So let's try this again.

So here's the part of the blog where I'm suppose to make grandiose claims about how busy I have been, embarking on soul searching journeys, engaging in philosophical debates and single-handedly improving the lot of mankind. And that's why the last blog fell through, right? Lies. I have been neither busy nor productive in any way other than watching Say Yes to the Dress marathons and yelling things at the television like "You have eyes, why would you wear that!?" or the always personal favorite, "I resent you for the fact that you may be happy one day!" I then usually entertain myself with mental images of Virginia Woolf piloting Voltron and using it to destroy the impending wedding.

Actually, pretty productive in hindsight.

Also, because of the URL I'm worried randos are going to stumble upon this blog while Google-searching for some sort of heinous wolf-howling-against-a-full-moon-backdrop sweater or looking up a creepy lycanthropy site. Creepers, if you're reading this, GET OFF MY BLOG.

Okay, I'm being obnoxious (surprise). Let's reign it in.

So I have attempted blogs (well, blog. Singular.) in the past and inevitably they (it) succumbed to my overwhelming inability to do anything in a regular, organized fashion. Quite frankly, I'd be a much more considerable force for good (or evil...I'm just saying, in this economy one has to be a bit more flexible on which side they're playing for) if I could actually just be consistent. Well, un-bloody-likely. Still, it's something I should work on and thus I'm going to attempt to update this blog at a fairly standardized rate. In order to assist me with this, I'm going to write on a handful of fairly general topics, focusing on a different topic once a week. To make things even niftier, I've chosen an acronym that suits both my personality and a range of subjects I feel I can discuss (ad nauseum).

B.A.L.L.S

Books
Art
Life
Leisure
Stroke-inducing-topics-that-make-me-want-to-choke-somebody

Convenient. And crude. Who needs anything else in life?

Talk is cheap though, and doing is better than saying. So, without further adieu...

BOOKS
We're reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance for bookclub (also, if you're thinking to yourself "I didn't come here to read about your effin' bookclub" then you can take your Philistinic eyes elsewhere Judgy McJudgerson. Might I suggest to the nearest episode of Say Yes to the Dress [no really, it's great]?). So far I'm only a few dozen pages into the book (and hence I don't feel guilty talking about it seeing as I don't know enough to spoil anything) and I've gotta say I'm enjoying it. It's very...hmm, well I was going to say highbrow, but I think that's a little critical sounding. It's not an easy read by any means (then again, months and months of reading Cosmo at work have made reading a STOP sign a challenge), but rather has been something I've enjoyed reading in bits and pieces. The philosophizing can be a little dense and I've reread plenty of sections two or three times before I can even remotely get a handle on things, but at the same time, it's nice.

The book is pretty widely held as this great contemporary masterpiece of metaphysics and I like that it's earning that praise, at least for me. Not to sound like a hipster-asshole, but sometimes when something is so overwhelming liked (barring chocolate, cheese and sex, all three of which are undeniably deserving of their status in the world) it can be a little...sub-par? Watered down? I dunno, I'm cringing at myself for saying that, but to an extent it's true. The mass-appeal does not tend to coincide with refinement (Wow. Hey elitism, how you doin?). I would cite any given Top 40 music station and the songs they tend to play exhaustively over and over again (I'M TALKING TO YOU KE$HA. I hate you despite the fact that you have an unforgivably high play count on my iTunes). But this book, despite it being a little trickier and denser than your average New York Times bestseller seems to really resonate with a considerable amount of people. And that's fascinating. People are different in so many wonderful, fucked-up ways, but also they're all prone to the same difficulties in life, emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually. So everyone, being human, experiences somethings in similar ways, but also in their own unique way based on their own specific combination of circumstances. So for one work to move so many is...impressive.

But I think that's one of the things I'm benefiting the most from reading this book. I feel like part of a whole and it's a whole I'm happy to be a part of. We tend to get caught up on individuality a lot. The idea of always being unique, of having these clear, definitive divisions between "us" and "them" and "you" and "I". We know ourselves and always want to be able to have that "self". It's the one thing people tend to feel unshakable possession over (except when it comes to Love [capital L] but that makes everything more complicated and will be saved for another post. Probably an "S" topic post). You can be robbed. But you can't really have yourself taken from you. Your freedom yes, your mobility or perhaps life options, yes. But yourself, your consciousness of who you are, that's a bit tougher to lose or have taken away (short of being brained by a large object or dying.) Well, that's just it. There's a reason the idea of "losing one's self" is looked at as such a tragic thing and why death is so greatly feared. The idea of the self being gone is terrifying for so many people.

It's a little selfish, but understandably so. We always know ourselves best and the thought that our self could not be here one day. Phew. That's scary. How could the world exist if we're not here, because the world as we know it completely exists within our ability to perceive it. It's why the afterlife and all the religions that have arisen over the years and the fighting and the arguments that have come from them and...well, all of it, it's over this need to know that the self will continue, this thing that makes you you and sets you apart and...I'm talking in circles. And then there are traditions that believe we return to one great oversoul of some sort and traditions that seek to actually eliminate the divisions between the selves and...well, there's a lot going on out there and this book just has me thinking about all of that.

On the top of the cover of my edition *scrounges for book in Hellaciously unorganized knapsack* is written "The provocative, profound and deeply affecting modern classic that has inspired millions". So, it has inspired millions and is doing a pretty admirable job of...hmm...we'll go with their word, "affecting" this kid and it makes me...content. As I said, I'm happy to be a part of a group that is able to take something from writing like this. That's what I'm trying to say and apparently needed five convoluted paragraphs to do so.

Well, productive first post (see: rambly and more than likely next-to-incomprehensible to anyone and everyone lucky enough not to be me).

Next week: Art. Did I mention generalized topics for the win?

Also, why aren't you watching Say Yes to the Dress?