Alex Lella's Blog

Some more thoughts for the day. . .

First of all, today's prompt didn't really do anything for me, so if you want to know which ten items, I would rescue in a fire, you're going to have to find out some other way.

Second, a thank you to all of the people who read my last entry, and were inspired to write words of encouragement.

I am writing this from a hostel in Hong Kong. I love Hong Kong for so many reasons. Some of them are reasons that I'm proud of like the great museums and centers of culture. Some of them are more like guilty pleasures: For example, I can get a Mcdonald's hamburger much more easily then I can in mainland China. Also, I have discovered that the so called "great firewall of China" does not cover Hong Kong, so while I'm here, I can acess my facebook page and watch Youtube videos.

Anyway, one site that I don't have a problem accessing in China is cracked.com. Cracked is a great comedy site, but it's also kind of strange. It seems like they're often begging for writers, and at times desperately. (Actually, now that I think about it, I may have first heard about the site from an ad which they posted on WDC some time ago.) Why is it hard for them to get writers. Well, one thing is that almost every article has to be a list. (e.g. 5 celebrities who did x. 6 U.S. presidents who were y.) Indeed, some of the articles, if you read them carefully, seem to have been squeazed into that framework. I don't know why Cracked insists on this, and I hestitate to say that it's the reason they beg for writers, but I can't help thinking that there are a lot of talented aspiring writers (myself included) who just don't see whatever it is they have to say in that format.

Anyway, I just read a good article in cracked. Not only was it funny, but it inspired me. I don't normally recommend other people's work in this blog, but here's a link to the article. (One Warning: It contains some "adult language") Interestingly, there's also a plea for more writers to write for cracked hidden at the very end. See what I mean about them being desperate.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-you-better-person/