take two

So on retrospect, that first post today sucked, and I still technically owe a post from that time I skipped. So here's one that kinda sums up what this is all about. The small things matter. In fact, in many ways they matter more. It comes from many sides, that sunny day that makes you smile, the smell of freshly done laundry (or even better, bacon and coffee in the morning), or tv's best written show (Firefly and Arrested Development can have a theoretical fight over that). The little things are the ones that keep us going, that remind us that it is in fact all worthwhile, and that every day has has the opportunity for greatness. So go run through the snow, put on your CAMP (which is an acronym that that means absolutely nothing to anyone but me and someone who is very unlikely to read this), and belt out your new favorite song (preferably with other people there to join along) because today's going to be a good one.

yeah, that's a way better post

Why, thank you!

So maybe this makes me sound a little bit more codependent than I really think I am, but man does it feel good when you do something you're proud of, and everyone else agrees with you. Absolutely 100% there's a lot to be gained by feeling good on your own about your own work, because as much as anything else, when I do something new and different it feels good. Trying out new dishes (bacon tomato jam was awesome), songs (all over the What's the Story Morning Glory Album, and yes the bonus answer to a previous post is on that album), or boring work stuff (gross!), it all felt good just to do. But the icing on the cake was that I'm not crazy and other people thought so too. But let's be honest, who couldn't love bacon, stewed tomatoes in red wine, and sugar/honey. mmmm

The sun'll come out...

So starting us off on a moderately depressing note. Have you ever read Nietsche? One of his central tenets, contributing to that loveliest movement, nihilism, was that life is inherently pain, if for no other reason than because we must all realize that we will die and that's the end. Sunshine and Lollypops that guy... He continues on to his secret, we all constantly lie to ourselves that tomorrow will be better, that the things we do matter, that there's a life after death (in memories if not the incorporeal afterlife of several somewhat prominent religions).

But you know what, screw that guy. Because this week's big idea is that there are lots of things that matter on a personal level even if not on a cosmic one (though who knows with butterfly wings and all that... sorry Iceland...). And one of the best of those is having good news to look forward to. Could be big or small, but really just the knowledge that absolutely something good is just around the corner really makes food taste better, the sunshine seem brighter, and music oh so soulcrushingly delicious. And on that note... April Smith is coming to Schubas!

If you want to sing out, sing out

Growing up, I've always been a fan of musicals. Driving from Cleveland to New York, we'd listen to Fiddler on the Roof, Evita, Phantom of the Opera and Disney songs on repeat (that's 8 hours of musicals minus the times around cities where my dad would sometimes switch to sports talk radio overriding many groans). Minimal masculine influences aside (and he too is a great fan), there's not a whole lot that feels better than singing louder than you should to the songs that make you feel good. Whether it's my dad singing "I am woman hear me roar" (sorry waiters of the world), my sisters singing "ease on down the road" down the driveways of our childhood, bar/house party with a big group of friends with "John at the Bar" and "Paul the real estate novelist", or more recently me, a guitar, and hurty fingers hanging out in my room, it's always the right time to let everyone know that the music is in you. Now if only I had any talent.... karaoke here I come!

(What's the story) morning glory

You wake up and the sun is shining. You knew it would come, but it just never seemed to happen. It's the first real day of spring. Not that end of March equinox that tells us hey Spring is here, but the one that matters. The one where you put away your coat, drop on a tshirt, maybe some sandals if you're feeling sassy and go hit the town. Play some sports, go for a walk in the park, eat outside! Amazing, if there's anything Chicago winters have taught me, it's that one day, it'll be over and the sun will shine again.

and another one bites the dust

So I didn't quite make it every week, being weirdly resistant last week towards writing these, which is weird (or maybe not) because really I've had a pretty good couple weeks. Which brings me to this week's topic: Turning the corner.

We've all been there, had a little down period where things weren't quite what they wanted to be, but is there really anything better than coming out and really realizing that things are going to be ok. I'm a big believer in trying to let things pass naturally, which has imbued me with a pretty consistent nonchalance, but I've been on a bit of down swing recently.

But today is a new day. Had my first shorts and sandals day (alright afternoon) of the year. The sun will shine, tennis and walks in the park will recommence. And there's no reason to think that tomorrow won't be better.

MMM bacon

I love food in general, but one of my favorite parts is those first couple wafts of the deliciousness that you know is coming. I'm sitting in my room right now smelling delicious buttery home fries and man does that make me hungry.

Science has told us that smell is one of the strongest identifiers of memories, and thinking back I can pretty much taste the pan-fried soft shell crab that used to be the last meal wish of a friend, the slowly simmering spaghetti sauce that I'd have to come in and taste all day. Lovely.

Movies

So I can already tell that I'm going to be bad at doing this, particularly if i start having actual things to do with my life, but here's number 3.

I love movies, probably more than most people though I understand that, like music, pretty much everyone loves movies. I've seen 9 of the 10 Oscar nominated films this year, a couple of them for the first time at an Oscar showcase over two weekends, 18 of the top 20 current Netflix top 100, and I'm currently watching When Harry Met Sally (easily the best romantic comedy of all time). I'm more than a little obsessive with them, but really there isn't a whole lot I'd rather do than sit around and watch movies all day, with bonus points for being curled up with someone else while watching them.

The best part of movies is there ability to absolutely gut-wrenchingly change your state of mind. I'm talking walking out of Transformers that first time and just wanting to punch the sky because man that was awesome, I'm talking seeing Jurassic Park as a 7 year old kid scared shitless for the next 6 months that raptors are going to jump through my window and eat me (extremely unlikely...), I'm talking watching 500 Days of Summer and wanting more than anything else to be in love. Movies are awe-inspiring, movies are horrifying, movies are love. What more could you ask for for $12 bucks and 2 hours of your life?

While I've seen a lot, I readily admit to liking some absolutely terrible movies because really it doesn't take a whole lot for me to get caught up in a movie. For example, 28 Days Later... completely nonsensical horror story disappointingly categorized as a zombie movie when it really isn't (similar to I am Legend which also completely missed the point of the original story)... but with music so unbelievably perfect that I could watch the movie with no visuals and enjoy it, even with the mostly terrible dialogue. I have similar love of otherwise debatably not great directors: Kevin Smith (nerd satire and dialogue), Wes Anderson (quirk and music), and Monty Python troupe (ridiculous hilarity).


One of those few things that can ruin movies I'm going to affectionately deem "Movie Nazis", those people so absolutely sure of their own opinions that any other opinions are wrong and they'll let you know about it. It's hard to enjoy a movie with the constant reminder that this story is trite and overdone (I don't care about the story Avatar was shit-my-pants amazing), that actor was terrible (fine Keaunu Reeves can't act but he didn't need to for the Matrix), or that puppets are terrible (Team America: World Police was hilarious and if you came expecting anything other than the ridiculous puppets you saw then you're clearly not going to the right movie). So be accepting, learn to love them all from the outrageously pretentious drama (Synecdoche New York) to that mindless Action movie that knows exactly what it is (Shoot Em Up). Variety is the spice of life!

So times to get Scrubs style self-reflective. All things considered, I'd love to be a movie critic, but I lack the talent to do so and have an annoying tendency to ramble on about completely unrelated things. That's one of the reasons I'm writing this blog, to help myself focus myself while writing about things that matter to me. Practice makes perfect and I hope that in rereading these some day they start to make sense.

Flexible fingers

Screw opposable thumbs, fingers are where it's at. Do you ever stop and think about how much it would suck to have paws? Sure you'd have those sweet soft foot pads (nerd points for Ninja Dogs?) and potentially retractable claws (which I'm pretty sure wolverines don't actually have... I wonder if he's more like a cat). But you wouldn't be able to do all these wonderful things like painting the next great work of art, or building schools, penning the great american novel, or in my case mostly playing obscure and mostly terrible guitar songs and occasionally typing up a mostly meaningless blog that helps make sure you're routinely looking at the happier things in life.

So here's to fingers

People taking you too literally

So I've got what I'm going to call a flexible relationship with the truth, which sounds worse than it is really. I'm by no means a compulsive liar, which also sounds pretty terrible... But I do tend to speak in hyperbole, am completely willing to make assumptions and educated guesses to answer people's questions, and will on occasion toss out throw-away lines that are just patently not true, but mostly when I assume that whoever I'm talking to knows that I'm being needlessly facetious. So for example, don't be surprised if you ask me to pass the salt and I say "God no" then pass you the salt. It's like a brain fart, I have no idea why I do it, but it's something that I do fairly regularly. On occasion though, I forget that people don't know I do this, which I imagine is very confusing for them.

But the real crux of this is probably my dad, who really just doesn't seem to get my throwawy lines sometimes. My two favorite related stories came after he asked me what I wanted:

for Christmas - "a platypus"
which lead to this Christmas morning (liberally paraphrased):
Dad - I'm sorry Dai that I couldn't find that game you wanted. I went to all the stores and none of them had it in stock
Me - What game?
Dad - "A Platypus", is it for Xbox? because no one had it or even seemed to know what I was talking about.
Me - ...

to be when I grow up - "a rock superstar, live large, big house, five cars, be in charge"
which lead to my birthday when he gave me a guitar(again probably even more liberally paraphrased... I mean come on I did start off this post saying I'm a liar):
Dad - So you want to be a rockstar. You should get to practicing
Me - ...

2/20/10 A New Beginning

So the initial incarnation of me playing with blogs was not effective. I didn't care nearly enough to maintain it, and in fact have recently replaced it by sending myself emails, creating a growing gmail folder called recipes that I'm checking boxes on. So far, nothing too special, but there's time and patience. I'll find something worthwhile eventually.

So try #2 at blogs is to post every Saturday Morning something awesome that makes me happy. I'm writing this down so if I come back to this later and I've wissed (thanks mom) out or given up, I'll have it in writing that I probably knew this was going to happen. Not sure if that should make me feel better or worse, but there it is. Also I don't intend to tell anyone about this blog so there's that too. Why am I writing this then? Hell if I know. I was reading 1000 Awesome Things and it made me think about all the awesome things in my life, and really I've got few complaints in my life.

So for the inaugural post... The Excitement that comes with doing something new

Call me crazy, but it feels good to try something. There's that little bit of unknown, and the expectation of success. They tell you when you're a kid that your life lays ahead of you, and all the opportunities of the world are open if you're blahblablahblahblah, but really they're right at least some of the time. Blahblahblah social rhetoric... I understand that not everyone has the same opportunities, and that there are completely legitimate reasons why the world is unfair. But you do have the chance to do something a little differently. Take a different route to work, try something different for dinner, be a lazy bum and watch a different tv show.

I fall in love with ideas, when I come up with something that seems like a good idea, I'll occasionally get kind of obsessed. It rarely comes out as well as I think it should, because really, what's as good as the things that you can come up with in your head (man is that depressing sounding). It can be big (deciding I wanted a farm with a vineyard after reading Animal Vegetable Miracle) or little (deciding to try and chew my food more often, this has thus far been extremely unsuccessful but totally makes your food taste better); it can be reasonable (the giant ridiculous spreadsheets I make at work because it seems like it'd be easier that way, but really just creates more work. Still less nerdy than Sam's vacation spreadsheet), or completely ridiculous (when I kinda fell in love with haikus, thanks Annalee...); but in this case, it's this blog. This seems like a good idea to me. It'll hopefully make me more thoughtful, and help me appreciate the little things in life.

So here's to you new thing for the day. I hope you stick.