FriendBurst Blog

10 Things that begin with the letter “F” of importance to me.

FRIVOLITY–  Yes, I already used this word in the intro, but I think it deserves to be here at the top because of the bad reputation this word gets.  When something is “frivolous”, it’s cast as being pointless, without consequence, having no importance.  See, I think that pointlessness fulfills a very important role.  I kinda feel sorry for those folks for whom seriousness rules the day, for whom tomorrow is something to be feared and their little bit of territory, be it intellectual, physical or emotional, has to be defended at all costs.  I‘ll be honest, I’m selfish.  We all are. But for me, life is about finding a way that I can fulfill my needs in a way that also benefits others.  I have found that role in being a clown of sorts.  An “entertainer” is a more sophisticated, polysyllabic way of saying the same thing.  Frivolity is not pointless.  Frivolity has it’s very important function in my life.  Frivolity makes me happy while I’ll make the world a better place.

FREEZER–  On one of my new favorite shows, “How the States Got Their Shapes”, they profiled why Bar-B-Cue is such an important part of various regions’ identities.  It goes back to before there were freezers, and if you were going to eat cooked meat (as opposed to smoked or dried), it was usually in a large, community setting.  Different communities came up with different ways of cooking large chunks of animal flesh.  A single family ain’t going to finish off a hog or heifer in one sitting, and without freezers, this stuff didn’t keep.  Most of my food comes out of the freezer.

FELINES–  I’m a cat guy.  Sure, I’ve had dogs too, but kitties have always been first in my heart.  Bliss the kitty on top of the FREEZER mentioned just before this!

FORESTS–  I got a call today from my new employer.  My background check came back fine (phew!), and I go to get orientated at orientation this upcoming Thursday.  I start formal training the following Monday.  So, I’m looking at this week ahead as “vacation”, as opposed to “unemployment”.  The old checking account is on it’s last legs, but I have a resource I can tap into to allow me to take a small trip to a place I love: The Forest.   I went the whole school year without selling back any of my textbooks, and I got enough tomes to allow me to buy a train ticket up to the Cascade Mountains for a little mountain biking and communing with nature.  I love the forest.  The trees, the smell of loam, the peaceful serenity… Of course, I’ll be bringing my camera and uke, so you all will get to come along with me.

FIREWORKS–  It’s the Fourth of July, and as I write this, it sounds a bit like a war zone out my window.  I guess I don’t like them THAT much, otherwise I would be out there enjoying them, but it seemed a fitting “F” thing to write about.

FRIENDBURST.COM–   I could write a whole blog about some of the little things I don’t like about FriendBurst, but on the whole, this new social networking site mimics some of what I really used to like about the old MySpace, but without a lot of the drama and soap opera crap that place used to have.  You can customize your profile page how you want, something Facebook won’t even let you start to do.  There is no “tagging”, something I don’t like about Facebook because it allows other people to customize the content of your “Wall”.   It has an actual blogging platform (WordPress) that is intertwined with the social network, so unlike Blogger, it’s not like you’re just posting your words into some vast, impersonal, disconnected wasteland.

FOOD–  Who doesn’t like food?  Okay, that is kind of a broad category, so I’ll try to come up with a list of 10 “F” foods within the list of ten “F” things…  Falafel, Fritos, Fish tenders, Fried ________ (anything you can normally fill in after ‘fried’ is going to be something I will like), Fondue, Funyuns, French fries, Frog legs, Fajitas and Filet Mignon.

FRANZ FERDINAND- No, not the Archduke of Austria whose assassination started WWI, instead the Scottish band from the 2000’s-ese (how are we ever going to comfortably come up with a shorthand way to refer to the decade that just passed?).  From about 1994 until 2003 or so, I was pretty much asleep when it came to new music.  I didn’t try to expose myself to new bands or look for new music.  Franz Ferdinand, along with bands like The Strokes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Stellastarr, The White Stripes (all of these were part of something loosely grouped as the ‘New York Sound‘), rekindled my interest in the latest music, something people in their 30’s generally forgo.  So although Franz Ferdinand would only make my oh…. top 25 bands all time, they were influential in a rebirth of my interest in music as an adult.

FAPPING–  No…. I’m not including this.

FANTASY–   No, I am not referring to what I do while Fapping, I am talking about the literature genre.  I read a lot, and fantasy is one of the three genres that I rotate between, the other two being science fiction and alternate history.  Give me a good novel by Piers Anthony, Anne McCaffery, George R. R. Martin.. Too many authors to mention.. In any case, I’m a happy man.  One thing I don’t like about fantasy, and this can go for any genre, is authors who string out a series of books after they’ve lot all their mojo and have no more stories to tell.  The perfect example of this was Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. Did anyone else read these books?  The first 3 or 4 of the series were really quite good.  You got caught up in what was going on and looked forward to the next installment of the series.  Once he got up to up to books 6 and 7, they were stating to get tedious.  By 8 & 9, they were unreadable!  I never did find out what happened with “The Dragon” and his kingdom because I refused to invest my reading hours in such schlock that wouldn’t even have been published if it weren’t the next in a series!

FANS–  This is kind of delicate to write about because I don’t want to come off sounding pompous or narcissistic.  After four years of putting myself out there on the Internet… MySpace, YouTube.. Wherever… I have had some “fans”… people who aren’t necessarily ‘friends’, but regularly follow and enjoy what I do. It’s a good feeling knowing that some random person out there you’ve never met, even online, will consume and enjoy your creativity just because you’re the one making it.  I’ve also learned that fans are fleeting.  In their interaction with me anyways, they invariably eventually go away.  My creativity is kind of weird and novel, and I suppose that novelty eventually wears off and people lose interest.  It may sound kind of shallow of me to say I have enjoyed having my “fans” over the years, but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t.  I don’t do what I do to make or satisfy “fans”; I’d be doing it even if I alone were my only audience, but I have appreciated this last “F”.