Soundtrack of My Life

Song: Firecracker
Artist: Ryan Adams
Album: Gold (2001)

Dude is a little off his rocker and that's okay by me. In fact, it might be the reason Ryan Adams is such a talented musician and someone I really like listening to. Sometimes brilliance comes from the crazy fuckers.

I got into this album off the strength of the debut single, "New York, New York," a real catchy, ode to how awesome NYC has always been. Hearing that tune and reading a great review of the album in Blender sent me across the street to Music World to get this disc. "New York, New York" bats lead-off, but it's the two hole song Firecracker that still plays in heavy rotation on the computer and makes an appearance here today.


Adams roots are called alt-country, but whatever you want to call it, I call it catchy and cool, at least on this album and this song. Same as a lot of tracks that have made it to the Soundtrack over the years, "Firecracker" is a fairly simplistic song; acoustic guitars, harmonica, some drums for a back beat and that's about it. It's easy, but it works really well.

What really hooked me about this song was, well, the hook:

Well everybody wants to go forever
I just wanna burn out hard and bright
I just wanna be your firecracker
And maybe be your baby tonight

I actually used that opening pair as my MSN quote for ages before my mom, thinking I was speaking of my own demise, insisted I change it or never hear from her again. Obviously I changed the message; can't go without talking to Faye...

For me, it's about people who want to hang on well beyond their prime and force things that clearly aren't working and I get that. While everyone else wants to make their 15 minutes last 15 years, how's about I just rock this 15 minutes and we have a little cuddle while we're at it?

Personally, I never want to be that guy who is hanging on for dear life, in anything. I want to have my fun and have my time and move on accordingly. The earrings will come out the minute they look stupid. The wardrobe will change with age. And things like The Shameless Self-Promotion Tour will one day wrap up when this writing thing has run it's course, probably before.

While I'm here and while I'm doing this, I'm going to do it full out. Then one day, I'm going to fade into the background, never to be heard from again.

That's the way it should be, at least in my books. Ryan Adams' too apparently.

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Cool Hand Luke: Bear Hunter

So we're out walking the loop at the Nordic Trails yesterday evening with the dog. It's a great place because it's an even surface for everyone to walk on and the scenery is great.

Plus, we can let the little mongrel off the leash so he can do some running and get some needed exercise.

About five minutes into our walk, Luke perks up like he does whenever he's noticed something in the woods. Something usually means an animal, be it deer, squirrel, gopher, bird or whatever and he's generally wise smart enough to know that (a) he's seen one of those before so it's no big deal and (b) I really shouldn't chase after that because the parents tend to get angry-slash-scared.


Not this time though. This time it was something new and needed to be investigated.

So off went our dog, darting through some fallen trees chasing after an animal that Sarah and I had yet to see and identify.

Twelve seconds later, the yelling started, pleaded with our pug to come back. He was chasing a brown bear.

Now, this wasn't a full-grown adult bear, but even this cub could have mauled our dog and that is all that went through our heads as we heard and watched our dog working his way towards his new friend. Then the strangest thing happened...

The bear started running away. From Luke. Who wasn't even barking or anything.

Realizing the fear in our voices and having watched the bear scamper away faster than he could manage, Luke returned to us with new found confidence and energy. It was as if he knew that he had just chased off a bear, something that really shouldn't have happened. I mean, since when are bears or any kind afraid of yappy little pug dogs?

The rest of the trip was uneventful - in part because we didn't see any more bears (or animals at all for that matter), but also because the canine explorer and bear hunter was secured to his leash.

It's been almost 24 hours since this happened and I still can't stop laughing about it.

My stupid dog chased after a brown bear in the bear's natural surroundings and the bear took off like a bat outta hell.

No wonder he thinks he's indestructible.

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I've Just Been Handed An Urgent Announcement...

No, not cannonball... just that The Rundown has been preempted today for something different.

Don't fret: your favorite Wednesday blog post will be back stronger than ever this time next week, I'm just not feeling it today.

Instead, we're sticking to the theme from yesterday with a little more insight into what makes me tick as a writer right now.


As much as I'm loving the blogging both here and at Kimura, the biggest project around right now is my book proposal. Yes, after years of speculation and telling myself and anyone who would listen that I'm going to write a book, I've actually gotten down to business and am starting to get somewhere.

In case I haven't ever mentioned it fully - and a little for legal reasons so that if someone steals the idea along the way I have legions of followers who can attest to the concept being mine ages ago - let me tell you a little about the book.

The Rules of Engagement: A Guys Guide to Getting Married is a guidebook for everyday guys and the girls who love them as they walk down the aisle. Think it's all hearts and flowers? Think again...

Drawing from my own experiences going through the process from getting engaged to saying "I do," this book will offer up real-life examples of the good, the bad and the ugly and answer the questions that no guy is willing to ask his drinking buddies, as well as shed a little light things you've never thought would come along with getting engaged.

300-some odd pages of self-deprecating, laughter-inducing truth from a guy who has gone down this road and lived to tell about it.

Who would you rather take advice from: some relationship guru with a wall full of degrees and nothing in common with you or the guy at the other end of the bar who was once in the same place you are?

Hopefully, a whole shitload of people pick the latter...

* * * * * * *

So that's the idea. What do you think?

I think it's a winner - but I'm the guy writing the book, so I have to believe in it.

What makes me even more in love with this idea is that no one has to pay me a red cent to write this book. Mind you, I'm going to turn down an advance or anything like that, but regardless of what comes from the proposal process, this book will be written within a year and that is killer to me.

Besides, The Shack was printed at Staples for a few friends and family members and now it's sold over 2 million copies... sometimes, you just never know what is going to happen.

All I can do is write the book and roll the dice.

So that's what I'm going to do.

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Why I Do What I Do

As your notification button on Facebook can attest, I've been pounding the keys a great deal lately and a few people have commented on how impressed they are with the dedication and drive I seem to be showing towards my craft.

I certainly appreciate the comments - we all know I love attention - but there is a much simply truth to why I do what I do every day.

Fear.


I don't want to be the guy who never chased his dreams. When I get old, I don't want to have to tell my kids about the tattoo on my wrist - the one that says "Freelance" - using the words, "I wanted to be a writer," only to have them respond, "But Daddy, you're a used car salesmen?"

There are too many people that I know who go through life hating their jobs and hating where they are and I can't be one of those people. At least not yet. Not without going balls to the wall with this writing thing for the next couple years, before those perplexed children above come along and I get into my mid-30s and realize I've been chasing the dream for far too long without results.

So I hammer away. I pepper your inbox with new blog posts from both sites, publish links of all the articles I've dropped on MMA sites and become friends with everyone I can on Facebook who may have some small way to help me get my foot in the door somewhere. And I write the book.

My friend and pseudo-editor Smitty said to me today that I'm one of the only people he knows who chases his dreams of writing with such vigor. He didn't use those exact words, but you know what I mean.

The real truth is that I'm tired.

I'm tired of talking about my ideas and my dreams.

I'm tired of working shitty jobs that don't pay anything.

I'm tired of writing for sites that don't pay me and putting in work that goes unnoticed.

Most of all, I'm tired of being afraid that all this is never going to amount to anything of consequence and have been a big waste of ten years.

So I write.

I write every day and I write with a renewed motivation and inspiration, in hopes of making a better life for me, my wife and those confused children that will certainly come along one of these days.

And for everyone who laughs when I pepper your inboxes and add "friends" I don't even truly know: check out Keyboard Kimura on Friday when I roll out my interview with light heavyweight prospect Cody "Donnybrook" Donovan...

He's one of those "friends" I just happened to make on The Shameless Self-Promotion Tour and now he's also my first official Mixed Martial Arts interview.

Chase your dreams while you can kids ...

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No Time to Talk...

I've got improvements to make at Keyboard Kimura.

Without exaggeration, I've spent the last two hours sitting here at this desk, reading Blogger Help files on how to change all kinds of wonderful elements of my Mixed Martial Arts playground and I want to go play some more.

Of course, I also didn't want to keep your daily dose of information from the Wonderful World of Me from you, so here you go.



Totally unrelated piece of information maybe only I find interesting:

I check my Google Analytics each day to see how many hits and views I'm getting on these pages. Over the last month, I've noticed a strange trend.

Monday through Thursday are pretty solid - averaging over 100 views last week - but Friday, Saturday and Sunday plummet into the crapper.

My guess - a lot of you are wasting time at work checking in with iBlog and have far more important things to do on the weekend than see what I'm rambling about.

And now I have more important things to do too, so we'll talk again tomorrow...

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