Stopping the World (Bloggerstock March)

This is my first month on Bloggerstock, aka to me as a shining diamond among the dozens of blog rings out there in the blogosphere. I am truly honored to join in writing with this group of talented and passionate bloggers. If you check out the founders on their site, I think you'd agree with my assessment of their abilities as well. For the month of March, the theme was "Stop the World, I want to get on/off!". 

Much to my delight, I get to host the lovely Kris from Because or Why Not. She is part of the Bloggerstock founding group (read: awesome) and a great blogger to boot. Here is her post. If you'd like to read up on my own on this topic, I am over on Dom's blog - Lije's Mindstate. So without further interruption, here's Kris:

I think I'm the minority but I've always been glad life doesn't come equipped with a fast forward or rewind buttons.  If I had access to these options I would abuse the crap out of them.  I'd probably still be nine years old just reliving a few of those years over and over.  Blithely skipping, of course, the times I cried over my math or wasn't allowed to go play with friends.  That's pretty much what life was like at nine.  Then there would be the temptation of fast forwarding before making even the most minor of decisions.  Or skipping out on all the "character building" moments in life.  C'mon, you know you'd do the same.

But a pause button...  A pause button is a concept I can get behind.  I don't see much evil that could be accomplished through being allowed to stop my world.  It would just give me the option of accomplishing so much more in a short amount of time.  Like writing this post, for example.  I could push pause, cook dinner, type this out, maybe have a nap, and still be fresh to go out this evening.  Yeah, I'm all over that.

Or maybe I could use it to stretch out the good times.  Good company?  Pause that.  Enjoy the conversation for hours and still be in bed by midnight.  Awesome fresh chocolate chip cookies?  Just hit pause and be eating them as long as you like, all for 100 calories.

In short, I could use more time.  More time to live life like I want to live it.  More time to sort out all the things that overload me all at once.  A chance to accomplish everything I know I could and still be lazy.  Time to snowboard every weekend and make my occasional work-free days stretch for glorious eternity.

Yes, a pause button is an idea I wouldn't mind.

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Kris has done many things, but very few of them permanently.  A bit of a commitment-phobe she now records many of her musings over at Because or Why Not, something she has stuck by remarkably well.    Currently she's just a small-town girl with a lust for adventure.  It would seem that's, ultimately, her lot in life.

Crouching Tiger, Blogging Rio

The good news is yes, I survived my week of hell. The not-so-good news was that I didn't make it through the week without some casualties. I frequently drove my commute on 3 hours of sleep, I barely ate enough to feed a small child, and to top it off I managed to staple my thumb, completely missing the stack of papers I had lined up so nicely for the stapler. It took blood, sweat, and a substantial amount of caffeine but my midterms are done and all my reports are handed in for now. Guess what though? Yes indeed, I am on break and, yes again, I do have tons of work to complete for when I get back. 


Other times I would have been greatly aggravated and/or disappointed with the fact that I have to keep working without some form of rest. I was highly considering taking a break from the Karaoke Blog Ring of Death this month and blogging in general due to the amount of study that I have to accomplish. Something had to be cut, there was no way I could make everything fit in and do it well...or so I thought. I took a step back and analyzed my life when I read this article and the Wikipedia page on James Franco. 


What am I doing...complaining about some homework, study, work, music, and blogging? This actor, a person in a career that many consider to be superficial and lacking relevance, is never stopping his academic career. He is a mental sponge, soaking in knowledge left and right from the best schools in the country. One of qualities that I am most proud of, as a student, is my passion for learning. I love hearing about new subjects, new ideas, different perspectives and I am always open to learn from people willing to share their expertise with me. Well, James Franco is living that exact life. Let's quickly glance through his curriculum:

• A college degree in English with a concentration in Creative Writing from UCLA
• An MFA in Writing from Columbia University
• Is working on his master's degree in filmmaking from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts
• Attended Brooklyn College for fiction writing
• Commuted to Warren Wilson College for poetry
• Now he is a PhD student in English at Yale
• Later, he plans to attend the Rhode Island School of Design for Painting

All what I have listed above he has done or is doing while being an acclaimed and versatile actor. Now, I don't know if I want a Best Actor Oscar nomination or to be a host for the Oscar ceremony, but I do know that I want to do everything on my plate with the highest quality possible. Whether it is playing my saxophone, going to the gym, doing some systems simulations, or just writing down a post, I want to make sure that I am putting in a piece of myself into the work that I do. There are many times that I feel overwhelmed with too many responsibilities and expectations to surpass, but I again recognize and remember that this is what I want. 


After some thought and consideration I decided to say fuck it, I am staying around. I like 20sb, I like my blog, I love music, and I love my studies. I am not surrendering one step on any of my commitments or activities. It will take some major organization and concentration to be efficient but I am willing to take the punches necessary to keep going strong :D. My post title came from the fact that I see myself as bloody and bruised, but still getting back up to say "Suck It" to my heavy schedule. I don't back down and I don't run away from obstacles in my way. I break through them. Simple as that. Let my good friend Bruce explain the rest to you.

This is the face I make when I finish an exam. True story.

So now, on to doing my design projects, studying all my printed material, and doing several homeworks while trying to complete my blogging and musical ambitions. It's going to be a good week.