Pure Gonzo Engineering

Saturday, October 25, 2008

And I Awoke, and Faintly Bouncing Round the Room

I'm waiting for the release of Guitar Hero World Tour, and for whatever reason I'm also having a hell of a time typing.

I'm going to head to Walmart at about 11:30 so I can get my hot little hands on World Tour. Yeah, I'm a loser. I'm not going to get the drum set. I'm not that big of a loser.

I've been trying to think of how to pull these ideas I have floating in my head into a post. The big themes are The bizzaroness of existence, and how people change, becoming who they are, and how you can have an idealized version of what they should be from past experience.

I was walking through the center yard at work, all this heavy equipment around me, the sound of diesel engines and impacts, dirt on my jeans and boots, lugging two laptops in from testing. The only thing I like about fall is the cool air that fills your lungs in the morning. It's not bitter like in winter, just cold enough when you breathe in and breathe out you get the condensed water vapor.

The combination of everything, the air, the dirt, the pain in my shoulder, the sounds, the fact that I was being paid every day to do this testing. It just struck me as bizarre. It was like being a kid again crossing the Wisconsin River on the way to church and being struck by the fact that I exist, that anything exists.

Is this some religious epiphany for me? I don't think so.

This most likely doesn't make sense, but I find it weird that anything exists. Why should it? It's either a profound and deep statement, or just retarded. I can 't really make any more sense of it than that.

Next on my mind is how people you used to know are, and how they got there.

My sister's boyfriend in high school was cool as shit. He introduced me to Phish, took me rollerblading when I was just learning and just was awesome. I have these memories of him just being one of the coolest people I knew at the time. So I befriend him on facebook, and I find out he's a dirty Republican. (And I say that with love Steve.)

He makes all these comments on his status about personal responsibility, and staying the course, and blah, blah, blah, and his photo is some anti-Obama thing.

I understand how most people become who they are. They usually just reflect their parents and the towns they grew up in. So Wis Rapids is what it is and it wouldn't suprise me that it pumps out a high percentage of Republicans. Yeah, it's got working people with Unions, but it still is what it is.

How does one go from being a seamingly artistic hippy all around awesome guy to a Republican artist?

Is it the same way I went from King of the Dorks (or at least a high ranking Dork Official) to a heavily tattooed Liberal engineer? (Who is still a dork waiting to buy Guitar Hero at midnight on it's release date.)

I don't know. People change. Certain underlying personality traits might not, but everything else can and does.

I just hate it when new shit that comes to light about people you know tarnishes those old memories you have of them.

Labels: , ,

5 Comments:

  • Hey, I do all kinds of cool shit and I am a Republican. What gives? You should still embrace the guy's individuality because that hasn't changed in the person.

    With all going on, I missed Fable 2 coming out for the 360. I need to get that when I get situated next week so I can suck my life away on in the evenings.

    By Blogger Steve, at 9:40 AM, October 26, 2008  

  • My wife wrote on the fridge:

    Everything changes, but nothing ever changes back...

    I thought about your post. I thought about my own personal shit and I thought about what she meant which isn't as obvious as it sounds.

    By Blogger Steve, at 7:20 PM, October 26, 2008  

  • That's interesting.

    It seems like at big companies you have pendulum change. You make a change and then 2 years latter you realize the old way was better.

    Relationships on the other hand...

    By Blogger lawryde, at 10:51 PM, October 26, 2008  

  • Nothing irks me more than seeing a company come out with a new paradigm to shake everything up, with the CEO heading up the whole change. Then three years later, none of the changes were implemented yet, the company is still growing and no one mentions the theme of the change...

    Meanwhile it was an outright failure...

    By Blogger Steve, at 9:14 PM, October 27, 2008  

  • I'd like to think that, at the core, I'm still mostly the same person that I've always been. Sure, it manifests differently with time, but the important stuff is all still intact.

    That doesn't account for the sister's boyfriend, though...unless he was a poser back then.

    By Blogger Sig., at 11:36 AM, November 03, 2008  

Post a Comment

<< Home