Let it snow

I might be one of the few people that actually enjoy the first snowfall. With many people it seems to instill dread of the upcoming season, but I always seemed to enjoy the coming of season.

Even though I do snowboard now, though I didn't go last year, I enjoyed the snow without the board under my feet. Sure, as a child I loved the first time I would get to go sledding or jump in my snow-filled backyard. There always seemed to be something magical about snow and the ironic warmth it would bring to me. Now that I'm older I do think back on all the good memories I had sloshing through the snow.

Who doesn't remember watching a local broadcast news station during the morning hours before school to find out it was a snow day? Those were one of the best days any kid can have growing up.  The freedom to know that on one blistery cold day you could escape the school day and just be a kid again. I have to say, I wish I still got snow days in the working world, but I had to pick the one profession that never stops for anything. At least I love what I do.

As my peers seem to let out cries against the white fluff on social sites, I can only share my excitement. Sure, there are things that aren't great, but I think every season has its ups and downs. To me, it just makes more sense to embrace the positive aspect. I'm not some happy-go-lucky person either, as many people will tell you, but for something you have no control over you might as well try to enjoy it if you can.

The snow ushers in many good things, such as Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. I enjoy seeing all the Christmas lights around nearby towns and cities. There is a festive atmosphere in the winter that just isn't in any other season. You remember the family you have and the family members that are no longer around, but still in your thoughts. It is really about the good times.

When you look at the snow maybe you will see at as more than just white powder, or maybe you'll just be pissed you have to shovel out your car. Either way, cheers to the start of another winter.

You're at the right place

This blog used to be "You're Famous When You're Dead," but after trying to decide what to do with Salem's Sanity (the old one) and YFWYD I decided to just make this blog the new Salem's Sanity.

All of the old posts from YFWYD are still on here and I don't plan to move all the old Salem's Sanity posts to here.  They had there relevance at a time, but I don't see the point in transferring all of them over to this blog.  What I used this blog for will still remain the same, with some possible album reviews and other news related opinion pieces.  To not have a conflict, I don't plan to write any opinion pieces on things I cover for the newspaper I work at, but maybe some national news items would be okay.

I think most people reading this blog also read what used to be Salem's Sanity and there is a post on that site explaining everything, so I'll spare writing too much here.

I'm still working on revamping the design of this blog, so it might change more over time.  I'll try to update it more often too.  Hopefully I can at least write one post a week.

Pondering the WoW side of life

For a while now I've been debating to purchase World of Warcraft.  During college I knew I couldn't play it.  I've heard the horror stories when people went that route.  Besides, I think I know my own limits.  I played Call of Duty a ton, but I still managed to graduate with honors — so, you can game and be successful.

Since I've graduated college I've been looking for a job for several months and gaming often has came back into the picture.  I guess I just feel like I am accomplishing something when I play video games, but in reality I am not really accomplishing anything tangible.  There are many other things I could be doing, such as actually updating my blogs.  Lately, I've been trying to find ways to get paid for writing I do.  I did find a few avenues for that, so updating blogs almost seemed like a waste of time.

Now the real question seems to be whether I should finally allow myself to play WoW.  I always try to weigh the pros and cons of situations.  The biggest con seems to be my girlfriend would probably be extremely pissed at me.  For the most part, that has kept me from thinking about it.  Also, the reccuring monthly fee isn't something I am crazy about either.  I am spoiled cause I play PS3 online for free while other people pay fees for Xbox, but that is a whole different debate.

Do I really take the jump?  The desire to play WoW seems to be more of an impulsive thing for me.  After a little while I don't care as much anymore to play the game.  I don't think I have ever really been addicted to a game or gaming either.  If I was addicted to gaming then how did I graduate college?  I think that would have been impossible.

Yes, I play video games more than I might like to admit, but does anything really negative come out of it?  I'm sure there is probably something, but nothing overly drastic yet.  I just find it to be a very relaxing and stimulating hobby.  I guess that is why it has overtaken many of my other hobbies.  I have an addictive personality at times, so that is why I should have never started smoking.

Well, I don't really want to play WoW anymore, now that I took the time to write all this.  I guess I should play the games I have for PS3 first, because I still have games that are unopened.  Sometimes I just can't pass up a good deal, because there is always some time in the future I am sure I can fit it in.

Actually, I think a part of me still wants to play it.

Atomic Fallout Wildlife

This morning I watched a really cool documentary on HD Theater called "Chernobyl: Life in the Dead Zone."  I would have never thought there was still a great deal of wildlife thriving in the aftermath of the nuclear power plant explosion.

Someone seems to have posted the video on YouTube broken into several parts, so I thought I would post the first part of the video here for you to check out if you can't watch it on television.  Of course there are probably torrents of the video out there too.

The cats are so damn cute in this movie.  All the animals are really interesting to watch.  They decide to follow a few different animals, so you get to see how each lives out their life.  At times different animals they are following cross paths too.

Only complaint I have is they really don't show any of the animals killing other animals.  That surprised me.  It just seems odd that they show a lot of footage about an animal, but skip over the most dramatic stuff.  Still, the documentary held my interest even when I had to wait for the commercial breaks.

Does this thing ever get updated?

My problem seems to be that I don't find the time or effort to write and update my blogs.  Before it was college and then it was the internship and now it is the job search.  Also, I very rarely do anything on the internet in the summer...I like to think of it as my digital vacation.  You should try taking an extended break or drastic reduction of time from the digital world.  It is really rather refreshing.

In the beginning of winter I found myself in a sort of gloomy state.  It probably didn't help that during my internship I was in the Empire State Plaza Concourse in an office that had no windows.  As the air grew colder the amount of sunlight I saw shrunk.  When I walked to work I saw the sunrise and when I left work I saw the sunset.  Of course a few smoking breaks I would take outside, but those were really minimal times outside at best.

Then my anxiety seemed to worsen slowly as my internship ended.  I'm not totally sure of all the reasons why, but I think I know a few of them.  It is hard to really convey to someone else what it is like to live with an anxiety disorder — something that you struggle to control.  I've said before that sometimes I just wish I was normal and didn't have to deal with it, but then I remind myself that I could be far worse off and to be thankful for all the positive things in my life I do have.

How this all relates to writing, I don't know.  I wish I did more of it.  A lot more of it.  I should probably do what Howie Good said in class before — set aside a designated time to write each day and all you can do is write for the full amount of time.  It would probably do me some good.  There are just so many other distractions and things to do that it can be hard to focus.  Also, as a journalist I tend to do a lot of writing anyway, but not writing that is really for me.

I really miss writing poetry, but a part of me feels that I just can't do it anymore.  The driving force that was there before just doesn't seem to be there anymore.  I'm not really sure why, but that just seems to be the way it is.  I'm sure I could change this, but I have never been when to force writing.  I just did it when it came to me and maybe that is the problem.  I might need to coax the writing essence to come out of me a little more than I do currently.

It just seems to be such a damn busy world out there.