[this post is really a response to (e:jenks,275) ]


What about community?

I think that the word ego has an inaccurately negative connotation. Far too often the extreme version of this trait is implied whenever it is mentioned. That's not to say that ego has never gotten out of hand. As with all things, ego should be applied in moderation. Being human kind of fudges this rule from time to time which is where the urban legend of assholes comes from, but that's another story.

Without waxing philosophical too much here allow me to explain (note: the following text is rife with pontification on topics which the writer has little to no formal training in, and should be taken with at least 1 grain of salt).

We might be able to agree that ego is roughly the realization of self. If we want to connect that to another hair brained idea we could say, "how you identify, define, and comprehend your self is a direct indication of what communities you are and are not part of (basic folklore theory)." Lastly, community is a basic part of the human condition. It is at least a part of being a life form that can communicate. (Side note/broken fact: Scientists have found that Elephants, which do communicate very much, have the ability to comprehend self. They put some dumbos near mirrors and the floppy ears did things that made the scientists believe that they {the elephant standing near the mirror} recognized the elephants in the mirrors them selves).

So could we even be a community if all of our members had no sense of self, or ego? I think not.

Alex, you are not an asshole, you're probably the most self scrutinizing individuals I've ever meet, and if you have an imbalance of ego, it's likely a negative balance. Your demeanor is actually quite delightful to behold actually. You're very pleasant, not, I repeat, an asshole, and yes you have an ego. But you need one, we all do. It's natural. It's necessary, not weird, or awful. People do this kind of thing all the time, we just do it online (sound all cyber sexy don't it?).

We'd be doing this if we were all standing around in a school yard, or near an office cooler, but we aren't and can't gather that way. If there was a way for us conduct two-way communication during the drafting of a journal entry I'm sure we would do it, but there isn't and that's what the chat is for (thank you (e:paul)). The only way we can gather and share the information that makes us who we are ((e:stippers)) is online. We aren't the only community that is gathering in new seemingly self indulgent ways. Look at the nerds that go to Star Trek (ok and Star Wars) conventions. This kind of think was unheard of in the days before mass transit was readily available to the middle class. A lot of those folks don't even bathe, how's that for self-indulgent. What about knitting circles (an oldy but goody)? You can't say that there's only pure moral pulp floating around at functions loving dubbed, "the Stitch and Bitch" by its members. We're not even the only kind of group that gathers online either, just ask (e:vycious) about the xbox live folks, a corporation generated community (and that's not to knock corporation generated anything, just point out a unique quality). I don't think you can get any more self indulgent than spending upwards of 3000$ for devices that are designed to entertain one person at a time (what do you mean my computer cost that much too? shut up!).

So the egotistical act of talking about your self in your journal is really not so egotistical at all. In fact if you want to measure ego I think that examining if one posts about one self isn't the most direct route. You should really examine how.

Note: I am the sweetest dude ever, and if you don't think so you should be kicked off of estrip, ex post haste.

Love,
enknot

woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

::Download Flash Video::

Hey peeps.

Nuttin too much to report except that the effin Sabers are amazing, but you knew that already.

I watched them at my buddy Kevins house. It's where I watch all the games, and whre I saw the playoffs last year. It's a combination of pleasure and pain since Kev has a cat. Ok two cats... Clyde and Cheese. Cheese is a ginger kitten that I was gonna take a picutre of, but his faveorit place to hang is in the bathroom on top of Kevin's underoos. Yeah. Clyde is the cat in the bag.

OK. Since this post is of little substance I'll at least give you something fun to gaze at. My buddy Matty 's girlie Cat is not only fun and cute, but also knits. She made him these pimp assed gloves that I'm going to steal. They have no fingers on them so I if I did have em I could fingle my iPod or type up a journal on the phoney while I was warm and toasty.

I think the only way Cat & Mat can stave off my insidious plotting is by having Cat sticth me a VW tam... She already said she knda would so, I guess they're safe for now.

Sigh... boredum. I'm waiting for a patch to install on the Work desky (lovingly dubbed 'worky') and the install process for this patch (VS2005 SP1) is a whopping 400MB .5 hour endevor. Sucks.

I'm going to see a movie with my brother today which is good. I've beem low on human contact lately and it's driving me crazy. I need a woman, but I'm so damn picky and slow moving it's painful. I'll just fill the inturrum with good friends and family.

OK peeps... see you next time. Keep on posting.

CLYDE



MATTY IN MITS

Missing Image ;(

CATHRINE

Hey peeps.

Nuttin too much to report except that the effin Sabers are amazing, but you knew that already.

I watched them at my buddy Kevins house. It's where I watch all the games, and whre I saw the playoffs last year. It's a combination of pleasure and pain since Kev has a cat. Ok two cats...

OK. Since this post is of little substance i'll at least give you something fun to gaze at. My buddy Matty 's girlie Cat Knot a coincidence) is not only fun and cute, but also knits. She made him these pimp assed gloves that I'm going to steal. They have no fingers on them so I could fingle my iPod or type up a journal while I was warm and toasty.

I think the only way Cat & Mat can stave off my insidious plotting is by having Cat sticth me a VW tam... she already said she knda would so, I guess they're safe for now.

Sigh... boredum. I waiting for a patch to instally on the Work desky (lovingly dubbed 'worky') and the install process for this patch (VS2005 SP1) is a 400MB .5 hour endevor. Sucks.

I'm going to see a movie with my brother today which is good. I've beem low on human contact lately and it's driving me crazy. I need a woman, but I'm so damn picky and slow moving it's painful. I'll just fill the inturrum with good friends and family.

OK peeps... see you next time. Keep on posting.

Hey peeps.

Nuttin too much to report except that the effin Sabers are amazing, but you knew that already.

I watched them at my buddy Kevins house. It's where I watch all the games, and whre I saw the playoffs last year. It's a combination of pleasure and pain since Kev has a cat. Ok two cats...

OK. Since this post is of little substance i'll at least give you something fun to gaze at. My buddy Matty 's girlie Cat Knot a coincidence) is not only fun and cute, but also knits. She made him these pimp assed gloves that I'm going to steal. They have no fingers on them so I could fingle my iPod or type up a journal while I was warm and toasty.

I think the only way Cat & Mat can stave off my insidious plotting is by having Cat sticth me a VW tam... she already said she knda would so, I guess they're safe for now.

Sigh... boredum. I waiting for a patch to instally on the Work desky (lovingly dubbed 'worky') and the install process for this patch (VS2005 SP1) is a 400MB .5 hour endevor. Sucks.

I'm going to see a movie with my brother today which is good. I've beem low on human contact lately and it's driving me crazy. I need a woman, but I'm so damn picky and slow moving it's painful. I'll just fill the inturrum with good friends and family.

OK peeps... see you next time. Keep on posting.

Hey peeps.

Nuttin too much to report except that the effin Sabers are amazing, but you knew that already.

I watched them at my buddy Kevins house. It's where I watch all the games, and whre I saw the playoffs last year. It's a combination of pleasure and pain since Kev has a cat. Ok two cats...

OK. Since this post is of little substance i'll at least give you something fun to gaze at. My buddy Matty 's girlie Cat Knot a coincidence) is not only fun and cute, but also knits. She made him these pimp assed gloves that I'm going to steal. They have no fingers on them so I could fingle my iPod or type up a journal while I was warm and toasty.

I think the only way Cat & Mat can stave off my insidious plotting is by having Cat sticth me a VW tam... she already said she knda would so, I guess they're safe for now.

Sigh... boredum. I waiting for a patch to instally on the Work desky (lovingly dubbed 'worky') and the install process for this patch (VS2005 SP1) is a 400MB .5 hour endevor. Sucks.

I'm going to see a movie with my brother today which is good. I've beem low on human contact lately and it's driving me crazy. I need a woman, but I'm so damn picky and slow moving it's painful. I'll just fill the inturrum with good friends and family.

OK peeps... see you next time. Keep on posting.

Hey Peeps. I want to have some people over at about 7ish for a game of risk.. Maybe a few beers too. So show up if you know where I live or send me a message if you wanna find out.

I'm gonna try and get me hobbit to make his famous chicken dish too.

PS. I'm gregarious to a fault... it's kinda sad, but I love the peoples!

PPS. If you don't come the only things to keep me company will be my Star Wars figurines, don't make me do that to myself.

...where at least I'm allowed to pee!!

Ok does anyone else have a decent resource on the candidates for today. I admit I have been more than lazy in knowing who they are. I haven't followed any scandles or watched any polictical comercials, mostly because that crap is usally...well crap. I don't want to go vote a party line cause that's just stupid... so um. yeah.. any hints (besides reading Josh's journal for the republican side of things)

So,

I'm at my desk preparing to write up some character backgrounds for a story I'm working on. [No, I won't post it here, yes it's really nerdy, and double yes I love witting it.] While I'm getting ready to do so ,MS Word booting in the background, I started thinking about all the characters on this site. This site has quite a cast of characters many I'd be proud to have though of, in a cast that I happen to be a part of.

Segway(sp?): I don't know if you know this but the movie Anchorman as a DVD is a steal. It comes with 2 separate movies. One is full of scatological, lascivious, and lower brow humor, which has its own merits. I laugh at well constructed jokes not just the snobbity high brow, political, or referential kind, which the other one is rife with. I just prefer the later. I'm a snob. I know it... either that or there's something that happens in my brain that's more satisfied by being challenged than sated immediatly that make me an alien to my parents, and to many other humans that I meet.((e:IMK2)#120) ((e:IMK2)#121).

I think the higher brow movie was better, not just because of jokes that didn't have erections in them or the absence of large nonsensical fight scenes, but because the whole thing was taken much more seriously, so when something crazy happened it was more outrageous than yet another fart in a series of farts. That's why this page is good. Because the stories you read here are real. The people are real people. People you've seen and shared drinks with. People you like and that you can even hate.

Oooh, another reason why Anchorman is so good is because of it's cultural relevancy, which this site just being a web site is composed of. What's more right now than the interweb? The highbrow version of Anchorman is done more like a documentary made in the mid 70s to early 80's. The voice over voice is serious all of the time and the plot change makes the subject matter more emotionally binding. "How did the social climate of the workplace change when women were introduced into traditionally male role. Public roles, like news anchor?" When you ask that question the title makes both films feel more relevant; it's called Anchorman, not news anchor, the phrase wasn't coined. There's many treasures to behold in that 2nd version, many gems that I won't tarnish by trying to explain. Pick it up and check it out. I plan on buying it. Maybe I'll have a movie night and invite you all to eat popcorn on me couch so you can watch it too.

Tying all this back in to my point, if you put all those characters in a more realistic setting, they start to become real people as ridiculous are they are, because really bizzare characters like that exist in the real fuckin' world. On this page. :: waves at cha ::

So I starting thinking about what kind of character I am. If I were in a comedy, a sit com, or even drama (like Quantum Leap!), that had some contemporary relevance. What kind of wacky zany angle could be taken on my personality to depict me as a person from this day and age and from this region accurately. In other words real good shit.

You can see some of the complexity of thought trying to eek it's way into the fart version and there are some really good jokes in it that aren't low brow that aren't in the other film too. In other words, pick it up and treat your self, or if you didn't know the other disk was a different movie check it out (Mitch didn't know it and they were his DVD's).

The Anchorman movie is a good example of widespread contemporary social change. It was set in San Deigo and I bet dollars to dough nuts that if I ever lived in Sand Deigo I'd have been laughing even harder (did you see Will Farrell's tan?). The Departed was good because of it's well woven complexity and cultural relevance too. I guess I can better illustrate my point by giving a concrete example... Oh, some really good regionally relevant media that I've been into lately has been Hamell On trial. He's really damned liberal, really crass, and underpaid... so completely buffalo.

The Departed was really good because of the uncommon combination of elements that were more realistic than fictitious. I guess there's a heavy Irish population in Rhode Island, so it ends up that there are some Irish cops, and just as many Irish crooks, and they have a really amazing culture, with it's own accent to boot. You should really check that movie out. Instead of satisfying you immediately it surprises you constantly, a much higher yield of enjoyment if you can keep up with it all with. It's kinda funny that that level of culture is untouched in films until now. Or scary. It's the only reason to you'd need to ever travel for anymore. Mass media has made everything else the exact same everywhere. Think of that the next time your craving a chicken finger sub at 2:00 a.m. out side of a 24hour McDonalds because all the bars are closed and you spent twice as much money on Long Island Ice teas that have half as much liquor in them (phew...)

Hmmmm... back to me, ok and you. I think I started to describe me pretty well. I'm not a typical black guy, and I'm a snob (OK and a nerd). So, I'd have to play that up. I have noodle hair which is either a tell tell sign of some kinda liberalness, or ethnic enthusiasm, but with me it's neither really, and if you pay attention you can catchy me relishing that fact. Hell, some folks probably think I'm republican the way I talk (just ask (e:matthew) , we had a fun little fracas the night we met. It's ok kids, we made up that night/morning. We'd yammered till holy-crap-oclock in the morning. Funny thing is TK was still drinking when I left and the birds were out, that guys a trooper. I was a ex-musician too which you have to be to hang out where I hang and love it, "Allentown". You can't throw an amp in the old pink without taking out 4 bands, or unbalancing the groupie ratio. However, I'm on again off again charming depending on the situation as if I'm not sure how to control it. And the most important regionally distinctive crown would probably be my disdain. Buffalo can never quite get it right (No Goal, Wide Right) but we can certainly always tell you whats wrong. Typically that's paired with some do nothing that ends you up in the Pink at 4:00 am talking to that girl again....

What about you. What kinda character would you consider your self if you wanted to get readers interested, but not bull shit them at the same time?