#Blaugust Day 1

It appears it is August 1st and it is time to do Blaugust. I haven’t been able to write very much on a blog over the past couple years because a couple reasons. I will go over those reasons so you can be officially bored by them. Here is a list of reasons I can’t be bothered to blog:

1. I went back to school to get an education- This month I will be 44 years old and I spent most of my life being a dumbass. When I was growing up I had a hard time reading and had a bit of dyslexia. What I remember the most was being in 4th grade trying to read “See Pug Run.” It wasn’t until I was in 10th grade that I read my first book ever. When you do not grow up reading and you struggle with it, you tend to avoid it as much as possible. The weird thing about me learning to read at a later age is, I grew to love writing. From 10th grade on I started writing as much as possible and enjoyed it because it was an outlet for my creativity. The only bad part about writing and not learning to read until a later age was, I had a hard time with grammar and spelling. It really didn’t stop me from writing for myself, but I was too shy to show anything I wrote to other people.  Towards the end of high school I was very passionate about writing, but knew I would never be good at it, so I went to college for a trade skill, architecture.

I only lasted a semester in college before I failed out of it. Architecture was extremely boring to me and I became more interested in a girl with giant breasts in my classes. They were mesmerizing! Besides the godly breasts, I learned a valuable lesson failing out of college, school was not for me. Before I left the school, my English teacher pulled me aside and told me I was in the wrong major anyways and should really think about learning English more because she really enjoyed my writing. It was an amazing complement after struggling with reading my whole life, but college would have to wait as I signed up for the military. I won’t bore you with the details of the next few years, but education was not something I pursued for the next 20 years. So what changed?

In my military job I was moving up and what I wanted to be in the military required me to have an associate degree. While getting the last few credits for my associate degree I decided I might as well use my military GI Bill and get a real degree. That is when I stopped blogging. In December 2015, I started going back to school for real and blogging had to wait. I now have my BA in Information Systems and I am currently pursuing my MS in Social Psychology with a focus in human factors and technology. That is the technical speak for, mentally analyzing how people interact through social media and other technology based social interaction. That means video games, blogs, YouTube and other stuff that draws our attention to our phones more than old-fashioned social interaction. I’m watching you!

2. With the little time I have to relax after getting my learn on, I play video games- The last thing I want to do after spending 10 hours at work and 3 hours a night doing school work is to sit at a computer writing a blog post for your ass. Sorry, but you are not really worth it to me. I’ve tried to want to write, but I’m just too mentally drained to think about it. This point really leads to the next couple points.

3. I freelance for MMORPG.com- Most of my writing efforts go into writing for MMORPG.com when I get time. I love that website and I’ve been reading them since they were founded in 1997. I think if I was a better writer of content creator, I would try to invents more time with them and be a part of their full-time staff. Right now, I really can’t bring anything to the table they would really need me for. I have some ideas, but with schooling, I am unable to commit the time to them. If you read any gaming website please read MMORPG.com because the staff there are the best people in the world.

4. Blogs are dying- Sorry, but it is true. There are still people that read blogs, but it is not what it once was 5-10 years ago. With streaming and YouTube it is easier and faster to listen to a person’s opinion than take the time to read it. It is very sad to me because I love writing and with my history with reading, I understand how important it is to keep reading. Kids these days will be hurting when they are adults if they stop reading and only turn to video media. That and social media like Twitter gives people a quick fix of information without reading fluff. I believe things like Blaugust are great because it brings more attention to written words and brings the blogging community together.

5. I don’t have a number 5- There is so much in this world today that just sucks the life out of us and saps our energy to be creative. Over the last year my family has been dealing with a sexist boss my wife had that used his position power to ruin our lives. She spoke up and told the truth about something illegal he did and he used his power to turn it all on her. In essence in less than a year we lost almost $30,000 a year in pay because of it. We are not hurting for money now, but we have had to reevaluate our spending habits and future life choices. The worst part is, my wife now lives in fear at her new work. Whenever she wants to make a suggestion or try to fix something she feels like she is going to get fired or people think she is stupid. It is horrible to constantly live in fear because somebody has abused their power. We’ve seen this a lot lately with the #MeToo movement. The people that dismiss the movement are the problem. They fear their strangle hold on their employees and women are in jeopardy. Nobody should have to live in fear daily for being who they are. I can’t fix it because I am a white male, but I can say something if I see it. The Bystander Effect is a serious problem in our society that needs to stop. The problem is people like me. The white middle class male is so comfortable sitting on top of our throne of easy, we are too afraid to do the right thing and speak up against this shit. Sadly, making my way around the internet I don’t see any white males speaking up. All I see is more and more feeling entitled to be racist, sexist, and all around dicks. On the subject of dicks, what really makes you think anybody wants to see yours in a direct message? NOBODY! These are the people that are running our corporations, our country, and our lives. The abuse of power needs to stop or as a country, we will fall behind the rest of the world. More than ever, we need to work as a whole society and treat each other with respect because right now, we look like idiots. We have to stop pitting against each other because of our race, sex, political stance, gender, or religion. It’s just sad we can’t get over this hump and stop treating each other like shit because it might hurt our ego by understanding we are not special individually. We are only special together.

Welcome to day 1 of Blaugust!