Of Epics and Activism

Those of you who may be reading this may be wondering: Who the hell are you and why should I be reading this crap just because you've got an internet connection and a keyboard?

All I can really say to that is, you're the one reading it, so I guess you've already found your reason. I'm typing this because I want to.

Overall, I am looking forward to this stint of blogging as somebody who has been going way too long outside of the realm of writing, and needing a fast, easy method to continue doing so.  Honestly, the hardest thing I found for creating this blog was a title for the blog itself. I was looking for something witty, but still me. Unfortunately, most of what I came up with was either witty, but not witty enough, or witty, but then didn't really describe me at all. Or it described me, but wasn't witty at all, and finally, the witty and described me, but then seemed to come across as far too self-aggrandizing or self-deprecating. Which, honestly, is a very strange dichotomy.

It seems as if there's a very fine line in the world between over-bloating your own ego, and participating in self-negation.  In general, I think that all of us participate in far more self-negation than we recognize, but I think that would be a topic for a whole new entry. And this is already starting to get long, before I've even gotten onto the particular topic for THIS entry.

So why Activism for Epics? Couldn't I have found another combination of witty and descriptive? Is this truly the crux of my creative potential, and if so, why are you bothering to read it if I'm so bereft of creative genius? Whatever. It's your 10-20 minutes of life to do with what you want to by reading or not reading this. You chose to take a peek inside of my head, I raise all disclaimers now to anything you find in there that you don't like.

Obviously, you'll probably notice that I consider myself an activist, and identify particularly strongly as such.  I'm about as far-left as you can get, politically, and will frequently argue with people about even the very definition of what it means to be ON the left, as well. Because of course everybody brings up all of these supposed examples of left-wing societies and governments that don't work, until you look at them and notice that their entire structure seems about as left-wing as the Married Christian Military Fatherhood League. But whatever. The point is, I'm a leftist. And I'm proud of it.

The epics part is kind of a dual thing, here. I am a total nerd. I like playing Dungeons and Dragons, subscribe to World of Warcraft, and I even collect comic books. Yes, that's right. Absolut Dork would just have a picture of me trapped within a bottle. Probably wondering how I'd been tricked into getting into a bottle that had no actual vodka in it, and being very disappointed.

Now, if you're also a dork, then you'll forgive me right now for describing to the normals what epics are. And if you don't, then fine, don't forgive me. See if I care. Anyway...

Many of these games, particularly the computer games, have items that make your character better. For some reason, in all of these things, wearing different clothes makes you stronger, faster, smarter, etc. Why the fashion industry hasn't gotten in on this, I don't know. I just wouldn't be surprised if in one of the next seasons of Project Runway, Heidi Klum doesn't assign the designers to create the new tiered raid set for a World of Warcraft character. I can just imagine Tim Gunn asking "but just remember that the player will have to be able to click on things on the other side of those monstrous shoulderpads... make it work!"

Regardless, so clothes are magic. And they make you better than you could be without them. So being naked is a bad thing. Which makes me believe that the Catholic Church may actually be funding all of these gaming companies. I'm just saying...

Some magic clothes are better than others, however. You have common clothes, uncommon clothes, rare clothes, and finally, you get epic clothes. Epic clothes are the ones that everybody wants, but generally, fewer people are able to get them. It's a status thing. People whine and cry when too many people are able to afford the new Dolce and Gabana or Prada stuff, because it makes them feel less special.

Now, the other thing, however, is that I am a writer. Duh, as if me writing a blog doesn't, de facto, make me a writer. Anywho, the more traditional notion of epic relates back to the sagas of a constant struggle either to survive in a harsh world, or a battle between good and evil. And they're stories.

So thus comes my title, Activism for Epics. I've been through a lot in my times as an activist thus far, and have a great deal of time yet to come, and am passionate enough about my beliefs to think of a great deal of my work to be a part of the struggle between good and evil besides.  And using a little bit of a nerd reference never really hurt anybody. Well, unless you count being beaten up and humiliated in grade schools and high schools throughout the nation, or having to deal with developmental experiences of wedgies and swirlies. But other than that, nerdy references haven't really had THAT much of a negative impact on people... I think...

For those of you who have read this through, and haven't gone running screaming or pounding mercilessly on your keyboard to get to a different site, thanks for reading. And I'll be looking forward to posting more stuff here to waste your time and mine, as well.