The sun is not a place where we could live, but here on Earth there'd be no life without the light it gives
I love reading blogs. I have been reading blogs since 1997, when I found the online diaries of a porn actor and his younger, Midwestern gay friend who wrote e-mails back and forth to each other, while updating their daily entries to let us all know what was going on. These sites aren’t online anymore, or they are so hidden that I can’t locate them on google (I know the porn actors name, but it wasn’t that easy.) But I became an addict then to online diaries as such. If I would actually link all the blogs I like, that would take up most of my page. So I don’t link yet.
Well, to be honest, I’ve always enjoyed reading real life instead of fiction. I was a voracious reader as a child (and up until about 5 years ago I could guarantee that I was reading 1-2 books/week, but for some reason it has slowed down) reading a lot of fantasy/sci-fi (Douglas Adams, Piers Anthony, Robert Heinlein, JRR Tolkien, some Isaac Asimov, when Terry Brooks started, Katherine Kurtz, even some Stephen King.) Then, when I was 16, I picked up Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi with Curt Gentry, about the Manson Family murders of August 1969. The first page of the book says “The story you are about to read will scare the Hell out of you.” and it did! And I loved it. It is like 700 pages, and I finished it over a weekend, with very little time spent sleeping in the dark cause that is when Charlie and the family members would get you! I was hooked.
To this day, true crime novels are like crack for me. Sadly, in my ridiculously over-active imagination, I then can’t sleep after reading them, because no matter what the situation is (husband murdering wife, mother murdering children, mafia hit man) I know that, when it is dark, they are all coming after me. But I continue to read them when I can.
I also found that I love non-fiction more than fiction. I read “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,” a 1250 page book that details, well, the rise and fall of Hitler’s Germany from 1933 to April 1945, just for fun. Or, if it is fiction, something more realistic that tells details about peoples lives (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay). I read many things, but I crave the real life more than complete fiction. Even in movies, I enjoy documentaries more than big budget smash’em ups, enjoy a realistic story more than Star Wars. I haven’t even watched the third Lord of the Rings as…well, I don’t know why. I have it on DVD, I have a 55” screen HD tv, and god knows, with only 4 work days per week, I have plenty of time on my hands, but I just can’t seem to bring myself to watch it. It is like my interest is gone. “Munich” raptly held my attention, even when it was way past 2 hours and I had to pee so bad my teeth were floating. “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”? Bored 10 minutes into it, even when Brad Pitt was shirtless (and I did enjoy that site, but that was about it.)
So back to blogs. I love them. They are even better than a memoir or autobiography as it is happening right then and there! I can tell how someone’s day is going by what they wrote, by how they said it. I know what they did over the weekend, who they did it with. I read several blogs from writers in the DC area (almost by accident as I didn’t try to get readers from one are.) I know a lot more about what it is like to live in the DC area than if I’d read some travel book or watched “West Wing” or “Commander-in-Chief.”
I don’t know if I lead exciting of a life to keep anyone else’s interest by writing about it, let alone my own interest. But I wan to expand this blog o’ mine. And another problem is that I don’t think I am that good of a writer, or at least not yet. I resisted starting a blog for years as I didn’t want to do it half-assed (check out the last 2 ½ weeks of this blog – once the reason behind continuing the blog was stopped due to the broken treadmill, I don’t do too much with it) that is why I started it only after I started exercise and therefore had at least something to write about, keep a log about.
So, when the treadmill is fixed (this Friday, keep your fingers crossed) I will continue to update on how that is working, but I might stray from that a bit, and see if I have any writing skills in me. Or if I actually have anything interesting to say without prefacing it all with what I ate the night before or how long I ran. Those can be separate entries, I hope.
As long as the fucking treadmill gets fixed.
Well, to be honest, I’ve always enjoyed reading real life instead of fiction. I was a voracious reader as a child (and up until about 5 years ago I could guarantee that I was reading 1-2 books/week, but for some reason it has slowed down) reading a lot of fantasy/sci-fi (Douglas Adams, Piers Anthony, Robert Heinlein, JRR Tolkien, some Isaac Asimov, when Terry Brooks started, Katherine Kurtz, even some Stephen King.) Then, when I was 16, I picked up Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi with Curt Gentry, about the Manson Family murders of August 1969. The first page of the book says “The story you are about to read will scare the Hell out of you.” and it did! And I loved it. It is like 700 pages, and I finished it over a weekend, with very little time spent sleeping in the dark cause that is when Charlie and the family members would get you! I was hooked.
To this day, true crime novels are like crack for me. Sadly, in my ridiculously over-active imagination, I then can’t sleep after reading them, because no matter what the situation is (husband murdering wife, mother murdering children, mafia hit man) I know that, when it is dark, they are all coming after me. But I continue to read them when I can.
I also found that I love non-fiction more than fiction. I read “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,” a 1250 page book that details, well, the rise and fall of Hitler’s Germany from 1933 to April 1945, just for fun. Or, if it is fiction, something more realistic that tells details about peoples lives (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay). I read many things, but I crave the real life more than complete fiction. Even in movies, I enjoy documentaries more than big budget smash’em ups, enjoy a realistic story more than Star Wars. I haven’t even watched the third Lord of the Rings as…well, I don’t know why. I have it on DVD, I have a 55” screen HD tv, and god knows, with only 4 work days per week, I have plenty of time on my hands, but I just can’t seem to bring myself to watch it. It is like my interest is gone. “Munich” raptly held my attention, even when it was way past 2 hours and I had to pee so bad my teeth were floating. “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”? Bored 10 minutes into it, even when Brad Pitt was shirtless (and I did enjoy that site, but that was about it.)
So back to blogs. I love them. They are even better than a memoir or autobiography as it is happening right then and there! I can tell how someone’s day is going by what they wrote, by how they said it. I know what they did over the weekend, who they did it with. I read several blogs from writers in the DC area (almost by accident as I didn’t try to get readers from one are.) I know a lot more about what it is like to live in the DC area than if I’d read some travel book or watched “West Wing” or “Commander-in-Chief.”
I don’t know if I lead exciting of a life to keep anyone else’s interest by writing about it, let alone my own interest. But I wan to expand this blog o’ mine. And another problem is that I don’t think I am that good of a writer, or at least not yet. I resisted starting a blog for years as I didn’t want to do it half-assed (check out the last 2 ½ weeks of this blog – once the reason behind continuing the blog was stopped due to the broken treadmill, I don’t do too much with it) that is why I started it only after I started exercise and therefore had at least something to write about, keep a log about.
So, when the treadmill is fixed (this Friday, keep your fingers crossed) I will continue to update on how that is working, but I might stray from that a bit, and see if I have any writing skills in me. Or if I actually have anything interesting to say without prefacing it all with what I ate the night before or how long I ran. Those can be separate entries, I hope.
As long as the fucking treadmill gets fixed.
posted by Mike at 8:27 AM
1 Comments:
I completely agree that I am very voyeuristic. But I don't fund that a problem. I love it. But I don't know if it is part of me not being satisfied with my life or if I just love seeing into other people's lives. I can't sing at all, but watching these wonderful hopefuls on America Idol make it like I am in the competition myself, something I will never experience in real life.
And no need to apologize. I was happy to get another comment, and to get three (even though one was a copy of one and one was an apology for the copy of the original) made me tingle all over. It doesn’t take much for me. At all.
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