Why are we here? or How did we get here?

As an exercise in self-reflection, ask yourself, “why am I here?” This is NOT the existential version of this question but rather the very literal question about how you ended up in the geographic location you currently call home.

DIA - iPhone Camera+ App

Did you move for a job, school, a man or woman? Did you always want to live near the ocean or mountains? Did you flee a small town to live in the city or did you flee the city for the peace of the country? Did you run to the place you currently live? Or did you run from something?

That answer to the above questions may be a good opportunity to reflect on your past and get a sense of what may influence your future. Or it may just make you appreciate or resent the physical space you occupy.

Some of the most interesting moments of our life are the days/weeks spent deciding and acting on the decision to migrate. During this time, you typically mull over the pros and cons of leaving a place where you felt like a citizen – where you felt like you were home. You stress about the unknown, making new friends, losing touch with old friends. Then you have the actual act of moving which is a disruptive, stressful, endeavor that requires an inventory of your possessions and if you are like me a payment to your landlord because you forgot to empty your refrigerator.

Once you have landed the story gets even more interesting. Were you inspired to find a new hobby, or did you discover something new about yourself because you had to spend more time alone?

Somewhere between landing in your new place and the time you feel at home is a story. I challenge you to think about it or better yet, write about it – it will uncover memories and feelings that are unique to any journey. When you are done with that; find someone you know or a total stranger and ask if they will share their story or stories. And when you have exhausted, dissected, and reminisced you can now have an honest conversation about why we stay.

Reflecting on the 90s - Part I "Whatever"

I can barely claim that I'm Generation X - based on the definition, I squeak in with a couple years to spare. Like most generations, I identify with the music of the time - or rather - I thought I did. I recently watched the episode on "grunge" on the Seven Ages of Rock on VHI Classic. It invoked some nostalgic feelings but mainly a little embarrassment for how sad and self-centered we all were. The paradox of the 90's was that we all spent time hating ourselves and sarcastically shrugging off EVERYTHING that EVERYONE stood for, but we never actually changed or accomplished anything that we spent most of our time criticizing.

The music isn't exempt from this statement. Regardless of who you want to blame - the record industry, Bush, suicide, an economic recovery - the reality is that we just grew tired of feeling sorry for ourselves and realized that  "our" music was getting stale, copied, and boring. The bands I listen to today all echo the influences of Bob Dylan, the Beatles, David Bowie, R&B, etc. It has been a long time since I heard a song and said, "hmmm, that reminds me Alice in Chains "Jar of Flies." If there is a band today that cites Nirvana or Mudhoney as an influence, they probably suck and/or populate Christian Rock stations.

For the record, I still think great rock music was made in the 90s. I still plug Soundgarden into Pandora from time to time and I've been to a Pearl Jam concert in the last 5 years when they toured with...Tom Petty. A music writer once said that the difference between Pearl Jam and Nirvana was that Nirvana hated the hippies and Pearl Jam couldn't wait to jam with them. Maybe the men of PJ just knew that everyone knows the words to "American Girl" but my 23 year old intern can't finish the following lyric, "I'm looking California, but feeling...."

Introducing....

As the first post I’ll keep this short. I plan to break most rules of blogging; one of them being commitment to a purpose or topic. I already contribute to a blog that keeps me in line with a topic http://lisa-weir.blogspot.com/. This is my opportunity to just share my observations, likes, and general pointers on ambling through life as a normal guy that spends an abnormal amount of time analyzing life, people, movies, technology, and whatever is nagging at me. I’ll try my best to be upfront in my posts so anyone that cares to read can pick and choose. For example:

Movie Review: Some movie that I either loved, hated, or want to support despite a splat on http://www.rottentomatoes.com/.

Music: Hi, I’m Adam, many call me a music snob despite my defense of Marky Marks “Good Vibrations” as one of the best songs ever.

Politics: I will try to stay out of this but the asylum has been taken over by the inmates…then it was taken over by the inmates that were crazier than the other inmates…then they all put their names in for the GOP race.

Life: I’m nothing if not a student and observer of the human race - right or wrong I always have an opinion and my hope is that at least it’s entertaining.

Tech!: I’m in the biz of technology and quit frankly I’m enamored with it…not in a features and benefits way but more in the way it consumes our lives and dictates our culture. Nobody captures this as well ashttp://www.wired.com/. Here's an example of my tech philosophy I initially tried to start my other blog on Tumblr just to see how it works; however upon completing my first post I was then asked me to do something I found annoying...boom...Tumblr zero - Google 1.

Me: At times I will write from a place that fundamentally shaped who I am…I am a mid-westerner and for better or worse it’s in my DNA. I don’t live in the Mid-west anymore but it lives in me; and don’t believe what Stephen Bloom says http://bit.ly/vi2rbm Not that it doesn’t contain a bit of truth - it’s just like I say, “if someone is going to rip on my home state they better have lived their and since John Wayne is dead and Ashton Kutcher quit Twitter it may as well be me.

I look forward to joining the millions of voices on Tumblr and other sites that exist so people can choose to read or ignore.

God Speed Amigos