Or well, you could take "update" to mean "Mass Deletion", I suppose. I'd originally pieced this site together YEARS ago, just to use up some free time here and there. But this was way before blogging and Myspace and things like that became so common, so now it almost seems kind of cliched. Or at least that's how I see it this afternoon. Soooo, I'm tossing out most of what I had before. Looking back on it now, the majority of it actually still applies. Some of it was funny. Bits of it were interesting. A very small portion of it was actually well-written. Way too long-winded, though. I'm aiming for brevity this time around. My apologies if you liked the old stuff. Some of it might resurface later, if the mood strikes, so keep an eye out....
Most of the stuff I'd listed here before still applies. Nick Hornby is still my favorite author, the man is a genius. High Fidelity never, ever gets old. I still admit to really enjoying the Bridget Jones books too. I still love The Sopranos, despite not having HBO and having to rely entirely on the DVD boxed sets. I still love Calvin and Hobbes. have you SEEN that new hardcover set with all of the strips? It's fantastic. Better Than Ezra is still one of the best bands on the planet, and there's nothing like catching a show on the front row in some smoke-filled bar when they play. Movie sites like Aint It Cool News and Chud still take up way too much of my free time. I'm a first-degree black belt, although that one comes with a lot of disclaimers, the first being that, despite public perception, a black belt is still very much a mid-level rank, particularly within traditional styles, especially these days. It's more the point where you get a decent grasp on what you're doing rather than the "expert" level it's sometimes seen as. And I don't think martial arts, or at least traditional arts, will necessarily make someone a good fighter. The toughest people I've met who'd studied a martial art would have been just fine in a fight if they'd taken up chess or baseball instead. There's the martial side, which involves the practical fighting aspects, but there's also the art side, which involves repeating a particular movement or pattern over and over with a heavy emphasis on posture, breathing, form and other technical details. Arts like Aikido or Tai Chi or certain styles of karate, although they each have a marital basis, might skew more toward the art side, whereas arts like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Thai boxing are the opposite, concentrating more on practical fighting application. But anyway, for the record, I've studied martial arts since I was about 14. I still collect comic books, which I usually defend by pointing out that Alan Moore's Watchen comics are taught in English Lit courses and Art Spiegelman's MAUS comics won the pulitzer prize, but for the most part they're just a fun, pop-lit throwback from my childhood that I never outgrew. Although, I do have a theory that comic shops are some of the last mom-and-pop type stores on the planet. I buy my books at Barnes and Noble or Borders, I buy my DVDs at Best Buy, I do way too much of my shopping at Wal-Mart, but I buy my comics at a tiny shop in Tulsa that hasn't changed in 15 years and smells of old newsprint and glossy covers where the owner recognizes me when I walk in. I could definitely use more places like that.
Anyway, since everyone ELSE is doing it, here's my Myspace page:
Kelly's Space
