that I tend to write better when I am angry or righteously indignant about something. But I am working to move away from that. I really just do not care for how that sounds and honestly I am not convinced that my opinion is more valid or more important then anyone else and I would rather be able to have a conversation or debate about an issue then to shut them down with my anger or my sarcasm.

I think that I will go back to my music library and finish that exercise up. I really enjoyed sharing the music I like with people and I felt like a fair amount of you enjoyed it as well. So I hope you guys enjoy that and if anyone has any ideas for work please do not hesitate to send them my way. I am open to pretty much anything and everything. I also have a van now so I am more then willing to drive packages to Canada or anywhere else in the Americas. No questions asked!

Hook me up folks!!