I Can Kill You With My Brain

I sort of fell off of the ‘Blogging Boat’ a few months ago.  Consider this post and the new theme of ICKYWMB as my attempt to grab onto the side of the boat and pull myself back onto the deck.

My blogging frequency here dropped dramatically when our group stopped blogging for Game On, a semi-professional video games blog based in Madison, WI.  I used ICKYWMB to not only get out my non-gaming related thoughts, but to keep in practice for my “professional” posts.  Concerns with our host environment lead to a blogging sabbatical which then lead to us giving up on it entirely.

And yeah, there’s a new look and feel here.  I changed the theme after watching my friend Erik change the theme of his blog this past weekend.  It seemed like a good way to breathe a little life into the blog and signify a fresh start.  While I spent way too many hours on the previous theme’s custom header and PHP code to make it all look and behave exactly as I wanted, it no longer felt right.  This theme is just a standard Wordpress theme, with a few very minor tweaks to it.  It’s not as personalized as the old one and doesn’t behave exactly how I’d like it to, but it looks nice.

So, with Game On gone for the near future, I’m left with only ICKYWMB and a desire to write creatively about my life, observations, pop culture, and video games.  Let’s see if I can get back to writing on a regular basis.

The old WTF crew is back at it again for a one night only reunion show.  I’m excited.  I’m nervous.  I’m going to have fun.  If you know what this is, you may not want to miss it.  Or you may.  We’re all probably a bit rusty and it may very likely turn into a train wreck.  Even if it does, I still think I’m going to have fun.

Saturday, November 14th
9:00 PM – 10:00 PM Central Time

Listen live at TalkShoe

The show will also be available for download (presumably at the same link) after the fact if you can’t listen live.

Ack!  I have two things that I want to blog about, but I can’t do either of them right now.  One requires a picture that has yet to be taken and the other requires a link that is sitting on a computer that I can’t get to right now.

I could write something else funny and original or maybe thought provoking, but nope.  I want to share a picture and/or a video with you and now that has put my brain into a special kind of writer’s block where all I can think of is that picture and that video.  At least they are both pretty cool.  It’s a nice place to have my mind stuck right now.

I enjoy writing.  I like finding new and interesting ways to convey and phrase things.  I like leading the reader down one path only to have a little twist in the story at the end.  I especially enjoy having a vague, seemingly unrelated title that makes sense only after the reader takes in the final sentence.  I’ve been blogging now for over five years and I think that my writing skills have improved quite a lot over that span of time.  Yet, there are still a few areas where I want to improve.  I have some writing crutches that I always use, even though I know they aren’t exactly correct or preferred.  There are two of them specifically that really bother me.

Just:  I use the word ‘just’ way too often.  Most of the time I use it correctly, but I use it where it’s not necessary.  In fact, I had to fight myself not to use it in that last sentence.  Usually, I don’t need the added emphasis that the word provides.  It’s just filler; a tick in my writing style.  I have been working hard to limit it’s use and save the word for when it’s actually providing some real benefit to the sentence it’s in.

Got:  I have destroyed this word over the years.  I use it far too often and unlike “just”, I generally use “got” incorrectly.  There is almost always a better, more preferred word that could be used.  While “got” may be accepted in many of these cases, it is quite often grammatically wrong.  One of the situations where I catch myself utterly failing with “got” is when it’s just redundancies.  Take this sentence: “I’ve got to see that!”  Expanding the contraction changes the sentence to: “I have got to see that!”  The word “got” is just not needed here.  “I have to see that!” is all that’s required for it to be a clean sentence that makes it’s point.

I realize now that this was likely a very boring entry.  Who wants to read about grammar?  I’m sure that some people might want to, but those people probably aren’t coming to this blog to get their grammar fix.  Maybe this particular entry is a little self-serving.  By writing about these two things I’m working on, I’ve forced myself to think about them more.  Also, it allows you, dear reader, to know what I’m trying to do and call me out on my missteps in the comments when I make these “mistakes” in future blog entries.  Consider that your free pass to tell me that I’m wrong.  But please, you got to promise to just do it when I use “got” and “just”.

Wow.  I went a lot longer between posts than I had originally planned to.  It was required of me to write two posts for Game On this week and maybe that sucked all of the writing juices out of me.  If you want to read those, click on the Game On link in the header to point your browser at the right place.

Switching gears, last night I saw “A Perfect Getaway” in the theater.  I knew I wouldn’t like it as much as I liked “District 9″, but I didn’t expect to not enjoy it.  Unfortunately, that is what happened.  The movie never felt like it really took off.  The last 15 minutes or so are okay, but it’s a long, slow journey to get there.  I’m not even sure I can recommend this movie as a rental unless you’re really into thrillers and can be patient with a slow-moving one.