So "Freedom! Horrible, horrible freedom!" relates primarily to me being back in San Francisco (after a 7-year hiatus) and living alone for the first time in 7 years, with my son Kyle getting his own place the same weekend (due, admittedly, in no small part to vigorous pushing by me).
And while I'm totally psyched to be back in the City, I do miss that boy already, so let's hear it for "Freedom! Horrible, horrible freedom!"
The title also pays homage to Gary Larson, of "Far Side" fame, who I know has a cartoon with either this exact line or one that is VERY close in meaning. Anyway, I didn't know until I just googled him that "The Far Side" started in the San Francisco Chronicle. Click below for that bio page I found--this is on the beta version of NNDB, which could turn out to be a cool/useful site; also on that bio, fans of his cartoons will surely smile when they see what Laron's parents' names are! :)
http://www.nndb.com/people/281/000022215/
Finally, the title of the blog ties in with my general cynicism regarding the way America is run these days. The fact that we have the Freedom! Horrible, horrible freedom! to re-elect Dubya is ironic, at best.
Anyway, I wanted to start this blog with an obervation/question. I'm doing this blog partly to be trendy and I've always thought it made sense since I like to write. You know, write stuff like sense since. But I also have been VERY lax in keeping up any semblance of a personal journal, which I used to do regularly and highly recommend not only for its therapeutic properties, but for your own amusement years later. Trust me on this one: no matter how boring you think your life is right now, check your journal in ten years and you'll be like, "WTF?" Word.
Okay, but my actual observation is this: I'm kinda thinking my experience with living in so many different cities/states is a little unique--trying to make myself feel special. But then you always hear about how mobile this country is. But then again you hear that weird statistic about 75% of people dying within 10 miles of where were born.
So I'd like to hear back from people about how many places they've lived--not actual homes, mind you, just cities/states. I'd also be curious to know how unique you think you are in this regard; or how typical.
Also have a little poll so we can see what actually is typical. Please share this with as many folks as possible to see what kind of breakdown we get.
Anyway, I'm also thinking that I just love city life, and that there will be some really cool goings on and doings for me to yap about. And if no one else ends up reading it, at least I get something to go "WTF?" over in about 10 years. :)
So here's a link to the poll and a cool site if you're interested in doing polls. For some reason, I can't get the actual poll imported here like they say you can, but then, I'm probably doing something wrong and am too lazy to figure out what.
http://www.micropoll.com/akira/mpview/644733-195126
COMING SOON: An old man and his terrier! Or is it schnauzer? PLUS: a threesome from some "furren" place!!
It might be fun to look at your journal from 7 or 8 years ago to see how much you disliked living in San Francisco back then. Or whatever it was that caused you to flee. :)
ReplyDeleteOh, I know what it was - it was living with that horrible Brian Fikes! :) Actually, it was PPS, or Post-Peace Corps Syndrome wherein I thought "the big bad city" was just too, too much for me, and the homeless problem was really at a peak and the dot-com craze and the yuppies and suddenly EVERYONE had a cell phone and yadda yadda yadda.
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