Revamping

*This message is being posted in both This Is My Story and Thoughts of the Common Viewer*

Hello everyone,

For those who don't this, I have been trying to run two blogs for the last couple of years, being moderately successfully.

At one point Common Viewer was being updated daily, but honesty that became a hassle and took away from truly enjoying TV. So even though I was legitimately making real traction and people were reading my stuff, I took a break from the action.

Meanwhile I kinda stopped blogging in general. If you read my latest blog entry Catch Up FAQ, life is boring and not a whole lot really happens anymore, so those personal entries have been few and far between.

So where am I going with this history lesson?

During the last week I've been trying to combine my passions and truly give me a real outlet to get them out. Also I want to try to include social networking into my work so I could get my name out there, especially on Twitter. I think I figured it out.

Depending on which blog you are reading this in, if you look to the right you could some organization displaying my mini-blog series and special entries attached to it. I would include a breakdown here but I figured that would be a redundant.

Also from here on out, most Common Viewer entries will be Twitter exclusive. This will be done so it doesn't litter up my facebook timeline. Also most of the entries I post will be specific to a certain group of people and will be filled with hashtags.

Most blogs will be up on Thursdays, unless I find time otherwise which is rare.

That is about it from me.

Thank you for reading this and hope you enjoy my work for a long time to come.

---Blake

"Catch Up FAQ"

7/17/12

Recently I listened to the song Bruises by Train. If you haven't heard it, I suggest it.

Listening to that made me want to get in touch with some old friends but then I realized something. I had nothing to say. Maybe it's the social media world we live in where we know what's going on in each other's lives via facebook or twitter or maybe it's the fact that we are getting older and life really isn't that interseting, well at least not interseting enough to share with someone who isn't living with you.

This came to a head when I talked to one of my best female friends and asked why is it so difficult to simply say "I miss you & love you" without having an uncomfortable convo. She said something so simple yet true:

"Cause there's a usually a strange need to "catch up" ever on everyday boring stuff."

So that being said I'm going to write this to my friend as tomaybe make it easier to talk. I call it the "Catch Up FAQ!"

- Me & Mandy are alot better than we've ever been before. We've gotten through our rough patches and are now stronger than ever. It sounds like we fight alot but honestly 90% of that is just friendly bickering.

- CJ is doing great. Still can't believe he's four. He's starting to become too smart for his own good. In many ways he's your typical four year old, opinionated, test his boundaries, throws fits, loves to be outside, no fear at all and just a joy to be around 80% of the time. But with his autism, the bad times are multiplied to a different level. He gets overwhelmed and over stimulated very easily at times. If he has a hard time understanding something, or out of his routine, it's the end of world. In most occasions I hve to play bad cop but I'm okay with that. I don't need him to like me all the time. His hugs & kisses of love are good enough for me.

- Work is work. Honestly I am having my problems adjusting. I spent six plus years in a job where I was just about always doing something. Now I spend most of my day sitting at a security desk listening to podcasts and playing games. On a day like today, I'm exhausted so sitting is making me more tired. I am definately looking for other work still. I keep reminding myself tht I had to take this job to get out of the airport on my own terms.

- Yes I still like going out but my priorites have changed. Don't get insulted if I say no I don't feel like going out. The reason could be as simple as I'm a bit tired, I want to spend the night with after CJ goes to bed. Maybe I just don't feel like it. Honestly sometimes nights at home just watching TV with Mandy and CJ is more fun to me than going out and drinking without a real purpose. If you are throwing a party or going out for a reason, I'm in. But it's just because you want to get hammered or "live your life" those days are past me. I guess I've grown up and became a family man.

I think those are the major ones.

But people don't take this the wrong way. I still love talking to people, bullshitting with people, if something major, minor or funny happened, I still want to know. I'm just sick of the uncomfortable small talk about things all the time. Life might be boring if nothing changes but that just means when something does happen to change it'll mean more.

Before I forget one more thing I want to address and this will make alot of people happy. Now that I'm on Instagram, I will NOT be mass texting pictures anymore. The way my account works now, anyone who matters and wants to see what's going on can in now three places.

I think that's everything I have to say.
Thank you. =)

A Letter to Pat Monahan (A Retraction)

I'm a very emotional person so every so often I get out of hand and jump to conclusions I really shouldn't. In the pre-facebook and twitter days when I would rant in my livejournal, they were be very locally see. Did it piss off people? Yes but it wasn't on a grand national scale. It was minor and really didn't affect anything or anyone in the long run outside of my inner circle.

Well Sunday, I exploded and pressed send without thinking about it twice. After Mandy had a bit of a breakdown after Summerfest on Friday night, I did what any good husband would do, attacked the source of the pain. I then wrote what in wrestling would be known as a shoot. I attacked the band Train and mainly, and most importantly, Pat Monahan. I accused him of picking on Mandy because of her size and simply forgetting about her when he promised her a picture. In the moment it seemed like the right thing to do. I was angry and it was the only way I knew to take care of the problem.

Then two things happened. First I got a tweet from a fan:

Then me and Mandy found video of the Don't Stop Believin performance in question on YouTube last night:



Jump to 1:15. That's when Mandy gets on stage.

After watching, it wasn't nearly as bad as Mandy thought. The facts are that Pat treated her great, even gave her a hug. The experience was alot better than she remembered because of how the end of the night went.

So for the first time in all the years of blogging, I am retracting my blog. I also want to apologize to the band Train, Pat Monahan himself and all the fans of the band, so I'm sorry.

Also if this did indeed reach Pat, which I would assume it did, I'm sincerely sorry. My wife is an uber fan and has turned to your music for years through the good and bad times. This will not change.

Thank you.