"My very soul is on the World Wide Web!"

The title to this post is a direct quote from a college friend who used to spend three hours on a two paragraph e-mail. After some good natured ribbing from myself and a few other friends, he's down to about 20 minutes for those e-mails now. But he explained why it took him so long to write e-mails. He was so concerned about the fact that, in theory, what he wrote would be a permanent piece of writing that would forever be accessible online. He did not want even the most cursory word to diverge from his exact intention. Most of us treat e-mails as we might a Post-It note: good for quick thoughts and designed to disappear after their usefulness is gone. But something about the internet has turned us into "transparent" people. I use quotes around transparent because I feel like transparency is something that can only happen when there is some sort of emotional interaction that happens between people who have some idea of each others actual identity.

A Followup to the Acclaimed....

Why is it that some movies just work and when the director tries to repeat that success there seems to be something missing? My two favorite examples are Zach Braff's Garden State/The Last Kiss and Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous/Elizabethtown. I think part of it relates to the fact that both sets of movies appeal to certain age groups. The first movie of the two pairs was the hit movie. The second movie of the pairs tries to recreate the same feelings for an older demographic. Would the second movies have been as big a hit if they'd been released first? I don't know if anyone who's seen The Last Kiss before Garden State, but I do know a few who saw Elizabethtown before Almost Famous. My guess is that the first movies were hits because they focus on the creation of an identity for the main character. The leads grow throughout the movies into self-awareness about their upbringings and their desires. The second set of movies also tries to have that same self-aware realization, but when brought to an older generation seems odd, since as one grows older, identity becomes based on outside influences and relationships. Family and work become as equally important as self. My reaction to the leads in the first set was sympathy. In the second, disappointment that the leads were forsaking their other commitments for the pursuit of self-realization that should have happened years previous. I don't know, I've been trying to finish this post or about a month now and might be rambling towards the end. Tell me your thoughts.

I'm Getting Old

My absolute, all-time favorite song is being covered by a band in a "90s album." At least the first song they've released sounds promising.

Practice Makes "Perfect"

So the old aphorism isn't always right. I have heard a variation "perfect practice makes perfect" which certainly makes more sense, but doesn't sound nearly as good. When I read a lot, I've found my reading get faster. When I swim more, my lap times get shorter. When I'm consistently on a bike, I get stronger. After college, I've found that the same is true of my writing. I feel like I struggle to come up with words (not creating new ones, just picking the most appropriate/applicable one...ha, case in point - this thought process) that I feel should be no problem with my B.A. in English. Hopefully reading more will help, even if it is just Science Fiction and Fantasy novels during my diner break.