There are some times...

...that I just want to hit things, try to smash something up. Anyone know where a good punching bag is that I could get for cheap?

Really, though, I feel like I need a good way to vent my frustration. Working out isn't always an option (surprise! I am not a health nut), screaming into my pillow doesn't help (done it before, it just wears my throat out), going for a night drive... bad history with that. Trying to read, watch a movie, or even play a video game for a while doesn't really help because it's hard for me to get focused on whatever the subject matter is.

I used to wrestle, one year in middle school and one in high school. I wasn't good by any means, but I enjoyed it a ton. I got to work myself to the bone at times trying to keep up with everyone else, and when it came time for me to actually go to the mat it felt good to just try to throw the other guy around the floor. Take whatever frustration I was feeling at the time (and, you know, a growing teenager has his own reasons to be frustrated) and let it out in a good old fashioned fight to pin my opponent to the ground. Again, I was not very good, and I don't remember actually winning a single match outside of practices, but I can't say I ever had any bad experiences or memories from it.

Would it help to list what my frustrations are? Possibly. A bit comes from the fact that I remain single after many recent tried-and-failed attempts at dating (even though I know being single at 23 is "perfectly okay," I've got a lot of things to take care of before settling down, etc., etc.). Part of it comes from not being in the program I'd like to be in school, though most of the reason for that is just from my own past laziness. Another frustrater* is just that I want to start making videos out of the ideas I have be successful like so many people I see online – again, not much stopping me besides the limitations that I've put on myself.

If not hitting stuff in order to vent, I'd love to just be able to fly away. Whenever I'm asked what superpower I'd want to have, I always answer that I want to be able to fly like Superman: wherever I want, how fast I want, whenever I want. No need to get in a car or plane to get away for a while, I just... would. Whoosh.

No, I haven't seen Man of Steel yet, but it's definitely on my to-see list.

*spell check says that it's spelled like that, even though I personally think it should be frustrator. I like to think of myself as one who knows English fairly well... but dang, that just looks wrong to me.

Technology!

So right now there's a thunder/lightning storm going on in Provo. First one I've seen in a long time, and I'm actually kinda grateful for it. The weather here has been ridiculously hot for central Utah, and after working all day yesterday in the sun it's nice to have a change of pace. It was so strong a little while ago that our power went out a couple times.

Incredibly, that doesn't bother me if I still want to use my electronics. I had a little bit of a rant in one of my first posts and this post will be pretty much all about it this time. First of all, I'm typing this on a laptop right now, but could just as easily write this part on my phone, where there's an app dedicated specifically to Blogger accounts. I could do it on either machine wirelessly, and if the internet from my apartment isn't working then I can just connect my laptop to my phone through Bluetooth and use its network instead. Should I desire to take a break for a little bit, I've got various games on the phone, or I could browse any part of the internet I desire on there as well - maybe check Facebook, look at my mail, watch some YouTube videos... Heck, if I'm bored enough, I could even make a quick video on my phone! And not just film it all in one go, but record multiple takes, edit it, add special effects, maybe include a soundtrack taken from my music library, and then put it all online. All in a relatively short amount of time, and again without necessarily being connected to a wall port or power source.

Some years ago, when connecting to the internet meant you were taking up your home's phone line, music was still mostly sold as CDs, and you were lucky if your cell phone had a camera that just took pictures, most of this would be considered super advanced and out of our lifetime. Our parents, and our parents' parents, surely wouldn't have dreamt of seeing these kinds of advances in their day. But we've got so much in our life that makes things simpler and easier to do now! And things are only progressing from here. We're not quite at the level of the Jetsons, but I wouldn't be surprised if we make a few more technological leaps in the next few years. Seriously, if you wanted to, there's a way you could be playing on an Xbox and decide you want to get a pizza from Pizza Hut. You don't even have to get up from your couch to do that. We're in a quickly changing society, and the technology is advancing a lot of it.

Now, we haven't exactly gotten to the point of technology taking over and becoming sentient, so that's good so far. We don't need a Terminator-like scenario (or one from I, Robot, pictured above) where the machines begin to learn and decide that humans aren't worth keeping around anymore because of their imperfections or inferiorities... At least, I don't think they've come that far yet, right?

Oh crud. They're on to me.

The internet is interesting

So my last post was pretty topical in comparison to what I usually write about, and it drew a lot more attention than usual. To understand how drastic it was, the number of views per post I had before this last one averaged at 33 views. At the time of writing this post, the last one had 249 views, more than four times as much as the post with the most views prior. It definitely caught people's attention, and considering the subject matter I'm not too surprised. As I stated in the post and in the comments on Facebook when I shared the link there, I do not apologize for talking about my beliefs, but I will most likely not post about such topics often. I'm not mad, not offended, not really hurt by any of what was said. Getting to see the opinions of others, so long as they're calmly and clearly written, is always interesting to me. I'm not going to make this blog or that post private; that's not my intent at all. But again, I will rarely write about issues so topical, so for anyone who wishes to comment on that issue, that post is there.

What struck me as most odd about the influx of views is that I wrote about something topical, and I'm fairly certain that most of the people who read it aren't people I associate with nearly as much as I used to, mostly due to the fact that I'm across the country from most of them. (At least for the majority of people who ended up commenting on the link on Facebook.) Most of them I'm not "friends" with on Facebook anymore, so I wonder how they came across the post in the first place. If I hadn't written what I did, would they have seen the post anyway? Would they care that I have a blog and post semi regularly? Do they remember who I am, how we met, what made us friends in the first place, what we did together, and how things ended when we parted ways, for whatever reason we parted ways? Or are they just there for the heated discussion? Just some questions that make me think a bit, but aren't ones that I need an answer for.

Again, not mad, not upset. I wrote my post, explained myself, gave my peace. If people want to go back and reread the post, including the links I provided within it, they're more than welcome to. In the meantime, here are some GIFs from a collection I've been building up. They make me smile.