Without a net...

Housekeeping note: I have signed this blog up with Feedburner.com, so if you click the link to the upper right, you can receive email updates for the blog, rather than clicking back here in between my posts, or waiting for one of my updates via a social networking site, personal email, etc.

Heard a great piece of writing advice the other day. "I don't understand writers who say they are suffering from writer's block. My father supported his family for 41 years by working in a factory, and never once did he suffer from 'factory block' ".

So as I sit here and let my mind wander and my fingers hang limply, I wonder where I should take today's blog post. It feels kind of like setting out through a field, trailblazing; and not being able to look back and see how many people are following me, or urging me to go in a different direction than the one I might be about to take. On one hand there is the exciting thrill of the unknown looming just ahead and on the other, the burden of readability and audience interest.

I don't think I have enough of a coherent train of thought today to launch into a typical (for this blog, anyways) post, so lets just stick with the housekeeping note theme and clean house a bit with some random thoughts.

-The "best side of original vinyl ever pressed" question I included at the end of my last post has generated quite a lot of debate amongst my friends. I am still working on a full post for this topic but I wanted to note some of the initial reflections I have gotten.

Beatles, White Album, Side 3
Led Zepplin, III, Side 1
Pearl Jam, Ten, Side 1
Jimi Hendrix, Electric Ladyland, Side 4
Michael Jackson, Off the Wall, Side 1

And several more... I am going to be conducting some research on this, and will have the full post soon. (None of those listed above are going to be #1, just FYI.) Please comment with any ideas you have on the subject!

-Speaking of music, have any of my Daniel Quinn fans (...and if you aren't yet, you should be. Run, don't walk, to your nearest library and check out Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn. Seriously, read this later. Go, go!) listened to 40 oz. of Freedom by Sublime, lately? "We're Only Going to Die from Our Own Arrogance" (track 4, I believe)

Early man walked away, as modern man took control
Their minds weren't all the same, to conquer was their goal
So they built their great empire, and slaughtered their own kind
And died a confused man, killed self with his own mind.

Interesting, eh?

-Brief political aside. Obama/Edwards versus McCain/Romney or McCain/Huckabee? The youth, progressiveness and vitality of one ticket contrasted against the senior, warhawking, conservative and heavily religious overtoned ticket on the other side. Can we really honestly imagine Barack and John debating in real time, live on national television? What's the over/under on "senior moments" and "misspeakings" for that event?

And even though Bill Richardson probably has Sec. of State all wrapped up, I think it would be humorous for Obama to offer THAT position to Hillary, seeing as she has so much foreign policy experience.

-I have been honored over the past couple weeks to read a lot of good, good writing and personal/emotional pieces from my other blogging friends. (You know, not banging these things out gives me a lot of extra time, for things like reading.) I'm glad I surround myself with people who are smarter and more personally available than me. A couple of housekeeping notes to them and others, hopefully they know who they are:

YOU have lots to give, and I don't think you can appreciate how much influence you wield, so please don't withhold anything from the world because it doesn't "feel right". Produce!
YOU think beyond me, and I enjoy every minute of struggling to catch up and grasping at where your mind is. Engage!
YOU engage so many, you fight multi-fronted wars, and undaunted you pick yourself up after each, dust yourself off and fight again. Inspiring!
YOU carry both the optimism and the ability. I feel that maybe there is a disconnect somewhere that if I could diagnose and fix I would, even though that would mean losing you to the world where you would be wildly successful. Entertain!
YOU are my outlet to a different world, and a connection I would have never thought I'd make. First and foremost, though, a friend. Prosper!

-Sometimes I look at the world that surrounds me and try to take things in, and process them, and make sense of it all. And not in a philosophical, Einstein, grand unified theory kind of way, but more like Michaelangelo climbing down from the scaffolding of the Sistine Chapel*, after having his nose an inch away from damp fresco paint for nine hours and going "Oh yeah, there's more to THIS than just the part I'm focusing on right now."

*With regards to my "movie scene" post and the Sistine Chapel, Robin Williams' monologue from Good Will Hunting is one of those few scenes (that I would have considered for that post) out there for me that switch categories; from good to great to wow and back again. Sometimes it feels trite ("...a Taster's Choice moment between guys?") and sometimes it feels almost painful ("...they knew the terms 'visiting hours' don't apply to you"). But, I guess I have, in the past caught that movie at just the right time, and felt the "wow" factor, too. ("...I can't learn anything from you, I can't read in some fuckin' book.")

Just kind of putting things back in perspective. I get very bound up in things, minute tiny details that fascinate or horrify me and I feel like I lose the overall gist of the world I inhabit, sometimes. And that's usually when I end up blogging, so all I can ask is that you bear with me if my writing gets muddied or too wandering.

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Well, I'm not sure I conquered writer's block in any meaningful way, but I put the fingers to the keys and wrote. At least my muse didn't have to go looking for me today!