What's In a Blog?

I've always been pretty good at learning how to use new technology, but I'm usually the last to switch over. When my friends were switching from cassettes to CDs, I was still pulling out my parents' old vinyl record albums. When I finally got a CD player during my sophomore year in college (1995-ish), friends were using Napster to download all the music they wanted for free in MP3 format. I don't think I got my first DVD player until 2-3 years ago. So it comes as no surprise to me that I've finally decided to give blogging a shot when many of my friends have been doing it for years.

Here's what does surprise me...the sheer amount of personal information that can be found in a person's blog if only you know where to look and you're patient enough to read through the chaff. After returning from a disappointing trip to Las Vegas, I found an email from my friend Freshboy - yes, he insists people call him that even out in the real world - with a link to his blog (see the 'Bloggers I Know' section on my page if you're curious), where he had posted some pictures of his recent wedding in Scotland. In moments, not only had I seen his wedding pictures, but found links to the blogs of other mutual friends containing stories of broken relationships, graduations, and swimming in tampons, most of which I have no doubt are true.

You remember all of those complaints by factory workers that their jobs were being taken by robots and machines? Well, I'm starting to maybe agree with them. Bear with me, here, but I think you'll be able to see where I'm coming from. I always prided myself on being the "nice guy". Hell, I was too fat and unattractive to attract people on looks alone, and I had a pair of great parents who taught me how important it was to care for people, so why shouldn't I slide into the role of friend and confidant; the George to the world's Seinfelds. I'm a firm believer in honesty, love, caring, and most of all communication. Communication keeps you from harboring grudges against your friends, and it's what keeps your head from filling up with mindless crap then exploding like an over-stuffed garbage bag. Because of that, people tended to trust me and feel good around me. I had one friend in college - one I lusted after for several years before realizing just how neurotic she was (and no, I'm not talking about you, Kerry) - who spent many nights sleeping in my dorm room, talking about the latest jerk who'd dumped her or the new guy she was crazy for. I used to end up knowing a lot of people's secrets, dreams, and desires because they felt good when they got everything off their chests and they knew I wasn't going to do anything but listen. Now what do we have? Blogs! Who needs a "nice guy" when they can pour all of their thoughts into a little electronic box, never really certain that anyone's reading them, but yet not making their blogs private either, because that would be the same as having a diary and you just don't get the same catharsis by baring your soul to yourself.

I'm not really complaining. Despite the friends I've made all over the country through my fraternity, it's not as if I spend large amounts of time picking up the phone to find out how most of them are doing. Unfortunately, it seems like most of my catching up is either done through the occasional e-mail or the 5-10 uninterrupted minutes I may get with a friend at the most recent fraternity function. My own "little brother", Thomas, has been dating a girl halfway across the country for six months, and I only just recently found out about it when he flew to Minnesota to help her drive the moving van to Richmond, VA, and called me to see if they could stop in Lexington on the way. Thomas? In love? In love so much that she's moving from Minnesota to Virginia to be with him? How the heck did THAT happen? While I'm thinking about it, maybe I ought to go through some of these blogs to see what else I've missed in my friends' lives.

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Other musings not worth their own entry:

• I just finished playing Ellard Simms in a run of "The Foreigner" with the Studio Players (http://www.studioplayers.org). This was the first play I've done in five years and I had a blast. The whole cast was excellent, but I'm telling you now to look out for a guy named Shayne Brakefield in a couple of years. As Charlie Baker, he brought down the house and stood, jumped, danced on, or climbed over every piece of furniture on the set. Once I get a chance, I'll post some pictures.
• Having thoroughly caught the acting bug again, I tried out for two more shows before the end of the run of "The Foreigner". I turned down a slot in the chorus for "Beauty and the Beast" and didn't get cast in "The Wizard of Oz". In the long run, it's probably a good thing - I did something to my leg or knee during the "Oz" auditions. While I was in Vegas, I got into a cab, twisted my leg the wrong way, and suddenly couldn't put any weight on it when I tried to get out of the cab. The x-rays came back clean, so now the doctor's referring me to a Physical Therapist. I'd imagine I'm going to be stuck on crutches for another couple of weeks. I guess I'm going to be on a forced hiatus from the theater, at least until auditions for "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" in the fall.
• I'm going to continue to read "Super/System" and "Killer Poker" (on my reading list to the left), but I evidently haven't learned enough. After three hours at a table in the Golden Nugget, Carrie and I found ourselves down $200. I had budgeted the money to gamble with, but I had also hoped I'd have done better at the table. Looking back over my first experience outside of home games, I had several really good hands, three or four really bad hands, and a lot of hands that I played correctly. I can't chalk up all of the losses to my own play - Carrie continued to bet into at least two obvious flushes (four of one suit on the table) with two pair or trips - but I obviously didn't do well enough to keep myself even.