White boy can write

Ill tell you another thing that can inspire me to get off my ass and write (which is not technically correct, writing on a keyboard inherently requires one to be on his ass, sitting down, even in most able bodied circumstances). Waking up at 1am after a 5 hour mis-timed nap. Of this, I am fairly frequent practitioner. Its the bane of my existence. Like right now for example, its currently 3am (coincidentally, i just recieved a few mocking texts from westcoast canada, probably thinking thatd id be sleeping and couldnt respond. Well Ill show them a trick or two) Devising my own lemonade though, it does create a worthy lull period, if one does not feel like doing absolutely nothing at all, staring at the ceiling. Make use of the tools and resources at hand, Im sure someone successful has said in some sort of way... and most likely more eloquently, I would gather.

And Ill tell you one other thing again, one more. Reading somebody's else column with overflowing appreciation. Yes this too often inspires me to write. Its like being introduced to one of your friend's girlfriend for the first time, and youre like wow how the hell did he score her? If my dumb ass buddy can get a lovely girl like that, then why cant I? Confidence doubles. When it comes to reading an article or a passage in a novel I enjoy, it does happen often enough, and each time I end up thinking "this is really good, yet simple and everyday common. I should be able to do this. Great ideas on structure, form, wit, and storytelling tact... I could maybe do something like this". You get influenced and its infectious. This is why people who read excessively can usually do a decent job writing: Its like subconscious studying or reviewing old game tapes. Of all the great writers out there, of all the entertaining writers, there is always one definite common denominator: they also read a lot.

Im not saying that I read that much however. On the scale of scales, the good old 1 to 10, Where 10 would be a Conan the Librarian (reading 16 hours a day, then sleeping the rest), and 0 would be a typical NBA Basketball player (reading magazines. For the pictures), I would consider myself a 7. Not that impressive. Its a C. Hence, my underwhelming composition skills. I can, however, recognize when a certain bundle of words congregated together becomes notably exceptional. So this particular skill helps, it creating a watermark, a guideline and standard for me to follow.

So the article Im talking about was written by Paul Shirley, who wrote an Article over on Deadspin.com. You can read it here.


Paul Shirley Column


And please understand, what he wrote about is exactly what I went through just yesterday. That article perfectly describes my life here in Europe regarding North American sports and I couldnt possibly put it any better.

And just to note, heres couple of neat things that I share with Paul that are quite interesting. We share the same birthday. He went to University and took Mechanical Engineering. He is a traveling nomad. With the slight exception of course that he is a 6'10" white dude with NBA level basketball skills. Yeah, Im so not that.

Okay lets see if this level of activity can now wash me back to some wonderful sleep.