what's on my mind other than nerdy cliches?

It was a dark and stormy morning, actually it is a dark and stormy morning. Which means it’s either November, December or January in Vancouver. At least it isn’t a snowstorm you say? I’d rather that than the current pissing down of rain pounding on my windows like hungry zombies smelling my caffeine filled brain.

It’s very difficult to keep up with this blog for some reason. Well the reason is my laziness, and or insecurity in my own opinions. My plan was/is to write perhaps cogently about all the media I consume. My diet in this regard is even worse than my eating/health habits. I watch an inordinate amount of TV and movies. I read a mess of comic books, novels, and even the odd smattering of someone else’s poetry. My feeling lately is that much of this consumption goes by without any real introspection, or critical thinking on my part.

Can I rectify this? Maybe, but maybe not as easily as I’d initially imagined. It’s hard to know where to start. There is definitely a drive I have towards certain types of media. I often read highbrow literature, and cheesy old comic books at the same time, or cheesy page turner novels and the odd highbrow comic book (or graphic novel if you are a pretentious nerd) as far as TV and the cinema go, my tastes are also all over the map. I enjoy Gray’s Anatomy for example almost as much as I do Mad Men.

But for very different reasons: Gray’s is a cheesy soap opera with pretty & likeable people having lives I can only dream (and would never want, actually) of. Mad Men is rather like watching a really well written short film every week (most weeks, they have “off” episodes too), it makes me think. Gray’s Anatomy, when it’s doing it’s job makes me cry every week. So one is feeding an intellectual need, the other an emotional one? Possibly. That or I’m a sucker for seeing pretty women cry.

Do I “need” to watch either of these shows? Nope. I get all the free movies (or TV) I want at work. i could be watching nothing but great world cinema, every single day if I wanted to. Sometimes I do, often I don’t. There is just as much satisfaction for me in something light and frivolous as there is in the greatest works of art, as long as both are entertaining or intriguing to me in some way. What it really comes down to is likeabilty and  being able to relate to the characters in some way.

This is why I can’t jump on the reality TV bandwagon very far. It seems to me that everyone on these shows is an unlikeable asshole. I need to be able to relate to people not just through mockery, ie; I can’t sit through Jersey Shore and simply feel superior to those idiots. I kind of blame the internet for the rise of the stupid asshole as a “type” of character that is somehow beloved. Shows like Jersey Shore, Big Brother, Survivor seem to me to be like adult versions of Junior High School. I for one was really glad to be done with that nonsense at 14.

Yet I still devour comic books like a fiend. So I guess I’m not all that mature. And yes I know that not all comics are immature. Some are very grown up and more literate than most writing you see in any media. See the “Walking Dead” comic book for example. The very same writer (Robert Kirkman) has also written lots of great superhero comics as well. Just as entertaining. But is he going to be as famous in non comics circles for his versions of Captain America or even “Invincible”, the comic of his that is subtitled the “greatest superhero comic”? Doubtful, unless those are also turned into (at least so far) great TV (The Walking Dead TV show is already after only a couple of episodes, the best comics to TV adaptation, ever, arguably. ) At any rate, I like to be entertained. So I read, I watch, and sometimes I write.

Sometimes I also “game”. I do play some Video games. I used to in my PC days play even more computer games than I do now. Civ, Max Payne, Alpha Centauri, etc… but now on the old computer I only play the latest (that is out for Mac) Civ… Civ IV. Total waste of time, but often an enjoyable one. I occasionally do a Saturday or Sunday of PS 2 gaming as well, playing some GTA or some other of those sorts of games. My desire for that kind of thing is only in bursts. I’ve not been able to get good enough at console games to feel like spending more than a monthly or so turn at it. 

The other “gaming” I do is of the table top RPG type. I have somehow become a part of 4 separate gaming groups. I have a D&D 3.5 game that meets very irregularly but often enough, a more regular Mutants and Masterminds (more superheroes) game and recently a second Mutants and Masterminds game that is starting next month, and an old school AD&D (second edition) game. All this gaming is probably the most social I am outside of work. It’s a pretty nerdy sociableness, mind you but nonetheless, at least I’m getting out of the house and spending time with other people. I also am planning to DM a 3.5 (the game I have the most material for) D&D game sometime in the near future, planning the campaign ideas now. I want to be able to do a bit of the storytelling that you can do when running a game. I have this weird idea that I can learn something that will help with the rest of my writing endeavours, half assed as they may or may not be.

Where am I going with all this? I’m not sure, it’s a info burst of what I do with my life. I consume and I consume in a very addictive manner. Media being one of my biggest crutches. I often feel I’m not critical enough in my opinions. That perhaps all this consumption of story is a way of avoiding the telling of the stories that I have to tell. maybe I can change that by writing some self criticism, and some actual crit of all this media, here on my blog for those one or two people who occasionally read it. 

I should probably revise this post and make it cogent or something, but I haven’t posted anything in awhile and just want to get things moving.  So it stays a rambly mess of my thoughts and confessions.

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