A Cautionary Tale

Now that the the blogosphere is buzzing about my new blog (I've had more than 6 visitors in the last month!) I figure I had best not commit the greatest sin any green blogger can commit.  Having recently posted a post about the fact that I will be blogging, it is important, nay, crucial that I post a new entry to give meaning to the existence of this blog soon, otherwise my blog runs the risk of being one of those blogs that starts with a promise of "frequent updates" and "timely posts" only to fall out of orbit, drift aimlessly through the void, and finally join its kind in a dark, ever growing mass that will inevitably implode under its own weight, forming a dark hole from which nothing but the occasional new cat photo or summer time playlist could ever escape.  No, we don't want that.

Just call me the platinum Midas

So, you know how sometimes you have a dream?  Not like the dreams that you have at night, though I'm sure you've had some doozies.  Please, tell me about them.  But some other time, because now I want to talk about real dreams.  The dreams that make you wake up every day and push yourself a little harder.  Or even the dreams that make you wish really, really hard that something, usually something amazing, will happen to you and you'll finally have everything you need/want/could hope for.  Well, I had a dream once.  It was a simple dream, one that I knew would require hard work, practice, dedication, trustworthiness, loyalty, helpfulness, friendliness, courtesy, kindness, obedience, cheerfulness, thriftiness, bravery, cleanliness, and reverence.  Now, I'm no eagle scout so this was a tall order for me.  You've probably already guessed that I wanted to be in the Platinum League in Starcraft II.

Well, fast forward to a couple of days ago.  I finally accomplished this goal with the help of my brilliant younger brother, Lincoln.  Our 2v2 team decimated any foolhardy challengers that would dare, erm, challenge us.  We quickly shot through the ranks and found ourselves at the top of the universe, league wise.  Of course, we weren't yet in the diamond league, but it is good to be realistic with your dreams.

Like King Midas.  He had a simple dream as well.  All he wanted was to be able to make every single thing he touch turn to gold.  And through hard work and perseverance he achieved that goal.  But something terrible befell this humble man.  He soon found he would starve to death if everything he touched turned to gold, so he did what any man would do.  He died rich and fulfilled.  Just kidding.  He saw the error of his ways and realized that sometimes we need to be careful what we wish for.

Well, I hate to compare myself to a rich and powerful king (you're right, the comparison is apt) but I experienced practically the exact same thing.  Now that we made it to the platinum league, we haven't won a single game.  Everyone is SO MUCH BETTER than us.  It is like every time I'm about to put the food of victory into my mouth, it becomes the solid gold chunk of failure.  As humiliating as it is, it was a lot more fun being in the bronze league, where wins flow like liquid not turned to gold.  Moral of the story, update your blogs lest we be sucked into a giant black hole.

I'm Totally Blogging!

I once felt special because some friends went out of their way to tell me that I should totally start blogging.  In fact, I think they actually said the word "totally."  I think that is probably why I am not blogging.  (Well, I guess I am right now, but not really.  It's complicated.)  It isn't because they want me to.  Actually, to say they want me to is also a bit of an over simplification.  I can probably say that as this moment they could care less whether I'm blogging or not (am I?) but for at least one point in time, the thought crossed their minds that it would be nice if I had a blog.  And that isn't why I don't blog.  It is the fact that they said "totally" (which, come to think of it, they probably didn't actually say...) Because I can't do this totally.

I started this blog and started designing it with the wonderfully intuitive Blogger, and got super tired of it super quick.  So I figured I would write a post.  My post ended up being pretty preachy, which I hate.  But it isn't really really surprising, as I am prone to lapse into preachiness whenever I start putting words together, something I remembered today as I read a letter I sent home to my little brother while I was on my mission.  Worst part?  It was his birthday letter.  I just like to think of him with the family, tearing open all of his awesome presents from all of the awesome people who love him.  When he finally gets to mine, he rips off the paper with a gleam of excitement at the corner of his eye, and the gleam dies.  He forces a smile onto his face, and quickly puts the letter aside, trying to push on to the better presents from people who know how to give a birthday present.  

My mom asks "What did Jordan get you?"

He replies, "A sermon..."

Don't worry, I made up for it the next year by not doing anything for his birthday besides thinking I should do something cool for it.  That was probably an improvement.

My ability to start things and then never finish them is unparalleled.  It is great that I finished my mission.  I could totally see myself having woken up some morning, getting in the car, driving home, and walking in the front door to be greeted by my horrified family, only to think "Oh yeah, I'm still a missionary.  Oops."  It's not like I set out to not finish things, it usually just happens that way.  Good thing I've chosen a path in medicine, right?

And that was the only post I've done.  One preachy little post, two and a half months ago.  After that I must have lost interest and gone on to doing other things that I deemed more important.  I couldn't tell you what any of those things were.  But I can tell you that that isn't "totally" blogging.  That is starting a blog and then never touching it again.  Hardly a cardinal sin, but certainly not what my friends had in mind (even if they didn't say "totally,"  I think it was the message they were trying to convey.)  Why am I writing right now?  Because I fell asleep at 6:30 on a Sunday evening and woke up at 10.

Google tells me this is the picture I want for my blog.  I dare you to say otherwise.

Oh yeah, another reason why I'm not very good at this blogging thing:  I forgot to, you know, tell anyone I was blogging.  Oops.