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It seems things in my life like to clump together.  Last weekend I went to the wedding of an old friend from High School.  This weekend I’m going to Madison for a cousin’s wedding.  Next week, I’m going up to the Alpena area for the post-wedding family vacation type thing.  Then that weekend is Lollapalooza.  So, unfortunately I doubt I’ll be able to get anything written through all that.

All that wedding talk definitely makes me wonder if I’m starting to hit “that time.”  That time when all of one’s friends start getting married, etc.  To look at the numbers, I now have three friends my age from high school who have gotten married in the last 3-4 years.  Other friends I know now are measuring their relationships on the years scale rather than months.  At what point do I become the odd one out that doesn’t have a significant other?

It’s not exactly like I’m looking forward to being tied down.  That would limit the possibilities for more spontaneous trips to other countries.  Either way, I still enjoy the open bar at these things, even if I go without a date.

Earlier this summer when seeing a movie at the theater, I believe when going to see Indy 4, the whole experience was nearly ruined all because of a 2-minute break in the normal routine.  Through my entire movie theater career, the formula always stayed the same: pre-show ads, lights dim, previews, movie.  This time, the lights dimmed, my heart skipped a beat as I expected some great preview to whet my appetite for an awesome movie summer, but what do I get instead: commercials straight from primetime television.  TV commercials do NOT belong in the imaginary space between pre-show ads and the previews.

The amount of advertising in theaters is just getting to be absurd these days.  I’m not talking about the random local ads before the movies.  No, it seems that advertisers have crossed a line that I didn’t know existed that peeves me to no end.

I’ve always been somewhat of a movie junkie all my life, and working at a movie theater for 3 years only managed to help feed the fascination.  While growing up, my parents would infrequently take us out to the movies, so when they did, it was an extra special experience.  We’d get our food, get into the theater, and eventually the previews would start.  Now, I feel that formula of awesome is being harmed by all the advertising that is creeping into the theaters.

The pre-show ads never rubbed me the wrong way.  Having something on the screen helps pass the time when waiting for the show to start.  Plus, the pre-show ads were not something I’ve seen every day.  Even while working at a theater and seeing those ads day in and day out, they were always just there in the background and something easily ignored.  These new ads just ruin the experience.  The rush of anticipation that comes from the dimming of the lights is crushed by the tedium of television commercials we’ve all see hundreds of times.

In spite of this, I’ve started a list.  Any product advertised in this slot goes on that list, and I will do my best to avoid buying any of them.

So, I’ve been doing a very bad job of being a blogger.  Three weeks with no update.  A combination of things came up and resulted in my slacking off.  First I was just lazy and put off posting for a week.  Then July 4th came up and I went out and did things.  Then this week I haven’t been feeling well.  Throughout all of this though, I haven’t exactly felt particularly insightful. I like to try and keep away from fluff posts, so this lack of insight has only compounded with the other things that came up and made this a very lonely blog. I will try to remedy that now though.

Part of the purpose for this blog is to both encourage and log my efforts of self-improvement.  Ever since my return from London, I seem to have lost much of the motivation I had beforehand.  Despite it being an amazing and eye-opening experience, it seems to have been more mentally taxing than expected.  I’m already one that gets rather anxious around strangers, and dealing with that for two weeks was a bit draining and I guess I haven’t fully recovered yet.

I have a history of giving up on things like half-way through, right when they start to get difficult.
It’s a character fault I am painfully aware of and have yet to find a good way of addressing aside from sheer willpower.  Willpower is not my strong-suit though.  Being that I believe in pursuing those things that one enjoy, it’s hard to get out of comfortable ruts in pursuit of a greater long term benefit.

I guess it’s time to suck it up and do my best though.  Moving to a new house in roughly a month, so hopefully I can use that as a marker of yet another renewed start.

I swear I’ll post something soon.  Until then, Zombie Stalin and Russian Babes: http://www.vimeo.com/1223566