Cinammon Girl

"I want to live with a cinnamon girl
I could be happy the rest of my life with her
A dreamer of pictures I run in the night
You see us together chase the moonlight..."

It's amazing what a little Type O Negative can do for my thought processes and editing purposes...  I'm just thinking that if I could do so many writing projects over again, I would gather up every one of my Type O Neg albums and set 'em back to back and use them as my soundtrack for writing...  Whether it's science or not, the voice of Peter Steele really makes me wanna just rage against my computer, rage against the whole revolutionary thought process and let flow the words from my fingers as they strike the keys with such a ferocity that I can't help but be impressed that my poor little Dell didn't send a SHIFT key of an ENTER key a flying through the air...

I've tried to use various forms of other music to work to and it just seems that no matter what I use, I always come back to my Type O Neg...  I've got a beautiful record player in the living room and it has more often than not put forth the sound of Dave Brubeck and Miles Davis and just to be silly a bit of The Clash...  Yet the nostalgia doesn't get my juices flowing as the sounds of the song BLOODY KISSES does and how I want to weep and strike my keyboard as if it were a medieval organ gnashing as the saddened undertones of the woman's weeping in the background seems to put forth the curtain that my writing lies behind.

As I sit and become stressed at the amount of school work that I am faced with and the amount of paperwork that never ceases to fall before me, both in the academic world, but also the business world and the personal world, I know that I can count on my Type O Negative to really allow me to reopen those old scars and fall back into the dark pit of writing.  I think that we always try to deny dark urges of writing but once in a while, ya just have to lest that bastard out and see what hell he's gonna raise on your paper in front you...

Professional or not, sobriety or not, there is something to be said for a piss warm "beer" in your hand and a keyboard that won't relent to your insistent bashing and the keys that would cry MERCY if they had a voice other than what I gave them...  The music sets my mind free and at this stage, it feels good to let it all of your chest and let it fly, if only to wake tomorrow and regret the words that have been put to paper.

The ink that was the blood of my thoughts serves to remind me that the process is never complete........................

never

Reverand... The who, the what, the why, the ... whatever ...

   Well, first, I suppose, the name.  REVERAND (yes it's supposed to be spelled that way) has been a nom de guerre for about 13 years now...  It came from one of my first roommates and original shooting partner / dive bro / wingman...  Not sure HOW it came about, but one day I just remember being REVERAND.  It's been stenciled on every paintball jersey / Tac Sim shirt / laptop since.  So, we'll leave it at that.

   15 years ago I entered college for the first time and after a year and a half (as well as some other mitigating factors) I decided I needed a break.  Told Mom and Dad, "Don't worry I just need some time off, I'll be back in no time..."  Hehe...  Fast forward to 2010, I'm 30 years old, married and the father of six (yes six) beautiful children.  A friend of mine heard me musing aloud about going back to college and she put the proverbial gun to my head and now I'm halfway through my junior year. It's actually a bit scary for me because the last time I was a junior at anything it was 1996.....  A little scary...

     When I first went to college I figured that I was destined to become the next Walter Cronkite or Dan Rather or Tom Brokaw...  While kids my age were idolizing guys like Michael Jordan I was cutting out pictures and stories from Newsweek and taping them to my wall.  I loved to watch old newsreels of Cronkite as he was walking down the battered streets of Vietnam wearing an old steel pot helmet and flak jacket, telling the stories that were so pertinent to the day.  Hell I even remember watching Anderson Cooper when he was a teenage news correspondent on Channel 1 news that we watched in high school.  That should date me.  Cats like Serena Altchul (of MTV fame) and Lisa Ling (of Oprah fame) were just budding celebrities at that point.

   So, after spending some time in the journalism gig and interviewing a few celebrities, myself, such as White Zombie and Carl Bernstein, I made a very tough decision that journalism wasn't my ball of wax.  At least not in the direction that I was heading.  However I never lost the passion for writing.  I fancy myself as a "warrior poet" if I could borrow a phrase from Braveheart.  I love the technicalities that are involved with firearms and being outside and that odd combination allows my mind to seriously wander off course.  Maybe I can use this blog to post some of that.

   Coming back to MSU, now, as a Sociology major, I realize that the importance of writing hasn't decreased, but rather increased, so I've chosen to focus on sharpening those writing skills and while I've made a decision that I won't ever set foot in a newsroom again, I still have the bug to track down stories and tell them.  Mostly now it will be done from the scientific angle of Sociology.

   This blog was created mostly because of the fact that it was a necessity for one of my classes however I'm thinking it might also serve as an online scrapbook for the ideas that I would like to see through.  My wife gives me guff that I don't always see things through to completion but, at the very least, with college I'll get to prove her wrong.  :)  Also, if I have to start doing some major Cronkite-esqe traveling for my Capstone, I can always use the excuse, "It's for school!  I HAVE to do this!"  We'll see how long I can ride that scooter.....