2 things I've realized while not leaving my room today

Ok, well actually three things I've realized. The first is that while Chuck Klosterman might not seem smart, might not act smart, and might now even consider himself smart, the guy is a fucking genius. Well, either he is a genius or he is just lucky enough that everything the man says is (a) correct and (b) incredibly interesting. I now of course realize that the last couple sentences that I've written are in exactly his style, because I've been reading his book Chuck Klosterman IV all day (with the exception of the time I spent realizing the other two things I realized today, and cooking my dinner). Two points Klosterman mentioned in his book really caught me as incredibly interesting. The first was about people that get disappointed with various aspects of our culture or things that happen in their daily lives. This goes for people that feel that they got "betrayed" by the series finale of a TV show or the presidential election going to Bush. The point that Klosterman makes is that culture can't be right or wrong, its just a reflection of what the majority wants. Bush won because a lot of people wanted him to be president (although its debatable how many), and you might feel betrayed by a series finale but a hell of a lot of people liked it. People often desire their opinions of right and wrong to "win out" in society so they are validated, but why do we need that. In fact, he claims, it is better to be in the minority. "Do you want to feel happy? I suspect that you do. Well, here's the first step to happiness: don't get pissed off that people who aren't you happen to think Paris Hilton is interesting and deserves to be on TV every other day.... Because if you do, you will end up feeling betrayed. And it will be your own fault. You will feel bad, and you will deserve it." He goes on to say, "You're not wrong, and neither is the rest of the world. But you need to accept that those two things aren't really connected." This goes along with his other major point that I liked which revolved around not caring what other people think about you, but I'm getting tired of explaining another person's arguments. The book is good, read it.

The second thing I realized today is that I might have a favorite band. I say might, not that I do, and not that I'm sure that Death Cab for Cutie is it. However, if somebody put a gun to my head and said they would pull the trigger if I didn't tell them my favorite band, after a few seconds of shaking with fear I would say Death Cab. Now, it is completely possible that I would be lying, or that I might even change my mind. I take having a favorite band very seriously, and until today I hadn't really liked the idea of choosing one band to define myself by because I thought it was kind of lame. But the more I thought about it I realized that there has to be one band I listen to and enjoy more than any other, and strictly speaking that would fit within the definition. Plus, I did a lot of research into Death Cab today and realized they had a lot of stuff I hadn't heard yet (mostly old or strange compilations) that's actually pretty good. So that was that.

The third thing I realized is I am totally fucked as of June 30th (which is exactly two days after my return from the Netherlands). I would like to make it known for the record that I began worrying about this for the first time today, April 4th. I won't go into this in much detail, other than to say that my being fucked is not making me happy, and I will over the next couple months slowly procrastinate my way into trying to solve this problem.

Notice how this entry has had absolutely nothing to do with the Netherlands. I really didn't leave my apartment today, not even to go to the laundry room.

Be well.

AC