Weezer your last breath

Know what happens in just over 1 month ladies and gents? If you guessed "Weezer is coming to Minneapolis (First Avenue to be more precise," you would be correct! For those who are still lost, Weezer is a band---a rocking good band. I shant delve into the quest of how the tickets were acquired; I was not present, so it is not my place (check out Music Apologist's blog for the details). I shall only say that I was filled with excitement when I was informed Weezer was touring, suffered feelings of nervousness while I waited to hear if tickets were bought, and then danced with joy when I heard of the buying.

Now this is going to be my first actual concert that I've gone to, and I look forward to it. Some goodness and some badness about it though; Weezer is playing on May 3rd. The Goodness? Pashcha is May 1st, so the happiness of that weekend will be even more enhanced. The Badness? I have a final paper due May 5th, and basically at around that time, finals start---so it could be a rough week.

On the subject of concerts, I have another dilemma of sorts. See, I'm a big fan of The Offspring. As it turns out, they're actually performing with the Vans' Warped Tour. Thus, The Offspring will be playing here in Minneapolis (at the Metrodome). Is there a problem? Of course! The day they perform happens to be July 24, my sister's birthday. Now in my family, your actual birthday is kind of spent with the family; then some other day you go out with friends. So yeah, even if that wasn't the case, I'd still feel bad about leaving to do something on her birthday. Obviously, I must discuss this with her...

One my last note, I suffered my first blog-related accident. My chips and cheese were finished being microwaved whilst I was typing this entry. I wanted to finish my thoughts, so I let them [the chips & cheese] sit there a minute or two; by the time I got to it, the grease had gotten hard, and sort of ruined my meal. The food was still tasty, and I ate heartily, but I lamented to myself that I put typing above sustenance.

But that's all for now...fencing tournament at Michigan State this weekend. I look forward to it, but I'll be glad when it's done (so much work!). That said, I'll still and try post this week, but there's just the tinies of chances I won't. Expect one detailing my [hopefully] stunning victories though.

What's in a name? (what's with the color too?)

I figured I should explain the name of my blog, as well as why it's green (why the latter may seem trivial, I was asked "what's with the green" so I'll address it).

First, the name: "Puddn'head Adam". I got this title from a book by Mark Twain, Puddn'head Wilson. It's an interesting read; go fig since it's Twain. The main plot of the story is that a slave woman gives birth to a son at the same time as her master's wife does; the slave is also a mulatto (and the father of her son is white tooo), so her child and the master's look exactly alike as babies. Anyways, at one point, the slave woman, fearing that she is going to be sold, switches the two babies. The novel progresses, there's a murder, duels, visiting royal twins, etc., all while commenting/critiquing the setup of Southern society. I don't want to put anybody off by that last comment; I realize sounds kind of stuffy and makes it seem like it's a difficult novel. It is a really good book and not something that I picked up and thought,"hmm, I wonder how I can analyze the crap out of this and make people hate literature."

Now the "hero" if you will of the story is a lawyer from the North, David Wilson, who's moved down South to practice law (the novel starts off very early in Wilson's and the babies' lives; then jumps forward about 20 years). Well, he's an interesting guy. Pretty intelligent, a little eccentric, and called "Puddn'head" by the townspeople for a comment made when he first arrives; the exchange goes something like this:

*a dog is barking loudly*
Wilson: "I wish I owned half that dog."
Townspeople: "Why?"
Wilson: "So I could kill my half."

A bit odd yes, and my rewrite removes some of the humor, but the point is that the townspeople take that comment a bit too seriously and declare him a "puddn'head." Oh, I forgot to add something! Wilson also collects fingerprints, and let's just say that that will play a huge role in the finale of the story.

So, why Puddn'head Adam? Well, I've been a fan of Twain in general, and I wanted the title of my blog to mean something. I toyed with the idea of using something from Dostoevsky e.g. titling it like "Raskolnikov's Journal", but that's deep stuff, and I wanted to keep the "feel" of this blog kind of light/refreshing. There'll be deep stuff too (after all, Twain has important themes in his novels too), but I didn't want to feel the need to be complex with my posts if I would've based it on Dostoevsky's work; believe me, a name can set the tone of my writing. Finally, I do identify with Puddn'head Wilson in some respects, so I figured I'd use it.

Now on to the color of my blog, green. Well, green has always been my favorite color, so when looking at templates, I was attracted to this one. Green also carries a lot of positive connotations like rebirth, refreshment, "earthy-ness", luck, etc. So ideally, people will get at least one of those feelings when the visit. And just thinking about it now, I've been told I look good in green (brings out my eyes and such), so hopefully, my writing will look good in green as well. Plus, I wanted to make sure my blog looked different than my friends', and this green template definitely did the trick.

And now you have it folks; the meaning behind the appearance and titlement of my blog. Oh! I chose the Faulkner quote because I'm starting to get into his books, and one of his major themes is triumph over adversity. I am pretty optimistic about things, and believe in the triumph of good over evil, so I feel it's a fitting quote.

...but where does it go?

Ah, the second post; slightly less delicious than the first, but that is life.

Now that I've started a blog, I'm not entirely sure what to write. I could just relate my every day experiences; embellished of course. Or do I ponder deep moral questions or ideas? Obviously, I'll probably do both; sometimes mashing the two together. But still, I've pondering what I want to do with the blog.

See, those who know me, should/will not be surprised by this. As even mentioned in my very first post, I overanalyze things. Now, is this a bad thing? I have often pondered this; I always want to better myself, so I try to correct any bad habits. So, what are the pros and cons of overanalyzying (although it'll be done in a non list format)?

Firstly of course, the name implies that it's bad, "OVERanalyzing." I can become obsessed with things that actually don't matter, and I can also waste a lot of time on energy trying to prepare for something that will never happen. On a side note, while I do stress out about things, I like to think that I do it for comedic affect; I have no intention of giving myself a heart-attack, and while I am an energetic guy, I have my moments of serenity. Occasionally too, I don't respond/act due to my thinking, and that's not always good. ALTHOUGH, sometimes me not acting has saved me from embarassment.

Building on that, overanalzying does allow one to see things from EVERY possible angle. Regardless of the consequences of that, there's a certain amount of pride in knowing that "hey, I KNOW what the very worst case scenario is."

And sadly, I have no nice way of tying all this up. I still have a lot of thoughts about this issue, but the post is getting quite long and I think now's a good time to end it (I will most likely post again on a same or related topic). Basically, all I can say is that overanalyzing is a charactersitic of me; sometimes for good, sometimes for bad.

p.s. I'm disapointed in myself as a writer for concluding this post so badly. I doubt you the reader got any laughs or insights from it. I am sorry. But good writing takes practice, and so I shall try and make up for it in future posts.

p.p.s. I don't want to sound stuck up, so I'd just like to add (addressing myself), "it's only a blog, people aren't going to die because you wrote a sub-par post. Go do homework."

And so it begins...

Well, I've gone and done it...I've created a blog. Some may ask, "why Adam, why now?" The answer? Many precipitating factors:

1. Deep down, I've always been kind of interested in starting one. I've always wanted to keep a journal, but I never have. To be honest, I even harbor that occasional fantasy that my writings will somehow win me notoriety (like Ender's brother and sister, Peter and Valentine, in "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card). So yes, I figured a blog would serve that purpose.

2. "The Facebook" is a gateway to harder online mediums of communication.

3. I tend to live an interesting life, or rather, I MAKE things interesting due to my rather neurotic internal monologue. I overanalyze things true, but I still take action (as opposed to the Underground Man in "Notes from Underground" by Dostoevsky). Also, I relate those experiences to my ever-patient friends, who get a laugh out of it.

4. I am an English major, so any chance I get to write (and thereby improve my writing skills) should be taken. On that same note, I've toyed with the idea of writing a book, and perhaps a blog will help with that.

In sum, I have boldly entered the world of blogging. I don't know how often I'll be able to post; I am quite busy. But then again, maybe I'll MAKE time to post. And that's all I have for my very first post!

Et donc il commence...