So many things to blog about today. A quick blurb on the hockey front since three of the eight series have now finished. Congrats to Ottawa, it only took them 5 not 6. However, Boston disappointed me severely. I thought that Joe Thornton was going to elevate his squad and eventually overpower New Jersey. However, as they'll be the first to tell you, one game of that is not enough and so they join the Pens on the golf course. And the third, of course, is one of the biggest upsets (for me anyway) the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. I'm still not sure what to do with that.
Anyway, on to the next topic of the day...which actually began last night. Mitch, another good friend of mine, is finishing up his degree at Pitt and last night was his senior seminar reading in his creative non-fiction class. It's been a while since I've been to a reading of any kind and it sounded like a great idea. And it was. The professor was very engaging and welcoming and the class structure, or lack thereof, was a nice atmosphere to be back in for me. So, 18 readings later was I still as happy? On the whole yes, there were some very talented writers in the class who showed points of creative breakthrough that highly impressed me. Not that impressing me was their ultimate goal, but it has to be a good feeling nonetheless, even for "toolboy". So, where was I leading with all of this...well, Mitch has very definitive ideas about the world around him and more specifically the lack of discernible intelligence in most of the mediums of today and that's one of the reasons we have such good conversations. So, when I handed him the URL to my blog, instead of the response I was expecting, which was "You're writing again, great.", I got a very different response. "I hate blogs." I was puzzled for certain. Mitch has been on my case to write something, anything, for the longest time and usually trusts me to be a good sounding board and proofreader for his work. In fact, the title of the blog is due mostly to him. Now, I didn't immediately spam all of my friends with the knowledge of the blog's existence. Most don't even know it exists yet and that includes my wife. I wanted to see if I'd actually keep up with it, and for a good steady period I have, which impresses the hell out of me. If this was a diary or journal kept in a notebook, after entry number two or three you'd see a 100% drop-off in participation. So back to Mitch's lack of "love" for the blog. The basic idea is that blogs give everyone the idea that they can write and most of the stuff churned out is pure crap. This I can agree with. If everyone was able to write and write well, we wouldn't need majors for that sort of thing. I guess since someone has yet to develop a website that allows everyone to perform brain surgery this is an adequate argument. If everyone was proficient at everything, we wouldn't need professional anything. However, and this is where he and I part company on this matter, I feel that the blog offers a creative outlet for anyone that needs it. An angst filled teenager can spew his poems of undying love and a beer swilling Nascar fan with one tooth can proclaim that Michael Waltrip makes the greatest commercials ever, but can't drive worth shit. It can influence the masses if enough people get a hold of it, but that falls to lack of education on the part of the masses. Just because something is in print does not make it so.
I can't write that Julia Roberts is the second wife of my thirty girl harem, followed closely by Drew Barrymore, whom I keep around solely so she won't act in any more movies. This is not a true statement. Neither is most of the stuff swirling around on the internet and the populous of today need to be smart enough to realize that. That's why most major publications have fact checkers on staff. Anyway, where am I going with this rambling. Absolutely nowhere other than to say, this writing is basically an outlet for me. Love it or leave it, I don't give a damn. I'm not doing it for you, I'm not doing it for Mitch (though he was part of the reason I started), and I'm not doing it to have hundreds of people logging on every day to see if I have anything else to say. I'm doing it for me and for the occasional visitor who pops by. That is what keeps me going. If I have a string of a week or so where the page counter is only logging me, then this will dry up and blow away for there will be no purpose and the man who talks to himself is usually deemed insane. Ok, enough with the moral rantings, my writing is hard enough to follow without making it thirty pages to boot.