Category: Observations

Post author By Evan Stark
Post date March 16, 2009
18 Comments on

I can’t keep up with the trends, the SEO marketing gurus, the celebrities of the blogtwitfacebookflickrverse. There is just an overload of information. Everyone is pushing their product, the latest social network, the coolest gadget, movie, ringtone, digital download, web design, and the exhausting list goes on and on…

Instead, I’m going back to pushing the only thing that people want from me… ME. Or, maybe people don’t want to hear about me, but I sure like writing about me and so that counts for something.

Lately I’ve been going through a mild depression and by mild I mean eating out 3 times a day until I can barely move, gaining weight and not caring about it and spending inordinate amounts of time alone and on Facebook.

I think Facebook and Twitter have become the new World of Warcraft. Armies of people who think they are hip and cool by keeping up with all the latest status updates and witticisms from all of their 20 friends, sitting by their computer hacking out tweets on twitter all the while ordering Papa John’s pizza online and getting fatter by the moment. I know because I am describing MYSELF.

I am becoming a tub of lard and spending more time in front of this dang computer than Michael Jackson looking in the mirror. sha – mon.

Part of the reason I have become glued to my computer is because my job requires it, but I’ve noticed lately that my manic behavior leads me to do three things: tweet, eat, and spend. Sometimes all at the same time. I look at my BlackBerry for new messages at least 200 times a day. Even during a movie I have to fight the urge not to check and see if I have received a tweet or a txt message or an email. These little morsels of communication have replaced real interaction with friends more and more and allow me to stay someone connected all the while remaining safely disconnected from the reality that I am becoming a fat slob.

Observations

Vintage Eddo

chilis with Alan, Jes, and Scott Sargeant

eddierenzscottsargeantarronpoppy

chanceyshouse whereseddo

vintagedddo2

laughter

michaeljackson

eatingpieeddoe These are just a few pics from my life when I was a leader at the Hangar. As you can see, I used to have hair and I was much thinner… but those kids will put weight on you cause they always want to eat at Taco Bell! I’m talking to you Nando Betancur!

Observations

My World is a Snow Globe

It’s only pretty when someone is shaking it up.

As I watch the pieces of my life swirl around me I’m reminded that I like it like this. In the last few days I have found a new volume of laughter that was before untapped. I’ve enjoyed quiet moments just listening to the silence and allowing the world around me to move in its frenzied pace like a billion worker bees hopped up on caffeinated nectar.

My only hope is not that my life won’t be shaken up again, but that I won’t be shelved and forgotten. I hope to always be fascinating to someone, a tiny moment of joy on a child’s face, a sweet memory, a flurry of dreams coming true.

My world is a snow globe.

Observations Relationships Stories

Reunions and Turkey

I’d filled my mouth more times on Thursday than should be humanly possible, however, it wasn’t my best Thanksgicing Day showing. I didn’t eat any dessert on Thanksgiving Day other than a single chocolate chip cookie. I also went to three Thanksgiving’s on Thursday but I didn’t eat as much as I have in Thanksgiving’s Past. What is going on with me? What is happening to my stomach?

Thanksgiving for me started with the Turkey Trot and then ended with a mini all-guy high school reunion. Most of the guys I went to High School with were in town including one of our coaches and so we met up at Rudy’s Barbecue and caught up on everyone’s lives. Most everyone had kids and a normal job. Bruce was doing a fellowship in Plastic Surgery, Rick, the quarterback of our football team was now a coach and Chris, one of my favorite people from high school is now a youth pastor. What surprised me most of all is how much we are all still the same. I’m still the “nice” guy of the group and as Chris and our Coach left I heard some stories about what happened in high school that i never even knew about. Not being close to many of these guys really kept me sheltered from some parties and a few other things that happen with men in highschool. There was a time in my life when I would have envied these guys and their conquests and stories, but for once, I was sort of proud of my naiivete. Sure I’ve indulged in my share of debauchery, but for the most part I have remaned pretty clean in my 33 years.

One particular story that I thought was kind of cruel was the retelling of how this “ugly” girl was told that one of the popular guys was in crazy about her. Supposedly she called him for 3 weeks before finally giving up. There was a round of laughs because the joke was supposed to be on the football player, the fact that this ugly girl had his phone number, but no one gave any thought to the fact that there was a girl out there who was being hurt in this practical joke.

I won’t pretend that I have not ever done something so cruel, but I can’t imagine looking back and not being sorry about it now.

When I was in high school I remember I wanted to be more accepted by these guys, I wanted them to like me for me, but now that I am older I realized that would never have been a possibility. Not that I don’t think these guys on some level are all great guys, I just don’t know if their level of character meets my expectations. I prefer to surround myself that are better than me, that make me want to be a better person – because I can use all the improvement that I can get.

Hope your Thanksgiving was great!

Culture I'm Just Sayin Observations

Trick or Treat?

Trick or Treat
Smell My Feet
Give me something good to eat.
If you don’t, I don’t care
I’ll stick an apple down your underwear.

When I was really young I went trick or treating one time. I was batman and I had one of those hideous plastic masks that you strapped to your face with a piece of elastic string that invariably stung when it was snapped into place and then the mask limited your breathing and visibility. That year I truly was “blind as a bat.”

Soon after my first trick-or-treating experience we became Christians and we shunned everything in the world that smacked even remotely of sin or wickedness. This was a part of Christianity that I wasn’t too happy with at such a young age. To be stripped of this delicious priviledge – a night of free candy and fun costumes – was about as cruel as being born in a third world country and forced to grow my own food. It was so unfair!

Fortunately, the Christian church created fall festivals for those of us kids who didn’t partake in this forbidden candy apple and we were allowed to dress up as Biblical characters and spend the night in a safe environment surrounded by parents, friends and God.

I didn’t lament my loss of Trick-or-Treating as a child and fully understood the evils that surround All Hallows Eve. If you know anything about religion and history then you may know that the Christian church merged our holidays with the pagan holidays. If you can’t beat them, join them right? I’d heard of this practice but I had never seen a Wiccan holiday calendar until one day at work I saw it on a coworkers screensaver. Easter, Christmas, and Halloween are the most obvious collaborations and we can look at each of these and see the Pagan influence.

If you look closely at Halloween you will find that for Wiccans this is their new year.

“Samhain (Sow-win, Oct. 31), Witches’ New Year, marks the death of the God and his the arrival in the Land of Youth, where he opens the gates so the souls can revisit their loved ones. It is said to be the day when the walls between the worlds are to be the thinnest and when contact with one’s ancestors can tack place. It is celebrated with the Festival of the Dead. This is a time of reflection on the year and a celebration of our ancestors.

So, there you have it, a holiday that celebrates witchcraft but one that we’ve slapped a bag of candy on and turned into something sweet. I’ll admit it, when it comes right down to it I don’t see anything wrong with trick-or-treating, it is the intent behind an action that makes it bad, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t educate my children to the truth and the dark side of this nefarious holiday.

Personally, I like to celebrate this time of year by celebrating the coming of Fall. You might see a pumpkin at my house and some fall colors, but you won’t see anything that is specifically tied to Halloween.

What are your thoughts on the matter?