No such luck
August 12, 2009
When I was a kid I only gave myself 2 options for future possibility of occupation. Transformer and Spiderman. Growing up I shelved those goals for more feasible variation. Knowing that my aspirations to become a transforming robot were a tad far fetched, I decided to design killer mechs ala Macross and my specification to being Spider Man was widened to any mutant power that I could attain by standing in front of the microwave for long periods of time.
As I got older, my intake of knowledge grew as did my imagination. All of my reading consisted of things with little to no educational value but i read avidly and i watched A LOT of television meaning i spent my entire adolescence building source material for answering very stupid questions.
One such question arose while watching an actor on a press junket for a superhero movie. "If you had one super power, what would it be?"
That question and all of its components make me want to lobotomize myself with an ice cream scoop. People act as if there were only 2 possible answers. "I want to be invisible so i can check out girls" they say with a sly wink to the female journalist subliminally securing that handjob behind the trailer. Or you go the Ralph Tresvant, Sensitivty route wishing you could fly, poetically waxing about the majesty of seeing the world from elevated heights and the allegory to freedom. You're not gonna get an Oscar nod for being in 'Plastic Man' the movie so save the slam poetry for Amateur night at the Apollo.
So what if i was asked that question? In the effort to protect the reader from the acute outburst of sheer nerdery, I would say that Longshot one of the X-men and one of my favorite characters of all time had powers that resonated with me.
Sans the fictional historical recap of his life, Longshot was endowed with the power to effect probabilities, shifting the permutations of possible outcomes of situations effectively shifting them to his favor. In essence, he had good luck. That ability was more ground level than the ability to shoot lasers out of your eyes, either I had a great grasp of reality as a child or I just set the bar for myself really low.
In my quest to be the luckiest man on earth i learned that the word luck like the word irony was almost never used in the proper context.
You're lucky when you hit the lotto
You're lucky that explosion only burned off your eyebrows
you're lucky that you drew that ace
The ninja is not lucky he drew his sword first (That's reflexes and skill)
The basketball player is not lucky he made the shot (that's practice)
you're not lucky that that girl is not pregnant (That's years of perfecting the pull out method)
Your faith doesn't keep you from failing and your prayers don't get you paid. It's all about the work you put in that creates the serendipitous situations that you encounter.
You make your own luck.
After i learned that i went back to trying to trying to be spider man. Im microwaving a tarantula as we speak.
man
I started checking out your blog a little bit ago because I noticed you in a couple of my friends (Illusive Media) Photos.
I just wanted to say that you have great creative writing skills....you should write a short play or something
No but really, i hate reading but I can read hundreds of pages from get rich quick schemes and your blog.
Im afraid to write anything because i dont have the attention span to read anything myself. Its good to know that at least one person reads it because i certainly don't.
you could always use a small tape recorder...
and make it formal whenever you get around to it.
-just a thought
two people reading...and i laughed out loud at the end
and i've heard people say before that luck is just when preparation meets opportunity (like the basketball shot or pulling out)
i could have just wrote what you said and saved some time. I gotta be all long winded and shit.
longshot ha 8 fingers?...doesnt seem lucky to me
Luckily i wasnt dumb enough to see cutting off a couple of digits as an option to get closer to my goal
Love this...brought me back to my younger days...wanted to be Supes when growing up..ALWAYS watched Superman I & II...but then when I got into my teens...Invisibility for sure...Totally agree that we make our own luck...we are who we make ourselves to be...that's the idea behind The Endangered Species...thanks again for writing.
yo I read all of your entries and they are really good
thanks for the accolades
Cool site, love the info. I do a lot of research online on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say I'm glad I found your blog. Thanks,
A definite great read...
- Bill Bartmann