The Finch at the Feeder

Kanye got me thinking. I've never seen Taylor Swift or Beyonce's videos, because I believe women should be in the kitchen making pies, not in the studio making music (can I get a hell yea?), but I do understand the urge to just say something when you don't agree with a decision that it completely out of your control. I think that I come off as having a good deal of grace in a lot of situations, but that's because I work at it. More often than not, I want to linguistically bust somebody up, but I keep my mouth shut because it's impossible to change someone's mind directly. You have to be sneaky.


My parents got me a Kindle. I was anti-Kindle when they first released (OMG, they'll burn all the books!) and then I was Kindle-neutral for a long time. Then I started researching and it actually started to sound pretty damned desirable. What's more important, the message or the medium? Then I figured if they do decide to start burning the books, I'd better be familiar with the Kindle, so I can write with that layout in mind. I subscribed to Narrative right off the bat, because they were the first literary magazine to be released in Kindle format. It's a so-so publication. They charge a whopping $20 reading fee for submissions, but then solicit about half of the issue's content from big-name writers. Then again, the magazine is free online, so...

Maybe I would feel differently if I was more impressed with the content. Nothing all memorable, really. One of the stories reminded me almost exactly of the work of a writer I used to know. She "secretly" thought she was much more talented than I, and I always found that sort of hilarious. I wish nothing bad upon this writer, but do look forward to the day when I am successful and she is stuck in traffic on the morning commute.

I also got American Pastoral for free because of a credit card trick I pulled. Please do not tell Amazon.


How about this--I played nearly 4 hours of Halo 3 today. How's that for wasting your time and life, and how do I ever plan to become successful if I do things like that? There is no answer for that one. My brother seems to look up to me when I play with him, and I love that feeling. Need it even. And I am afraid it won't last forever. OK, maybe there is one answer.


But hey, don't hate to hard on K-West. He's hardly the first to storm the stage at the VMAs. Remember this? Much more dangerous, and probably more rude. Though if I lost anything to Fred Durst, I'd probably climb something, too.