Sunday, July 20, 2008
Title
It took me like an hour to try to figure out a name for this blog. I tried to steer clear of my current nicknames like Snuggles, Snugglebear, Bear, Bearenstein, Chubbs, Captain, and others just in case I keep this going past the use of said names. I thought about "The _____ of Your Future President." But I decided I don't want what I write when I'm in my early twenties to come back to bite me in the ass when I'm 50 and running for president. Then I turned my thoughts to playing off of this being my second blogging attempt. "The Second Coming" seemed all too perfect, given my tendency to make fun of religion and my megalomania (Kidding. I'm actually quite modest. In fact, I'm probably the most modest person you'll ever meet.) Plus, I think it'd be funny if people searching for the second coming were directed to me. Anyway, I just enjoy the irony of the title.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
A New Beginning
As explained in my facebook profile, I have these thoughts that I so often forget that they need to be written down. All of the following entries will be random streams of thought, reactions to something I saw or read, or occurrences in my life that made an impact on me plus commentary. I write a lot of my opinions before I do any research, so outside input is more than welcome from readers.
Practically anyone reading this knows it's my second go at a blog. The first one was much more widely read than I'd have anticipated. I really appreciated all the nice things people had to say about some things I wrote and all the conversations it provoked. I got about 70 entries in, and just sort of...stopped. It might have been moving into a house with more people and, therefore, less alone time. Maybe I started focusing on school more. No, that's not it.... Either way, I went away from the blogging habit for a while. But now I'm back. Older and hopefully wiser. And it's safe to say that I learned a few things from that first blog.
First, this is on the internet, and anyone can read it. You see, I didn't realize people could find what I wrote if they weren't exactly looking for it through me. I'm fine with friends and family reading these things. However, about a week after an entry about my roommate's rookie lacrosse party, he got an e-mail from his coach asking who calls him "P-Krazy" or goes by the name "Chubbs." I had to severely edit that entry. (It wasn't long after the whole Duke fiasco.) I figured that this guy found my page by searching the U's blog directory. Then came the football banquet after my junior year I was sitting at a table with a certain coach and his wife and several other people. We introduced ourselves, sat down, and ate. Then this wife came over and asked if I was the Ben Hanson who wrote, "***** ******** is a dickhead." At that point, I had stopped writing entries for like a year, and didn't remember the angry essay about how a certain coach was on a power trip and acted like an asshole to everyone he felt he could get away with. Then I remembered I did, and apologized for her having to read that. She approached the issue like one of those evangelical people that walk around the street trying to talk to you about Jesus. There was no convincing me that her husband was truly a good guy, but she was gonna go on and on about how sweet he was when he took her on their first date and during the courtship. I won't go on about the motives for a guy to act completely sweet to a girl he asked out on a date. Anyway, the point is that she found my blog by Google-searching for her husband's name and my entry was near the top. Oops. Notice how I'm being ever-so-careful not to write specific names or the institution in this entry. The point is, my entries came up near the top of searches for that coach, my grandma, and my current roommate Eric. And those are just the ones I know about.
Second, I'm not very funny. Or at least, I can't write humorously. It takes a skill to be able to write something that comes across as funny without being said aloud. I probably lack that skill. You can't regulate how the reader hears a sentence in their head. Sarcasm can be lost incredibly easily. This doesn't mean I'll stop attempting (For instance, that evangelical thing was pretty funny in my head so I wrote it.), but I'm not going to promise great results. And I won't take it personally. The people who can do that really well are the ones who are/will eventually be paid to do it.
Finally, my thoughts aren't entirely unique. Everything I think, someone has thought the same thing before, just maybe not the combination of things I think. I can't be afraid to say something, because it's not going to be totally unfounded or the worst thing anyone has ever heard. I got very supportive comments on writings about things I had never spoken to people about before.
It is now 4:42 a.m. and I'm going to attempt sleeping. My room has finally dropped below 90 degrees, so I should be okay.
Practically anyone reading this knows it's my second go at a blog. The first one was much more widely read than I'd have anticipated. I really appreciated all the nice things people had to say about some things I wrote and all the conversations it provoked. I got about 70 entries in, and just sort of...stopped. It might have been moving into a house with more people and, therefore, less alone time. Maybe I started focusing on school more. No, that's not it.... Either way, I went away from the blogging habit for a while. But now I'm back. Older and hopefully wiser. And it's safe to say that I learned a few things from that first blog.
First, this is on the internet, and anyone can read it. You see, I didn't realize people could find what I wrote if they weren't exactly looking for it through me. I'm fine with friends and family reading these things. However, about a week after an entry about my roommate's rookie lacrosse party, he got an e-mail from his coach asking who calls him "P-Krazy" or goes by the name "Chubbs." I had to severely edit that entry. (It wasn't long after the whole Duke fiasco.) I figured that this guy found my page by searching the U's blog directory. Then came the football banquet after my junior year I was sitting at a table with a certain coach and his wife and several other people. We introduced ourselves, sat down, and ate. Then this wife came over and asked if I was the Ben Hanson who wrote, "***** ******** is a dickhead." At that point, I had stopped writing entries for like a year, and didn't remember the angry essay about how a certain coach was on a power trip and acted like an asshole to everyone he felt he could get away with. Then I remembered I did, and apologized for her having to read that. She approached the issue like one of those evangelical people that walk around the street trying to talk to you about Jesus. There was no convincing me that her husband was truly a good guy, but she was gonna go on and on about how sweet he was when he took her on their first date and during the courtship. I won't go on about the motives for a guy to act completely sweet to a girl he asked out on a date. Anyway, the point is that she found my blog by Google-searching for her husband's name and my entry was near the top. Oops. Notice how I'm being ever-so-careful not to write specific names or the institution in this entry. The point is, my entries came up near the top of searches for that coach, my grandma, and my current roommate Eric. And those are just the ones I know about.
Second, I'm not very funny. Or at least, I can't write humorously. It takes a skill to be able to write something that comes across as funny without being said aloud. I probably lack that skill. You can't regulate how the reader hears a sentence in their head. Sarcasm can be lost incredibly easily. This doesn't mean I'll stop attempting (For instance, that evangelical thing was pretty funny in my head so I wrote it.), but I'm not going to promise great results. And I won't take it personally. The people who can do that really well are the ones who are/will eventually be paid to do it.
Finally, my thoughts aren't entirely unique. Everything I think, someone has thought the same thing before, just maybe not the combination of things I think. I can't be afraid to say something, because it's not going to be totally unfounded or the worst thing anyone has ever heard. I got very supportive comments on writings about things I had never spoken to people about before.
It is now 4:42 a.m. and I'm going to attempt sleeping. My room has finally dropped below 90 degrees, so I should be okay.
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