This is a bit of a heresy, because I am writing this on April 27th, which is NOT ETL Day. However, MOST of you will not be reading this until April 28th, which IS ETL Day. Besides, if any of you decide you want to play along, you can still create you lame lists on the official ETL Day, whereas if I were to post this tomorrow, probably around this time, none of you would read THAT until April 29th, which is ALSO not ETL Day, and therefore your ETL lists would be late, which would be lame, but not Lame in the cool Embrace the Lame sense.
Got it? 'Cuz I'm not going to bother to read back over it to see if it makes sense.
Now. What, pray tell, is Embrace the Lame Day? Contrary to what you're probably thinking, it is NOT a day that is set aside for you to run up and hug an invalid (though this activity is highly encouraged by WBW, it is not the intent of ETL). If you'd like the original explanation and rules for ETL, you have to click here and read what is essentially the Embrace the Lame Charter. Otherwise, in the immortal words of Inigo Montoya, "Let me sum up:"
Example A: You are hanging out with some coworkers and the conversation turns, as it occasionally does, to anime. Everyone is throwing out their favorite bizarre Japanese cartoon, and you're about to chime in with "I loved Dragonball Z when I was a kid!" But you don't, because just as you open your mouth, the snarkiest of your coworkers says, "You know what's really lame? Dragonball Z!" So you say nothing. And you feel like a loser, because now you know you're lame.
Example B: Same scenario, only you're talking about rock music of the mid-to-late 1990s. Your favorite band from that era is Green Day, and you're about to say so, but... "And then there was Green Day," says the ultra-attractive young woman who you'd like to ask for her phone number. "They were okay, but then they got all popular, and, like, total sellouts, you know?" Ouch. Shot down by a pretty girl.
Embrace the Lame Day was set up to say, "You know what? Why? Why do I care what you think? Why do I play your little game? Yeah, I liked hip hop in grade school, what of it? Yes, I do think Family Matters needs to make a comeback on network television, and I don't give a rip how old Jaleel White is! Of COURSE I hum the Mission Impossible theme to myself every time I fill up my gas tank! Doesn't everybody?
No, I mean really...everybody does that...right?
So this is a day where I encourage you all not to take yourselves too seriously. Be who you wanna be. Like the stuff you like. Do the stuff you liked to do. Everybody has some lameness in them. Enjoy it. Heck, embrace it!
Oh, and make a list.
And, in PBB ETL tradition, drop me a note in the comment if you're participating. I believe the traditional thing to do is post your own list on your own blog, or facebook, or a 240-or-less-character list on Twitter, or whatever. But a lot of you don't have blogs, so I'm going to say go for it with whatever you've got. Write it on some scratch paper. Carve it in a tree. Finger paint it on your wall. Write down your arm. Spam your favorite band's message board with it. Just let me know if you're playing along, and you get...(are you ready for this???)...a NAME-DROP on the bottom of this post! And let us know if you came up with any unique ways to enjoy your lameness today. It'll be fun.
Or, who knows. Maybe none of you will want to play, and I'll just make a list, and that'll be ETL 2009. It's all good! Either way, it's been one less day where I've had to think of something interesting to blog about! ;-)
Here's my official List o' Lameness 2009:
1. I still like Cats by Andrew Lloyd Weber.
2. As much as I dislike the show, I'd love to direct Rogers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma someday, as though I could bring something new and exciting to it.
3. Lolcats and failblog.
4. I use my blog to post hockey playoff updates that most of you COULDN'T CARE LESS ABOUT! (Aeros win 5-2, moving on to Milwaukee for Round 2! Also, Chicago just knocked off Calgary and the Ducks shocked the Sharks)
5. I often listen to the same CD to and from work for longer than a week straight. Anti-Meridian has been in there for almost twenty days. Which brings me to...
6. I still listen to either a FIF or BS2 album at least once a week. Usually more than that.
7. I do midnight movies. I always say I won't do another one, but I generally do. Movies I've seen at 12:00 a.m. opening nite: X-Men III, Iron Man, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, The Incredible Hulk, TMNT (yes, TMNT), and--here's the kicker--Snakes on a Plane. At least, I think it was midnight. Either way...
8. I saw Snakes on a Plane in theaters.
9. I've beaten Final Fantasy VI multiple times, once leveling all fourteen playable characters to level 99. The final boss never got to attack, which was impressive because it's a turn-based battle system. (Though admittedly I've got nothing on Tarvis in this category)
10. There have been nights where I've dragged myself out of bed upon the realization that I haven't blogged anything yet.
11. I am infatuated with lists. So much so that I have a list on my work computer of every show ever Player has been in since I've been here, mainstage, Rotunda, touring, and special event. I've also got every show we've done on either stage listed and ranked by my preference by season and year, and can find for you what is statistically our strongest slot and our strongest season (again, based on my opinion).
12. In high school, I did spelling bee, math contest, scholar's bowl, speech competitions, and math team competitions. Won quite a few honors in those ultra-nerdy competitions. Oh, and I was the mascot. I looked good in those tights, too.
TMI? No, ETL, baby.
Hall of Lame (Updated throughout the day):
Tarvis!
Dave! (Check out the comments)
Hatchback!
Sherri! (Keeping ETL from being an All-Boys Club!)
Lame On!
