my castle

When I received the last installment of the Harry Potter series in the mail last week I also received a few advertisements, which I barely noticed, if at all. In my eagerness to open the book, I flung the useless pieces of paper out of the box, over my shoulder (not really, but its more dramatic when its over the shoulder and not pathetically to the side), and onto the floor where they sat for over a week contributing to the process of entropy that seems to have a continual and foreboding hold on my bedroom. (I like to blame my laziness and apatheticism towards picking up after myself on a philosophical term. It makes the whole mess less grotesque and less my fault.)

But today when it became dangerous beyond adventuresome to get out of bed I decided I needed to do something about this "natural" process that has suppressed the force (choice) that could keep my miniature fortress tidy. And lo and behold, what should I run into during my all out war on "nature" but an interesting advertisement (yes, one of the "useless" ones from last week). It was so interesting it threw me off my guard, I immediately surrendered to "nature", let the mess be, and have since then plotted myself down here in my wooden chair to tell you all about the poignant, funny, and maybe even useful (and yet ultimately pointless in the same way that a microwave TV might be) message of this advertisement.

I almost hate to go on now for the fear that the headline may not be worthy of the above two-paragraph introduction, but humor me if you will and forgive my embellished way of saying "I found a piece of paper on the ground and here is what it said: 'When you leave your castle, take your life with you.'"

Ba-dum cha!

Ya, that's it. It's an advertisement for a Seagate external harddrive. You know, the little tiny box thing you hook up to your computer for more storage space. What I found interesting though (and maybe even convicting, you know, yada, yada, the usual), is that it references your computer as your castle, your life. Sadly, I know exactly what the advertisers are referring to. The feeling of dominance and royal-ishness that comes with owning a computer and abusing the privileges it provides is akin to the feeling (in as much as I can speculate) of owning a castle, a fortress that stands for my might and ability to conquer. Or, like Lord Farquaad's castle-complex from the first Shrek movie, it could merely be a compensation for something, which is more likely in my case.

Funny? No?

Oh well....I guess you had to be there. It was much more useful and humorous when I read it the first time. So much so I just couldn't help myself and had to get on my computer and spout about it. You know, conquer a bit of space on the web, create a tower, and a portable one at that.

I'm sure there is a philosophical concept/term I could find to blame for my propensity towards creating and depending (you should see me when the power goes out) on my electronic, intangible, but PORTABLE(!), fortress. The term escapes me at the moment, but I'm sure their is one. There has to be. My actions, surely, couldn't be my fault.

Damn the English language! I need a term!

Behold! The beast itself......like a bubble getting read to POP and wither.