"I think you have a problem with your brain being missing."

Amy Pohler and Seth Meyers have a segment on Weekend Update known as "The Really?!" segment. At various points the past month I have had my own version of that segment running through my head.

Here's the thing, I have an amazing memory. I know all the contradictions people make, I note them when they're happening. Each time one springs up, my very own Seth and Amy appear shouting "REALLY!?"

Yes, really Seth and Amy, it has come to this. It has come to the mental note making of things that I never thought I would need. The absurdities that have transformed throughout are curious. I wonder though if people are aware of such contractions. Are most people even somewhat self aware these days? I find that's a rare quality for a person to possess. Introspection is a beautiful thing.

"You think you know who you are...you haven't even begun."

The people on the televisionwithoutpity boards are reviewing the "no holds barred" interview with Britney Spears. The consensus seems to be that at the age of 27 she is unable to take responsibility for her actions and continues to blame others. Understandably being the family's cash cow has contributed to this issue, but I started wondering, when do people stop taking responsibility for their actions and instead are oh so willing to point the finger at anyone but themselves?

I know at times I have been quick to find someone else to blame for problems, and I will probably do it again. Lately I have been thinking of a quote my mother used to constantly repeat in my adolescence, "when you blame others, you give up the power to change." Four years safely distanced from my teenaged self I can most definitely say I agree with this, however I start wonder about people who have a fear of change. I think back to Buffy Becoming (part 1) when Whistler states, "no one asks for their life to change, not really. But it does." There are times when I can identify with this idea, because I actually look forward to finding a routine once my life has been interrupted. At the same time there have been moments when I have willingly plotted out how I wanted my life to transform and took steps towards making that leap.

But I digress; I can't help but feel that perhaps this whole fear of change leads us to blame others. Maybe we aren't really ready to see the changes in ourselves; maybe we're afraid to get to know who we really are without an identifying factor in our lives. If this is true, are we so willing to be so unaware of who we really are? Perhaps, we will never be comfortable with our weaknesses and misguided judgments and find it easier to look elsewhere. Even when we see ourselves as victims in situations, is it possible that we found something that we didn't like, and might have in fact disturbed us? Are we ever really blameless? Maybe it doesn't really matter if we are.

In the end Whistler is right, those "moments are gonna come, you can't help that. It's what you do afterwards that counts. That's when you find out who you are." So who are we?

Write out loud!

My first 422 professor, said that if you know someone and you're a writer, they have to realize they're fair game. She then proceeded to ask if we told people when we wrote about them. She liked/likes to write about her mother and said she will show her the work but never says who it is about.

For the most part I don't tell people. It makes sense in most cases because randomly sending someone you never speak to a message saying "I wrote a poem about you," doesn't tend to go off well. Also, I don't think most people are ready to see how you view them, even if it is one element of them magnified to the nth degree. I think there's a good amount of people who would jump up and say "that's not how things really are." Fair enough.

But I'm curious, would you want to know if someone was writting/had written about you, even if it was an unflattering piece?