There is a lot of dirt, but very little soap.

So, I didn't win the best blogger in Austin contest. I blame my campaign manager. Actually, I didn't know there was a contest. Regardless, it's hard to be the best off of two entries. And, you can't win off a single write-in vote. My mom doesn't even read my blog and she's used to reading crap.

Here's where I usually interject with some sort of funny or witty segue into a social comment about society and life in Austin or about how I like to enjoy one or two drinks at some of my favorite locales. However, occasionally (practically everyday it seems recently) while trying to locate my muse, I come across a story in the news or elsewhere that absolutely breaks your heart. No. More than that. It actually makes you feel nothing. Like these stories should produce an emotion that's beyond your capacity of feeling. An emotion yet to be discovered.

Today I came across this story on CNN.com about the abuse of a pregnant and mentally challenged woman. Disturbing doesn't even seem to be a good starting point for trying to describe the horror of it. After reading it, I thought, "Now, what? Where can I possibly go from here?"

I like writing this blog. I like trying to make it funny. I love reading the Austinist or Wonkette and some of the local blogs. I laugh because I have to. I work in a place where I can't pretend that horrible and detestable things happen to people. But sometimes it gets to be too much. Sure, it's funny that the governor of New York spent $4,500 an hour on a prostitute, you know, given the right context. It's funny because that seems absurd to people like us (assuming, of course, you're not a gazibillionaire who can afford such lavishness). But, at the base of the scandal, there's still a woman who thinks it's best to get through life flaunting a naked body for strangers. And maybe posing for Playboy or Girls Gone Wild isn't necessarily that bad in and of itself, but it's hard to deny the insurmountable psychological evidence suggesting the underlying factors of why people get into things like prostitution and pornography. And even if you find no faults with pornography and prostitution, the rape, heavy drug use, sexual degradation and murder commonly associated with these things doesn't seem worth the risk.

And so we laugh. We concentrate on what's not important. We get through life the best we know how.

In a note of irony, I recently changed the name of my blog from my name to "It was lovely while it lasted." Only now, it's seems not to be.

Sorry for the downer. Good lord, I can't believe Notre Dame has a good basketball team. Weird.