Your patience has paid off :
Your perseverance does not go unnoticed. You are the faithful few, the fledglings of my flock.
Fledgling Definition : A young bird that has just fledged.
So spread your wings and fly, my avid avian admirers. For we will soon be embarking on a different flight path. Circumventing the choppy airspace that tumblr occupies on the world-wide-web.
I was going to make the jump to the new format today, but there are still some bugs to be worked out (like how I make jeeptime.com a reality).
Let’s just pretend I did that thing I just said :
Ruminations & Alienation - This is called a title. Yep, probably going to start titling each article. I was thinking of calling it Rumination & Alliteration, but I don’t want everyone thinking I’m an asshole. Also alienation is a topic I was going to discuss, whereas alliteration is just something I do for fun.
I once read somewhere that an article should stick to it’s title as if it was the topic of discussion. I can do that, I totally won’t get derailed at any point.
So I been Ruminatin’ on times gone by, getting old, and my general place in this world. I get to feelin’ introspective about once a week now that I hit the big 3-0, usually right before I take my nap. It’s tiring trying to think of one’s place in this world. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we are a generation of arrested development; we don’t want to grow up because we simply don’t know how to.
I’ve sort of inadvertently grown up, trust me when I say it was unintentional. I fell into a career, got engaged, and am on my way to being a home-owner. Meanwhile this all happened in between rounds of Rocket League & Call of Duty. It’s as if I was actively attempting to remain in adolescence while the pressures of the world turned me into a functioning adult. Just like an irritant inside an oyster eventually produces a beautiful pearl, all the irritants of daily life have turned me into a beautiful, adult? I’m sure that oyster had no intention of producing a pearl, just I had no intention of ever growing the hell up.
Now onto the part where I bring up the second word in my title. The especially difficult part of chiseling out a niche in existence when you constantly feel like you don’t belong. I’ve always found it difficult to converse with most people because I just don’t have any common interests. I see most people interacting with one-another and it sounds something like this :
Person #1 - Did you see sports game last night? Incomprehensible gibberish for about 8 minutes straight.
Person # 2 - You sure are correct about all those words you just said, stats stats stats, more incomprehensible gibberish.
Person # 3 - (Laughing wholeheartedly) I totally understood those words you just said. Let’s drink a beer together and talk about the specifics of each man’s performance.
I feel like every single person I run into has a wealth of knowledge pertaining to things I find no interest in. Even when we start to hit on a topic that I have knowledge in, I’m always given the sideways glance like, “why is this fucker with no sports knowledge trying to converse with us”? Whereas most people have established a common bond, I’m still in that preliminary stage with every person I meet trying not to alienate myself further.
I have friends, and good conversations, it’s just sometimes they are few and far between. It wasn’t always like this. When I was young and stupid, I was oozing with charisma, and when you’re stupid and charismatic people will listen to you. Now I’ve acquired a healthy dose of self-doubt that accompanies adulthood. I went from wanting to be the center of attention, to wanting to pass by unnoticed. It’s probably payback from being an asshole when I was younger.
I want to back up for a second, this all sounds pretty negative, and I don’t want to alienate more people with my petty problems. To be perfectly honest, I’m really quite happy with where I have ended up. It was unexpected in many ways, but it’s been a fine journey just the same. I think the takeaway I have from existing is this :
Lord of the Rings - Boring
Harry Potter - More like Harry Twatter.
Twitter? More like Twatter.
Anyone who thinks a sunset is spiritual is annoying. (see also hippies)
If I could punch words/phrases in the face, assuming words had faces, I would punch the following words/phrases right in their stupid faces(in no particular order).
Organic, free-range, fair-trade, draft-pick, hipster, ironic, irony, fandom, furry, vaping, auras, social-networking, media-anything (saavy, conscious, guru, etc...), social media, sexting, twerking, beard-culture, lumbersexual, noshave november, beard products, mustache, really anything pertaining to facial hair culture, when can I stop doing this? Tween, millenial, The good ole days, Trump, buzzfeed, buzzworthy, bilateral union.
Well shit, there’s your first off-topic tirade. Welcome to the new, not new, almost there, format.
And a reminder of why this article is not about cats.
Duck wearing a sombrero courtesy of Iguana Mouth http://iguanamouth.tumblr.com/