Not Creative?

For a long time now, I've been such a logical, one track mind type thinker that I generally assume I have no imagination. Added to that, most of my life conceptions I have learned from other people. I'm well educated and well read, if it makes sense then I can add a tenet to my own perception of life. If it does not, it doesn't get filed under important in the gray matter. But, what I do figure out on my own, generally takes an extraordinarily long time to come up with. How is it we can take such ownership of ideas that are, for the most part, not our own. Assuming I'm like most other people, is this a matter of laziness? It's as if we don't know any better, or just stop caring and we don't spend time thinking about these giant ideas. I know I spend way more time on "self-fulfilling, unimportant in the scheme of things" thoughts. Why aren't I more worried about war, or the economy, or religion, or self-improvement?

Here are some of the reasons I feel that I am this way. I try to be goofy, because comedy is so much more fun than drama, but I don't think of any of my schtick as any kind of original or innovative. I'm reactionary. Set it up and I'll knock it down. I'm not any kind of fan of debate. This means I don't like jumping into conversations which are effectively, I'm always right, you're always wrong arguements. Thanks, I'll pass. This might be stifling for growth, but there's no upside for me. If you have a statement, I'm willing to listen and give feedback, but it's either right, wrong or indifferent for me. I don't need to have a discussion about it. I understand this, it's part of who I am. I will not willingly move out of my comfort zone. Push, prod or invite me and I'll, perhaps begrudgingly, give in and motivate myself enough to get outside of my normal box. I'm not made of stone. I am willing to change, but I'd like to take some time to think about it.

Perhaps because of my style of boring straight forward thinking, I have an extraordinary appreciation for those who do not appear to be wired in the same fashion as I am. I try to follow in their footsteps, but all I'm doing is adding a part of them to myself. I don't think it ever makes me a better person. I think it just makes me more of you. Thank you all for helping me to be who I am today. Now how do we fix me?

Through my web browsing I discovered Athene's videos on Youtube. Most of his old videos revolved around World of Warcraft, but interspered with these were serious videos where the crew would talk about subjects important to them like net neutraility and self-development. They came up with something called IPower http://ipower.ning.com. Their "Self-Development Activism" has three basic principles. 1) Be open-minded. 2) Active thinking. 3) Take action. What this means is to lead a pro-active lifestyle. First, take stock in yourself and make changes for the better. In doing this, you will start to affect the people around you. Think of it as a ripple effect. You start by changing yourself, these changes will start affecting your family and closest friends, then into the community and so on until you can affect change on the world.

I don't want you to start thinking I'm asking you to take me as an example. I've got tons of bad habits. But at the same time I'm involved in many people's lives and many events and many hobbies. I know I have to fight my own negativity, but I hope I'm able to have a positive effect on those around me. Am I going to change myself and then the world around me? Not as much as I'm capable of, I don't have that kind of desire. But what if you do have the desire and the ability? While as a whole, I feel I'm constantly disappointed in humanity, on an individual basis, I'm always amazed at an individual's capability. Think about it. Is it worth it to you. It starts with you. Do you need to change? Are you ready to change the world?

A Blogger?

I was asked to do some writing and what better place to start that with a little about myself and what you might be able to expect from my future exploits in this field.

I like to think of myself as having been there and done that, and whether it's completely true or not, I've seen and done incredible things in incredible places and I don't have many regrets. I'm by no means rich or successful, or even always happy, but with the help of my family I certainly get by. Like everyone else, we laugh, we cry, we fuss and fight, but there's no better day than Saturday morning when the whole family wakes up, and along with the dogs (yeah, the cats start to scatter about this time) get in bed together and just enjoy each others company without the pressures of work or school or floors that need vacuuming and acres that need mowing for just a little while. It's hard to beat that feeling.

We've had some recent additions so just to get everyone up to date, or for those of you who don't know, I'm Will Stammerjohan. I work for an ISP and I'm going through the Cisco Academy. My wife Connie is currently going to school full time in Computer Information Systems. Connie's sister Hannah has moved in with us to go to school here and she is in 7th grade. William turned 3 this summer and is back in school at the Child Development Center at ULM. Mom (Claire) started teaching at ULM this semester and Dad (Bill) is back in action teaching at LaTech.

We have 3 dogs, 4 cats, 7 frogs, 9 fish and a lizard. I'm not sure exactly how that happend. Good thing I'm an animal lover.

I have an insane amount of interests. I'm one of those Jack of all trade types, and I'm sure it will come out. Here's how I keep myself busy outside of school and work and family: Softball, Magic: the Gathering, World of Warcraft, Guitar, Radio Contol Cars (and soon to be planes). Watching or working most any kind of sports. I am the Public Address announcer for ULM's baseball team, work on media row for football games. I have PA'd both ULM and high school basketball games and may be PA'ing middle school football this fall. Then I decided to start a blog. What's next a video series on YouTube? maybe not. I can't possibly be that interesting, can I?

I don't want to get into too much boring detail at this time and I'm sure more of my personal history will come out in my future writings. The last thing I want to mention now are some of the subjects I plan on writing on. Future subjects will include games, sports, music, computers/networking, education, empowerment, time, thought, religion, you name it. In fact if you do, I'll certainly write about it. I can talk at least a little about any subject. Or rant about it, anyway. More to come soon, thanks for reading!

Big Will