Small talk

I don’t think I could ever become a successful politician.

**** Quick digression here before we even really get started. What is the minimum achievement or skill needed to be labeled a “politician?” Do you need to actually win a political race? Gain a political seat? Could I be considered a politician by just officially running in a lot of races even if I never emerged victorious? With that in mind, by definition I could give myself a number of different labels as long as I didn’t need to put “successful” in front of them. Example:
- Musician – I can play guitar
- Lady’s man – I got married
- Counselor – I give tons of great advice all of the time to everyone I know
- Comedian – I am hilarious
- Writer – I send emails like this one out to people I know

Something to think about when someone labels themselves.
******

Back to political aspirations. I would struggle with this as a career choice for a couple of fairly obvious reasons, but the main one would be: I am not great at talking to people I don’t know. If we know each other even a little bit, no problem, I can talk for hours about whatever you please. But if we just met or are sitting together somewhere? Forget it. I’ve got nothing. I clam up, have nothing to say, don’t want to know anything about you, don’t want to tell you anything about myself, and want the situation to end quickly. To this end, this is one of the reasons I do not want to ever go on a cruise with Sabrina. Once I was told that on cruises you have to eat meals with complete strangers. That little nugget alone was all the excuse I ever needed to never ever get on a cruise ship. The idea of night after night of worrying about where I was sitting for dinner would be more than I could handle.

Part of me just doesn’t see the point in small talk. Why do I want to get to know you if there is potential we will never see each other again? That’s like watching the first two episodes of a new show only to know it is getting cancelled before anything of substance happens. Small talk like that just seems pointless. Hence the long odds against a successful political career (forgetting the fact that I don’t know the first thing about politics). How would I ever campaign? I would walk up to someone’s door, introduce myself, stand in awkward silence for a minute or two until I handed them some literature, ask for the vote and leave. Not exactly Obama-like. So in the next couple of years if you see a campaign sign akin to:



Elect Norrie for Comptroller (or something similar)**

You know one of two things have happened. I have overcome my disdain for small talk or I am running on the “silence” campaign. Neither sounds too promising.

*** Wouldn’t this be great if the parenthetical addition were actually on a campaign sign? Like saying, “Vote for me for whatever you think I would be best at.”

Quick entertainment notes

- Tonight I will resume covering “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” for cinemablend.com if anyone is interested in reading about the struggle to save mankind from robots that used to sing for the band Garbage.

- Additionally, in March I will also begin covering the new animated sitcom The Good Family . It is a new show from Mike Judge of King of the Hill fame.

- If anyone watches 24 my buddy Mike is covering that show for cinemablend as well. After reading one of his reviews Sabrina asked me, "Is it bad that I liked his review better than watching the actual show? And I like really liked last night's episode."