Writing Prompt: Jamaican Me Crazy

I’ve had a l-o-o-o-o-o-o-n-n-n-n-g day.

I didn’t really sleep well last night, not quite sure why, it just wasn’t happening and I woke up super early after I finally did pass out around 3am.

Given that Boston is in the grips or some sort of snowmaggedon or snowpocalypse or whatever the kids on Twitter are calling it, I was expected to go into work early to ensure we’d have the libraries open and ready and rarin’ to go in lieu of other staff members who wouldn’t be motivated able to make it in to work.

I did so and was at work prior to 7am.

The problem is, the snow never really got as bad as it was supposed to and this essentially just mean that I’d come into work much, much earlier than I had to and prepared two libraries for opening when the regular opening staff had no problem making it in.

Awesome. Simply, awesome.

The worst part? Well, I was slated to work until 8pm tonight, because Wednesdays are my late night—remember that stalkers—but luckily, my lovely co-worker Roshni bailed me out and offered to take my late shift.

As such, I made it out of there by 6:30—I’m a busy man, y’all—instead of 8pm and was able to substitute an 11 ½ hour day in lieu of a 13 hour day!

w00t

Anyway, all of that long-winded rambling was to say…it’s a writing prompt kinda day. As always, this one comes courtesy of the peeps at Plinky.com.

Write a haiku about something that drives you nuts.

As a consummate overachiever, I decided to write not one, not two, but seven…count’em seven…haikus about things that drive me crazy!

You can thank me later.

you are not my boss
stop micromanaging me
you annoying bitch

the twins are awesome
i don’t want to work anymore
the twins are awesome

i hate skateboarders
seriously they suck balls
big ole donkey balls

use your damn blinker
it is on your car for a
fucking reason, dick

chicken mcnuggets
taste like poop and shame, so why
can i not quit them

megan fox is hot
i cannot deny that fact
yet still she bores me

hummus is a very
cruel joke you play on someone
who wants some chip dip

Writing Prompt: Let’s Get Physical, Physical…

It’s a Monday—which means it’s my Sunday—so I figure I’ll ease into the week with a writing prompt from the fine folks over at Plinky.com.

What does your fitness routine consist of?

My physical routine is generally quite boring and uneventful.

During the spring/summer/fall months I generally do nothing but play softball.

Last summer/fall, I was playing softball anywhere from two to four times a week. This had a pretty good impact on my endurance and overall physical well-being.

You might not think much of slow-pitch softball—and let’s be honest, you probably shouldn’t—but if you’re playing enough and you’re anything like me (read: hypercompetitive and a centerfielder) you’re likely to spend A LOT of time running.

I can honestly say that by the time my softball seasons finally wrapped up in mid-to-late October, I was in some of the best shape I’ve been in since high school.

Remember, high school? Remember when you had Phys. Ed. like three days a week and you couldn’t be a fatty unless you really worked at it (or had a glandular problem)?

Yeah…those were the days.

In high school, I looked like an anorexic 11-year-old cheerleader, but danged if I wasn’t in some solid shape. As I got older, I spent less and less time playing sports and found myself falling into considerably worse shape.

That’s why I decided that I needed to pay outlandish amounts of money for a gym membership. This was a HUGE waste of money when I lived in Southie, but now that I live a few blocks from the gym, it’s not so bad.

In fact, this is how I spend my winters attempting to stay “in shape.”

Basically, what I do is meander into the gym 3-4 times a week and sorta stare at all the equipment.

I move some things around until the bang and clank and I assume that means I’m working out. I run on the indoor track until my knees feel like they’re going to explode and then I go sit in a sauna and read the sports section of the paper for half an hour.

That’s pretty much the extent of what I’ve got for a physical fitness routine: softball in the spring/summer/fall and ill-fated attempts at gym-rattedness in the winter.

If you’ve got a better game-plan, lemme hear it in the comments…

Join the PTQ Team Today!!

I’ve noticed a serious lack in output here at PTQ lately.

Technically, this is a good thing since the original intent of this entire blog was to get me and the two lovely ladies I write with back into the mix as regular bloggers at our own bitchin’ sites (links along the right hand column, y’all).

Things have been slow-going, but we’re definitely on the right path back to regular postingness.

I’ve attempted to recruit more writers for PTQ and the results have not been pretty. I know of at least half a dozen bloggers who are damn good writers, but have fallen off the wagon (or are back on the wagon—I can never keep it straight) in terms of their own blogging.

I have invited all of those peeps and I’ve heavily pimped PTQ to them as well. Thus far, we’ve gained one new blogger, my brother. He’s written sporadically—granted, we’ve all written sporadically—as he is just now joining the world of writers/bloggers/journalers/ranters/etc.

I’m very proud to have him not only in the mix here at PTQ, but writing in general. I’ve long been a writing pimp and tried to get anyone and everyone on the bandwagon, because—and let’s be honest here folks—writing is effing awesome.

If you’re mad; you can write about it. If you’re happy; you can write about it. If you’re in love with a zebra; there’s a whole separate section of the internet for you, but you can sure as hell write about it—likely under a pseudonym.

I’m all about writing.

My efforts here have waned considerably from posting everyday to posting once or twice a week at best. I’m down with that. It means that my own blogs are slowly (but surely) working their way back into shape.

I’m still busy out of my mind at work and in my personal life, but I really—REALLY—want nothing more in my life than to write. I think I’ve got a knack for it and I’m fairly personable in the sense that my writing often sounds exactly like the way I speak.

As such, it’s not too hard to picture yourself drinking a beer and listening to me ramble on, yet all the while I’m sitting across the world pounding on some keys and—well—drinking a beer.

Anyway, this has gotten really long-winded ( likely because I’m actually drinking whiskey and not beer tonight ) but the long and short of it is that we need some new writers here at PTQ to keep this enterprise going.

If you—or someone you know—wants to write more or needs an outlet, let me know, this is the place for you.

PTQ is meant to get writers writing.

Let me know if you need that push.

Writing Prompt: A Picture is Worth One Gigantic Smile

I’d really hoped to get more blogging done today, but between pounding out the epic year-end recap to my “Cheeseburger Chronicles”, writing yet another entry in the “A Moment with Grace” series and updating some stuff at my fantasy baseball blog…time just sort of got away from me.

As such, y’all are getting another writing prompt courtesy of Plinky.com.

Share a photo of something that makes you smile.

I think I love this photo so much because we weren’t even aware a photo was being taken at the time. Grace and I have been together for more than eight years now and I still get all giddy and nervous around her like she’s some sort of high school crush.

I dig this.

I dig this a lot.

My hope is that it’ll always be like this and you’ll be able to randomly snap a photo of us 50 years from now and we’ll still be grabbing at each others’ asses blissfully unaware that anyone is paying any attention to us.

Photo Evidence: Al Davis is a Zombie

I know, right?!

I probably should have prefaced this post with some sort of warning about hiding the children and keeping an empty trashcan nearby, you know, just in case. Unfortunately, I did not and now you’ve all been privy to my photographic evidence that Al Davis, owner/dictator of the Oakland Raiders, is–unquestionably–a freakin’ zombie!!

Seriously, take another long, hard look at all-o-that.

Do you wanna try and refute my statement?

I didn’t think so.

I’m sorry I didn’t have any sort of “real” post in me today, but when I stumbled upon this photo, I just figured the world should be made aware that the dead do, in fact, walk among us.

Lock your doors and draw the shades, y’all…because Al Davis could be peepin’ in your windows right now.

Sleep tight.

Writing Prompt: Bad for Business

It’s been a few days since I posted here at PTQ and that figures to be the norm whilst I work on fazing myself out of the regular writing crew here.

I did, however, figure that I should post a little something and thus I’ve gone with a writing prompt from the fine folks at Plinky.com.

Have you ever thought about starting your own business?

I thought for a brief period of time that I could somehow start my own website and offer fantasy baseball consulting.

Logic eventually set in and I remembered that there are roughly 30,000 websites out there that offer fantasy baseball advice, tips, tricks and strategies for absolutely no cost whatsoever.

Needless to say, it wasn’t going to be the bountiful business venture I’d once dreamed. It turns out that people have absolutely zero incentive to pay some random dude with questionable facial hair for baseball advice when they can get the same basic advice—or at least just advice—for free elsewhere.

It’s the old “why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free” thing and let’s be honest, it makes perfect sense. I mean seriously, I’m a pretty competitive fantasy baseballerizer and I’d never pay some schmuck for fantasy baseball advice because I know that I know more than 90% of the peeps out there.

I assume any fantasy baseballer worth their salt feels the same way. That having been said, to think it’s worth not only asking for but paying for someone else’s advice is straight up poppycock.

So yeah, my fantasy baseball consulting business hasn’t really gotten off the ground floor and doesn’t really figure to anytime in the near future.

I guess I’ll have to go back to my other game plan of releasing a line of zombie apocalypse preparation-themed workout DVDs.

Writing Prompt: Mix It Up

I realize I haven’t exactly committed to posting everyday here at PTQ as a I work on phasing out and (hopefully) bringing in some new writers in need of a kick-start, but I just felt like I should at least make a post-a-day for my first week back in the swing of things.

With that in mind, I’m going to an old standby here today, a writing prompt from the fine folks at Plinky.com.

Name three songs you’d put on a road trip mix tape.

In an effort to make this as realistic as possible, I’ve only included songs that were actually featured on mix tapes and burnt CDs back when I was regularly driving. It doesn’t seem fair to toss in a bunch of Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood or Glee songs, because I’ve never really road tripped to ‘em.

As such, here are three songs that were constantly on repeat back in my driving days:

“Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey

Since high school, “Don’t Stop Believin’” has served as the unofficial anthem or soundtrack to the lives of me and my best friends. We used to listen to this song while cruising around our dinky hometown and talking about the future and it’s served us all well as a reminder to keep believin’ there’s more out there for us, no matter how bad things can get some times. Also, Steve Motherf’n Perry!

“Hanging By a Moment” by Lifehouse

Back in high school when I used to burn a new CD nearly every two or three days (remember CDs?) this song always seemed to find its way into the mix. I’ve always liked this song and I find it always pumps me up, no matter what kind of day I’m having. My friends and I started playing a guessing game with my mixed CDs to see what song would be next—my CDs tended to vary widely in genre—and this song was generally the safest bet of the bunch.

“Why Part 2” by Collective Soul

This song rules. Period. Every time this song comes on in the car, I find my right foot getting a lot heavier and–even though I drive an automatic–an overwhelming urge to shift gears and slalom through traffic takes over. As such, it pretty much HAD to make the cut.

It Might Be About Damn Time To Get My Shit Together

Much of my adult—or whatever you call your mid-twenties—life has been spent dreaming of a career that involves either writing or baseball or—in some perfect world—writing about baseball.

(Note: I’ve recently made peace with the fact that I won’t be playing baseball or, more than likely, working in baseball for a living.)

Instead, I’ve made my millions multiple-hundreds in the “library services” world.

There was, however, a glorious period of time (ie: the fall/winter of ’09) in which my baseball writing was top-notch and I eventually become the top-ranked baseball writer at the burgeoning sports website, “BleacherReport.”

As is often the case, my writing was hindered by Christmas vacation and then was absolutely obliterated by a dang-near year-long battle with writer’s block.

As has proven to be the case in the past, a trip home to Iowa was enough to re-charge the batteries and get me feeling the need/urge/craving/etc. to write again.

Unfortunately, I’ve yet to really get my ass back into gear in regards to my baseball writing. Most of this is because my beloved Minnesota Twins haven’t really done a damn thing beyond trade away the shortstop I have a man-crush on.

Today, however, I received reason enough to get my shit together in the form of an email from the fine folks at BleacherReport that read:

“We want the members of the Bleacher Report community of writers to be the first to know about this coming opportunity.

Bleacher Report will start hiring a small number of writers for part-time paid writing positions immediately – a limited number at first, but more over time. These paid writers will be given specific assignments by Bleacher Report editors and be responsible for meeting goals – volume, traffic and engagement, and quality.

We will accept some external applications but, for the most part, Bleacher Report will look to source candidates for these paid writing positions from our existing writer base. Our best Featured Columnists will be considered for these positions.

Newer writers may qualify for the Featured Columnist program by proving themselves consistent contributors of high-quality entertaining content and demonstrating expertise in a specific relevant subject area.

There is no need to apply directly for these paid positions; over the course of several months, our editors will reach out to writers who qualify.”

I know, right?!

Now, I don’t want to get the cart ahead of the horse here, because I’m certainly not the world’s greatest baseball writer. I’m not big into sabermetrics and I’ve got no real cable, so I don’t get to watch 1,000 games a year, but I generally know what I’m talking about despite a lack of live games and ESPN-infused insight.

I’m a dude who does his research and legitimately loves the game more than he does some of his family members (sorry, Aunt Linda). This is all because of my Pappy.

As a kid, baseball was my major connection with my Pappy.

He is much, much, much more of a “manly man” than I’ll ever be and he has that particular connection with my brother, G-Doggy. I’ll never have that.

I’m not the kind of guy who wakes up at 5am, ready to go work and roof a house. I’m the kind of guy who wakes up at 5am and rolls back over to sleep for a few more hours before waking up and getting stoked to write about something moderately amusing that happened at his library job the day before.

As an adult, baseball is just as important between me and my Pappy. I’ll never fully understand his stories about working in the cold to fix up a crappy run-down house and he’ll never fully understand (or perhaps really respect) my stories about working in a dusty old library, and that’s okay. That’s life. We live in different worlds.

The important thing is that when we’re chatting about who will be starting in left field for the Mets or who will be the Twins designated hitter against southpaws, we’re on the same page.

My Pappy is—without a doubt—the reason I love baseball as much as I do and for that, I am eternally grateful. There is nothing else in my life that is as simple and pure and beautiful as a game of baseball. It is the ideal way to spend a day/morning/afternoon/life.

As I said, I’m not the greatest baseball writer, but I’m also not the worst.

I’m sure I’m either far too technical and impersonal or way too personal and unprofessional—I have some serious troubles finding that middle ground—but I do know what the hell I’m doing.

And when I’m “on,” by golly I am motherf’n “ON.”

The problem is that I’ve yet to really get my shit together on the baseball writing since my recent battle with writer’s block came to an end.

I’m still incredibly overworked and likely in WAY over my head at work, but you know what…I’m gonna handle that like a champ. If I don’t, well then I’m going to go down swinging.

I’m going to find a way to factor what I really want to do—(ie: write)—into my ridiculously busy work life and also comically busy social life.

This is a legitimate chance for me to finally do what I really want to do and, by golly, I’m gonna make this shit happen.

…or go down swinging, that’s kinda my thing.

My 2010 Reading List

Today’s post was originally posted at “Blank Stares and Blank Pages.“

It has become a tradition of mine to track what I read every year. I realize this is super dorky and is probably deserving of a wedgie or some other sophomoric punishment, but it is what it is. I’m a nerd, deal.

Anyway, a year ago I read a whopping total of 14 books and set the bar just a tad higher for 2010 when I vowed to read 15 books.

I definitely got the job done in that regard. I read a grand total of 16 books and an additional 18 graphic novels.

Out of those 16 books, some were awesome and some were quite forgettable. Luckily, I did read two books that had a major impact on me.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War was such a well-written and engrossing book that is pretty much jump-started my long simmering zombie obsession to borderline psychotic levels. As you can tell from much of the list, I spent a BIG part of 2010 reading about zombies.

The second “big impact” book of the year was Stephen King’s The Stand. King has long been in the running to be deemed my favorite author and after plowing through his epic post-apocalyptic novel he’s officially taken the crown. I’m sure he’ll be super stoked to know he’s obtained such a high honor.

In addition, I’ve become obsessed with all things related to The Stand. As such, I plowed through the graphic novel adaptation of the book and sat through the abysmal miniseries from the early ‘90s. I’ve spent time on message boards—I told you I was a nerd—talking with fellow Standaholics about how we’d recast it if it were to be remade as a movie or miniseries.

Anyway, without any further ass-rambling, here is my reading list from 2010:

Books

“I’m Next:The Strange Journey of America’s Most Unlikely Superhero” by Bill Goldberg and Steve Goldberg
“Controversy Creates Ca$h” by Eric Bischoff
“World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War” by Max Brooks
“The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead” by Max Brooks
“Blockade Billy” by Stephen King
“Cell” by Stephen King
“The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition” by Stephen King
“Full Dark, No Stars” by Stephen King
“The Road” by Cormac McCarthy
“Eating the Dinosaur” by Chuck Klosterman
“Feed” by Mia Grant
“Day by Day Armageddon” by J.L. Bourne
“Beyond Exile: Day by Day Armageddon” by J.L. Bourne
“Are We Winning?: Fathers and Sons in the New Golden Age of Baseball” by Will Leitch
“Zombies: A Record of the Year of Infection” by Don Roff
“Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men” by Michael Kimmel

Graphic Novels

“The Zombie Survival Guide: The Recorded Attacks” by Max Brooks and Ibraim Roberson
“Marvel Zombies” by Robert Kirkman
“The Walking Dead Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye” by Robert Kirkman
“The Walking Dead Vol. 2: Miles Behind Us” by Robert Kirkman
“The Walking Dead Vol. 3: Safety Behind Bars” by Robert Kirkman
“The Walking Dead Vol. 4: The Heart’s Desire” by Robert Kirkman
“The Walking Dead Vol. 5: The Best Defense” by Robert Kirkman
“The Walking Dead Vol. 6: This Sorrowful Life” by Robert Kirkman
“The Walking Dead Vol. 7: The Calm Before” by Robert Kirkman
“The Walking Dead Vol. 8: Made To Suffer” by Robert Kirkman
“The Walking Dead Vol. 9: Here We Remain” by Robert Kirkman
“The Walking Dead Vol. 10: What We Become” by Robert Kirkman
“The Walking Dead Vol. 11: Fear the Hunters” by Robert Kirkman
“The Walking Dead Vol. 12: Life Among Them” by Robert Kirkman
“The Stand vol. 1: Captain Trips” by Stephen King, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Mike Perkins
“The Stand vol. 2: American Nightmares” by Stephen King, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Mike Perkins
“The Stand vol. 3: Soul Survivors” by Stephen King, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Mike Perkins
“Kick-Ass ” by Mark Millar

I’m pretty sure I had a few more books in there somewhere. I have this sneaking suspicion that I’m forgetting a few baseball books that I read last spring, but that’s the type of thing that happens when your hard drive dies and gobbles up your reading list with it.

I’ll be backing up my 2011 reading list all year long as I aim for this year’s lofty new goal of reading 20 books. I’m not including graphic novels in that count, even though many of them read like a book and take as long as a book.

Additionally, I’ll be keeping my previous personal rule that states I MUST purchase a book every time I go into a bookstore. If I’m dropping some serious coin on books over the course of a year, I’ve gotta read ‘em, right?!

If anyone out there in blogland has read or is interested in reading anything on my list, lemme know what you thought or if you’ve got any questions. I’d love to hear what y’all have to say.

Snowmageddon is Upon Us…Maybe

If the fine folks in the weather prophecy business can be trusted, it is supposed to dump somewhere between one to two feet of snow on the greater Boston metro area in the next 24 hours or so.

Personally, I’m firmly in the “believe it when I see it” camp on this one.

This is largely a result of numerous—and I do mean NUMEROUS—instances in my 4+ years in Boston where the weather peeps, the town folk and pretty much everyone else spent days predicting our impending doom via snow/rain/hail/moths/locusts/etc. only to have absolutely nothing happen.

A little over a year ago, they put the entire city on lockdown and shut down just about everything that could possibly be shutdown in preparation for the Snowpocalypse that was to be the end of days.

Obviously, since I’m still here to bore you with my cynical Midwestern rhetoric, there was no calamity, no death and destruction. In the end, we nabbed roughly a quarter inch of snow and all was right with the world.

As such, the current parade of overblown hoopla—and trust me there is a metric butt-ton of hoopla—over the impending blizzard/nor’easter/snowstorm/whatevs is no surprise.

This is not the first—and most certainly won’t be the last—time that Boston flips out over weather that isn’t here and may or may not ever show up.

All signs point to this storm actually being quite a doozy and I’m down with that, mostly because I dig a good snowstorm. Granted, that is because I’m not responsible for scooping any snow and I don’t have to dig out a car. Also my “commute” to work is about ten minutes (max) on foot, so I won’t be inconvenienced in any way.

Unfortunately, even if the heavens do upon up and drop a couple feet of the white stuff, I don’t get a day off. That’s right, even if MIT shuts down for the day, the ever-diligent MIT Libraries will be open. That’s right, bitches. We stare adversity in the face and offer it a term loan on all textbooks that may prove useful over the entirety of the semester, we’re THAT bad-ass.

On the plus side, if the campus does close down, I’ll snag time and a half for dragging my ass in and checking out books to the two people who meandered over from their dorms in search of a book on kinetic energy or mechanics of rock excavation. Likely these two peeps will be from the Midwest and won’t even realize that it was snowing.

You see, in the Midwest we cancel classes when a building containing all of the teachers collapses. We shut down an entire university when the frozen gas lines cause a tragic explosion that claims thousands of lives. We shut down an entire city when…um…well, honestly I can’t imagine we’d ever do that in the Midwest. There’s work to be done, y’all.

Anyway, here’s hoping this storm does a little something to shut my mouth, because if it’s another dud, you can rest assured all of my New England-lovin’ friends will NEVER hear the end of it.

I’m Baaaaaaaaaaaaaack…

Somebody sound the alarm, Gravey is back and ready for action.

After taking a much needed break over the holidays to recharge my batteries and center my chi and various other break-related clichés, I’m back.

My hope is that I can officially move on from PTQ within the next month or so if/when I get my regularly-scheduled blogging back in gear. I’m feeling a great urge to write lately, so hopefully it’ll all work out.

I’ve been working on some of my super geeky creative writing lately and trying to come up with a consistent stream of blog stories as well. It’s hard because—as anyone who has read my crap on a frequent basis knows—I’ve been so busy and overwhelmed at work lately and that doesn’t figure to change any time soon.

My good friend, Travis said something to me over break that really stuck with me.

“If something is important to you and you really want to do it, you make the time.”

Travis was right. I’ve been saying “I’m too busy” as my default excuse for letting lots of things slide in the past year or so. I felt sorta off-kilter through most of 2010 and I think that was a big part of it, I was busy. I was very, very busy and I let a lot of the things I really enjoy slip to the wayside as a result.

My writing suffered. My fantasy baseball suffered. My overall ambition suffered. Lots of things suffered, except for the amount f time and effort I put into my job.

In 2011, I’m going to try and make a more concerted effort to do the things I really want to do and stop brushing them aside.

I love to write. Few things make me nearly as happy as finishing a well-written story or blog entry or essay or short-story or whatever and I am going to aim to get that feeling a little more frequently this year.

I figure January 10th was a good day to jump back in as I’ve been back in Boston for almost a week now and been back to work and the holidays are clearly in the rearview mirror. It’s time I brush off the 2010 dust and prepare to dive headlong into 2011.

Here’s hoping I can get my shit together.

Oh yeah, and Happy New Year, y’all.

Better late than never, right?!

Not Dead Yet

I’m not dead.

My lack of posts may indicate otherwise, but I promise, I’m alive and well. Things have been incredibly busy in the past week or so as I’ve struggled to finish up a bajillion things at work and home before vacation/furlough.

Traveling always kicks writing/creativity/etc. in the balls and that appears to be the case again. I’m worn out, dealing with limited internet connectivity and availability, trying to get all my Christmas shopping done and just feeling pulled in all directions.

As such, I’m officially taking a short-term “leave of absence” from PTQ for the reminder of my vacation/furlough. It is just too hard to write consistently here at home and I hate feeling guilty about not writing.

I’ll be back–gun’s a blazin’–in the New Year, but for now, I’ll only be posting if/when time permits.

See y’all in 2011…

Twenty-Five Songs

I’m lazy and tired, so you get an internet meme, haha!

Instructions: Put your iPod, iTunes, or whatever you use to listen to music, set it on shuffle, then write down the first 25 songs that come on.

01. “You Belong With Me” by Taylor Swift
02. “Letter to Me” by Brad Paisley
03. “Marry You” by Glee Cast
04. “Waking Up in Vegas” by Katy Perry
05. “Rooftops” by Lostprophets
06. “I Still Miss You” by Keith Anderson
07. “Don’t Let Me Get Me” by Pink
08. “Taylor Swift” by Tyler Dean
09. “Hands Clean” by Alanis Morissette
10. “Small Town Saturday Night” by Hal Ketchum
11. “Treading Water” by Slant of Light
12. “Sorry” by Our Lady Peace
13. “Goodbye” by Audio Adrenaline
14. “Dog Days are Over” by Florence + the Machine
15. “Jenny” by Cross Canadian Ragweed
16. “Let Me Be Myself” by 3 Doors Down
17. “Small Town USA” by Justin Moore
18. “Fearless” by Taylor Swift
19. “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey
20. “Goodnight Girl” by the Nadas
21. “Move Along” by All-American Rejects
22. “Hello World” by Belle Perez
23. “Still Learning How to Fly” by Rodney Crowell
24. “Speak Now” by Taylor Swift
25. “Forget You” by Glee Cast and Gwyneth Paltrow

Writing Prompt: E-Reader vs. Me-Reader

I’m in the midst of another late-night shift. So much like yesterday, I’ll largely be phoning it in again today. Granted, I’ve at least meandered over to Plinky to snag a writing prompt tonight.

You’re welcome…

Would you ever get an e-book reader?

I honestly can’t say that there’s no way I’d ever get an e-book reader. There are plenty of perks to having all your books stored in one tiny device. The most obvious being; space. Bookshelves take up a ton of space and books are a bitch-and-a-half to box up and move when relocating.

Granted, packed bookshelves are awesome and an immediate conversation piece. No one points at your Kindle and asks you if you majored in English Lit…if they do, they’ve likely been stalking you and are using this opportunity to get you to open up to them before they jam a scalpel in your throat…I may be getting off-track here.

I think the idea of an e-book reader is way cooler than the reality of one. It’s awesome to think that I could be anywhere with my reader and just pick a book and BAM there it is.

There is, however, this glorious feeling of flipping the pages of a real book and watching your bookmark’s steady progress from beginning to end as you plow through an awesome book.

I really enjoy the tangible feeling of closing the back cover when I’ve finished a book, it’s like busting through a finish line. I can’t imagine I can get that with an e-book reader, short of spiking it like a football.

I like giving books to friends to borrow and I like borrowing books from friends, as far as I can tell, that’s not quite as feasible with an e-book reader.

So although I can’t say that I’d never get an e-book reader, there definitely isn’t a chance of me adding one to my arsenal of fine technology (read: crockpot, first generation Playstation 2 and Zack Morris-esque cell phone) anytime in the near future.

Plus, with the hardcore marketing push of books, you can’t go wrong. These things practically sell themselves!

Phoning It In…

I wanted to write something good today, but it’s just not gonna happen. In fact, there is a very good chance this entire week is a bust. You see I’m in the midst of a stretch where I’m working 13 straight days (note: it’s not as bad as it sounds on paper). I’m also in the midst of a roughly 50 hour work week right before I hop on a jet-plane and return to the motherland, that sweet, sweet frozen tundra that is the Midwest.

I’m working overnights this week and trying to get a metric shit-ton of stuff done before I take off for “vacation.” I’m working on taking care of loose ends and trying to set things up so I won’t be in total catch-up mode when I get back. That’s why it’s after 3am and I’m still sitting in my cubicle pounding out this “post” in an attempt to meet today’s yesterday’s writing quota.

That having been said, I’ve got nothing to give to y’all and I should probably get the hell outta here if I’m hoping to be up and outta bed by 6am tomorrow today so I can hit the gym and start the process all over again.

Feel free to be jealous.

With that in mind, I’m giving you a sample from one of my new favorite web comics, Cyanide & Happiness.

Don’t worry, you can thank me later.