Quotes from Dad

The world isn't really as simple as they make you want to believe. That's only so the students can work the problems. -Omer Prewett

Coookie Crisp!

So, two days ago, I finally fulfilled a life long dream and bought a box of Cookie Crisp. I'm not joking either. When we were kids, our parents wouldn't let us have sugar cereals, so we had Ralston instead. Awesome. Kix were about as sugary as we were allowed and if you've had Kix...well, you know they're mother-approved. So, between growing up without sugar and being broke for the last eleven years, I've never managed to eat any Cookie Crisp.

I finally bought a box. And ate the contents. It was good.

A New President

Well, CNN just projected Obama as winning the presidential election, meaning should he in fact win (which he will), he will become our new president-elect. I'm glad for this, I think. I think the country needs this for it's own sake. For people to feel involved again in politics, that their vote and their voice matters, that the future is possibly better than the past. The hope generated by those who supported Obama will hopefully be infectious.

Whether Obama will actually make a good President remains to be seen. I certainly hope so, because we could certainly use one. He brings a freshness to the office and to politics in general that has been missing for far too long. I think the important question has always been, will he use his popularity and mental acuity for the whole benefit of the American people, or will he allow it to be siphoned in other directions, whether by other people or by himself? Certainly, he will not be able to enact all of the ideas he ran his campaign on. No one can do that. (Or, let's hope not!) But there is a chance that he can move the government and the people to make the changes that are best for both of them. This is never a popular thing, but it is the only important function of a leader. Doing what is best for those being lead. May he accomplish it and well.

There are a number of things I would like to speak on regarding the election. First, Obama was going to win this election. The news media did its best to portray the election as being winnable for either candidate, but in reality, Obama won this election a long time ago. And he kept winning this election. From the time the voting polls opened, McCain did not have a realistic chance. Move the voting date back or forward three months and McCain would still not have had a realistic chance.

Here are a few articles on the subject:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/04/pollster-calms-paranoid-d_n_140960.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/keith-thomson/the-most-accurate-electio_b_140181.html
http://www.eternalgambling.com/gambling-news/20081101-when-will-john-mccain-admit-defeat-in-presidential-race.html

Yes, two are regarding gambling. I got intrigued to know something about whether political betting existed and if so, what did they say about the election. It turned out to be very illuminating.

Here's Big Point Number One: with even a cursory look at the three articles I listed, it becomes clear that the general news media was not reporting what was happening in its actual context. They were reporting what was happening but not with any contextual accuracy. It is very easy to then believe that the news media was warping the news with the purpose of keeping you coming back for more. This is important. Many people have talked about the inacuracy of the news media, esp. in the right-wing, christian circles I'm familiar with. I've always believed that, but I've taken it with a grain of salt. This is, for me, very clear evidence of the what, how, and why of the news media. What are they doing? Selling you news-entertainment. How are they doing it? By setting up the scene so you come back for more. Why are they doing it? This is less clear, but my guess is that it is related to the fact that advertising pays their bills. The further issue here is that, at least as far as this presidential campaign is concerned, they have done it intentionally.

I can't say that I'm upset about this, but it certainly clarifies the attitude with which I accept the news given to me.

My only other gripe with coverage of this election is race. I'm glad Obama is African-American. If he wasn't, he wouldn't be who he is, and it's good that everyone be who they actually are and not somebody else. I have never really looked at Obama as being black. Thank goodness. The important thing to me is how he conducts himself and what he chooses.
Why is it then that the first thing the CNN people talked about after having projected him as President-Elect was his race? It's an obvious enough thing to talk about, certainly, and it is important to many people in this country and to the country's history and future, however, why such focus? I'm so glad they kept race out of their coverage as much as they did, do we have to now begin to cover that small aspect of Obama? The purpose of an election is not to elect a group of people, but individuals. If race is such a problem in this country, does it make sense to focus on race as an important thing? Is that helpful to the problem, to perpetuate the way of thinking that caused the problem in the first place? I will never discount or discredit someone's history and what went into that history. But there is a gradiation of importance, some things large, some things small. I don't think Obama won because he was African-American. So let's focus on why he won.

It is also important to keep in mind that we were going to make history in this election with either ticket. A woman has never been Vice-President. I'm sad that today wasn't the day for that. I wish Palin had been on the Obama ticket, then we could really have had a historical sweep! Maybe in four years.

Thinking over what I've just wrote, I don't mean to sound unhappy that people celebrate the election of an African-American President. I'm pretty excited about that and what that historical event could mean for this country. Maybe now people with black skin or African heritage across this nation, and across this world, will feel like they don't have to prove themselves anymore. Maybe they will feel like they are just as important and valuable as anyone else. Because of course they are. Maybe we as a culture can put the nail in the coffin of the history and practice of our bigotry. Let us hope so. I just don't want race to be the important focus, because it should never be.

Well, whew! Glad we all got through today. Glad everyone voted (largest turnout since women's suffrage)! Cheers!

-mike

Afghanistan

I watched part of a Frontline piece on the war in Afhganistan. It's got me thinking again.
I'm glad to know that there are people in the military and government that truly understand the situation there. And they truly do. They've accounted for the economic and infrastructure and other life reasons why the Taliban is likely to beat back the US the same way the beat back the Russians. I'm glad that someone understands this. It makes me feel better knowing that at least some people are not blind eyes open.

It makes me terribly sad that Afghanistan is suffering continued conflict. They have suffered on and off again conflict for the last forty or so years. Their infrastructure, such as roads, buildings, etc. has been decimated to the point of non-existence mostly. And everyone has known war, from the youngest to the oldest. The only stable government they have had in recent memory, the Taliban, have been removed from power, but no stable government has replaced them. It is very easy to understand why the insurgency has gained strength. We do not have a presence in the country capable of winning the war and the longer time goes on, the more frustration will mount and the more the people will side with anyone who can make good on a promise for stability.

So once again, I am wondering why it is that I am again searching for a good paying job to settle my debts and provide me with things. It seems... imbalanced. Completely negligent. Ostentatious.

I suppose I have an obligation to pay off my debts. That is certainly true. That still seems to pale in comparison to the needs of a country besieged. It is the continuation of this American myth that disturbs me. Certainly we all get lost wherever we find ourselves. No one can be globally objective. But even the most basic elements of humility and compassion seem to indicate the necessity for not merely a change, but a completely revamped focus.

Perhaps I am being too...tangential. Perhaps I am looking off the edge of a curve into a darkness that doesn't quite exist. Still, one can't help but feel the weight of the disparity. I live in a country that has not known invasion in 200 years. We have two reminders of conflict with a foreign entity on our soil: Pearl Harbor and 911. These are but paper cuts by comparison to the world at large. We take them quite seriously, but they are not serious in any sort of global context. Our farms have not been mortared, our buildings have not been bombed, we do not carry the lasting limp of war. We have moved freely in the world as imperialists. Setting our tents in other places for periods of time, removing them at our will. But always retreating to the physical and economic island we call home. No one has had, nor now has, the economic might to send troops across the expanse of the oceans bordering our nation and onto our soil. The only nation that has the access and ability to mount such a campaign is Russia, and it is doubtful that they are unified enough to even attempt a full scale assault on America.

It is not a hopeful case for humanity that the richest, most powerful and freest nation the world has yet seen has so many internal problems. The list of internal violence, corruption, and discord within the wall of our house is rather substantial and I've yet to meet anyone not pricked by it. But we are a garden paradise in comparison on many, many levels.

Of course, I'll forget about all this tomorrow. I'll probably bemoan my state of affairs yet again. The stresses of living in a modern cosmopolitan society. Geez. Count your blessings.

-mike

Christianity versus?

I think I just figured out something, so here's the thing: I really believe Christianity is the truth, and often times christians try to come up with "Christian" solutions to life's problems, but the reality is that we're all very much trying to learn how to be human. I do think that Christianity correctly describes the relationship between God and humanity, but the relationship between one and oneself is not necessarily the fundamental purpose of the Bible (and thus, Christianity). It's not necessarily even the fundamental purpose of God, since even before the fall, God tells people to go and make something of the Earth. i.e., that's *your* job to figure out. In some sense, God may not even entirely "know" how we are supposed to be, if that is something that we have to discover. That's not to say that the rules of God don't still apply, because obviously they do, I'm just exploring a subtle thing here.

This explains something to me.

Equilibrium

My father is fond of talking about "looking at the whole picture" when taking on a new purchase or plan or whatever. Say you want to buy a new computer. Well, you can spend $500 and get an Acer from Wal-mart, but that's not taking into consideration that you'll have to spend money on repairs because the parts are too cheap, the lost data because the system crashed, etc.

Well, a different way of looking at this came out the other day: "what is the equilibrium point?" We were talking about installing computer systems [at colleges and universities]. The idea being, if you replace typewriters with computers, what will be the eventual equilibrium point you inevitably reach? Once you head down that path, where will you end up? If you replace typewriters with computers, the next real equilibrium point is a completely networked environment that you rely upon for all of your daily business. If you go down that path, computers will become an integral part of your business. There is no way around this, it will happen.

We as people have a tendency not to think about what the inevitable outcome will be. For instance, sticking with the computer theme, I just recently bought a computer. I built it myself with parts from Newegg (Once you know, you Newegg!) (it's true.) and I had planned for a cost of about $500 dollars. When I got done, I had logged about $750. Why? Because I didn't look for the equilibrium point. I initially bought a case, motherboard, cpu, video card, RAM, hard drive, and power supply. I had planned on using my old optical drives and old OS. Problem was, the new components I bought and the old components I had were not really in equilibrium. In this case, specifically, the video card did not work with my old OS. Neither did I have full functionality of the motherboard. And my old video card wasn't supported by the new motherboard. Basically, none of the parts were swappable old to new. So, I had to order a new OS. And since I was getting a new OS that was 64 bit, my old 32 bit hardware which lacked 64 bit drivers was useless. So I had to get a new optical drive. Additionally, I needed new case fans to cool the new (and hot) hardware.

So for those of you that don't understand all the above gibberish, look at it this way. If you make a change, you may necessitate further changes you didn't envision. Plan accordingly.

(Another example, for all you young men out there: Suppose you find yourself a nice young lady and you ask her to be your wife. And she says yes. Break out the champagne. All's well and good. But...this is a change that will necessitate other changes. Don't suppose that your wife will care as little as you do about what kind of dishes you eat from, what the curtains look like, what the furniture looks like, whether the floor is clean, when you hang out with your friends, and don't neglect the very real correlation between marriage and children. All of this will undoubtedly require changes you have not yet considered. Changes you cannot yet forsee. The next real equilibrium point is most certainly not where you currently are. Plan accordingly.)

Worrying

I wanted to write this down because is just came up with my mother, and I had a rather succinct answer:

Q: If I'm not worrying, how do I know I've done what I should?
A: Worrying makes you feel as if you done something when you have done nothing, it makes you feel as if you have control when you have none. The better response is to do what is reasonable for you to do and then trust.

Sundays are for napping

I got my new computer up and running again. It's not pretty by any means, but it's stable and it works. And that's the important thing for now. I'll be much happier when I get a copy of XP on there and I can use the full capabilites of the video card and motherboard, but at least I can get around now.

Tim Gerak from Six Parts Seven has agreed to mix the music I recorded for The Becky Adams EP. So, at long last, I should have an official product. That will make me very happy. In the meantime, I have to finish breaking out the tracks into .wav files for export, which means I need a copy of XP ASAP. I can't really do any serious work until I have that in hand and have my new machine fully functional.

Also, I'm trying to get my new recording equipment fully operational as well. I've got a work-around solution for present, but I have some connectivity issues to overcome still. It'll work though.

I'm not sure what to do about a job yet, although my days in Alva are definitely numbered. Maybe I'll move to the Antari system and join the Separatists.

Oiiii-yaaaaaaa!!!!

I think I'm going to go crazy! aaaah!! Stupid new computer things with buttons and cables and dysfunctional problems!

aiyayayayayayayayayay.

I got everything for my new computer now, got it all up and running, and then found out that the motherboard and video card don't support windows 2000. Oh, it'll work alright. But not well.
I tried to go ahead and just get the data from my old harddrives onto the new harddrive so I could at least put my backup project to bed, but no dice. No sir. Not yet. Apparently, getting this thing to recognize both my SATA and PATA drives is just *tooo* complicated. Aargghh! I feel like an angry man with a hammer...a hammer made out of glass. What the hell good does that do anybody!?! Wah! I think I'm going to eat my shorts!

Anyway, the upshot is that I need a new OS, and possibly need to just spring for a external hdd enclosure and just transfer through USB. Might end up saving me loads of hassle. But that means waiting... waiting!! Waiting!!! What has this world come to!! I have to wait to accomplish anything!?!!? Non, ce n'est pas possible!! Ce n'est pa la vie! Rome was too built in a day!! I pay my taxes, you know!!! I'm going to go suck on my silver spoon!

521 prompt - Sept. 4

there was this pause.

"It's unclear," he thought, aloud. "Maybe it's not as I'm putting it."
He put down his pen, re-crossed his legs, and felt the greenness of the grass underneath them this time. There was an undercurrent, a similarity, a livingness to these green things that said they were not brown. They had not died, and he noticed it now.

He looked up and paused at the expanse of terrain before him. Yellow flowers in with the grass at the top of the crest, the pause of the drop and the continue of the green and yellow down to skirt the plateaus that arose at the edges and then on beyond to the mud and waters in the middle. A slow trail from animals leading toward the waters just knowable to the left.

"Perhaps this is not as simple as I'm describing."
The assignment had been clear. He was to author a chapter on carrying capacity for an upcoming edition of Rosewill's Ecology. He had been glad for the opportunity to make a little extra doing writing beyond the pages and pages of course notes and lab procedures. Resources were simple mathematics and he had looked forward to the break.

This morning had been nice, and so he had put aside the mathematics in order to spend a little time looking in the eyes of the enemy. It was only half an hours walk, yet he felt many miles from the straight corners of the office. The steno pad had been simply for any insights into what he'd begun at the office. But the winds had changed direction and the scene looked different now.

He uncrossed his legs, set the pen in his shirt pocket, paused, then rolled slowly up, sighed absent-mindedly, and began walking back.

It was time for some Postum.

521 prompt - Aug. 28

Step in.

breathe

Address. Express, being.
follow and lead.
measure, but shortly.
call
respond
again, again
brushstroke, handstroke, visage, step
wait
shortly, but measured
leading and follow
Being, expressed.
Addressed.

breathe

(FINI)

And so, on an autumn day, two thousand and eight years counted past the birth of Jesus the Christ...

I've been intrigued by Ben's prompt writing from his 521 Romantic Ecology (which is, somewhat sadly, not the same as Ecology of Romance) graduate course, and due to his graciously sending me a link to the prompts, I shall now commence to haphazardly address these prompts.

For those scoring at home, see:
http://www.wsu.edu/~deblee/EcologyFall2008/blogs.html

cheers,
mike

Boutiques and Bibles

Tonight I took a walk in the early night air around the turnarounds of my parent's neighborhood. It was a perfect night, cool and full of stars. I didn't bother putting on shoes because sometimes it's not worth the time and effort of finding them and putting them on.

I thought about why using the Bible as a template for living and decision making can sometimes be a bad thing. This being juxtaposed to just doing what you think is right or a good idea. I've thought about this before, but something new came to mind tonight. I think that the Bible acts like a connect-the-dots picture describing life and God and everything. It gives the boundaries , but it doesn't give the details. In order to understand the details, you have to actually live with God, you have to relate to, and with, him. God is the one we are to know, love, serve, and project. The Bible is not God. It outlines God, to be sure. There are not gaps in the outline. But it doesn't spend much time on the details. And I think a lot of people, myself included, end up serving the outline rather than the whole. This explains why so many things in life don't seem to fit. If an alien only ever saw my silhouette, they would never understand what a tooth was. They might know it related to me but they wouldn't know how. Of course, if they asked, I could tell them. But without that relationship, they'd be clueless.

Since I lost my job at the salt flat, I've been wondering what to do about a career pursuit. I've thought about performing music, I've thought about doing non-profit work, I've thought about going back to Davey tree, I've thought about environmental/biology work, but I don't know what a good direction is. I've no doubts that whatever I choose now will end up morphing later, but what to choose now...? Tonight, I thought about microphone design. I've ordered an output transformer for my ribbon mic, as an upgrade, and I've been thinking that I might be able to just build more ribbon mics. They are extremely simple designs, so it would be a great place to start.

I found someone who hopefully can mix and master the music I recorded for the Becky Adams EP. Tim Gerak, from Six Parts Seven, has been building a nice studio in Highland Square, and I think he's a good choice. Cheap, but he has a good amount of experience. I'm really hoping this will work out. I wrote him an e-mail, we'll see what happens.

-mike

Well, it's that time again. It's time to blog. It's time to blog a lot. It's time to blog a lot because I'm once again jobless. Yes, these are the days I'll look back upon fondly and think, "what in the world was i doing back then and why isn't my life as awesome now." Naw, with any sort of grace at all, I won't be saying that. In fact, let's make sure I'm not.

I bought a Mackie 1202 VLZ3 mixer off Ebay this week, and for some reason I'm having a hard time remembering, I also bought a $20 guitar amp. I still need to buy a transformer upgrade for the ribbon mic I bought on Ebay a few months ago. Once I do all these things, plus a few more, I may have a half decent sounding recording set-up. Which I will hopefully use well. Now if only I had a room with 15 foot ceilings and a piano.

I also found out today that Tim Gerak from Six Parts Seven has opened up a nice recording studio in Highland Square, Akron, where I used to be, and is offering mastering prices I can afford. So, that's on the burner as well.

I'm almost (almost being a long way from anywhere in particular) done with turning the Audacity projects from two years ago into wav files for export for mixing purposes, so hopefully I will finally, finally, finally have some official output by the new year.

Cheers!

Please do not emanate into the penumbra

Well, I had a long conversation about the social affect of the orthography of singularity in the English language with my parents. (Which would make a great master's thesis for those of you keeping score at home.) They are both versed in linguistics, which is kind of how this came up. Actually, it extended from a conversation about whether "DNA" should be capitalized, whether it is a word or an abbreviation, and whether "indian" can be considered a general type noun rather than a proper noun. (My mom and I were playing Boggle.)

The upshot was that I started wondering about the sociological implications of using single character representations to express singularity. "I", "A", and "1" are the most common expressions of singularity in the English language (as far as I know). Coincidentally, they are all single character symbolizations. Further, they are all upright single character symbolizations. I am wondering whether there has been a latent anthropomorphism on the part of English users in regards to these characters. I remember that on Sesame Street when the dancers would spell words and numbers, "I" and "1" only required one person standing or laying in a very typical human pose to express the appropriate orthographic symbol. As someone who is very visual, I think this had the affect of linking the abstract idea of singularity with very concrete singularity. *The point then* is that this is very peculiar to English. The French, Spanish, German, and as many other languages as I am familiar with all use multiple character symbolizations for the concept of singularity. In French, "I" is "Je", "A" is "Un" and "1" is "1" (because of the shared Roman numeral orthography). Similarly, Spanish uses "Yo", "Un", and "1"

What I'm ultimately trying to set up for is this question: Has the orthography of the English language affected the sociology of English speaking cultures? I think it can be fairly certainly said that English speaking cultures are generally more individualistically minded than non-English speaking cultures. While all cultures contain, recognize, and label individuality, most cultures recognize that as operating within a group. But I think English speaking cultures, at least American culture, have more of a tendency to see indivuality as operating outside of groups. Individuality is equated with singularity moreso than non-English speaking cultures. So is there a causal relationship? I think it would be hard to determine, but there is a certain ease of anthropomorphizing our orthography of singularity that is not so easy in other languages.

Does anyone understand what I'm saying? I'm realizing that this probably means I should be going back to school and getting further into academia since no one in the work-a-day world would ever be bothered by the social implications of the orthography of our language. It's similar to being able to characterize, label, and create an organizational structure based on the sheathing structure that occurs at joints in grass stems. This degree of distinction is just not very useful to the common lexicon of living. You certainly don't need fries with that...

But it sure is fun to think about!!

Yesterday and today I had a number of conversations with my dad that revolved around the idea of global versus local ideologies. The gist was that global ideologies always fail. In the same way that profit is always made locally, ideologies are really only viable locally. When I say ideology, I kinda mean philosophy and solutions as well.

Something I thought about this week was how much poorer the economy is down here than in Ohio. I thought about how your wealth is not only determined by your own assets but the assets of the community you live in as well. For instance, I was richer in Ohio because I could get a couch for free pretty much any day of the week on any given week. I wouldn't have really had to go without a couch if I wanted one for more than a couple weeks. Here, I might have to go without a couch for months if I didn't have one.

I hate to say it, but the realization of how much wealthier people in Ohio are makes me angry towards those same people for not appreciating it and also simply because I'm envious. I wish I could say that wasn't true and it's certainly not a feeling I support but deep down, there it is. For some reason I've projected a failure just because I'm missing what I used to take for granted. Being human sucks sometimes...

Ben Bunting sent out another mixtape which also makes me envious because I've been planning one but haven't gotten it done. For some reason, and I'm not sure why, I almost have a philosophical opposition to finishing things. I'm not sure why. I'm not sure if that's some sort of OCD thing or what the deal is, but I kind of feel like the idea that I can finish something without a good reason (read: the perfect reason) settled out is a sketchy one. It kinda scares me, that idea. So, I suppose that is OCD after all. Trust is a five letter word and I think I'm still stuck on four letter words... lol No, really, trust that the good thing will work out is not something that always applies in my mind. Not to things I really care about or have some vision for.

Ben, if you find this, well, I have to say that Coldplay's "The Scientist" is a great song, and if a great song on a mixtape is cliche, well, so are slushies on a hot day, but slushies on a hot day are still awesome.

Working at Coca-Cola gives me the blues. It gives me the blues because I'm tired of working with people who are so negative and also I'm tired of working in a situation where the job squeezes out your ability to care for people. Where people get in the way of the job. That's just absurd. There's always going to be that tension in any job, but to have it institutionalized by the requirements of the job is just like punching your heart with a knife day after day after day. It just doesn't seem healthy, does it?

By the time I left Ohio, I wasn't dreaming of leaving Ohio like I had for years before, but I miss a lot of things there. Mostly the community and the green, green, green. I can live without the green but without the community, the lack of green is just a constant reminder of how little life is around you.
I miss seeing the green of the Cuyahoga River valley as you cross is from Akron to the Falls. I miss the presence of so many people in my life. Another example of how wealth is as related to your community as it to just you. I'm a *lot* poorer without the presence of Abby and Lydia and Harry and Jason and Steve and Tessa and Sara and Evan and Becky and Aladdin's and KSU and Jon and Kate and Ben and Lay's and Taco Tonto's and Chuck and Eric and Shanna and Scott and Ria and Bryan and Dylan and everyone else whose names I'm too tired to list currently. You just wouldn't believe how good it feels to be growing and leafing out next to the people you love even if you don't hardly know half of them...you wouldn't know this unless you've left it behind...because leaving it behind gives you an objectivity and a context you couldn't see when you were still there. And in this case, that's a knowledge I'd be retrospectively happy to live without.

Of course that applies for Oklahoma, too, but probably less dramatically. I would miss my parents a lot if I weren't here. Heck, I miss them when I'm an hour away. Never thought I'd ever say that in my life.

Heaven just can't come quick enough. Why wait, God? The timing seems great to me right now.
I miss the hippie viewpoint. I also never thought I'd say that in my life, but there you go...Pass the ganja. jk. People down here think I'm a real stoner. I enjoy pushing those buttons just because it's so completely wrong. People down here don't know what 4:20 means. Which, at this point, I assumed was just a universally known thing. I guess it's good that they don't, but it makes my humorous references fall short.

Monasticism... I still consider this a worthwhile idea to pursue. Why am I working a job to pay bills? Service is a hell of a lot harder to do when it's part of your obvious duty and not something you "choose" to do. It's also a hell of a lot harder when it rubs every hair the wrong way. And it's harder when you're alone.

I wish I had someone to play music with. and frisbee.

I need a place of my own and I've got the money and I'm wondering if now is the time. Or if I can find a place that I can live with living in.

I like cinnamon rolls. And blueberies. And I'm currently experiencing technical difficulties on both those broadcasts. I might have to settle for Grape Nuts. I think I'm addicted to sugar. I'm finding it harder to continue my boycott on corn syrup, esp. because of working in the beverage market. Corn syrup is a bad idea. Way bad. Yuck, yuck, yuck. Pass the sugar beets and the sugar cane spiders because I've got a fever and the only cure is granular sugar.

I feel better when I talk about the things that make me feel worse.

Tonight is a great night for The Innocence Mission.
Every Friday I drive home towards the evening to leave my Uncle's place in Fargo and arrive at my folk's place in Alva. It turns out that I can make much better gas mileage at 55 mph, so I've been driving slow and loving it. I listen to a bunch of music, check out the scenery, think about things, chill, relax. It's the best part of the week. It's gotten green out here, and the new grass is about as tall as the old grass so you can finally appreciate how beautiful it can be out here in a living and not just an austere way. It's grand. I wish I could get paid to drive a car around. Driving a truck is more stressful, which I guess is why they pay you for it. hahaha

Alright, I'm falling asleep. Cheers!

-mike