Mr. T, a Tall Height, and a Wide Horizon

I have wondered before which is better: devoting your time to one pursuit and reaching a height, or devoting your time and effort to several different directions so as to be a well-rounded person. I usually choose not to provide an answer to the question and try to always affirm that both possibilities are desirable and that the key lies in finding a balance between them.

Well, today I read this.

A T-shaped man has two characteristics. First, he has a depth of knowledge and a focused expertise in one skill or discipline. This characteristic is represented by the vertical stroke of the T. Second, he has an interest in and a willingness to use a broad range of skills and disciplines outside his area of expertise. This characteristic is represented by the horizontal stroke of the T. A T-shaped man is, in short, a jack-of-all-trades, but a master of one. (See what I did there?)

This is one possible balance to strike when considering which direction to go in. He advocates (putting it into the terms that I typically use) reaching one height and then having a familiarity with the surrounding landscape. This allows for mastery and versatility at the same time: ensuring that you can collaborate easily with others but also ensuring that you have a valuable skill that you can be considered an expert in.

Writing With the Pretentious Dial Turned Way Up

Oftentimes I will write something and, upon reading it, realize that the style in which I write is completely inappropriate for the setting that I write it in. Blogs are conversational, they aren't meant for proclamations from the mountaintops (I proclaimed from the mountaintop).

I try not to ever write in a way that is unclear to me, which I take as what pretentiousness essentially is. When your writing escapes your own understanding, then you are being pretentious. Also a shit.

Yet upon reading my writing sometimes I get the feeling that I naturally think in somewhat obscure statements. In fact, I do not think that this is particular to me, but is in fact how most of us think whenever we think for ourselves. We usually have to do some light translation to make our meditations fit for public consumption. I rarely actually go through this step, instead posting it while it is still written in the language of a private writing. It is for this reason that I think there is a disagreement between my style and my substance.

My writings are blogs written half in the style of doctrine and half in the style of personal explorations and inquiries. At the same time a blog is essentially written for other people. This is where the disagreement lies. The result is a blog that comes off intentionally obscure - therefore pretentious - therefore shitheaded.

Well, shitheadery happens.

Here's a video featuring the words "vagina blood fart."

Tumblring

Well, seeing as today is my day off, I decided it was finally time to make my own tumblr for the purposes of documenting my progress on my ridiculously long Batman story project. Presently I'm trying to approach the story at a leisurely pace, hence the tumblr will make it easier to view the entire endeavor as a unity once the whole thing is complete. Besides that, I figure I can fill it with whatever observations I'm having on the story as I'm writing it.

My present blog will remain my main blog, of course. Only matters pertaining to the story will be relegated to the tumblr.

Is it 'tumblr?' Or do you capitalize it? I'm not quite clear on the etiquette yet....

I Did it Again...

First it was World of Warcraft....

Then it was The Wrestling Game....

Then it was Erepublik....

Then it was The Lost Runes....

Now the smartphone has been introduced into my life, and I find myself perpetually tied to Tiny Tower.

Between Tiny Tower and constantly trying to at least get the Badge of the Day on Kongregate every day, I am never going to be a productive human being.

A Letter to Todd Strandberg

I've been feeling nostalgic lately, and as part of that nostalgia I logged onto raptureready.com. As a teenager just out of Junior High, that website was the most important reading material to me. I even owned the Are You Rapture Ready dead tree version of the site's articles.

Even though my mindset is now pretty much as far from that site's philosophy as you can get, a lot of my thought really started there. It was there that I picked up my interest in politics and apologetics, which led to my interest in C. S. Lewis, which led to my interest in philosophical debate, which led to me actively critically analyzing my beliefs, which led to me ceasing to be a Christian among other things.

So, feeling grateful, I shot Todd Strandberg, the site's owner, an email.

Hello Todd,

Yesterday I suddenly felt compelled to log onto raptureready.com, just to see how the site looked. I do this every so often, just because I get a little nostalgic sometimes and like to visit websites I once frequented. I discovered your site the summer before my freshman year of High School (2003), and was instantly hooked. I used to spend all night reading and re-reading the articles on the site, to the point that I used to print out my favorites and give them to teachers at school to get their thoughts (it was a private Christian school).

Over time, I have left the Christian and the theistic fold. Still, I like to look back on all the influences on my thinking over the years, and your site was a big one. From your site, specifically the Nearing Midnight weekly commentary, I developed my interest in politics and my interest in how Christianity relates to the world's varying perspectives, which led to my interest in philosophy, which is now a very big part of my life.

Even though you and I are no longer in agreement, I just wanted to give you a big thanks. Looking through the site yesterday made me remember what an influence you were back in those days when I used to spend my nights looking up the word “rapture” just to see what information I could find.

Sincerely,
Grant

I genuinely want to express my gratitude for his site, but I can't deny that part of me also wants to see my e-mail show up on the Interesting Email page.