Ten Years

As of this very time today, this blog is ten years old.

That's a big deal to me. It means that I'm getting to a point where I'll have maintained this blog for the majority of my life. That's weird on a number of levels.

I've probably mentioned this before, but in case you didn't know: I started this blog when I was in sixth grade. I came across this site service called Blogger (before it was bought out by Google) and thought it sounded neat. My original intention was to write a fictionalized blog – short stories based on things that'd happened to me – but that fell through. And so this started instead.

The first post linked to this Flash animation about getting drunk and going to Heaven. Back in the day, it seemed brilliant, subversive, and technically impressive. Nowadays, it seems primitive and amateurish, albeit not without its charm. (Sort of like those early posts.) It's still cute, but in the era of hours and hours of video being uploaded to YouTube every minute, it's lost just a bit of its luster.

My original intention for celebrating ten years of blogging was to go through the archives of this blog and write a post about each year. I decided against that, mostly because of time constraints and school. But maybe one day that'll happen. And maybe one day I'll come across this post about going through old posts. And I'll go: "Oh. That's weird."

Anyway. Thanks for reading. Here's to another ten years.

Just A Dream

Every now and then I have dreams where I die. It's always exciting and surreal, like a dream ought to be. You know how it goes: it involves a crazed killer with a machette, falling off of a building, spontaneous combustion...whatever. They don't happen so frequently that I feel like I ought to chat with my therapist about it, but they do occur every now and then. Maybe a few times a year.

And inevitably, right before I die in the dream, I think to myself, "Thank God this is just a dream."

"Thank God this is just a dream." Every single time.

The first time was probably just a quirk. But somehow it's caught on, like a reflex somewhere in the recesses of my brain. Every death dream ends with the same thought: "Thank God this is just a dream!"

This moment of realization is apparently when one is supposed to become lucid in the dream. Not me. I never remember what happens afterwards.

It's all really strange. I don't think it's going to end anytime soon. But I wonder what effect it'll have on my waking life.

If the thought really has become the subconscious equivalent of a reflex, maybe it means that it'll extend to reality, too. Maybe it'll continue throughout my life. And maybe, years from now, right before that final moment, some synapse will fire, and before I go, I'll think: "Thank God this is just a dream!"

A Final Note on Things of Note (For Real This Time)

Guess who...

• woke up way too late?
• realized that the water in his apartment wasn't working before he tried to take a shower?
• realized that the Walgreens down the street doesn't sell dry shampoo?
• had an eleven hour day of work?
• subsisted on nothing but coffee and strawberry oat bars for the waking day?
• got a Tumblr?

If your answer to any of these questions was "this guy," then you are correct.

(Unless "this guy" was in reference to yourself. In which case, you're wrong. Unless you actually did do any/all of those things. But then I'd think you were wrong. Even if you were actually right. Okay. Let's stop.)

The point I'm trying to make is that I got a Tumblr. It's called Snippets. This is my way of replacing the Things of Note sidebar (lasted nearly six years) and the weekly Things of Note posts (lasted nearly two months). It'll be populated with all sorts of neat stuff: videos, quotes, pictures, and a whole lot more.

For the time being, this blog is – and will continue to be – my main mode of writing publicly. However, if it's neat/weird/awesome websites and content that you're looking for, keep yourself posted on the brand-spanking new Tumblr, either by visiting regularly or subscribing by RSS feed.

In the meantime, let me know if you know of some place in Chicago that sells dry shampoo. I'd really appreciate it.