A Word on the Writing Process

"The first step of the writing process is...to write."

The famous line spoken by Sean Connery as William Forrester from the now probably unknown movie Finding Forrester resonates even further with me now as I shuffle through mountains and mountains of research articles and attempt to form my own academic research papers.  For me, that line defines my writing style: write exactly what comes to you at the moment.  Let the passion and emotion play itself out onto the document.  Don't worry about who's going to read it or whether it's good enough to be an A paper; write what you want, and do it like you mean it!  I once heard another similar line in one of my classes in grade school that said, "Writing is easy. Just sit down in front of a typewriter and open a vein."  I will address the first part of that quote.  Although the typewriter is obsolete in our world today, the beauty in modern media is that everyone has virtually full access to expressing their thoughts and opinions through writing in just about any context.  If I'm on top of Imperial Mountain at Breckenridge, I can take a picture of my view, then post it on my blog through my smartphone and then boom!  The whole world can see it.  Pretty simple in this day and age.  Regarding the second half of that quote, the thought that all ideas and content come directly from the writer is a pretty important one.  As writers, we are the ones who make this art what it is.  We're getting to a point now where technology is making the process easier, but it's not controlling us...yet.  The writer will always be the one in control, and the only limits are what is self-imposed.  There might be a great talent inside of you; you just need to discover it and embrace it.  It's in your blood - share it with the world.

Now when it comes to the rest of the process, hehe... when you get to a point where you're uttering Herman Cain's famous line, "I don't have the facts to back this up," a little research of sources of knowledge might be required.  It is the legal and moral thing to do when it comes to giving credit to those who said it before you, as well as to make sure you're not speaking crazy thoughts that only make sense to you (unless you're the only one reading it).  Other things like audience analysis and proofreading continue the writing process, and will eventually make your product a more complete and presentable one.  However, the most important thing is to write.  When you find yourself staring at a blank white page and you don't know what to do next, open your veins and "punch the goddamned keys!"  Let yourself go, and see where it takes you.

"You're the man now, dawg!" (this line probably led to his retirement)

A new beginning: total deconstruction

Welcome back everyone.  It's been many months since I have written anything worth reading in this blog.  Now that I have begun my studies at Colorado State University, my view of the blog has changed.  It is no longer a forum for posting random jokes and stupid thoughts.  It is now a center for intelligent conversation, open discussion with direct feedback, and possibly some "art" (what?!).  I am approaching this blog with new intentions and more open minded expectations.  In an essence, I am starting over with this medium.

It is ironic that with this, I am starting over in more ways than one.  I have left my full-time career for now to pursue the academic lifestyle once again.  I don't have the spending money I used to have, but then again I never was a big spender to begin with.  I am meeting many new individuals in my community who have diverse viewpoints on life.  Some are more traditional, while others are very progressive and left of center.  With every week, I am learning constantly, and essentially becoming a new person.  I think that the idea of starting over has had many benefits.  It has made me humble again, yet I am still able to draw from past experiences to positively affect my environment.

The idea of starting over is something that can be applied not only to individuals, but also to entire societies.  I am inspired by this idea based on my recent observational experiences.  This past summer, I visited my homeland, Washington D.C. (well, not exactly my homeland, but as close to a home base that I can get with my lifestyle).  I visited the DC zoo and took a particular interest in studying the behavior of the primates.  I looked at their mannerisms, facial features, and the ways that they interacted with one another.  I noticed that they were really no different from children, with the exception that there was no verbal communication.  In fact, seeing many of the apes stare back at me was almost like looking at a real person.  The irony with these observations was that a few days later, I watched Rise of the Planet of the Apes and saw a very similar yet different perspective on the primate world.  It introduced the notion that a race of beings can become more intelligent through medicine.  In this case, that medicine produced brilliant effects for the primates, but it caused death and suffering for the humans.  The end result was a race of primates becoming intelligent enough to band together and form their own union, which essentially was the birth stages of a new civilization.  On the flipside, the humans would be infected by a highly contagious disease and would eventually be extinct from the planet - all because of the medicine that a few smart minds developed which they thought would help society.

The point to all this madness is that I see the same notion happening in our modern day society.  Our civilization has become too complex and too enslaved by the broken systems that rule it.  We have become a race that expects everything to fix itself because of the expectation that someone or something else will do it for us.  Be it technology or the leaders in charge of our government, we have become reliant on so many other factors that we cannot help ourselves.  A perfect example of this is the situation our country is in right now.  Every day I log onto my preferred news websites, I see story after story about the budget deficit, the debt crisis, the economic downfall, and how Sarah Palin wants to rule the world.  The leaders we have elected to our Congress and our Executive branch seem to spend most of their efforts pushing their political ideologies rather than getting anything productive done.  It is a travesty that is seen by most Americans, one that is a very clear threat to our society.  However, an even bigger threat is the concept that most average Americans are doing very little at their level to positively affect the turmoil.  We are instead more concerned with our personal interests which are becoming more and more consumed by technology and social media.  We are worried most about what movie is next in our Netflix queue or what our favorite celebrity tweeted 5 minutes ago rather than providing our input to fix the system.  I have yet to see any protest or active grassroots movements that have developed to combat this clear and present danger.  Is it because we're too preoccupied with things that don't matter, or is it because Washington won't listen anyway?  No matter what point of view you choose to take, the real danger with all this is when the shit really does hit the fan and we have mass death and suffering, we are not going to band together and do something about it because we expect someone to do it for us.  And that's when the apes take over and start anew...

Now I'm not trying to put down humankind as a whole.  Although I am a fan of the band Shai Hulud, I still think there is some hope for our civilization.  We I really think would help is for our country to start over.  We need to go back and reevaluate what our goal and purpose is as a society.  We need to look at why we were founded in the first place.  Are we a place where people can come and pursue their goals and dreams, or are we trying to be a superpower looking to change the rest of the world?  What is it that makes our point of view right over everyone else's?  Is there another system that would work better than our current one?  Perhaps the best way to really purify our civilization is to go by the example of the apes.  We make everything simple again - totally deconstruct our society to relieve all the stresses we have induced upon ourselves; no high speed technology or world influence, just simple human interaction.  I know this sounds a little far fetched to make into a reality, as it seems that our society has reached the point of no return.  And perhaps with this, the only way we can really purify is through mass disease and unyielding survival of the fittest.  But I digress...

The bottom line is we as a race of beings must get our act together.  And if we can't do it ourselves, this guy might do it for us:

photos by Caitlin Bitto and John T. O'Connell