First Post, New Beginnings, I hate technology.. etc...

As I embark upon this new adventure called “blogging” I have to wonder… is anybody even going to read this?? Sure, I have interesting thoughts all the time, but I’m horrible about documenting them, and to be fair, most of them aren’t even interesting, let alone worth writing about. Nevertheless, in light of spending a full year in a foreign country, and having $3,000 worth of photoshop and camera software, I think it’s about time for me to jump on the band wagon and start a blog.

But what to write about?? I must have jotted down over a dozen “blog ideas” over the past hour about things I have “strong” opinions about. Some of them included really pressing matters in our society, such as universal health care, politics, and the environment (all things I care a lot about). Other topics that crossed my mind were a bit more light hearted and whimsical, such as food, travel, funny things that happen to me, etc… Yet none of them seemed worthy of my very first blog entry. So I gave up for a while and became frustrated with myself, the universe, and of course… my computer. Nearly 4 years of college on my belt, not to mention growing up in the age of technology, and I feel I have barely even scratched the surface of this laptop of mine. And then, like a lightning bolt out of the heavens, it hit me. I can blog about all my computer issues!!

I can’t tell you how many times per day, nay, times per hour, that I bitch about something related to my computer. “Hurry up!! You’re so slow!!”...
No.. no… just highlight the one word… god dammnit!”… “Yes,.. I’m sure I want to run this app... I come to this website every day you stupid thing…” “Why did you delete the whole thing?!?! How do I undo?!?!” These are sentences I find myself saying essentially every day, without any sort of real guidance on how to change it. More recently, I found myself in possession of a really expensive, really elaborate piece of software, given to me by my uncle. When you think of the stuff Pixar animators use to do their work, you’re in the right ballpark. This software is SO sophisticated, that I can’t even figure out how to do the most basic photoshop with it. Granted, I’ve never been creative in an “arts and crafts” kind of way. In fact, I got a B- in Art as a 6th grader when I’m pretty sure the teacher was required to give everyone an A for effort… To be frank, I’ve never been good at art. I can appreciate it when it’s “good” quote and quote, and I can perform it in a musical sort of sense. But the fact of the matter is if you gave me a box of crayons and a color-between-the-lines coloring book, your typical 3 year old would show me up.

But I declare, no more! I have too much free time on my hands to let a cool opportunity like this pass me up. So, as of right now, 9:22PM Pacific Time on March 22, 2010, I will try to learn how to use this sophisticated software, and overcome my lifelong fear of all things creative and artsy. I will use this blog, and the comments of the people who follow it (i.e. my parents and my loyal friends trying to find something to do while they suffer the reality that is the 9-5 workday), to help me figure out Adobe!!

So, maybe not the most interesting blog post, but we can’t all be Barney from How I Met Your Mother…

Until I become more suave and figure out how to do cool things with photoshop, here's a picture of a kid in a school bus. Don't even ask.

Till next time:
HBP