My Year of Living Dangerously

2009 was a hell of a year for me. It started off with unemployment, an uncertain future and worry. It’s ended back in the arms of the Two and Half Hours Away Girl with an exciting 2010 on the horizon. Life is strange.

As you probably know, I’ve decided to challenge myself here in 2010 (the year we make contact!) by writing a weekly, online column. I’ve never done it before, but it sounded like fun. I’m hoping I don’t run out of material in a few weeks and continue to have something interesting to say. I’m banking on you, dear reader, wanting to return to the site on a regular basis and see what new mischief I’ve concocted.

My biggest reactions/responses to anything I’ve written in the last few years have been the personal posts. So, I’m going to write more personal stuff. Of course, commentary on the week’s events and how it affects me and mine probably isn’t too far off the mark either.

I live in a cool college town with a vibrant music and arts scene. My friends and family are interesting. My Google Reader features 86 unique RSS feeds categorized in 12 different folders. I’m on Twitter and Facebook. If I can’t find something interesting to write about each week, I shouldn’t consider myself any kind of writer.

And, I guess, that’s the real question. What kind of writer am I?

One thing is for certain… I am a writer. It’s a large part of what I do for a living. It’s something I do for a paycheck as well as for fun. In my varied career as a keyboard key pusher, I’ve written magazine articles, newsletter pieces, speeches, lesson plans, short stories, essays/commentary, web copy, brochure copy, music+television+movie reviews, comic book scripts, treatments, outlines, one Star Wars movie script, over 5,000 tweets, two chapters of a really crappy novel and probably a dozen other things I’ve since forgotten.

Sometimes I think I’m pretty good with fiction and then I get down to the business of writing and I’m flat and boring. I thought I might be able to write a novel and even had a fairly interesting idea for one, but it all fell apart rather quickly and the initial passion faded fast. Being a movie reviewer was something I did in college and carried over into various blog posts. Rather late in life, I decided to try and create my own comic book and succeeded in getting an actual paper and staples product produced.

So it comes down to me writing a plethora of fiction and non-fiction since I could hold a pencil and having a modicum of success with each style. Jack of all styles and master of none. They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

So what kind of writer am I? Lets find out.

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LINKY GOODNESS

• Gaping Plot Holes Hollywood Knows You Won’t Notice. Mainly because moviegoers swallowed them whole before, so they may as well be used over and over again.
• Roger Ebert can no longer eat or drink. He reminisces about tastes in a way that makes you want to savor every bite for the rest of your life.
• Not-So-Secret Secret Societies. They get more mileage from the rumors of secrecy than from any secrets themselves.
• “We had no domestic attacks under Bush; we’ve had one under Obama,” said the man who was mayor of New York City on September 11, 2001.
• The Growing Up Heroes blog is collecting photos of little kids wearing superhero costumes.
• E.T.A. is a short animated film about a space traveler. I covet his coffee maker, but not his years-long journey.
• Crowded around a humble whiteboard, engineers at the Googleplex debate what superhuman powers are most awesome.
• The 2009 Darwin Award winners have been announced. “The Darwin Awards commemorate those who improve our gene pool… by removing themselves from it.”
• A funny, cautionary webcomic: Ten things you need to stop tweeting about.
• What if The Big Lebowski had been written by Shakespeare?

SHOUTING AT THE SEA

Another day down the mines of our lives. We drink ‘til we stink and smoke ‘til we choke because that’s how we get things done, you and me. Spending our lives making things and making things out of our lives, because anything else would be dull as hell and we’re damned if we’re going to sit at the other end of whatever years we get saying, well, what the fuck was that for?

Years of scars, lipstick and tears, and every day the dawn comes on we turn our eyes up in surprise, saying, “There’s that goddamn sun again.” – Warren Ellis

COLOPHON

The typewriter image is by HeavenlyCabins.