Monday, June 21, 2010

He's alive?

I think for a while I had given the impression that I'd fallen off the face of the Earth, so if anyone actually noticed-- I'm sorry. I don't have a good excuse other than I didn't really feel like full-on blogging, though I do post from daily on my Tumblr.

Today though I actually wrote something on my Tumblr that seemed worthy of being something I would blog here, so I thought I'd share it since I only just finished it a few moments ago.

I’ve just been having one of those days where I can’t help but see the worst in people— not because I’m looking for it, but because people have a tendency of using Monday as a day to be horrible and then by Friday afternoon people are much more bearable again. So instead of complaining about it— I’ve decided just to air some grievances in the most playful manner way that I can muster.

I dislike people who act like anyone who doesn’t get their coffee from Starbucks just obviously doesn’t know what they’re missing out on. Guess what, I’ve been at Starbucks a load of times— I don’t think I’m missing much other than the trendy cups, the trendy sitting area, and the trendy trendsters. Kindly please stop looking down on me and my Dunkin Donuts coffee and donut. If you genuinely enjoy Starbucks then by all means, you are free to go about your day— you are the kinds of people who make me have a happy.

I dislike people that describe themselves as open-minded, when in most cases they’re just like-minded. It’s easy to call yourself open-minded when you don’t associate with people who disagree with you. I think that a person can be open-minded about certain facets in their lives like music, movies, books, television. I however have very rarely run across someone who has managed to possess open-minded political and religious beliefs, because admittedly it’s very hard to believe what you believe and let others believe what they believe without feeling like you need to defend yourself. If I told you I didn’t like gay people (which isn’t true, but is the only example I could come up with that would lead to incensed rage) then obviously your response wouldn’t be “I respect your position”— I think in most cases I would get called homophobic even before I could explain my side (okay, maybe not the best example, but if you can substitute something better in yourself, please do). If you have managed to be a genuinely open-minded person, I urge you to please write a book because I think we could all take a lesson from you.

I dislike people who try so hard not to be “in” or “normal”— one example being people who refuse to listen to popular music, even if it was a band they loved before someone else had heard of them. It doesn’t matter if someone sells a thousand records or a million records, you should love what you love because you love it— there’s no sense in hating something you enjoy just because someone you hate enjoys it. I also wish people would learn the true definition of being a sell-out, because getting paid for what you do and selling out are two different things. Ideally as an artist you do want to sell— I know some people say they do stuff for the ‘art’, but that hippie-dippy logic doesn’t put food on the table. Selling out would be like Motörhead covering Hannah Montana because it would purposefully make them more money. Making money for what you love do while still doing it on your own terms and maintaining happiness is called being “successful”— something we should all hope to aspire towards.

I don’t like how people feel like they need to criticize someone for something they enjoy, just because other people might find it stupid, or whatever more creative insult comes to mind. Unless someone’s favorite hobby is murder, driving under the influence, incest, or etc., then just leave them be— it’s not with your time or theirs for you to try and convince them otherwise. People are going to like what they like because they like it, everyone has their reasons— just like you have yours. You’re not doing anyone a favor by proselytizing, regardless of whether that thing is a religion, or even just something as silly as a TV show or movie At the end of the day it’s not like anything like that matters in the end. Earlier this year I had the realization that it didn’t matter if I felt that God didn’t exist or not, because even if people were faced with conclusive evidence that God doesn’t exist— they’re going to live how they want regardless of how it makes them appear to other people. I almost have to envy people’s ability to shoulder criticism like that and never falter, it’s refreshing to see that in this day and age people can still find a way to be themselves when it seems the world has created this idealized concept of how we should all behave.

I used to be one of those people who lived by the doctrine that “life is too short”, when I really meant to say “live your life to the fullest”. Life actually isn’t too short, I mean, what are you going to do that is longer? You could debate that you’ll be dead longer, but I don’t think that’s exactly the point. Out of the things you can actually experience as a human being, life is the longest thing you can do— unless you’ve ever stood in the line for the DMV, and then the feeling is questionable.

To steal a quote from Mean Girls: Calling somebody else fat won’t make you any skinnier. Calling someone stupid doesn’t make you any smarter— I’m not saying I abide by this by any means, but I think to some degree it is a fundamentally good idea. Telling someone they’re wrong doesn’t make you right, and even sometimes explaining why they’re wrong isn’t going to help you either, at the end of the day you need to stop living your life at the expense of others and learn to move on.

To some degree, I dislike how many people are just going to ignore this— because they’re exactly the kind of people who could have a few lessons to learn. I guess that’s just how the world works though— we don’t notice the cracks in our personality until they’re too big to fix.


I don't have much else to add today, though I think my motivation bug is back-- so I'll try and at least update here once a week with things over the summer. The only thing I can report as of late is that I just celebrated my 21st birthday two weeks ago today. No subtle innuendos of a drunken rager here-- I've had about 3 drinks since being legal, and I'll probably pack in a few more tomorrow and hope for the best.

Oh, and happy first day of summer, I suppose in honor of that I'll go play my summer anthem on repeat.