The Hook

As the air around me settles into the usual apartment fair. I'm thinking about the hook. It's a term in music where a slow start is suddenly ended by loud buoyant sound and continued on in. After the hook you can lead an audience where you want it to go. The hook is a popular mode of gaining listeners.

Bam!

OOOOOHHHH!

Yeeaaah!


The success of the Hook leads to many pop songs having a similar sound. It works. I can tell you from years of public speaking that I've seen the hook in great speakers. I never had the term for it lodged there in my brain though. English majors often talk about hooking the audience in the first sentance of a book, and without it you fail. This makes me think otherwise. Find a point in the line about 45 seconds of reading in and let it scream.

Make it come from nowhere and stop your reader from letting go. Lead them in control their emotions until they realize an hour later that they can't stop reading. But try out that hook. We know other devices of building to a climax then pulling completely out of it and leaving the reader hanging. Just a little more they cry and we breathe to them, follow me and I'll give you everything you're looking for.

Whispering secrets about others and giving a nod in the right direction as well. That's what we know. But lets not forget the hook.

I hate the idea that we must trick people into listening to us, The metaphores all sound like parts of a trap. A KerSNAP! HAHAHAHA I've got you dear reader and I won't let you go. It's so maniacal.

I prefer to let the strength of my ideas and words stand like a monument against the winds of critism, but I know that without knowing the tricks they might as well be an epitaph on a grave that mold has grown over

Cooperation

I've been working with my brother on a cooperative game and we're learning yet again how to be a team. Whenever you have to work with someone even if it is your brother there are things that you have to do to make things turn out allright. I'm of the opinion that America in it's loud and proud celebration of the individual makes cooperation the hardest thing that a person will have to learn.

People complain about divorce rates, about corperations, government and other things that involve many people and therein we see the what it is that Americans need to learn more than any other thing. Trust, and cooperation. I include myself in this group as I find it hard to depend on others to keep me going be it in work or school I'm fiercely independant. However I recognize that there are many things that I not only have to rely on others to do for me but that at some point should I achieve my dream of running a business like pixar, or disney that I'll have to rely on others to the extent that my livelyhood depends on them and that I'll have little influence on whether or not they can do such a thing and I will have to trust them implicitly.

Realizing this I'm trying to learn how people work and function and how I might be able to integrate myself into society when I make few friends easily and I prefer to work alone.

If you ever were to ask yourself this question how do I choose my friends I don't know how you would. I know how I choose friends though. I look to how they treat other people. Many people act friendly but aren't nice, and others are real assholes. I take a while to choose a friend and many times others treat me as a friend far before I'll give them that label. There are qualities I look for that I am unwilling and unable to explain that I use to judge a person.

There are a few times where a person and I connect for a few seconds and I automatically know that should circumstance put us together we'll end up friends for a life time but often the rigors of life pull us apart.

Because of these attitudes I believe that my problems with the opposite sex should be apparent. Often I take longer than is neccessary to warm up to people and when relationships are involved people are more picky as well, making for some awkward moments. As much as people tell you that you should admit to someone of the opposite sex that you like them it's a hard thing to do and be taken seriously. And it's even harder if people in that position have been taken away from you in life, or you've found that the feelings aren't mutual.

I made a few friends last year but different majors forced us apart. I'm still trying to learn people this year and I have a few candidates for the label of friend. I think that that label comming from me is a big deal and I know that it's pompous. Best friends is a hurdle that a person can't even earn it comes from being friends for a while and sharing experiences, I don't bestow that it just happens.

This all came from a message I got through the internet recently from one of my Original "Best Friends." who lives in Reno. I thought I'd lost him but he's arround and still kicking. It was great to connect after more than 14 years apart. To know that he still thought of me kindly was great.

Anyway (get out your drinking glasses)

Here's to Us

There's damned few

And we're looking ahead. (Drink)

-Zex out

Things that are hard to do.

I've been playing a game, Mass Effect where there are options that let you choose between "Paragon" and "Renegade" and when I played the game I didn't often make choices that were towards renegade, When I play games I don't play to take me away from myself, and I generally play as myself but I've played many games where the Good path is basically the only path that has rewards worth having.

Talking it over, games almost always make it that "good" guys' get more experience, get more party members, and the like and if you think about it the bad guys although tough in any game are seemingly better equipped and always better defended just worse at offense.

So I've learned that being good is the way to go. after going through Once I've decide to try the alternative route. It's very difficult because there is very little reward for being an asshole.

As in real life it's hard to do things for me that are "1 marshmallow kid" actions. I go for at least 2 if not the whole freaking bag. More payoff in the end is worth it to me.

The power of words

I've been thinking lately about how we use words to shape ourselves and how we give words power. The latest iteration of this thought came when I was listening to the song "You're Gonna Go Far, Kid" both in Radio and in explicit form when I listened to it on radio before hearing the explicit version something was missing. The word that it was missing was fucker.

In my workplaces I've often been questioned to my lack of cussing. And when I do use it they laugh. I try to stay conscious of what I say and what I write. I don't want to be verbose, but I do want to say things accurately. So I try to say what I mean. The 7 forbidden words, are given power when you don't say them except when you mean them.

One thing I've learned is that to excel in anything you have to do away with the chaff. If you absolutely need 2 hours to make a movie do it but if you can cut a scene a line or a word you should do it. The most effective works perform one job well.

There are uses for multitasking objects, A pocketknife is proof of that, but when I take apart a computer or chop vegetables I don't go looking for the Swiss Army.

The hardest part of this is that leaders to be effective as leaders must communicate visions of how things need to be and need to know a little bit of everything that makes up the parts of the whole. American society tries to turn many people into leaders when we don't need many leaders and tries to fool the rest of us that we are leaders when we are in fact specialists.

All this is through the power of words and what words society decides are worthwhile and which ones are not. People in our society often say "I don't care" and that you shouldn't care about what others think of you, while acting just the opposite. I shape others opinions of me and me into parts of one whole.

I do care.

Why Write

I don't often read my own writing, not because I'm embarrassed about it or that I feel that it can't be improved upon, but because I agree with myself way too much. If I read some of my own stuff I end up falling in love with me. The world already has one Narcissus it doesn't need a Mike as well. I mean if I read myself I often nod my head and agree with myself.
"There's a well written man" I'll think
or
"I've never heard anyone put things quite like that guy, he must be a genius" I'll say to myself and then act pleasantly surprised when I find out that I wrote such golden things.

Needless to say whenever I've met me I've found him to be stuck up and full of himself. I think that he could do with some humble pie and a sense of fashion.

On an unrelated note here's a thought that popped into my head that won't go away for until it's out. Once out then I hope that daylight kills it:

Heath Ledger died of being the Joker.

Now that that's out of the way let me explain from movie logic which as we all know fails at most things.

First when one plays a character well one becomes that character. The two of you are one. Lenard Nemoy famously tried to distance himself from the character of Spock and even wrote a book about it entitled "I am not Spock" However later in life he revised that statement and wrote another book "I am Spock" and talked about how playing that character changed his life.

And we all know that Heath Ledger is the "best" joker ever. Another movie had the plot suggest that a man who played as a Nazi leader ended up being a big inspiration for some German people and inspired more destruction than he stopped as he worked as a spy for the Allies. So if Heath Ledger became the Joker here's his dilema.

There is no Batman.

In a world where there is no Batman there is no need for a joker. The joker similar to other villains is the boundary where the hero ends and Evil begins. Superheros and their villains are remarkably similar.

Both work outside the systems of law that they live in. They wear flashy costumes. They have abilities that are outside the norm. They are loved or hated in droves and are obsessed with some ideas in the hero's case often justice, truth, the american way, or some other idea while the villain is obsessed often with remaking thing in their own image, cleansing or purifying the world or revenge.

Back to the idea. Our joker lived in a world without his counterpart. This plays well into many movie themes that often the world that a person lives in produces a particular person. A world without dramatic heroes needs not a dramatic villain. So an actor who became a dramatic villian in a world that can not support such a thing died because there was no batman to thwart no world to burn, just a washout of the color that is the heroic universe.

Seeing as I didn't know the man personally nor do I know much about sleeping medication, or for that matter drugs in general I want to label his death as accident. However the notion of a Joker who has no batman to live up to taking his own life just seemed to play over and over in my head so I let it out so that it too may die.

Which leads me to my title of why write, or for that matter create. I think that we create things so that there is a brilliance of color to life, especially for the fund managers, the salespeople, the librarians and other whose normal lives wouldn't let them be around such things as heroes, and monsters.

Games hold appeal because we can be superlative and unique instead of one of the masses. We write, we create and we tell stories because not to do so is bland.

Though I did hear about an Icelandic Fisherman who killed a shark with only a knife, when he decided that such a thing was dangerous to people in the area. What a hero!

Making an Impact

Words are a tool I try to use to good effect. People don't want to hear what I have to say except as a way to open themselves up. So I question and tell stories. I feel that if I could just learn how to say more with fewer words I'd love it. Eloquent, that's an aspiration of mine.

I love storytellers, I just end up wanting to be the best speaker that I can be. If I talk to a lawyer I want to use legalese, a writer I like verse, a scientist I like theory.

So to make an impact I want to tell a story the best way I know about, movies games and books. but I'm still learning the craft.

Collections

I have a collection of Magic cards, one that is a few thousand too many, as I don't use most of them and I doubt I ever will. Not because I chose each one individually but because they came together, I don't collect much else, I have a few coins here and there mostly cause when I think about it, I'm reminded of Pirate hordes and I'd like to have a pirate horde privately stashed away from the world so that if it is discovered others are tremendously happy not to mention tremendously rich.

One day...

Anyhow I collect things more inside my head than anywhere else. I don't like souvenirs the always seem cheap and lifeless pictures need to tell a story and often they don't and I'm always watching my wallet as it tries to run off with new gadgets every chance it gets.

So I know stories, If you meet me and I learn about you I grasp every bit of knowledge about you that I can and file it away in my head. Your thoughts movie preferences, music taste, everything. So I know more exciting things about others, and I live somewhat viacariously through them as I know I can't travel to the parts of their lives that they choose to share. This doesn't mean I don't do things for myself, I jump at the chance, but it does mean that I feel like I'm really older than I am since I seem to have years of experience that isn't mine.

So when I'm asked about my age I often feel shocked to find that I'm only 23, (soon to be 24) And it just lets me know that I have so much left to say, do and experience that I, like Calvin may never die as there is too much left to live for. Unless of course I'm in a space, ninja battle trying to save a child from aliens. Then I just might be satisfied.

I do find that I try to collect interesting people's thoughts and idea and I limit myself from some people because when I do learn about people I unconsciously make them me for a moment. This may be why I have trouble with names, A Lee or a Kimberly may just be part of me for a day.

This post is now part of your collection of me as I know that to get things you often have to give something of yourself.

Sitting after the storm

There was a rare occurance this evening, a rainstorm over Vegas. I find that the end of a rainstorm is time fore contemplation and the end of the rain was especially awesome tonight. The storm still had lightning that it would let out every few minutes or so. The colors, a dark purple cloud that faded in and out of black, the orange of a streetlight shining off the buildings and roads, everything was in that state of let you know that the world has stopped for a moment, and invites someone to sit outside and watch as the sky shows off.

I happen to have a great place to do this a bench on the apartement grounds that was recently put in. However like most great places that one finds in a city the opportunity to nab it is rare, being as everyone wants to sit in this awesome bench. I got my opportunity tonight at midnight, where after the storm just before things dried the bench invitingly let me know that It was free.

There are other benches in the area but this one has a superior view so I sat down and observed the last of the sky's light fight, when the clash of white faded out. There was another man near, someone about my own age and we shared this moment. What went through his mind I dunno but he looked a little lost this evening and I hope the sit gave him a chance to find himself.

We had one of those moments when a stranger who you don't know if you'll ever see again seems to need the same thing as you. In this case a chance to let things wash over.

New things

New things are often scary, even mundane new things, like a new job. This last week I've started a new job. I now fix computers and I'm skipping school to do it. I stayed up all night on Sunday because like a child waiting for the first day of school, I was nervous. Would my co-workers like me? Will I know what to do? Can anyone teach me to be how to read minds? What if my boss is Mean? All questions that might be easily quelled had I someone to just sit and talk to in the apartment.

I think that when one is alone that your fears multiply and that when you get to talk with someone that everything turns out much better you might still have the same fears but new ones tend to go away. You don't even need to tell the people near you your problems you just need to have them near so that you can enjoy their company. Besides that if you hate those people you tend to forget your fears and plot their demise.

Anyway day 2 of the job was hectic I spent most of my time out of the office dealing with people whose need are at the top of the world and everything is going against them. Lucky for them they could vent at me but Unfortunately for me and my partner in tech there's not much I could say to ease their minds as I was part of the problem, that is at least in their heads I was.