Blogmorial Day

This Monday, every single person in America and its not-quite-sovereign, forcefully dominated territories (I’m looking at you, Puerto Rico), will bow their heads in solemn celebration of those who have served in the United States military. Without them, such mutually agreeable relationships  — such as the one presented to Puerto Rico in July of 1898 by Rough Rider “friendship emissaries” at the height of the “Spanish-American Engagement” (source: Texas School Board of Education) — would not have been possible.

Rough Riders agreeably charge San Juan

But enough about Hispanic nations of negligible importance. Perhaps the finest example of military friendship between the U.S. and a sovereign nation is the United States occupation of the Dominican Republic (or, as I like to call it, “rockupation”).

I know what you’re saying, I know. But SorryDave.wordpress.com, which United States occupation of the Dominican Republic? And while, yes, 1916-1924 was awesome, I have to go with 1965-1966. Okay, it was shorter, but the time-frame means that soldiers were flying around in helicopters and blasting The Doors or some shit, which is profoundly cooler than anything that happened pre-1930, and necessary for any proper rockupation.

I’m not going to rehash the details here, because I’m already so sure it was awesome and fun that I don’t need to actually learn about it. The important thing is that Dave is probably here because some American Renaissance Man-Warrior (the complicated kind who would plant things) planted the very mango pit that would one day grow into a Dominican hospital. And in that hospital, almost 25 years ago, Dave lept, fully-formed, from his mother’s uterus and was probably immediately offended by something I said about him on the Internet.

Happy Blogmorial Day, Dave. And, I’m sorry.

Sorrydave.wordpress.com – send us (me) your homemade content.

I see that roughly 40 of you check SorryDave.wordpress.com every single day (that I post something new). I see everything.

Did I mention this site once had well over 112 views in a single day (113)?

Let’s face it – there are exactly three things that are true about Dave:

1. He knows a lot of people.

2. He’s really easy to upset. Because he’s unstable.

3. He was born under a mango tree (or wherever they keep Dominican “hospitals”).

Number three is a topic for another post. But given items one and two, it’s more than likely that each and every one of us owes Dave a blogpology. That means the editors here at SorryDave.wordpress.com want to see some reader-generated content.

Ideally, said proposed content will involve stories, pictures and videos of us doing really nice and awesome things for Dave. Apologies, blogpologies, massages, buying him presents, whatever. This is all very important for the continual maturation of SorryDave.wordpress.com that I am so committed to on a secondly basis.

But sometimes you just have to get the ball rolling with whatever content I can get my oily, Sicilian hands on (seriously, it’s a problem – I can’t grip a tennis racket).

So, without further delay, I present you:

Seriously, Dave? You thought Kate would die, in the Lost series finale, in the first hour? [Spoiler alert: Kate doesn’t die in the first hour of the Lost series finale]

If you have any other videos of you or others doing really nice and awesome things for Dave, or hurting him, please email them to me. If you don’t know my email address, then don’t send anything to me, because I don’t know you (and you probably don’t know Dave anyway).  Also, leave comments on the site. I’m serious. I’m stretching a pretty thin premise all by myself here and it’s not easy.

[Credit for this video goes to Shitty Cheeseburger Paul and Garrett “To Catch a Predator” Doherty. Thanks, assholes.]

SorryDave.wordpress.com saved my life.

That’s what I hope to be able to say, years from now. Perhaps it already has. Allow me to explain:

There are lots of different kinds of people that are especially important to blogpologize to. There are also lots of different situations that particularly warrant sincere blogpology. And, much like stand up comedy, timing is crucial in the art of blogpology. Anyone with an accredited B.S. in Anthroblogpology will tell you that. If they don’t, check their degree. It’s probably a Bull Shit degree in Lie-ology, and it’s probably from an unaccredited school, or at best regionally accredited, like DeVry. And seriously, DeVry?

But there are special cases in which something as incredible as SorryDave.wordpress.com is absolutely necessary. For any lesser offense, you’re probably fine going with what I like to call a disposable “Saturday Night Special Tumblr account,” or Twitter, if you’re a girl.

So we take this blogpology equation (if you’re keeping track, blogpologies are an art, science, philosophy and math) …

Special Person (S) + Special Situation (U) + Timing (T) = Blogpology (B)

… and we fill in the variables with real-world values:

S = Dave

U = Double, and possibly triple, homicide

T = Right the fuck now, before it becomes triple

And we solve for B! The purpose of SorryDave.wordpress.com is to solve for B. Before Dave kills me, as well as his roommates.

Very possible.

Murder. Pleasure. Rebirth. Dave.

While attending a black tie gala this past weekend, this blog’s author was given what is no doubt the greatest intangible gift one human being can give to another: the green light to bring back sorrydave.wordpress.com. (The greatest tangible gift of course being piles of hot, wet cash.)

Indeed, the sole purpose of this gathering was to make this big announcement, though it was guised under the pretense of married people doing a thing for whatever. All in attendance were literally floored by the news, including this blog’s editor/contributing editor/sole writer. Why? Because this reopened the venue by which a plucky young blogpologist could once again solicit both positive and negative/whatever attention from close friends and people he doesn’t really talk to on facebook anymore? Because the very website that once received over 112 (113) page views in a single day would be gloriously resurrected? To serve the purpose of masturbatorily engaging myself in one of the (read: “the”) only things I’m good (read: “okay”) at?

Yes. All of these things. But, most importantly, because this means it worked. I won. To see Dave lie prostrate on the floor and basically beg me, crying like a baby, to start this motherfucker back up … was the purest form of forgiveness my litigious mind could possibly understand. I won the apology.

So, where do we go from here? Green lit to bring back SorryDave, there was great temptation to take this somewhere further, to mature the project and myself. The work I’ve done here, upon defeating Dave, has clearly transcended him. I thought for a long time about focusing my energies on a more perfect good.

But then I realized “more perfect” is a contradiction in terms. Besides, SorryDave was already perfect. The Blogpology would stand as it always had – as a tribute to how sorry I am for whatever it was I did to Dave. What it was was not important – not in SorryDave 1.0 …

But this is SorryDave 2.0. A new blogpology requires a new offense. So, without further ado, for the first time in SorryDave (and human) history, such an offense shall be delivered via blogpology.

Just days ago, Dave admitted that he would straight up murder his roommates in cold blood – and take pleasure from it. The “why” is not important. Dave’s insane.

Let the sorries begin!

Sorry, Dave … TWO.

The blogpology event of the millenium: Sorrydave.wordpress.com will rise from its own ashes … like a Phoenix.

Spring 2010 (probably)

Sorry, Dave is no more

Dear readers/fellow apologists,

At the humble request of this blogpology’s beneficiary, updates to sorrydave.wordpress.com will be discontinued. They say that sometimes a man can be too sorry. Perhaps. A cursory reading of the DSM-IV-TR reveals that the overactive Superego can cause one to feel an excess of guilt. This can manifest itself in a variety of symptoms/behaviors: anxious tension, anger redirected at the self, or, in this case, excessive blogpologizing. It is unrealistic to expect friends and family to understand what the maladjusted individual is going through during such an episode.

So, as I prepare to stuff my sorries in a sack and hoof it down the long, dusty road, I must thank my loyal readers. And especially, I must thank Dave – for putting up with all of my bullshit.

Signing off forever,

A.J.

Dave means never having to say you’re sorry.

It means you get to say you’re sorry. Being Sorry, Dave is a privilege and, truly, a joy.

How could something so gut-wrenchingly painful and embarrassing as a public blogpology be a joy, one might ask?

The Ancient Greeks had their own word for what I’m feeling: katharos, or, “catharsis.” The basic meaning is to purge, purify or clean. However, the concept is left wide open for interpretation, especially as it pertains to a variety of possible scenarios. Wikipedia lists the following as potential and historical “theaters” for catharsis: the Dramaturgical, Therapeutic, Paganism mystery cults and Neoplatonism, to name a few. But this isn’t about a play, or psychotherapy, or religion/philosophy. This is about me and Dave (Sorry, Dave), which leaves us with the most basic use for catharsis listed in the wikipedia entry:

Cathartic Sacrifice, broken down thusly:

… consequently we find two types of cathartic sacrifice: one to cleanse of impurity and make fit for common use, another to rid of sanctity and in like manner render suitable for human use or intercourse.

The Ancient Greeks also invented lamb gyros.

Once you consider that Dave is already relatively pure (I am impure, which is why I’m Sorry, Dave), it becomes clear that this is the latter form of catharsis. Through my blogpology, I am ridding Dave of his sanctity and thus rendering him suitable for intercourse, so to speak. This is how I derive my own personal happiness. This is why being Sorry, Dave is an exercise in self-growth, rather than something to be treated as a burden. Yes, it’s my cross to bear. But lots of people pay a lot of money to wear crosses as jewelry. And if people pay money for something, it’s good.

Best wishes and Sorry, Daves,

-A.

“Regret and Remorse”

This morning, like every morning, I awoke and immediately set my mind to the topic of personal regret and remorse. Those of you who know me well (or even just a little), probably accurately assume that these two faculties are core tenets of my personality. While drowned beneath a deluge of paternal emotional neglect over the years, “Sorry, Dave” is a concept that has weighed heavily on both my heart and mind, though this may not be immediately evident (off the Web).

So what is “Sorry, Dave?” What are regret and remorse? For these musings, I defer to the experts at PerfectApology.com:

In order to really appreciate or understand the crucial role perfect apologies can play in our daily lives it helps to understand the differences between the mistakes we make and the apologies we deliver as a result—some actions we regret, while others we are truly sorry for.

We’ll begin here by describing important distinctions between mistakes and actions that elicit feelings of regret and those that expose stronger feelings of remorse. Perfect apologies should be tailored to address one or the other type of mistake, in most cases.

Regret is a rational, intelligent and, on occasion, emotional reaction to some unexpected, unintended and often costly consequence of some event or action.

Apologies that expose feelings of regret are often designed to address the consequences of actions people have taken but wish they hadn’t, or actions they have not yet taken but wish they had. We usually regret the consequences of relatively minor mistakes or errors and, given the option of revisiting the decision, would probably decide to do something else.

However, we also express regrets for the consequences of events over which we have very little control, or for actions that are intentionally taken for perfectly rational reasons but nevertheless produce unintended consequences—an apology from an airline to its passengers for cancelling a flight; an apology from a mechanic for charging much more than a customer expected for unforeseen repairs; an apology for having to fire someone because of poor job performance or incompetence; etc…

Companies often express regrets for the harm caused by their decision despite the fact that a similar decision would be taken in the future for the same reasons. For example, airlines often apologize for cancelling flights because of poor weather but would do the same thing under similar circumstances in the future. Decisions can be right even if the consequences for the customer are costly. In fact most business apologies take the form of addressing the consequences of one or another unavoidable yet regrettable event.

Regrets are typically amoral—there is no right or wrong associated with the actions; it’s the consequences that matter (Miller 2005:83)¹. In most of these cases the expression of regret through an apology is really secondary.

Remorse, on the other hand, takes on a bitter, deeper form that elicits much stronger personal and emotional reactions to personal guilt, societal shame, humiliation, resentment and often anger.

While regret is amoral and concerned with good versus bad consequences, remorse has more to do with right versus wrong actions². Feelings of remorse are often caused by actions that constitute serious and painful errors of judgment and often draws out powerful compulsions to fix the mistake(s) through personal change and sacrifice.

(Original article here.)

Yours Dave, Sorrily,

-Alex

Regret and Remorse

In order to really appreciate or understand the crucial role perfect apologies can play in our daily lives it helps to understand the differences between the mistakes we make and the apologies we deliver as a result—some actions we regret, while others we are truly sorry for.

Apology

Bridging the racial divide.

Dave –

Sorry.

-Al