Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls

It's my 2nd Blogoversary!

or December 3rd:  A Day that will Live in Infamy!

or It's the End of the World as We Know it, and I Feel Fine

Actually I'm saving that REM song for my 300th post which conveniently, based on my blogging schedule, should arrive just in time for that Mayan Apocalypse later this month.  Which now that I think of it, the fact that I've been blogging for 2 years and have almost 300 posts must be a certain sign of the apocalypse!  :)

Here is what I wrote on that fateful first day (HERE)!

OK so last year at this time I tried to make some philosophical inference that moving from writing about looking at women's butts at the gym to what I would be writing about the next month, which was last January, was something like the Mayan apocalypse which is really supposedly a movement to a new era of like psychic awareness.  What I ended up writing about in January culminated into being a silly Economic preference curve on how long a guy might be stupid enough to e-mail a women on Ashley Madison.  Or something like that.  At any rate I remember being really excited at the time, I couldn't wait to start my Sandee story.  I had known her for about 2 months at that point and as you may know had been e-mailing her 2 months prior to that.  It had been the ride of a lifetime up to then and would continue to be.

But as I was writing all that pshychic awareness stuff yes, pretty quickly, I realized that I was a bit too into myself and that it was some pretty righteous BS!

So I'll spare you that this year.

But after 2 years of doing this I have come to some observations.

But first (you know I always digress and then segue back), I always link certain songs with certain times of my life.  Those lyrics above are from a TLC song.  It was popular back in the mid-90's and during a vibrant and challenging time in my life.

The lyrics are sung from the perspective of a mother cautioning her son about a dangerous world.  Back in those mid-90's I wish I had taken the words of the song to heart more than just enjoying them on the radio.  I chased a lot of Waterfalls back then in the form of career aspirations.  It led to the ultimate demise of my career and then re-birth back on the east coast.

That doesn't really mean anything other than to point out my frailties.

But looking back over the past two years I am amazed at how this blog really reflects who I am.  In those two years I have always written at least 10 posts but never more than 14.  My hits stay at a consistent 150 to 275 per day.  I tend to stay to a few things I like to talk about music, sports, chasing women, food, a little politics, and of course laughing at society at all it's foibles and more importantly laughing at myself.  Yes, I am best when I "stick to the rivers and the lakes that (I'm) used to."  In life, like my blog, I'm kind of one of those consistent guys that always gets his coffee at the same time of day and always makes it the same way.  I guess in hindsight the blog has played out similarly.

I remember in those first posts I was trying so hard to emulate Riff Dog.  Soon I realized I was more "Ashley and Me meets the 3 Stooges."  Once I realized that I really started to have fun.

My real life now moves much more slowly and consistently like my blog.  I've learned that avoiding those waterfalls in real life has made me a good father which made me a better man which made me a more attractive person and I guess made me more successful on AM and subsequently fairly successful out here on the bloggoshere.

So now what does that have to do with anything. 

Well, it's this.  This blogging thing is 'effing fun!  It get's better with time.  But it only gets better with time if you actually get through time.  "Geez Ryan, only gets better with time if you get through time; way to state the obvious, dipshit!"   :)

Don't take advise from a bad grammer dude!

OK so the obvious is not so obvious sometimes.  My little bit of wisdom that I will try to lay on you today is this.  If you are going to do something like Ashley Madison or Blogging or really anything for that matter consider some of that feng shui type stuff, I think they call it balance or perhaps just keep yourself on a ration.  I am never so anxious to blog as when I have gone a few days without blogging.  I see so many blogs get started and the writer puts out posts daily.  They always fizzle out; nobody can stay on that pace.

Think of it kind of like good sex, you can be like Larry the Cable guy and get right down to business and "Get 'r Done" in a matter of minutes.  Or you can take an excruciatingly long amount of time setting the mood and engaging in the prolonged foreplay of one or maybe just two posts per week.  It takes a little longer but you do get there and when you do oh but isn't it so much more explosive!  And satisfying!

Oh and some additional advise, don't get so involved in blogging that you stop creating those "blogable stories!"  Get out there and live life, don't be a spectator.  And then if you really want have some fun, blog about it.  But in the end "don't go chasing waterfall, stick to the rivers and lakes that you're used to...."

Bottom line (you know I'm a bullet pointed type of guy) have fun, don't have fun at other's expense (that isn't really fun is it), when it becomes work - stop, when it feels good do it without guilt, don't let it become a substitute for living, and in all things live in moderation and balance.  I would say follow in the immortal words of Dave Chappelle when he said:

I'm only rich from the experience!

"[My Dad Once Told Me] 'To be an actor is a lonely life, everybody wants to make it and you might not make it' & I said well 'That depends on what making it is, Dad,"...he says ' what do you mean'? I said "You're a teacher. If I can make a teacher's salary doing comedy, I think that's better than being a teacher and he started laughing and said 'if you keep that attitude I think you should go but, name your price and if it ever get's more expensive then the price you named, get out of there'...thus Africa. - Dave Chappelle

Hey I'm in the Big Apple today, NYC baby!  Hope to generate some bloggable adventures!

Take Care,

R

P.S.  Jeez these super fine ladies do it for me!  I def would have been Lucy's right eye, wish she had followed the advice of her song (so sad)....