My advice to people who think they should be writing more but for some reason aren’t? Quit Trying. Struggling to write doesn’t mean you lack discipline or inspiration. It means you’re not writing the right thing for you. It means you’re trying to write what you think “writers” write. You need to forget that; trying to be a “writer” guarantees that your authentic creative self won’t only not participate, it’ll shut down the whole effort before you’ve sharpened your pencil.... Read more
Okay, this is so stupid. In the piece I put up yesterday (Kickin’ It Karaoke Style), I mentioned the Lamplighter Bar, in San Diego. I then got an amazing number of emails (well: given that one would have been freaky enough) from people in San Diego who remember a time when I used to get paid to write bar reviews. (And I mean a lot of bar reviews: there was a three or four month period there where I was... Read more
Remember the guy I wrote about last week in I’m Shallow, Untrustyworthy, Un-Christian, and Devil-Duped. Mark Me Well! ? The guy who on his blog said all those terrible things about me in a post he wrote titled The Perfect BAD Example ? Today, out of nowhere, I got an email from that guy! It said: Hi John, As you may recall, I had been pretty critical of you. Wondered at your Christianity. You commented on it. A few of... Read more
A while ago I posted An Honest Question: Atheists, How Do You Process Your Guilt?. The question I asked in that piece has been on my mind, because I’ve lately had occasion to feel truly overwhelming happiness as a result of some stuff happening in my personal life. We often reference and feel the succor that God offers us in times of grief and pain, but I can honestly say that I’m as grateful for my belief in God when I’m... Read more
In order to transform a long and unwieldy url/website address (such as http://suddenlychristian.com/genius/ wonderful/extremelybrilliant adp p.x=300&tdork.y=75&nolife=%252b KZmeiIh6N%2 52bIgpXRP3bylMaN0 …) into the shorter tiny-urls (that look like this: http://tinyurl.com/6xy) that you often see people using in their Facebook and Twitter statuses (statisi?), all you have to do is this: Cut/save the url you want to shorten; go to www.tinyURL.com ; paste your url into the box they make it obvious you’re supposed to; hit the “make tinyURL!” button; marvel at the succinctness of your tiny... Read more
This is hardly a big deal, but did anyone else think that Rick Warren’s invocation sounded just a little bit, very slightly, to a degree hardly noticeable at all, off? I certainly don’t mean to be in any way dismissive or disparaging about such an important religious leader of ours. But while listening to Mr. Warren’s invocation, something sounded off to me. So I closed my eyes so that I could focus my attention exclusively on the tone of Mr.... Read more
Blogging dead is lame. So I’m gonna blog live! Me. My TV. My couch. My laptop. As it’s happening, I’ll be commenting. Commentating. Whatever. Typing stuff. I’ll start blogging at 7:45 a.m Pacific Time. I’ll be watching ABC’s coverage of the event. Join me in the comments section below…. Related post o’ mine: 10 Things I’m Sure I’ll Mumble to Myself While Watching the Inauguration. Read more
As I’m watching the inauguration today I expect to at least once have each of the following thoughts: “God bless television.” “I can’t believe I’m still getting free cable TV!” “I can’t believe they’re showing this without any commercials! Yes! Free at last!” “What? COMMERCIALS??!! Kill me now.” “Look at Washington, D.C. No American can ever go to that city and not be overwhelmed by feelings of patriotism. Those buildings!” “There he is! There he is!” “Barack Obama is our... Read more
To continue the fascinating saga of deciding what I’m gonna do online. (Man, is this ever for my hardcore reader fans. Who else could possibly care? And how could any of you HRF’s even care? But I know you do, you sweeties.) The thing I’m deciding, really, boils down to this: I’m going to start another blog. I’ll keep my religious/theology stuff on my blog, “Suddenly Christian,” and put all my other comedy-type stuff on my other blog, which I’ll... Read more
Some of you were wondering why for a bit there I changed the name of this blog from “Suddenly Christian” to “JohnShore.com.” The more attentive among you may have caught the moment or two when the blog was named “Jerry Lewis’s Head Wax.” Did anyone catch when it was “Dented Gopher”? “Range Free Mutants”? “Fireballs Galore”? “Attitudinal Ricochet”? “Suddenly Contagious”? “Suddenly Counterproductive”? “Suddenly Claustrophobic”? “Suddenly Catastrophic”? “Ferns With Attitude”? Okay, I’m kidding. I only ever switched it to JohnShore.com. Last... Read more
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