Anachronism.

I've recently discovered I have a psychological issue. Self diagnosed, yes, but I'm pretty certain on it. The issue I have is living in the correct time period with everyone else. Allow me to explain...

For about 10 years now I've had the first four Harry Potter books. I read the first one when I was thirteen, then never touched the others and moved on with my life. And it was a pretty good life without them. Under my personal opinion, I functioned well with normal society without being well versed in the world of Harry Potter. Given, I encountered MANY individuals who gave their lives to this Potter fellow, buying the books the day of their release and reading them non-stop in one day. Then the movies came out, and that only made things worse (For their addiction, not for me). I didn't quite follow all these people to Hogwarts each year, with great expectation for the next installment. Instead, my copies of Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkaban, and Goblet of Fire sat on the bookshelf collecting dust.

Until about three months ago.

I finally cracked. Part one of The Deathly Hollows came out last November, and my friend Vanessa invited me to see it opening night. Now, I had seen the film adaptations of Order of the Phoenix and Half-blood Prince prior, but this time it finally dawned on me: "Perhaps, these last ten years, I've been missing something. I feel out of the loop and now I want to be in it."

So, at the start of December I started my journey to Hogwarts, beginning with The Sorcerer's Stone. I'm about a third of the way through Goblet of Fire at this point. Still hooked and plan to finish the rest of the series just to say I did before that last movie comes out.

Now, my point being, I should have read these things a long time ago. I'm 24 years old, it's 2011. I'm not with the program. I'm still in the 2000's. And worst of all, I suddenly have no one to talk to them about. These people who were super excited and obsessed about these books have moved on with their lives. It's about the Obama Administration, the economy, healthcare, the politcal upheaval in North Africa, Twilight, Justin Beiber, Lady Gaga in an egg.

Well...after I finish these books, in a couple years, I'll start watching Lost. And I'll get really excited and want to talk about it. But no one will listen. They'll tell me things like, "Mike, that was like 10 years ago. You missed it, get over it". Or I'll buy a Lady Gaga album in 2020 and talk about how good it is and people will say, "Mike, Lady Gaga built a spaceship and drove it into the sun. The gaga for Gaga phase is over."

Who Am I? What have I become?

Motivation.

Alright. So it's been awhile. Forgive me.

I was beginning to wonder if something happened to me as well. "Oh no...what if Michael is in a ditch somewhere with two broken legs and we can't hear him? Oh, wait..."

I wanted to post something back in December. Really, I did. Then I realized it wasn't worth it and that I could just call up David (undoubtedly my most loyal...and really only...blog follower) whenever I had something of worth to talk about. Then I kind of tickled the notion of maybe, POSSIBLY, posting back in January. Once again, couldn't bring myself to log on, stare at the computer idlely until something great popped into my head to type about. But today I figured, "I'm here...why not."

So welcome back! Big news right now...the blog, if you hadn't noticed already, is officially a year old. I thought about getting him a cake so he could slop around in it and then I could video tape the whole thing and show it to him later to embarrass him, but then I realized the blog is not a living entity (In spite of the title).

Still serving the Tea Lords in an endless effort to bring precious capital into their establishment. It's tough because I find little to no reason to give all my effort. When I don't recieve acknowledgement or praise or really any sort of value in my work, I tend to not care quite as much. Especially when constantly it's my weaknesses that are being highlighted and very, very rarely my strengths. Not to say that my pride and ego need to be inflated constantly. Or maybe they do and that's a shortcoming on my part, but I think we should get some return for our work even if it is, "Hey, good job".

It could be that I'm just soft and whiny. Some people never get recognition, work hard week after week, coming home tired with little time or energy left for hobbies or people.

That's the reason there hasn't been a post on here in three months. Lack of motivation. It's like I need some end goal, or something of worth to keep me going otherwise I feel like whatever I'm doing is just killing time and I don't want to kill time because I don't need to. I have things to do, people to meet, places to see, escape plans to make, one life to live. If there is no purpose or value I feel as if it's a waste (Says the man who spends countless hours on Facebook).

I will try to diligently continue to post on this site though. No matter how many people see this I need to understand that this is working the writer that is slowly wasting away inside me. This blog is like practicing scales on an instrument, stretches and exercises before a big run or game, a sketchbook for the artist. There's a muscle in my brain that will need constant training and development, so if I can just focus on that I'll be more willing to post on here.

No if I could just do the same for when I work in the Tea Mines of Moria...