Confession Time!

I bet you all thought that since I started falling behind on these posts that the challenge was for all intents and purposes over? Wrong! I'm still going to get through this, and we're even going to get back on schedule, just not immediately. Something about having the majority of my finals in the next two days makes it harder to sit down and spend a considerable amount of time thinking about these blogs. So the plan for the next two weeks is to write a post for today, then write posts Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to get back on track. Simple right? So now that that is out of the way let's get into the fun part. Me confessing things, which I thought might be a bit difficult since I try to not have things to confess, not like I don't have bad habits or embarrassing stories, just that I'm pretty willing to tell people about them which leaves not so much to confess to people.  I think I've got three for today which should be good.

#1. I don't actually hate puns that much. I mean when I first started saying that I hated puns I really did hate them, just couldn't stand them, but I suppose I got desensitized to them because once people heard about this particular hatred they seemed compelled to tell me all the puns they could think of. So I've gotten used to them, and I even laugh at some of them from time to time. They are cheap laughs and I will never sway from that opinion, but they are laughs none the less and who am I to get in the way of a laugh?

#2. Birds are really just ok. I think my family will be the only ones that actually get a laugh out of this one, because I know that the easiest way to drive my mother bonkers is to say the simple line, "I like birds" The truth of it is that the line comes from a song by the Eels with the unsurprising title of "I like birds." Birds are still pretty cool cause they FREAKING FLY, but they are not the end all be all of creatures.

So at this point, most of you are probably thinking that this post is just a joke now, so I'll hit you with a real confession now so you don't feel like I was just messing around the whole time, cause it was really only like 84% of the time that I was. Anyways, this last confession is going to sound kinda sad, but I`ll try to explain my thinking of how it`s kind of ok. Ok?

#3. I generally put the blame for anything that doesn't go my way on myself. Even things that seem like really obviously not my fault like walking down a hallway and some runs into me I'll think to myself, "Well I could have been paying more attention to where I was going." Something like that. This is probably why I get really frustrated playing games like League of Legends, because you have to coordinate with a team in order to win in that game, but if I lose I will certainly blame it on my own personal play. This thinking works out ok for me right now because I use it as a drive to constantly improve at anything I do. I also don't particularly like blaming people. I just feel bad about it after, even if it's totally justified. It seems so much simpler if it's just my fault cause it's easy to legitimately criticize myself since I know all myself pretty well. In short, if something I'm involved with goes downhill I'll probably blame myself, but not in a dopey self-destructive kind of way, more along the lines of "That sucks and I suck, but I know how to do better now at least."

Right, so I'm pretty darn far behind right now, I think I need two more plus one on Thursday to catch back up. I probably won't do another one till Thursday though, so Thursday, Friday, Saturday and maybe Sunday to catch up? Who knows. The next one will be

My bald head cause why not?

State of Mainstream Music.

Let's see if I can rattle some more people like I did with my last post. Today we're talking mainstream music, and when I think of mainstream my mind immediately drifts towards pop music so I'll be pretty much be focused around that genre, although I'm sure some of these ideas will apply to other genres as well.

So obviously I'm not a huge fan of mainstream music right now, if you were to ask me what kind of music I listen to I would tell you anything but pop and country. I don't particularly like the fact that to get big in music, and therefore be considered "good" by the masses you basically have to follow a simple formula and then promote the absolute crap out of the song. Step one: have a chorus that anyone can sing along with. Step two: Put it to a beat that would fit well at a party/dance/club/whatever. Step three: Make sure that stuff isn't too heavy, subject matter should always be about things like your swag, your money, your girl/guy, a party you are going to, or just having fun in general. Don't you dare write about struggles unless you are insanely confident in the song. That's it, three easy steps to create the next big hit, easy stuff. Now obviously there are exceptions to this guideline, but seriously just take some time and listen to the radio and see what's playing, these things are the three uniting factors for nearly every song on the radio.

Is there a solution? I guess hypothetically it would be really cool if people just formed their own taste in music and bought (BOUGHT, not downloaded.) music according to that and then who ever made good music would then succeed while the terrible artists would never leave their bedroom, but that's just not how it works. All I can say is that I think you should be looking to purchase your music legitimately if you really do like the artist. Vote with your dollars man.

Man, that's really all I have to say? How short and boring, oh well next time is confessions so that should surely produce something interesting to write/read about. Peace buds.

Here's a really cool song so there's something beyond the text here. 

Why How I Met Your Mother Ended Well.

So I've recently (Like in the last twenty-four hours) finished the How I Met Your Mother T.V. series and contrary to popular belief I thought the series ended on a relatively high note. I certainly don't think that every character got their ideal ending, but that would've been ridiculous if that had happened and I think it works out better for the group it ends this way. It does make me a little sad knowing that Ted had to get snubbed the hardest to make this happen, since he was my personal favorite, if nothing cause he was the one that was consistently single and I'm consistently single as well so I connected with him. Regardless I'm going to go through each of the five major characters and give both a grade for their ending and why I gave it that grade. Marhsall/Lily (They're a unit) get a A, Robin get's an A-,  Barney receives a B+, and Ted scores the lowest with a B-. If it isn't already insanely obvious there are complete and total spoilers for those of you that haven't finished the series.

SPOILER ALERT

Stop reading now if you care about that sort of thing. 

So let's talk reasoning. Marshall and Lily are the real winner of the series since they both get to go and live their dream jobs, have a wonderful family and arguably the deepest relationship in the series. Seriously, they go to Italy, have more kids, Marshall becomes a judge and then makes the state supreme court and they somehow manage to keep their whole group together in the end even though they came insanely close to losing Robin, but I'm going to assume that with Ted and Robin getting back together she is able to more consistently make group outings since it's not such a huge pain for Robin so Lily keeps her best friend. Yes, the Eriksens do alright for themselves if I do say so myself.

Next up we get Robin. Initially I thought that Robin had the most satisfactory ending, but as I thought more about it, I had kind of hoped that her and Barney had made everything work out and could stay together. Alas, that was not meant to be as there were other factors in play, but she does get to have an incredible career as a news anchor all over the world (Is that even a thing?) and does eventually end up with the guy that was probably better for her in the end.

Let's talk Stinson, here's where I get into the other factors I mentioned with Robin. We're all aware of the fact that Robin can't have children, nor does she really want them anyways. Barney wants kids though, mostly I think so that he can have all the experiences of being a parent and having a family that he feels that he didn't get to have because of his father leaving. It feels weird that only by random chance that Barney actually does have a child, but it's all he needed to really change into the person he always could have been. I would've given him an A if there was something that confirmed that he and the mother of his child make it work, but with literally no info I'm forced to keep him at a B+.

Ted, Ted, Ted. It does suck quite a bit that his wife does die in the manner that she did, but it's also oddly appropriate. Ted only got the opportunity to meet her because the love of her life died early so it makes sense that something similar would happen to Ted. Ted without a doubt though met the love of his life though and got to have all those wonderful experiences that go along with that. You know, kids and all that jazz. It would have been better I think if the wife hadn't died obviously since she was like totally perfect for Ted, but having it this way allows for a better end for all the characters. The waiting six years thing makes it much better in my opinion as well since it makes it into a scenario where Ted wasn't just waiting for the opportunity to go after Robin again, but rather reinforcing that Tracy (The mother) was the one for him but its time to move on.

So in the end Ted and Barney didn't get what I would have ideally wanted for them, but this ending  is pretty good still. It's definitely not the best end to a T.V.  series in my opinion, but its far from the worst as well. That's my two cents at least.

This scene was absolutely adorable though and I'm not afraid to admit it. 

My Favorite Place to Eat.

Well darn it all, this one is so much easier and light-hearted to do so let's just get right down to it. So picking my favorite place to eat was supposed to be a rather simple process, I already knew the place so a few quick words about it and we'll be done right? Wrong, the freaking place has closed since I was last there. whattajoke. Therefore I have decreed to forgo specifically naming one restaurant as my favorite entirely in remembrance for my fallen brother Ginza of Salt Lake City. RIP my good friend, you did honorable things in life.

So now what will I write about? Easy, What kind of place is my favorite to eat at? Pretty straight-forward since Ginza is a sushi joint, sushi joints are my favorite place to eat. The most obvious reason for this is that I love eating sushi. It's freaking delicious. If you are one of those people that are thinking to yourself, "Ewww sushi is so gross." but you've never actually had sushi. Stop yourself right there, try and then come trash talk it. Otherwise your opinion is totally invalid in my mind. You wanna know what's like the best part about eating sushi? It's insanely hard to really over eat it. Even at an all you can eat sushi joint where I've consumed an insane amount of food I've always been able to leave the place and not feel totally stuffed an needing to not do anything for a few hours while the food is digesting, I can always job right into the next activity. It's totally awesome.

Another reason I really like sushi joints also because I'm usually a pretty social eater, when I sit down for a meal with people I'm often more interested in having a conversation over the meal rather than actually eating the meal. I feel like sushi goes well with this. You can pick up a piece, eat it and then go on with your conversation pretty easily. You almost always have a ice-breaking tool in either your ability or in-ability to handle chopsticks. It's always been a social experience for me to sit down and eat some sushi with friends/family and that's something I really like. Sometimes when you go to a nice steakhouse you just get so darn focused on your steak you forget that you came with a bunch of people and don't talk to them at all. Not fun. Delicious, but not fun.

Man I really wish there was more to say about this, but that's all there really is. I like sushi, and the social experience that goes along with it. So know that I'm almost always down to go grab some sushi, even if you've never had it before, I'd love to show some people the delicious treat that is raw fish. Peace buds.

dang doesn't that look yummy?

A Big ole' What If?

So I didn't get anything up on Tuesday, and my excuse for that is that I had thought I was talking about mainstream music, so I had been thinking a fair bit about that, only to find out that I'm writing about what ifs. Well alright, I guess I'm doing some more thinking, and yes I do in fact think about the things I write, maybe not in terms of making outlines and rough drafts, but I do take some time to think the idea over and then get to work on writing it.

So we're talking a big what if today? Cool, so when I thought about this naturally the angsty teenage part of my mind that still exists went absolutely ballistic and arrived at the question of, "What if I got cancer and died?" Yeah, we're going there today. Gonna be so much fun right?

So as I thought this through, I kind of split it into two areas for this particular scenario. Part one is Diagnosis and Treatment. So that takes me first to how would I break the news to people? It seems wise to me that I would inform family and close friends ASAP via private communications (Skype calls, Phone, FB messages for those not immediately available, that kind of stuff) and then that's kind of just it. No big FaceBook post to inform people, I'll tell who I think aught to know and if other people would wan to know then they would ask me right? So now people know, and I imagine I'd move back home quickly and begin treatment there. I wouldn't go to school during treatment, even if I survived  (Which I don't in this hypothetical scenario) I have no intentions of adding that stress onto myself at that time. For the first few months I'd imagine I would still be healthy enough to go and work a simple job so I'd defiantly keep doing that. Having something else to just keep my mind occupied would be nice and it would allow me to accrue some cash to go out and do some of the things I would want to do like travel if that would be possible.  For the sake of this scenario we'll assume I live for another year after diagnosis K? The entire experience would be recorded here on this blog since I've done a terrible job at keeping a journal and I would need something to record my life story (as little as there may be to it.) So that someone could potentially read it later on. Would be nice to have something people could refer to instead of just word of mouth. I'd probably also write a bunch of stuff in some notebooks so there would be a physical copy in case the Google lost the data for whatever reason. You know, back up plans?

So at this point I'm back home, working a little, recording my life story, and starting treatment. As far as that goes, I listen to what my doctors tell me and follow their instructions, I'd probably do stuff my Dad told me to do as well since he has that medical expertise but beyond that, no weird treatments, no natural medicine. Just stick to what the doctors tell me. Psychologically I don't think I would struggle with this that terribly much with the idea of death. What do I know though, I don't think anyone that's been as healthy as I have been and is as young as me has really ever actually thought about the fact that at some point they're going to die. Way to morbid for us youngsters. I think I'd do alright though, mostly because I know that sometimes the cards really just don't play out in your favour and that's something you just have to accept.

Beyond just things that involve me, I'd also have some work to do with bringing all of the relationships with people I know to some sort of weird "Conclusion" Not like in a sense where I shut everyone out and stop interacting with people, but more along the lines of making amends for the wrongs I've done to people, forgiving those I've wrongly held grudges against, (Basically anyone I have a grudge with) Telling all the people I honestly dislike that I dislike them and why, although this part comes much later in the process, and finally making sure that all the people that I genuinely love know how much I care about them. I think that's something I'm pretty bad at, letting people know how much I appreciate them, might be something to do with the stubborn sarcasm that's always spilling out of my mouth. Seriously though, make sure important people know they're important. I think I should also note that there is absolutely no chance that I'd start a relationship with anyone if this happened. I feel like it would be a worst case scenario if I fell in love at this time, or even worse what if I married someone and left a widow at that age? Augh.... Just no.

 Weird thoughts about widows aside, now we've reached the point where I'm really not healthy enough to do much of anything and that leaves just a couple of key decisions left to be made. Do I sit down and peacefully accept death as it comes, or do I go out in a blaze of glory/yolo and do something really dumb. I'd probably just flip a coin to decide what I do at that point. Would be kind of funny if I had cancer for all that time and then just went down in some dumb drag race with a beat-up Honda civic or something. Assuming I do the less stupid thing though I'm probably going to be spending my last days in a hospital bed or similar situation. Now the last decision occurs, I think ideally I would actually want my passing to be a rather unknown affair, like I just slip away during the night. Don't really like the idea of having like family/friends there to watch the life leave my eyes, because dang does that every sound depressing. Obviously other people need some time to get like final goodbyes done with, but after that it becomes a bit of a moot point, so yeah I'd just kind of let it happen in the middle of the night or something. I hear about that, when people are near the edge like that they just sort of let go (LET IT GO!) and pass away. I want to be listening to something really cool like Stairway to Heaven when I go though, cause that's just cool.

Now we've reached part 2. Admittedly this part is quite a bit shorter, cause I'm done making decisions at this point really. Also this is kind of the part that really sucks for me, just saying. I think the only logical place for me to be buried (Yeah I'd be buried, no cremation unless I start the fire, you know what I'm saying? Man that's dark and probably not that funny.) is in Magrath, It just makes sense. Weird to think about being buried in that cemetery though, I've mowed it countless times now and it doesn't really feel that different being there than other places. Regardless, funeral service I hope would be pretty simple, nothing fancy.

As for how I'd be remembered, all I can really ask for is that people remember me as a person that had stuck to his guns and did what he thought was right. Also that I had passion. I'd absolutely hate to be remembered as an apathetic person. Whether or not people liked me for that, thought I was funny, nice, or anything like that doesn't really matter that much in comparison to the first three I mentioned.

Alright I'm done. That was pretty dark, and weird to think about. Hopefully it made for an interesting read though, because it was defiantly an interesting thing to think about. Especially once you get past the idea of thinking like, "What if I died? Well that would suck" and actually explore the idea more in depth. I don't think I even went that deep though, good enough for now though. I don't think this challenge can really get darker than this one though, hopefully this is the only one where death, and mine in particular, is the central topic. Peace buds.

This is roughly how I would like to be remembered