Still Figurin' Out Who I Think I Am

This one's about comedy, moving, and secret lives of trees.

"Even bloggers who prefer to write a serious toned blog can't resist sharing something funny. Share your opinion on using comedy in blogging. Do you enjoy reading comedic blog entries? In the 30 Day Blogging Challenge, do you look forward to 'Funny Fridays' or do you dread them?"

Hey there everyone! We're on the second week of our June mini-challenge roundtables...this time around our old friend Brother Nature is the host, and the topic is Comedy. Luckily, I'm slightly more well-versed in this category than last week.

I put "comedy" as one of my blog's genres not because I think it's funny, but because I'd rather it be funny more often than not. You can put ten of us in a room with the same prompt, and chances are seven of us are going to write some slight variation of the same thing...a general, matter-of-fact, here's how I feel sentiment. And that's ok, but that's not ok for me. I'd prefer not to be serious, and if you laugh that's a bonus. I'd rather be unexpected; different.

And that's opened some doors for me. I've been nominated for WDC's Quill Awards in both the blogging and comedy categories, I'm an editor of the unofficial WDC blogging newsletter, and I've read some extraordinary people (yes, I'm aware I just said that). I've gained a nice following, and I'm proud of that. I'd like to think that some of that is a result of my humor, but really, asking me isn't gonna get us any closer to an answer.

I guess what that all means is...well, I'm not sure. I wanted to say that my brand of comedy has allowed me to be taken seriously when a prompt lends itself no other choice but to be faced seriously, but I don't know how true that is...it must suck if you click on whatever link takes you to me because you've had a bad day and you're hoping I can make you laugh, but instead I wound up writing about the clubbing of baby seals or something.

But we're all different and we all bring certain things to the table, and we also have varied expectations of what we're looking for when we sit down to read...maybe we want to be informed, or we just want something to agree with, or we want to laugh. Blogging is a medium similar to television and movies in that respect. You have a general idea of what you're getting when you tune in.

As far as "Funny Friday" goes...I used to love it. Now, I absolutely loathe it...because it's rarely funny (and I'm saying this as someone who has both written for and judged entries in the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" ). Some people don't want to write in genres they feel they're not confident enough in, and I get that. If I've got 10 contestants and seven of them are spending four Fridays a month telling the internet how much they hate "Funny Friday", then clearly there's a problem.

That's why, during this month, I'm gonna be thinking of ways I can fix this. I made a promise to everyone once I took over the 30DBC that I wasn't gonna change much or do anything drastic...now that I've got a few rounds from the other side of the table under my belt, the time seems right to tinker with the categories a bit. Nothing's set in stone yet, but I would expect at least a couple of the days taking on different meanings for now...including Friday. As much as it pains me from a comedic perspective, I have to do what I think is best for the entire group...I can't run it like I'm sending out prompts to an entire group of people like me.

I do think though that comedy has a place in blogging, and it always will. If you can make people laugh, you'll always have friends.

"Tell me a story about moving day. It can be a funny story or a moving day horror story. It can be real or imaginary. If you want you can write a poem or a rant. Be creative and have fun."

I don't have a ton of moving stories, because I've only moved a few times in my life, and most of the time those days have gone pretty smoothly. Sure, there was that one time my mattress flew out of the back of Verno's pickup onto a busy main road at 5pm, or the time a friend of ours thought he could handle a 27" tv by himself down our basement stairs only to wind up on his back underneath it, and yeah every time you move no doubt does something get broken or fail to turn up, but I'm sure that's the case 90% of the time with anyone.

Now when I help someone move, I'm sorta the point man. I don't do a lot of the heavy lifting, because I'm no longer a strong man, but I can pack a truck tighter than a championship Tetris board. Maybe 10 years or so ago, I was helping my dad and stepmom move from their house to a duplex...a downsizing. At the time I was living around the corner from them, and they had a few things they were gonna give me. After we got them settled into their new place, I took the box truck we rented back to the house along with my little brother and a couple of his friends to grab a recliner and some other stuff. I let them ride in the back because there was no room in the front.

It was maybe a 30 second ride from the house to my place, 542. But...we had to go over train tracks, which were elevated almost like a ramp and were certainly not the most flush. We unloaded and took the truck back to the duplex...I took every precaution to not be the safest driver. Instead of slowing down while going over the train tracks, I accelerated. With four teenagers in the back, you'd have thought there was a full load still with all the whoas and holy shits going on. I did not slow down rounding corners. I definitely stopped abruptly. And when I opened the lift to let them out, they just kinda spilled onto the driveway like kids getting off their first roller coaster ride. But that's what happens when you're the cool older brother.

"From a book description: 'In the belief of the Gond tribe [in India], the lives of humans and trees are closely entwined. Trees contain the cosmos; when night falls, the spirits they nurture glimmer into life.' Have you ever watched the trees at night, and can you imagine if they have a night life and which secrets they are hiding?"

I won't go as far as delving into the cultural aspects of trees and how our lives intertwine with them, but I will say that when I was a little kid, we had a tiny backyard...and the people who lived a block over and directly behind us had some decent trees...evergreens, maybe. When it got really dark out and we came home late, those trees used to scare the living piss outta me. They looked like giant tree monsters, and I swore they were moving...like, coming after us. Because it was so dark, they seemed closer and ominous. My mom couldn't unlock the door fast enough.

Ahhh, those spooky suburban trees. Harmless, really...in daylight they were behind a fence and mute; their roots keeping them in the neighbor's yard. But what about the forest trees, the park trees, where they lived in giant clusters sorta like humans in our sprawls? Were they undomesticated, like stray cats, digging through the park garbages for food scraps and hissing at the others? You often hear the old saying "If a tree falls in the forest but no one's there, does it make a sound?"...if there's no supervision at night, do they party like wild teenagers? Was it the wind, or the feral energy, that caused a few downed branches? And even though there are signs posted everywhere about not bringing glass bottles to the park, they still get there somehow. I've never seen a tree in a liquor store, but I've never seen a teenager in one either, yet there are always empties to be found in forests.

The life of a tree- any non-suburban tree- is tough. The park trees, the forest trees...they're out in the elements day in, day out, with no one to love them for what the really are. The kids, they just wanna run and jump and climb with wild abandon of thought. The birds squat, building homes out of other trees within your branches and paying no rent and not contributing anything. When a person uses parts of other people to create a new human, we call that the miracle of life and it's beautiful and we throw a party; birds are just a-holes for doing what they do to trees, like they own them or something.

But at night, they rejoice. I believe that's where the phrase "Dance like no one's watching" originated from...because a tree won't dance in your presence. It doesn't want you to see the revenge it's taking on the freeloadin' birds, or the possible loss of branches in the drunken dance-offs with the other trees. It's only fair we allow all of the Earth's living, breathing things some privacy and downtime, to escape from the mundane, sedentary life growing rings and fearing the lumberjacks  .

We don't know what we don't see...but are we right to assume that what we do see exists when we're unable to see?

Let no one tell you I don't suffer for my art...I spent an awfully long time down the rabbit holes of YouTube in the wee hours of last night looking for a specific video related to this song. I found many similar ones, but not the exact one I was looking for. I'm disappointed.

"Take your hat off boy when you're talking to me
and be there when I feed the tree."
Lyrics.  

I'm sure the trees got nothin' on these wild parties  .

I enjoy a good pun every now and then...in fact, it's been awhile since Charlie ~ , Mitchopolis and myself went pun streaking for our own enjoyment (and the detriment of someone else waking up to 50 new emails re: blog comments). Good thing the internet can provide me with puns   as well, when no one else is around.

And finally, this weekend marked anniversaries of two of my favorite films of all-time (and that's sayin' somethin', 'cuz I'm not much of a movie watcher anymore)...Ferris Bueller's Day Off   and The Goonies  . They don't make movies like either of those anymore.

Well, I think I've said all I need to say for another day. It's 8:23pm, which means we're probably not getting the tornado they've been warning us about all day (please, like I need another excuse to stay inside and panic), so I can try to hopefully sleep easier tonight. Peace, up and out, and GOODNIGHT NOW!!