I have taken an unusually long hiatus in updating this site. There are a few reasons for this, which I will touch on briefly…
- I started my own company, and also went to work for my friend’s company simultaneously.
- My wife sadly decided to end our marriage, and filed for divorce.
- I joined a band, and we play live twice a week.
- I ran out of good stories.
Well, that last one isn’t true. I have a TON of good, true stories of stuff that has happened to me.
But around August, when I was framing the outline to “The Girl With the Tiny Vagina” (a non-sexual story, surprisingly), I realized that I wasn’t entirely thrilled with what I was doing here on ThoughtsFromParis.
Yes, we all love a good story about a girl with a small snizz. But, it wasn’t very satisfying to ONLY regurgitate dumb stories of my past.
Last night I was at a party with a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. Kevin Helliker developed an aortic aneurysm and wrote a series of articles for the Wall Street Journal about it. Now, my intention is not to become an actual journalist, write “important” pieces, or even help others.
But, in the past year, I’ve gone through some heavy stuff. Difficult times.
And I decided to start back up this year with a different slant on this website.
Yes, I will continue to publish stories about sophomoric exploits – just last week I briefly watched an adult p*rn parody version of “The Flintstones.” The shame involved in that deserves its own section.
But this year, I plan on talking more about what’s actually going on in my life today. Quite honestly, I struggle deeply with feelings of anger, sadness, fear and shame, as I move through this divorce, attempt to build up two companies, and try to keep my dog from shitting in the master bathroom.
So, here’s what will probably happen with the content – it will be less piercing and more honest. When I wrote the handful of stories last year, each story started out at around 2-3k words, then I would re-write it a few times, and then hone each sentence to what I thought was perfection. It would end up at 1200 words, chopped and packaged. Each story took weeks to complete.
Which is insane to me now, thinking about how I would attack a poop joke from four different angles before settling on the “best” slant.
I’ve always been impressed with guys like Augusten Burroughs and David Sedaris. While I suspect their content is not always 100% truthful, it’s usually entertaining. They tend not to go for the big jokes. In doing this, they are more free to just simply talk about life, as it happens.
So, I’m preparing you now – I’m not going for the huge laughs this year. I believe I find the humor in most every situation – heck, it IS my coping strategy – and I will continue making funny observations.
But if two years of therapy have taught me anything (aside from that therapists get paid well to basically encourage you to “feel your feelings”), it’s that my friends actually want to know what’s going on with my life.
Looking at the traffic to this site, I’m confident that 90% are people I already know. So, I’d rather share the truth with you, and hope you find it entertaining.
I will try to update as often as possible. Some days when I busy screaming at the wall about something my soon-to-be ex wife has done, I don’t always want to sit and write a good joke. But, I think in those situations, it makes sense to share with my friends, which also happen to be the readers of this website.
If you have helped me during this past year, I hopefully have shared my thanks and admiration for your support. Mostly I have needed to be reminded that I am loved, and that seems to be coming in regularly from you.
Thanks.
D.J.