Forgive Me

But I am going to nerd out just a little here.

My old Starbucks boss is the closest thing I have to a pop-culture dictionary. Movies, music, books, you name it and if he hasn't personally seen, heard, or read it he at least knows about it. Needless to say he's not only flippin' awesome but he's also pretty useful to have around.

Ever since I started working for him last summer he's been loaning me comic books- well, graphic novels- to read. I had read a few before I met him; namely the first two in Neil Gaiman's Sandman series and Jhonen Vasquez's Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Squee. None of which truly measured up to my favorite series...[drum roll]...Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon.

I don't know what it is about the series... maybe it's because Jesse Custer (note picture) is from Texas, and therefor more awesome and bad-ass than most. It doesn't really matter why I love Preacher; what matters is that you read it.

Oh how I wish this fact were more widely acknowledged.

So many paint problems to be a treacherous one-way path, with a steep incline to each side so that even one person can barely pass. They paint an issue to be this or that person's fault, an only this or that person's fault. This is hardly ever the case. Problems, disputes, whatever one may call them, especially those between people, and certainly those augmented by emotions, are roundabouts. Disputes rarely come from a single slight, but rather a conversation of offenses that feed off of each other. Highly personal disagreements chase after themselves, with the same repetition of a dog chasing after its own tail. In order to resolve any sort of issue, all parties must first acknowledge this, and then accept that it is in fact not just one party's fault. It is the fault of every one involved. Then and only then can the problem at hand begin to dissipate, through cooperation and compromise.

one

I was once an artist. My high school art teacher covered, in my earliest art class, the idea that odd numbers make for good design. I don't know why; it probably falls into the ambiguous class of reasons that also contains the reasons for why we all become more subdued around the correct shade of blue and why we become ravenous around the color orange. All I know is that a single red dot pulls the eye in- it makes a rather bold assertion. Two red dots, though- all they do is confuse or subdue. But they are not alone. Is the boldness and attention that comes with being the single red dot worth the inevitable? Loneliness? So often it seems that when one chooses to be bold, one also inevitably chooses a rather lonely path. To stand out means just that- standing out.

well THAT was unexpected

I do not read newspapers. I like the idea of reading newspapers, and I enjoy actually knowing what is up in the world. But I do not EVER read tangible newspapers; the reason? I can't maneuver the really really big pieces of newsprint. Pathetic, I know.

To compensate for my lack of newspaper reading, I occasionally pop onto The New York Times website and peruse the world section. There's always the nuclear power story, the foreign diplomacy gone wrong. Today there was a particular story that caught my attention- one of a writing experiment spiraling out of control. I invite you all to read more of this story.