Boys of Summer

by Don Henley from Building the Perfect Beast

Hello again from yet another extended blogging break, which is not coincidentally the topic of this very blog entry. If you scan back through my blog archive, you will see that I used to blog a lot more often. For a long time, it was weekly, occasionally more than twice a week. Now, it's monthly at the best, and I haven't even been keeping that up. I also was an active forum member on a few sites too but have since given that up also. I do use Twitter, but I don't really tweet too much. I have given some thought on whether I should continue with this blog. For the moment, I am keeping it in case I need an outlet to vent or drop some knowledge, much like I am doing right now. But I have been thinking why I don't blog as often I used to. It's not because nothing has been happening. There has been plenty to stuff to write about, just little motivation. I think I have found out why.

When I saw Jon Stewart do stand up in Vegas, he made a very illuminating joke. He lamented that although 80% of Americans are somewhere in the middle (more liberal on somethings, more conservative on others), our entire political process is driven by the extreme 20% of Americans. And he said the reason why is that normal people have "shit to do" while the 20% extremists don't have any shit to do so hence have all the time in the world to show up to protests, bombard their congressmen with letters and messages, and generally fuck shit up for the rest of us. And I have to say, I think that is the reason I don't blog as much as I used to. It's because i have shit to do now. When I mean by "shit" is not so much stupid, moronic stuff I have to do, it's just I have other things in my life going right now that quite honestly, I enjoy more doing than writing lots of blog entries or getting into flame wars in forums. For example, I have been seeing a new lady for the past few months so more of my time has been devoted to that. I have also been training for a marathon (coming up this Sunday!) which takes more than a few hours out of my spare time. Plus there is work, exercising, taking of bills, errands, shopping, plus you know fun stuff like hanging out with my friends, watching movies and baseball games etc. Alll this stuff or "shit" I am doing now really doesn't lend itself well to blogging or contributing to online forums on a frequent basis. I used to think I was super busy back in grad school and college and yeah I did take classes, work part time, study etc. But yeah while it was a busier life, it was not as "full" as my life is now. Hence, it made more sense to blog more often back then (especially about stupid shit like getting a bad grade, stupid encounters with people, and other trivial stuff like that).

I used to think that people who blogged a lot or contributed to online forums were actually living fuller lives than those who didn't. I mean somehow these people found time to do all this blogging/contributing and take care of their regular shit. But now I realize that yeah, all the blogging/contributing does involve extra effort and time, but yeah that extra effort and time could have been spent doing something else like volunteering, spending more time with the people you care about, going for a hike, etc. Take for example, Andrew Sullivan, he blogs all day long and its interesting. But where the fuck is the time for anything else? Not just time actually typing on the computer or phone, but the mental space it takes up. I went back to a forum I used to regularly contribute to 4 or 5 years back. There are still some of the same people who there back then, still debating and getting mad about the same old shit. It used to be that people who took the time to get involved with causes, movements, and other community organizations were to be commended. I have no doubt that some of them are actually civic minded and sincere in their efforts. But it just seems like a fuck load of them are that 20% Jon Stewart was talking about. People who don't have any shit to do so they get all riled up and use their time to shove their cause, views, etc down other people's throats. For example, go to any major news site like the New York Times or Washington Post and look at the comments on the articles. One would think people who read the news would be thoughtful people who like to be informed. But looking at the comments, they are filled with the most ignorant, moronic opinions from mostly people who make that 20% that don't have any shit to do. So they spend their time adding their lame completely illogical, ill-informed two cents so they can feel like they have just contributed to whatever cause, party, movement they prefer.

Here is a more personal example. The New Lady and I attended Lilith (but no longer called Fair) at the Shoreline Amphitheater a few weeks ago. As you may suspect, it was the New Lady's idea. I did go because I am a Sarah McLachlan fan. The performance were on the most part very good and aside from the lack of funnel cake, a great time. And like the Lilith fair stereotype, there were plenty of lesbians around. Which brings me to my example. While we were entering Shoreline, 3 protesters were outside in the parking lot, screaming over a loud speaker about the sinfulness of being gay and how all these lesbians were going to hell. They even trotted out their "God Hates Fags" signs too. Going through my mind at that moment were two things:

(1) Why the hell are you protesting and bashing gay people in Bay Area for crying out loud? I mean this was/is the cradle of gay rights movement. What were you expecting? Some lesbian with her GF from Haight standing in line to see The Bangles is suddenly going to realize she doesn't want to go to hell and then convert to being straight?

and most importantly (2) Channeling Jon Stewart, I wanted say, "Don't you have any shit to do besides this!" I mean it was a gorgeous Sunday afternoon. Did these anti-gay bigots wake up in the morning and think "Hey, instead of say going to a park, the beach, a museum, church, the mall, a coffee shop, library, water park, amusement park, bowling alley, baseball game, farmer's market, or just spending some quality time with the people I care about, I am going to spend this lovely Sunday afternoon in the middle of summer - screaming my guts out at some lesbians instead. I mean they didn't have any more meaningful shit to do in their lives besides this??!?!?!?!

So yeah, I for one don't care to be in that 20% of people who don't have any meaningful shit to do in their lives so they fill it up with say, constant blogging. So don't expect a return to my previous years of regular and frequent blogging and get used to (if you haven't already) my less constant check-ins. Until next time (whenever that will be)...Peace.