Quotations...

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."

--Groucho Marx (1890-1977)


I love quotations (as you may have noticed). In fact, one of the main draws of writing in a blog was for the excitement of seeing something you wrote (well not you wrote, but me, I wrote it) and then your name after a --. I just LOVE the idea being dash, dash-ed. You have no clue. Even if its by my own making. Now, I don't know if the dash, dash thing is the true standard for saying this is the dude that said that, but to me it means something. (plus its much better than seeing the date of ones birth and death after the quote, not looking forward to that one). It says to the potential reader that this guy said something cool. And I'm just the kind of guy who wants to say cool things. I do, I'm not gonna lie. I love it when people say to me (however they don't do it nearly often enough) "remember that time when we were in the car and the guy asked us where we were going and you said..." Then, there is laughter. I LOVE THAT! I especially love it when I don't remember the thing I said and then it really was funny and I'm like, man that Finn is a funny guy. Now I know what you're thinking, not all quotations are funny, some are thought provoking, moving, promoting social change or just plain intelligent. Yeah, well I've been waiting around for one of those and let's just say I know what my place is in this world. Those things are for the other people, I just want to be the guy that says something funny, but lastingly so. Why? I don't know, get off me, I'm not trying to psycho analyze you am I? But I will tell you the guy I DO NOT want to be. You know the guy too. He's the one always going for the joke. But most of the time he's just reaching. I don't like that guy. You don't either I'm sure. But that's the danger of being me. I live on that edge. This Finn thing, yeah not my real name. But it has come to embody the person inside of me that desires to be funny, as much as possible. The guy that kinda works at it. Some people are just naturals at coming up with funny stuff on the spot. Sometimes I can be that guy, others times I'm the former. How do you hone your craft? I don't know there Oprah, you tell me. All I know is, it has something to do with being around people that are cool. Cool people breed cool people. Have you noticed that? Have you ever seen a group of friends that you just wanted to be around. Its certainly not easy to break into social circles without the benefit of similar circumstances, same job, same hobbies, same whatever. But notice the amazing thing that takes place, a group dynamic forms. There will usually be the one friend who is there for comic relief. He's not really the comic of the group he just says things off the top of his head and they are precious. Most of the time people laugh, the guy feels a little sheepish maybe (or maybe he's clueless to the laughter, those ones are the best) and fun is had by all. You need to take care of that guy. He's more important to your group of friends than you know. Don't bang on him too hard or he'll clam up, nobody wants that. When he's not around, things just aren't as fun. The guy you need to work on is Mr. Way Too Literal (also known as Mr. No Sense of Humor). I don't like this guy. He and I clash. He's the one that when you say a joke he explains in detail why its impossible. As if a humorous thought can never be based on some presumed level of ignorance or some ridiculous gross assumption. He's all, (Insert nerd voice here) well its a known fact that you should change or wash your loofah as often as you change your sheets or creamed corn is highly nutritious and was invented by the French. Nobody needs that guy around. He needs to be at home reading a book or something. That's the guy you bang on. Eventually then he'll be cool as he learns that ridiculousness is funny sometimes. But all of them get the dash, dash at times. Especially the actual cool guy of the group. Now, I don't have much experience with that guy, but I've seen him. (I recommend not having that guy, but you do what you want.) Sometimes, we can be all of those guys in their varying roles. When social groups that have that dynamic, they are truly special. Promote those roles and you'll love your friends in such a way that no distance will ever part you. And there will be many precious dash, dash's. The true -- though is the one that transcends whatever it was contained in. Whether it be a line in a speech, a novel or some article (a blog post maybe? I doubt it). That's the one. The pinnacle. The stuff dreams are made of. Well, at least it is for me, a wannabe writer who at times is told he is funny. I may never know the coolness of having something I said/wrote added indelibly into the lexicon of my cultures best, or even transcend my culture into others. But sometimes, my friends repeat things that I said because they remembered them and thought they were funny. And in a lot of ways, that's just as cool...

--finn