pointless

Life is nothing but a whole lot of crap that we are forced to deal with or endure, sprinkled by a few fleeting moments of enjoyment. To top it all off, we suffer through all that we do only to watch our bodies deteriorate and rot in front of our very eyes. And all for some reward on the other side? No thanks. I'll pass.

To write or not to write...

Is the blog a dying art form?

I mean, I realize how silly that sounds. Blog. Art form. Dying. Those words in a sentence are almost laughable. But yet, it seems to be true. I chastise myself frequently for not writing enough. The bloggers I follow haven't posted in six months. Everyone is worried about copyright and getting ripped off. The internet has opened up so many possibilities that we now fight over whose possibilities are more valuable. What is writing coming to?

Okay, maybe I'm giving myself too much credit here. I am putting pen to paper (figuratively, natch), but is blogging writing? I suppose to some it is. But what I do is just put my thoughts down. Who wants to read this drivel? If I were really creatively writing, no one would read that either. So what does it matter how valid my writing is?

I started a new Twitter account, hoping that limiting myself to 140 characters would not only challenge me, but also keep me from being so challenged I can't come up with anything funny. 140 characters is just enough for a good joke, one that doesn't require a ton of setup before the punchline. I think this may be good for me. I'm gaining followers slowly, but Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither were the comedy dynasties like Saturday Night Live or Second City, etc etc.

If you want to read my lame quips, the new account is @40sgrlprobs. Check it out.

I go through spells where I just hate getting up and going to work in the mornings. Lately, this spell has been coupled with another: I don't want to be at home.

Maybe it's that spring is in the air and that makes me want to get out and about, but the more likely reason is that I am so sick of trying to amuse myself. I'm probably suffering from depression. I do seem to feel discontent a lot of the time. Is it something wrong with me though, or just wrong with my situation? I lack motivation to do much of anything. I don't feel like working out, I don't feel like going anywhere, I don't feel like writing. I don't feel like laying on the couch either, but that's what I end up doing because there's nothing else I'd rather do either. I don't know what to do. I need some sort of pick-me-up. But where do I find it?

Existential?

Why are there so many rules?

Why is there a certain order of things you're supposed to accomplish in your life? And why do people think you're a failure if you never cross one of those threshholds? We used to be just a bunch of cavemen running around. There were no gun laws that didn't get followed, no standards and practices, no credit score determining your value. We bought and traded with tools and food and other goods. Can't we just all loosen up? I'm not saying I want to go back to that. I'm not about to try and start eating raw meat and killing my own food. I just wish there weren't so many expectations. Must I go live on some hippie commune to get a break? *sigh*

I hate, loathe, despise, and abominate sports.

Kentucky has been in the news recently thanks to the NCAA tournament, and in particular, the Final Four game against our rivals the Louisville Cardinals. Living in Lexington through all this has been a nightmare. It's bad enough whenever our team just has a mediocre season. Basketball consumes people's lives in this town like you wouldn't believe. But whenever we get this far in the tournament, people act absolutely crazy. There were literally riots in the streets because we won a basketball game Saturday. Riots! It makes our whole state look like flaming idiots!

Maybe I'm prejudiced. I've held a grudge against organized sports most of my life. I mean, I played organized sports for a long time. I enjoyed them. Basketball and softball both. But coaches got frustrated when you didn't want to put in extra practices in your spare time. I'm sorry. Was I not allowed to have other hobbies? Some of the people I played for were even family members. My parents, as my softball coaches, thought I was lazy. I played softball for fun, but my interests were elsewhere. My uncle, as my basketball coach, didn't want to seem like he was showing nepotism, so instead he purposely benched me. I'm not deluded enough to think I was great at either sport, but I was always better than someone on the team.

I've played sports and I've been around people coaching them my entire life. What I don't like about organized sports is the way they rule people's lives. When you have to put your family second for "the game", or when you missed out on other events because you were tied down to a sports team, what are you really gaining? There have been so many times when my relatives have missed birthdays and non-sport events (concerts, etc.) because of having a game to play/attend. My mother is totally supportive of her niece and nephews and have always tried to attend as many of their extra cirriculars as possible. But have her brothers shown her own children the same courtesy? No. I have been looked over my entire life in favor of a baseball game, and I am so tired of being surrounded by people who put sports above everything in their lives. It's sickening.

So, in other words, I will be so glad when this championship game is over and I can spend at least a few weeks not hearing about basketball every waking moment.

In praise of Michelle Williams.

I didn't get a chance to watch very many of this year's Oscar-nominated films before the awards ceremony. Last year, I made a point to watch as many Best Picture nominees as possible. I didn't get around to all of them, but I did see over half. This year, I only saw one. (Although I did get to see the film that housed Meryl Streep's winning performance.) Anyway, this week I saw My Week with Marilyn.

I was a little skeptical, just because the Marilyn biopic has been done so many times before in varying forms. The movie itself was not very impressive. The story had a few holes, and there was very little setup of the plot in the beginning. You're given a portrait of Marilyn that only extends over a very brief period of time, and there are characters whose opinions of Marilyn seem to have no basis, or are contradicting throughout the film. However, the saving grace of the movie is Michelle Williams. She embodied Marilyn in a way that I have never seen. The physical resemblance is minimal, but she felt Marilyn. It was obvious in the way that she moved, the way that she laughed, the way that she batted her eyes at men.

Many people will not know what is meant by this, but Michelle Williams was to Marilyn Monroe what Judy Davis was to Judy Garland. This is an incredibly high compliment to be paid, as I feel Judy Davis became Judy Garland when she portrayed her a decade ago. Both of these women, if only momentarily, make you forget you are not watching the true Hollywood star on screen. If not for the fact that Meryl Streep was PHENOMENAL in The Iron Lady, I would gladly put the words "Oscar winner" in front of Michelle Williams name on any possible occasion.

Isn't it amazing how Michelle Williams ended up being the best thing to come out of Dawson's Creek?

Yay Meryl!

I am so frigging proud and happy for Meryl Streep's Oscar win last night. While she may be the most nominated actor in history, she has only won three statuettes. The last one was 29 years ago, making last night her only win in my lifetime. While a tie with Viola Davis would have been spectacular, I am just elated right now. Meryl's portrayal of Margaret Thatcher was phenomenal, and she has deserved another win for a long time.

That's really the only comment I have on the awards, as this upset at the end of the night had me floored.