Summer Obsession
I have no idea why…
Old, New, & the art of not caring anymore
Some intentionally put things aside, making them destined to reside solely in the past. The rationale is that they’re no longer relevant to the current day and age, being either too old or too childish for the thinker’s sensibilities. What’s odd is that in time, that same person is likely to lament for its loss.
Why? Answer: Because somewhere along the line, we actually started listening to a society that told us to put away childish things.
Something has been happening to me over the last few months, & I don’t quite understand it yet. My focus shifts; & my priorities change yet somehow remain the same. My artistic mind branches out of the box which I tried to keep it, and I suddenly feel as though the number of years I’ve charted on this world don’t have any bearing or relevance on anything.
Life shouldn’t be governed by an age iterator.
It was Fathers Day this past weekend, and while shopping for my daughter’s first bicycle, I wandered into the aisle where the skateboards were kept. For those who know me pretty well, skating was one of my favorite activities when I was younger. While some did it as a means for social rebellion, I actually think I stumbled on the quasi zen-like aspect of it. When I skated; everything else went away and it was just me, the board, and the street. It may sound corny, and maybe it is, but that doesn’t make it any less true.
I’ve missed that feeling, for going on 15 years now. I can remember swearing up and down that I would never stop skating, no matter how old I got. Yet, I put skating away, because that’s what was expected of me when I got older. It was the act of putting away childish things, or as I understand Corinthians (13:11) to say.
I am so tired of the expectations game. I am so goddamned bone weary of being expected to and trying to fit in with the common belief of what I should do, of how I should behave. As far as I am concerned, the stigma of popular perception can be damned; I’m going to do what I want. I’m not looking to intentionally confound expectations; I’m just making those expectations irrelevant.
As it happened, Father’s Day was also National Go Skateboarding day (who knew?). When I combined all these things, the way I used to enjoy skating, my oddly changing perspective, and the convenient existence of a holiday as an excuse; there was absolutely no reason not to get one.
So dammit, I did.
After putting together my daughters bike (remember, priorities), I spent a little while skating next to her while she rode. The first thing I noticed was my timing, or lack thereof. It’s a decade and a half rusty, and something I’ll have to work on getting back. What I won’t have to work on getting back, however, was that feeling I used to get. THAT came back right away.
My wife jokingly remarked that I was trying to recapture my lost youth. A friend of mine laughed when I mentioned my weekend activities, first asking me how old I was. I honestly can’t see what age has to do with anything, and there are likely other things I have discarded from my youth that I’m of a mind to regain.
I don’t think it’s in the hands of society at large to define what being an adult is and isn’t. At one point in time, playing video games was considered exclusive to the young, something no “self-respecting adult” would ever be caught doing. Amazing how things can change in the span of a generation.
All the good things… part 2
I don’t talk too much about my family on my blog. Part of the reason is that it’s not really a well kept secret that I have a blog, and I can never tell when any of them might actually decide to read it. So, as a rule I refrain from mentioning them too often, mainly out of respect for privacy and what they may not want shared with the world at large.
In conclusion to the first post of this type, these are the things I got from my father…
If you want something, be prepared to work for it.
Free rides are rare, oftentimes not really free, and should never be expected. If you are not prepared to put in the time to get it, then you probably don’t deserve it in the first place.
Keep your word
This comes from a time when your word was one of, if not the most valuable thing a man had. In a world where we see people break their words too often, it has never been more important to maintain this.
Actions have consequences
If you screw up, you are going to get nailed for it, period. Nothing makes you special, nothing make you exempt.
Sometimes you have to break the rules
Rules are important, but there are times when there are things more important than rules. The challenge is to know what those are and when to follow this lesson.
Do what you have to, and if necessary, pay for it
Finally, in a world where actions have consequences and rules sometimes have to be broken, this lesson reigns supreme. If you have to break the rules, do it, but be ready to stand tall when you get called on the carpet for it.
Like before, I could probably write a post three times longer than this, citing all kinds of examples. However, I think my point has come across. Today is an important day. Think about the things that make you what you are, and think about how many of those things probably come from your father.
Go give him a call…
I’ve paid my dues…
I was going to leave it alone, I was going to let it pass without comment or rant, considering it to be not worthy of my time or attention.
But, gorramit, I just couldn’t frakking do it…
There are a lot of things I am, and a lot of things I’m not, nor will ever be. I’ll figure out a way to fly to the moon before I ever become a muscle bound athlete. Center stage at a large gathering is NOT a place I call home, and my tastes in entertainment do not follow the mainstream.
However, one of the things I definitely consider myself to be is a Geek. It’s a title I wear proudly into my adulthood. It has deep roots in my current career, and equally in the next career I hope to have. Yet, this title didn’t come without a cost. In order to be considered a legitimate Geek, you had to pay heavy dues. Fellow geeks know exactly the kind of dues I’m talking about.
For the unenlightened, I’m obviously not talking about mailing a check to a treasury or chairman of some gorram club. These dues are paid over a long period of childhood, in blood, sweat, tears, and emotional anguish.
So, naturally, it frakking outrages me to see the kind of shit that’s happening today. Suddenly, being geek is chic, and all the “cool kids” are doing what they’ve always done, which is follow the trends.
It started with gaming. Videogames were one of the bastions of geekdom. Now, jocks and teenage princesses are buying consoles, playing Halo, and calling themselves “Gamers”. These so-called gamers don’t have a clue what a Grue is, or the significance of LOAD “*”,8,1 (at least, not without resorting to Google…).
This influx of numbers to the gaming population has led to the stagnation of the entire occupation, as game developers scramble to cater to these people. Perhaps this is why gaming has begun to suck over the last couple of years.
Now, this movement has hit the movie screens. From what I understand, being a fan of Star Trek is suddenly cool.
Let the full meaning of that statement sink in for just a moment. Star Trek? Cool? Once upon a time being a fan of Star Trek earned you immediate ridicule, almost guaranteed to be followed by a wedgie (or worse). Yet, because of the new movie just released, it’s suddenly considered to be a good thing?
The new movie is good; I have no complaints about it (aside from it being a reboot). What pisses me off are the people who are suddenly coming out of the woodwork claiming that they’re trekkies. I can guarantee you that none of these jackasses know Trek, not like true geeks do. Why? It’s because it was people exactly like them that made our lives miserable for it not so long ago.
I ground my teeth at the absurdity of the Society for Geek Advancement video, the one that tried to define what a geek really was and failed miserably. I held back my comments when pretty boy Ashton Kutcher was called the “King of Celebrity Geeks”, just because he uses PDA’s and Twitter. I simply did a :facepalm: at the very idea of Shaquille O’Neal ever being considered a geek.
Honestly, I really shouldn’t care. None of it is that important in the grand scheme of things. Somehow it went from being a geek meant being ostracized, to being a geek means everyone wants to be like you. In some ways, it can be argued that I should feel some sense of smug satisfaction.
But I don’t.
I paid my dues, I put up with it all, from the taunting to the name-calling to the general sense of being made to feel like I didn’t belong. Today, being a called geek is regarded as a good thing, and I consider that the long awaited reward for my patience. These assholes have no right laying claim to something they didn’t earn.
Weekly Tweets for 2009-06-14
- dominant thought of the day: accept the things you cannot change, or change the things you cannot accept? #
- I think I am just destined to annoy people, so I should just stop fighting it…. #
- g’morning twitterverse… got to work and there was no coffee… someone may have to die… #
- “Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else?” – James Thurber #
- Apple did what I expected them to do at WWDC: announce a big update to their laptops… makes me glad I waited http://tinyurl.com/n7qpay #
- designing a flying pirate ship… kinda fun, actually….. #
- gawd.. when compared to CS4, Photoshop 5 is just painful to use… #
- whaddya get when you cross a pirate ship with a tie bomber? heh heh, just wait and see… ;P #
- I have Pantera’s “Planet Caravan” running through my head… dunno why, I haven’t thought about/heard that song in ages… *shrug* #
- RT @SavingEveryday: & @LarryElmore are giving away a FREE $50.00 gift certificate! Good till 12/31/2009 http://bit.ly/vagOA Please RT #
- RT @starwars: R2-D2 Easter Egg Revealed in Star Trek film. He’s tiny, but he’s there! http://bit.ly/MTXSl #starwars #startrek #
- “Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.” – Plato #
- drawing a girl hanging upside down… not so easy…. *wads up paper* grrrrrr…… #
- composition ideas: check… really ugly thumbnail sketches: check… busy weekend of drawing ahead of me: check… #
- it would appear that I now officially have a new niece… that brings the count to 6… *shakes head in wonder* #
- watching the Tudors and designing a logo… I really want sleep… *zzzzzzz* #
- “An artist is a creature driven by demons. He doesn’t know why they choose him and he’s usually too busy to wonder why.”- William Faulkner #
- OK, seriously… is there ever a time when the USA channel is NOT showing NCIS??? #
- I’m beginning to seriously believe that the whole “My Little Pony” idea is nothing more than the result of someones acid trip gone bad…. #
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