As I sit here staring at the empty window and the blinking cursor, I’m wracking my brain sections for a topic to write about. "What’s topical? Maybe you can do another silly post? Something heartfelt? Let's break it down. What do you know?"
Answer: I know a bit about myself. So, ladies and gentlemen, I give you a few things about myself that I know and you might not.
1. Hip Hop. I fancy myself a musician. To be specific, a Hip Hop artist. Also, I believe there is a very distinct line between Rap and Hip Hop. Ask. Ill tell you.
2. I love to cook. LOVE to cook. Being in a fully equipped kitchen while cooking a 2 or 3 course meal with music blaring and blocking out the outside world. I love having a side towel hanging from my waist and a chef’s knife in my hand. Cooking big meals is fun for me.
3. Star Wars nerd. Wall mounted replica of Mace Windus lightsaber? Check. Every Star Wars made for the PC for the last 12 years or so? Check. Original Star wars toys? Check and also Millennium Falcon? check. Movies memorized? Yes that would be a check. Grew up with it, wrote about it, played it, its in my blood, in my speech, and in my house. Star Wars. I don’t know if George Lucas ruined my life or saved it.
4. Stand up comedy. I absolutely love stand up comedy. GOOD stand up comedy. I look at stand up comedy as an art form. And, just like art, some of it sucks. There is a reason comedians like George Carlin and Richard Pryor stand the test of time.
5. Energy Drinks. As a side effect of doing the Wrestling Mayhem Show I’ve become a bit of a connoisseur of Energy Drinks. From time to time we will sample and rate various drinks live on the air. The worst I’ve ever had was Steven Segals wretched clusterfuck of a drink which tasted like feet and rotten black cherries. The best was a toss up between Sobes Essential Energy Orange and Rockstars Energy Punch. The harshest and also most effective was called simply Cocaine. 1 can equals 4 and a half Red Bulls. I drank 2 cans that night. I almost exploded.
parentheses
pa·ren·the·sis ɛɪ - Show Spelled Pronunciation [puh-ren-thuh-sis]
–noun, plural -ses [-seez]
| 1. | either or both of a pair of signs ( ) used in writing to mark off an interjected explanatory or qualifying remark, to indicate separate groupings of symbols in mathematics and symbolic logic, etc. |
| 2. | Usually, parentheses. The material contained within these marks. |
| 3. | Grammar. A qualifying, explanatory, or appositive word, phrase, clause, or sentence that interrupts a syntactic construction without otherwise affecting it. |
| 4. | An interval. |
So tell me ladies and gents, where are you?
I know it seems strange but I’ll elucidate.
When you speak, do people listen? Do you have the ability to say and do things that people take to heart? Anyone with enough charisma and hutzpah will make you believe that the moon is made of a delicious cheese and you must donate money to their program so they can harvest it. So what sets these people apart from the guy who says, "No, no I'm pretty sure the moon is made of NOT food. Therefore I’ll get cheese at the shops." The difference is this:
For our little scene here, Cheesy McMoonman can speak with charisma and such needed to get his ideas over. Mr. Cheeseshop? He is speaking (in parentheses.) What do we do with parentheses? Skip them.
In life, so many of us lived there. (in parentheses) I mean. Don’t look at me, don’t talk to me, leave me alone. I like things you don’t and that’s a sin of enormous magnitude. So many of us, not all mind you, disappear. You don’t see me therefore I don’t have to deal with you. I can just live over here and no one will bother me. Here’s the catch and the flaw here. If you want to get ANYWHERE you can’t just live (there.) Someone has to hear you and to feel where you’re coming from.
2 things. 1. How? Well that’s a good question. Do people listen to me? From time to time. I run a pretty well received radio show. I record music that people seem to like. And people come to me for advice a lot. Why do they listen to these things? Because when I speak its things I have a passion about. Things I give a shit about. The radio show is based around wrestling. It’s something I've always really enjoyed and it comes across in what I do. The music? I won’t write something if I don’t feel it. I won’t write about cash and bitches because that’s not me. That too comes across.
Whether you are blogging, doing a podcast or just talking to someone, if you speak from the heart about something that you really do care about you have a good shot at it. Say you want to start a podcast. Have you ever cooked? Sure, we all have. So you start a show about cooking. If you love cooking and really can talk about it for 30 mins or an hour once a week, you might have a good shot. But if you get on there and say "I made Mac and cheese once. That was fun." there’s not much of a chance of bringing about a big fan base.
2. Understand that you can’t know everything. You can’t get over 100 percent of the time. No matter how much you know and where you are you will find yourself lost from time to time. It’s ok. Take the time, to regroup and go from there. But remember these things:
A. We are all human. Don’t think about this just for yourself, but for others. We all make mistakes.
B. Humor goes a LONG way.
C. So does bullshit.
D. Your better than you might think. Don’t let the slings and arrows of the world throw you off your game. It is your game after all.
I leave you with this.
Where are you?
Here? (or here?)
Everyone is talking about what happened at Bootcamp Pittsburgh. I want to talk about the things i learned instead of just what happened. Ill Provide links where i can.
1. Chris Brogan loves a good hug.
2. I cant pronounce Justin Kownackis last name to save my life. (sorry Justin)
3. I'm not the best at interviews, but i do them anyway.
4. I sort of know what im talking about.
5. It doesn't matter where i go, someone usually seems to get chopped.
6. Bar Louie is kind of cool, but as long as you go there with cool people.
7. Brogan can also give a good interview.
8. Heres the big one.
We all have an incredible opportunity. We all have access to things that our grandparents, or even our parents would never have dreamed. We can be on the radio if we want. be on video if we like. AND we can do it in such a way that the whole world can see it. Think about that for a moment. there was a time that speaking to someone in another country meant pen pal. or a huge phone bill. Now we can touch lives anywhere on a daily basis. how amazing is that? Pretty damn cool.
9. Theres always more media to come.
Thanks to everyone for Bootcamp Pittsburgh. It was indeed, a blasty blast.