Yesterday kinda sucked. Alright, it sucked a lot. But the reason was because I wasn’t able to talk to Bekki at a time that I would have been able to if I were home.
I went out with my family yesterday and, although it was a fun time, I missed Bekki more than I can describe. What bothers me, though, is that before we left I debated whether or not to go, but I figured Bekki wouldn’t have had a chance to call during the day. Damn.
I talked to her for a couple of seconds at about 2 yesterday afternoon, and it was only a couple of seconds because my family was acting crazy (as usual) and my cousin’s husband was taunting me, coercing me to possibly sound grim because I was flipping him off the entire time.
Damn, that’s all I can say. Just damn. I miss her so damn much. I would give anything in the world just to be able to talk to her for at least a lengthy amount of time!
I’m going to be repeatedly kicking myself the next couple of days for not being able to talk to her yesterday. What a missed opportunity.
On the weekends when I have nothing to do, I find myself relaxing in a daze, thinking about Bekki. Not being able to take my mind off of her (although I’m not trying to stop thinking about her). I miss her; I miss hearing her voice, hearing words emanate from her. I would give anything just to talk to her for a couple of minutes, even a couple of seconds, just to hear her emit the words “I love you.” There’s nothing more that will light your heart up than hearing those three words. I love her so damn much. I can’t wait to talk to her tomorrow.
Filed under: General | Tags: Blogging, Gonzo, Gonzo Journalism, Gonzo Wannabes, HST Wannabes, Hunter S. Thompson, Journalism, Journalists, reading, Wannabes, Writing
To all Hunter S. Thompson wannabes of the internet:
You are not — nor will you ever be — the second coming of Hunter S. Thompson. The first coming was more of a freak accident than anything else, and I doubt it will ever happen again. Please, quit trying to write like the man. It’s a sad thing to have to watch unfold right in front of my eyes.
I understand that he probably was an inspiration to you. Y’know what? He inspired the hell outta me, too. But I don’t go around writing half-fictionalized accounts of my life where I irritate people and be a raging prick at separate accounts. And I swear, if I have to read one more short story that starts out with “We were somewhere around [blank] when the [blank] began to [blank]. . .” I’ll lose it.
You have to look at the situation here.
Does television really rot someone’s mind? Or is it some huge facade that media outlets have made up to run news sources about to get everybody to read or look into it.
I’m not sure. Really, though, you tell me.
Television has gone a long, long way to becoming the most popular brand of entertainment — besides video games — there is. It’s been that way since the the 1950s, when black and white screens rocked the world. Before that it was radios. After radios, it was television.
I’m not talking about anything you watch; I’m talking about shows that draw you in and keep you watching all day long.
I don’t watch a lot of television. I’ll tune into some sports games I find to be marquee or I’ll occasionally check out what’s on Comedy Central. Other than that, what’s on my television screen is usually a movie from one of my several DVDs that I own.
The question here is: does TV really rot people’s minds?
You have to have facts and statistics here to really determine, but I don’t have either; yet I still want to go inside the situation here and attempt to figure out the correlation between disfunctional braincells and television.
Your mind is usually active when you’re watching TV (albeit not as much as when you’re reading), but it’s a passive process. You’re sitting there and your eyes are glued to whatever is going on on the screen.
When you’re watching sports, you gain more of a perspective (determined by who’s playing, though). When you’re watching CNN, you get your news and your information on what’s going on around the world. But if you’re watching cartoons or MTV, then get the hell off the two channels.
The fact that I directly formed a rapport between cartoons and MTV is a pretty harsh thing for me to do, but it stands true. Cartoons can be watched by anyone, but if you spend an entire day watching cartoons, your mind may start to deterioriate. As for MTV, it’s no longer completely music. You have pop culture turned into fashion statements on there, and it’s a pretty bogus television station.
Maybe I’m naive and ignorant, or perhaps this is just a biased and wistful observation anyway. Nonetheless, I don’t think TV rots people’s minds — I think it’s what people watch on TV that does.
Agree or disagree? Sound off via comments.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Blogging, Life, Rambling, Ranting, Writing
Every day I’m bombarded with ramblings by people who won’t shut the hell up about anything and everything, meaning they complain, and it’s all a bunch of redundant drivel all the while, y’know?
I’m tired of people bitching about things and I’m tired of bitching about people who bitch about things. I say:
GIVE ME SOMETHING NEW!
What the fuck is up with everyone? Can’t you just deal with life? Is it hard to get over the fact that you’re too lazy and it’s your fault for not eating less M&M’s instead of exercising? For the love of Larry Bird! I lost my uncle when I was 10, grandmother when I was 11, father when I was 12, friend when I was 15, another friend at the same age, and one of my best friends when I was 16. All the while being young. I’m 17 now. I’ve delt with it.
One day I’m going to get married to the love of my life, the beautiful Rebekka, have kids, make hordes of money, and live a great life with her no matter what, even if it doesn’t start out that way at the beginning.
And guess what? If that fucks up, then I’m going to eventually get over it, and transcend my life better than I could before. It’s just I’m that kind of guy who thrives when a challenge is placed upon a perch in his life.
Boo-hoo, my cat was run over when I backed out of the driveway in my over-sized SUV. Waaah, I made a 95 for an A instead of at least a 99. RARW, I dislike the American government because I helped elect the same guy twice.
You hear the above become tasteless jargon all the time, and it makes me want to leap off a bridge (NOTE: I wouldn’t though).
This rant is virtually dead. I have no more to say.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Blogging, books, Journal, MLB, NBA, NCAA, NFL, Prose, reading, Sports, Sports Journalism, Sports Writing, Sportswriting, Writing
Writing about sports is enthralling at times. Other times it is used as a mechanic to release your anger about something that is creeping on your nerves (perhaps the BCS system in college football).
It’s a great tool if you’re a writer wanting to get your thoughts out onto the web for people to read because speculation is open and debates are welcome (usually). Debating about sports can either be fun or futile. Fun being if you’re debating two teams strengths and weaknesses, futile being if you’re debating whether a player from a different position is better than the other.
But most people don’t understand how to write about sports.
Sportswriting — you write about sports and you leave yourself out. I know I don’t follow that a lot on here, but I can do it with ease if I want to. This being a blog, it’s not a professional website so to speak, as thoughts are recorded with several “I’s.” If you’re looking into being a sportswriter, you will have to avoid that.
Sportswriters are prolific. There’s a lot of sports news websites, and if you write for them, a lot of times it’s not going to be one blog a day — oh, no, it’s going to be more like five blogs a day, more-so because news around the sports world is like billions of atoms flying around. You learn to write fast and efficient. I think that’s why I have already written so many blogs for 17 Hours — I’m used to writing several posts at a torrid pace. This is a good thing and a bad thing (good because the site is receiving more content; bad because it could be more intermittent — but the good still outweighs the bad here).
You can’t be a writer without reading a lot and writing a lot, so you can’t expect to do anything less when you want to become a sportswriter, so don’t just think that all you have to do is have your eyes glued to the television screen all day to post some incoherent thoughts on the web about sports.
You have to be powered by crafty, sharp prose and have a knack for grabbing reader’s attention either in the lead or in the first paragraph. If you can’t do that, you’re done with an article, as most people won’t bother to read on if you don’t hook them like a fish in one of the starting sentences of your article.
Read anything and everything. I did. I kept reading everything no matter what it was from books to billboards. “Huh? Billboards?” Yes, billboards; I wanted to compact so many words into my mind because at the end of the day it would pay off and I would end up having a carousel of words to choose from when writing. I’ve read a lot and I’ve written a lot, and I’m still not done — I’ll never be done.
Avoid jargon and cliches. Back up your arguments with facts. Don’t talk down to the reader unless it’s a style of yours, but it only works if you’re comical.
If you write now, with no experience under your belt, your writing will be tenuous. However, if you make the strenuous efforts to become better, you will appreciate it in the long run.
Filed under: General | Tags: Annoyances, Blogging, frivolousness, Idiots, intentional annoyances, Morons, silliness
Going the Bekki route and knocking down a list.
1.) People who “think” they can write. Doesn’t bother me until they go around yelling aloud, “I’m a writer!” No you aren’t. I can easily tell when someone’s a terrible, pretentious writer pretending to be an accomplished one. It’s usually around the time that they ask me to read some of their terrible articles they have written. They can escape the major grammar issues and punctuation, but when they start blowing chunks at constructing a sentence or learning to piece together something that would be easy for Bekki or I to do, it’s obvious they’re faking it, y’know? This kind of goes into what I hate about people and their “but you can do it!” attitude. So what? I’m a writer. Big deal. You think I was born with this craft of knowledge about writing and sports? Hell to the no (even though my father was extremely crafty with his own leisure writing). I’ve read plenty of books, plenty of articles, plenty of everything. And nary an iota of dispair. So, like Lil Jon says in that idiotic rap song, read a book, junior, and build up those inexistent writing skills that you don’t have.
2.) People who stare at you dead in the face when you enter a room, and doesn’t stop staring until you sit down. What is the point of this? I know I’m just that damn fascinating, but come on.
3.) People who hate baseball
4.) People who brag about hating baseball to everyone they meet
5.) Idiots that — when they predict a game correctly and you didn’t — feel obliged to brag to you despite that they are one in the other thousands — even millions of people in this country — to pick that team to win. For the love of Larry Bird, act like you’ve lived over a day or two.
6.) Anyone who brag about anything for that matter. Everybody has stuff they COULD brag about; believe me, I have plenty. However, the wise and mature people know how to conduct themselves — too bad most people haven’t a clue.
(SIDE NOTE: Sorry, but I have to brag about one thing: I have the greatest girlfriend in the world.)
7.) People who think books are boring — what do you want the book to do, bark and flip over? Open it, read and use your mind.
8.) Posers
9.) People who don’t have a sense of humor.
10.) People who walk slow — y’know, it bothers me pretty badly. Unusually badly. I’m trying to get through the day and get things done. Unlike many, we who move on the go have a life to live, so for the love of Bill Russell, pick up the speed and have some mobility!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Blogging, books, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hell's Angels, Hunter S. Thompson, Journalism, reading, Schools, Writing
Considered this a masterpiece of a condensed rant. The school system is messed up in many ways, as I’ve ranted on in the past for several times about it. They’ll have teachers to force students to read the most awfullest bullshit that somebody had to of been high to have appended it to any literary category in the first place.
Hunter S. Thompson’s one of my favorite writers ever. His columns on ESPN.com’s Page 2 a few years ago were brilliant, the only reason I read Page 2 — I don’t even read it anymore unless Bill Simmons comes up with a new column, albeit I love the taglines at the top of the page as they’re pretty funny.
I read Hell’s Angels and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in 2004-2005, shortly before his death. Those books are two great reads that would be admirable if schools would add them to their list of books for students to read in their English classes. But they won’t, because of these three reasons:
1.) His explicit writing may not be suitable for young students (hell, what gives?)
2.) Thompson was an avid drinker of alcohol and occasionally smoked marijuana.
. . .
3.) Thompson committed suicide by a self-inflicted gun shot in February 2005.
Number one, I can maybe see a reason why schools don’t appreciate his work as much as the major consensus does. However, two and three shouldn’t deign his brilliant work and masterful art of literature. It’s BS. I never read anything worthwhile while I was in high school (albeit I still have the rest of this year left), but I hope teens of the future will have the chance to read valuable literature so they don’t become ignorant of all the great stuff that’s out there.
Filed under: General | Tags: Blogging, Hunter S. Thompson, Journalism, Sports Journalism, Sportswriting, Writing
I can see the flames growing in your journalistically pure eyes. And they’re hot, I know.
But before you send me the worst virus ever created, give me a few sentences.
I have a hardcore habit of using “I” in everything I write. The way a lot of people go about it makes them look arrogant and as if they know more about what they’re covering than their reader.
However, sometimes I try to apply the Hunter S. Thompson rationale to the issue. I believe writers cannot be absolutely ‘objective’ in stories or else it’s completely bland. This said, why not tell the reader where you’re coming from when you describe something like crowd or player reaction, a team’s energy, or a player’s rhythm. Sure, a column is the place for stuff like that, but, if not tastefully, I think it can enrich a story a bit.
The inverted PYRAMID should not restrict one’s ability to describe a scene. If you write about the experience, what you sensed, saw, heard, etc. there is no need for “I.” It’s like using “I think. . .” on a message board. Of course you think that — you’re posting it. If in a story you are describing the scene based on someone else’s reactions, you would cite that. But for the most part, you are describing the scene as you saw it, and readers know that.
Just don’t ever, EVER use “this sportswriter.” That’s annoying. Hell, or the ultimate copout of “we.” It’s your story, and everyone knows that.
Filed under: General | Tags: Bekki, Blogging, Diurnal, MLB, Nocturnal, Philadelphia Phillies, Sleeping, Virginia
Is it possible to be both a diurnal AND nocturnal person?
I believe it’s time to nod yes.
It seems a little far fetched, but I sleep in bits and pieces during the day and night. My schedule is bland and boring. I wake up in the morning and go to school. That’s my incredibly trite weekday schedule, due to the fact that it’s all there is to do in the excruciatingly boring town of Richlands, by-God-Virginia.
The only outlet of this place is Bristol, Virginia/Tennessee and Johnson City, Tennessee.
So, you can say that besides talking to Bekki on the phone (which I couldn’t be more of a proponent of) and pissing people off because I enjoy aggravating those that are so insecure that if you said one negative about them they would want to punch you, life in Richlands is more boring than ever.
Go home, nap, wake up, find something — no matter what — to do — wait, yes it does matter what.
I’m up late at night and I’m up early during the morning. I don’t have a problem with it, but the fact that both the aspects of night and day energy have never taken its toll, I’m shocked and surprised.
What the hell is going on?
It will catch up to me one day, but right now I’m enjoying it like the way Philadelphia Phillies fans have enjoyed the last couple of weeks (the Phillies defeated the Tampa Bay Rays in five games to win their first World Series title since 1980). Because of this fact of waking up early in the morning, I’ve had more time on my hands than usual.
So, you’re wondering: what can YOU grasp from this blog post? Possibly nothing — this is just a simply meaningless rant. If you feel as if you wasted your time reading this, fine, don’t reply in the comments by saying so, because you would be further wasting your time even more, and you really wouldn’t want to do that, right?
