Sunday, July 19, 2009

A Thousand Days in the Making

The Prologue

The plan was to write this entry later on, but since it ties well in to my last one, and I find it interesting, I've decided to push some other ones back.

Time wise this story takes place over a 1000 day period of time. Yes, I did the math, and that's accurate give or take about 5 days. A few of the emails that had the exact dates are gone because myspace is lame. If you're involved in this story, and can correct me, feel free.

Since this story is rather lengthy, and completely related to the blog itself, I decided to start with a little history of Sesquipedalis and how it came to be. I hope you enjoy it.


One of the very best parts about writing an autobiographical story blog is to see the butterfly effect in motion, and how the smallest things in your past affect your present. You get to see snapshots in time of your life, emotions and opinions. You get to see how those things change with the gift of hindsight. In this particular story, the part of the butterfly is played by a small button on this web page that looks like this:

Next Blog

The summer of 2006 was an important one for me. I was finally coming out of my post-break up malaise, and I was just starting to become a functioning member of society again. One important step in the recovery process was writing a blog.

Of course I didn't start off writing a blog. I wrote two or three posts on myspace, and never planned on writing more. Then one day, Sean's friend J.R. left a comment on an entry. It was pretty cool that someone I didn't know all that well (at the time anyhow) had taken a moment to read something that I had written. It was even more astounding that he actually enjoyed it.

Around that time I started hanging out with my sister and her friends on a regular basis, which normally consisted of trips out to bars. Miranda and I were always good friends, but since she is seven years younger, and way cooler than I, we didn't hang out too often in a social setting. That changed in 2006 when she took me under her wing and gave me a social personality makeover.

One night Miranda's friend Geremy came out with us. I had known of Geremy for quite some time, but didn't really know him. While Geremy would later become the Robin to my Batman, at the time I saw him as my polar opposite. He was tall, fun and charismatic. We couldn't possibly have anything in common.

"Oh my god! I love your blog!" he shouted one night above the bar noise.
Really? What's this guy know about screwing up with women?

And just like that I had my second blog reader. The problem was that I didn't really have a blog, anything to write about, or any idea how to write. Since somebody seemed to care, and I needed a creative outlet, I decided to put some effort in to it. I moved the few stories I had over to Google's Blogger. Unlike myspace, Blogger required a unique name for the blog. By this point in time Geremy was introducing me as, "Jesse - The guy with the blog. You know, the one I had you read." The response was quite often, "Oh, that was funny... and long. Really long."

Sesquipedalian means "long and ponderous". The word was originally used by Homer to make fun of another writer saying that he used "foot and a half long words", so the connotation is a bit insulting. Sesqui - One and a half. Ped - Foot. Unfortunately that name was taken. I switched it to Sesquipedalis and was officially a blogger.

7 comments:

  1. Woots to Geremy, JR, and Sean! We now officially have someone to blame for Jesse's on-line antics and the lowered productivity rates in the world.

    Can we blame Jesse and his blog for the state of the economy? I think so. And, even if the collective "you" of his readership don't hold him responsible, I will. He's caused enough of a distraction to me that my dissertation is still not done.

    Congrats, Jesse, on your 1000th day. May you publish many more distractions.

    dave13

    ReplyDelete
  2. Another mini series. You keep me hangin like Days of Our Lives.
    I even...

    started reading it
    stopped
    walked 33,000 sq feet to the work kitchen for a cup of coffee
    walked back
    sat down and wiggled in my chair until I found "the spot"
    just got started reading
    BAM
    It was over.

    Happy Monday to me.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You have no verifiable proof that I was the cause of this; it's all circumstantial evidence, and I'll deny it to the end.

    Shit. I'm gonna need a lot of penances to atone for this one.

    J.R.

    ReplyDelete
  4. D13,
    Today isn't my 1000 day of blogging. That probably came a while ago. This is a story that took 1000 days from start to finish. We'll start at "Day 1" next entry, and eventually work our way through to "Day 1000"

    Rachael J,
    I could post the whole thing at once, but exciting things only happen to me once every 5-6 months. If I told the whole story now, there'd be nothing to post until mid-November.

    J.R.,
    It's been interesting to go back and try to figure out how I got from point A to point B, and I can assure you that this is all your fault.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Rachael J. still says what.ev.er.
    I can count 5 things from yesterday in 10 seconds or less. I even laughed so hard I spit my food out. That is one thing right there. Quit yer lyin.

    ReplyDelete
  6. this might be taking things too far...blogging about blogging? come on. thats kinda phoning it in, isnt it?

    ReplyDelete
  7. The blog is a bit of a central character in this story, and for that reason, it deserves a blog entry of it's own. I think.

    Most of this stuff will tie back in later in one way or another.

    ReplyDelete

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