et tu, brute?

"For what does it prophet a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?"
-Mark 8:26










hello friends.

it's been awhile since we last spoke, but i wanted to wait until i really had something worth saying, and i really think we have a winner. this was originally intended for all my fellow musicians out there, but i think it could apply to everybody. so get ready. it's a blues riff in b, watch me for the changes, and try to keep up.

wait a sec...it's a blues riff in b flat, not b...curse you, mcfly!!!!!!!

anybody who either knows me or has stood around me for any length of time knows that music is a GINORMOUS part of my life. i don't care if its She and Him, or Between The Buried and Me, i'll be listening. as a musician, i've always felt it important to broaden my horizons when it comes to genre. but i have come to realize that it's hard to make any money doing the music thing. many a musician finds him or herself living a double life. you know the type. rock star by night, verizon wireless representative by day. i'm not making fun of it. hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.

but then i had an idea. what could be the only way i could make money doing what i love to do, which is music?

and then it hit me.

the perfect solution.

the answer to my seemingly incessant prayers.


the be all end all.




are you ready for this?






for real, don't tell me you're ready if you're not. this is groundbreaking stuff, guys.



ready?





okay. here goes.




the best way for me to make money in this field is.............




PLAY COUNTRY MUSIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!


see what i mean?





groundbreaking.


country music!!!!!!!! it's brilliant. think about it.

outside of kelly clarkson, who is the best selling female idol alum?

carrie underwood.


who had two albums top the billboard charts for months on end all before her 20th birthday?

taylor swift.


what georgia based singer of a popular 90's rock group put out a number one single early this year?

darius rucker (hootie and the blowfish)

i was gonna make some reference to jessica simpson too, but i think i've proven my point.


the more i thought about it, the more rational it seemed. all i have to do is write a song about a girl who broke my heart and how i fixed it with a bottle of jack daniel's, add a little slide guitar and a bit of mandolin, and.....


hola benjamin. ven aqui papi.

but then something else occurred to me that i didn't consider before, but perhaps i should have.






I HATE COUNTRY MUSIC!!!!!!





this little tidbit is somewhat problematic in regard to my little plan. so the dilemma soon be came that of money versus my soul. this is a dilemma i never wanted to have. you see, i would turn down the money anyday because i care about money, but i care about my soul much more.

so i say all this to say that no matter what seemingly apocalyptic curveball life throws you, don't pervert what it is you love or give it up just because it's not lucrative. and if you are really good at what it is you do, then at some point it might be. but money shouldn't be why you start or why you stop anything because all money really is is paper that if no one told us was worth something we would think to be a complete and total waste of a tree. but art and passion, in any form, is eternal and worth pursuing. so please, i urge you, don't give up on your dreams people. and above all, don't sell your soul so you can line your pockets. after all, what will you really have gained other than a couple bucks and a wealth of disappointment?


that's all i have to say for now, but i promise that less time will transpire between posts. thanks for reading. thanks for caring.



i bid you goodnight, and a very pleasant tomorrow.

Epiphany

"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."
-I Corinthians 13:11




hello friends.

this is my maiden voyage on the s.s. blog, and to be quite honest with you, i'm not exactly sure what to do, but i assume that that's kind of the point. so, from here on out, you can expect my somewhat bizarre outlook on the world outside my window. these are simply my thoughts and observations. i do this not only as an outlet for myself but also to make you all aware of things in the world you might have missed or overlooked, like how terrible the world will be if we don't start loving one another, or how much better the world would be if sarah palin stopped talking. i tend to drop movie quotes randomly in every thing i write, so be on the lookout for them. i don't really pay much attention to length when it comes to writing. it maybe two sentences or two paragraphs, but no matter what, it'll be real. i am not afraid to express myself thanks to the digital courage that the computer has afforded me. oh yeah, one more thing. from time to time you may see red italicized lettering. that's my inner monologue. i sometimes post it if i deem it pertinent to a given blog. okay? is that cool with everybody? okie doke. awesome.

so you guys are probably wondering why i put a big ol' Bible quote up top there before everything else. well, i am a Christian, so that might happen from time to time, but this is for a far different reason. i first heard it as a youth while a mentee at my church, but never did i take a second to really think about what it meant. the other night, i had dinner with member of a group i play in called new brand & l.i.v.e. i ordered chicken fingers for what was probably the six hundredth time in my life. you would think that at 20 i would have outgrown them by now but they're just so darn good...depending on where you get them, that is. then there was this other dish (which escapes me at the moment) that i had never tried but wanted to. i ordered the chicken fingers mostly because it's what i always do and have done for years. but friends, what struck me about this particular plate of food is that it was a big fat reminder of my life in some strange serendipitous way. for years i have been afraid to live outside of my shell. i've become so used to my life following a format that i haven't given much thought to trying something new every once and a while. i suppose it's fear. fear of commitment, fear of forgetting, or even fear that things will change so much that that i can't go back to the way they were and i will have to accept the reality of this origami swan my life has become. our involvement in our worlds becomes deeper and more convoluted as time progresses. if i simply ignore that and follow the brainless lackadaisical ideology that has enveloped me for the better part of the last decade, i will never truly grow up. and i need to grow up. all of us do at some point, i suppose. and this is my time. for far too long i've been sitting around watching and waiting for this pot called life to come to a simmer, but tell me, when has a watched pot ever boiled? i can't just scoot by doing the same thing all the time, which for years has been nothing. i have to try something new. i have to be better at everything in my life. i know i can be but have been far too lazy to even try. so this is a challenge to all who find themselves in the same spot i'm in. let us all be more proactive and somehow find the strength and the impetus to do what needs to get done. hiding and laying around doing nothing is for little boys who have yet for their stones to drop. it is time to stop playing around and get serious. it is time to put away childish things.

......and to think, all this from a plate of chicken fingers.....and they didn't even taste good.....

so that's it for now. hopefully you have caught onto the somewhat odd format of my blog and have enjoyed it. i will talk to you again soon.

goodbye for now. oh yeah, and if i don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight.