Le tired..

This doesn't happen a lot but last night I got home from work a little late, a little tired, and went to sleep.  Just seconds later, it seemed, my alarm went off and it was morning.  No dreams, no nothing.  Just a groggy, morning wake up.  I was none to pleased about this.  I don't remember my dreams too often but I do know most nights laying down for seven hours doesn't feel like seven seconds.  This could be a long day..

The year's almost over!  I don't know why that seems crazy today, but it DOES!  IF YOU'VE GOT ANYTHING LEFT YOU WANTED TO DO THIS YEAR, YOU SHOULD DO IT ASAP.  Cheers.

It was a celebration, bitches..

The Christmas holiday has come and gone. While I would have much rather been at home with family and old friends, my Christmas here was a pretty special experience. One of my roommates, Louis, decided to cook a ham for Christmas dinner so around 3pm we had a family dinner of ham, mashed taters and corn. TASTY. Following this the four of us ventured out of the house in the early evening to attend another dinner, this time at the home of a co-worker. The house was absolutely gorgeous and easily made its way into my relatively arbitrary “Top Ten Houses I've Ever Entered,” as it was a well-apportioned spread high in some pineapple fields, overlooking the beautiful West Maui coastline. I didn't take any pictures because I figured that would have looked amateur so you'll just have to take my word that this was a baller house. It's the kind of house you'd expect the VP of TS Restaurants (TS owns the restaurant that's on my paycheck..) to have, as we happened to be at the house of the VP of TS Restaurants. Small world, eh? Again, clearly, it's not what you know, but who.

How we ended up at this particular house, the Moon house, to be a bit more specific, is a somewhat long and silly story but to sum the Moon household consists of Papa Moon, Mama Moon, and Miss Moon. Miss Moon works at Hula, as well, “(As the TS Family tends to be, literally, the TS family..) and we've become somewhat social through various work-related circumstances. Also, one of our good friends from Hula is close friends with the family, and his dad actually rents a smaller house on this family's property.

At any rate we get invited to the Moon house to have the pleasure of dining with the Moons and some other of their close family friends. Jon and I bonded with one gentleman, the father of one of Miss Moon's best friends, as we talked about Maine and he shared a story of an acid trip he went on while on top of Cadillac Mountain. It sounded downright fantastic, but I digress.

The party totaled twelve and after dinner the wine continued to flow until seven twenty-somethings and the Moon parents remained. At this point we were all socializing outside so, for whatever reason, Mr. Moon tosses about twenty golf balls onto the lawn and a driver emerges. Don't threaten me with a good time, right?

It's safe to say everyone took their fair share of whacks over the next half hour or so and well over a hundred balls ended up piercing the darkness on their (mostly..) airborne rides into the pineapple fields. After a solid slice to kick things off I found my groove easily. I felt like holes 19-27 of a thirty six hole day, when I've had enough beers to finally loosen up and shake the rust off. Or like holes 8-13 of a scramble when the drink goes down at a much more rapid rate so I can find my swing sooner. But, in either case I tend to continue down a sudsy road even once I find my groove so my game steadily regresses from this optimal golfing state. God damn alcohol and it's negative effects. Luckily for me I didn't quite reach that stage Christmas night, so Mr. Moon was pretty impressed with my swing as I was the big hitter of the group. Mr. Moon has a hell of a consistent swing, so whether just the wine talking or not I've chosen to take his kind words as a compliment.

The Moon's were so warm, welcoming, and inviting that, while making me feel incredibly happy to be allowed entry into their Christmas traditions, as I took stock well into the evening of what I was a part of I became quite bummed because it reminded me so much of summer holiday gatherings on the Capone deck, chock full of good food and drink for virtually all comers. Though, in the spirit of Christmas this party didn't turn into the debaucherous train wreck that more than one of the Capone social gatherings have turned into over the years. Ah, memories..

More or less, selflessness and generosity are desirable traits whether you make $20K, $200K, or $2000K. Spread the like.

Cheers.

Intensity in ten cities..

It's Monday.  Get to it.  Cheers.

Pretty happy about this..

Earlier today when I posted the Mule clip all I had really wanted to put up was the album version of "Banks of the Deep End" but youtube did not cooperate.  From there I performed a little google search to see how to embed .mp3's to Blogger but that cam up relatively unsuccessfully because all I could really find was using Windows Movie Maker to add a picture with a song and upload it as a movie.  I did not have Windows Movie maker so, in the spirit of Kevin McCallister, I gave it a whirl and downloaded it because it was free and I figured it would be super simple to pop up a picture of Warren Haynes from Bonnaroo and bing bang boom I could sub out the video up now with a new simple clip.  But when I popped open my 'Roo folder I saw all the good pictures I had taken and Nick had taken and KathV had taken I thought, "Well, shit.  I might as use some of the good ones of us."

Outside of seeing Grace Potter on some serious PED's the 1a highlight of my trip was hearing this song live.  I don't know why, I'm just into the song.  So, I present to you ten days of debauchery set to probably my favorite song.  Hold on to a piece of dry land..

--

This made me smile.  Miss you, friends.  I'd like to say I'm sorry for not including other good friends and family who didn't make the trip, but, if you weren't there you can't really understand, man..  

Happy Christmas to all you "Christians" out there and sorry to my Jew friends I didn't give you folks a shout out for your eight crazy nights of Hanukkah. I'll do better next year.

--

I'm just seeing today that my counter has malfunctioned.  I'm not stressing it but I'll look into some soluations before the new year  Today I exited the information superhighway on MyYellowNotepad and found my hits under 40.  Just now it was under 8000.  Not to be self conscious, but I know earlier in December I was well (WELL!!!!!!!!!!) over 16,000 hits.  No big deal..

I know about six of you out there tune in on the regular.  You're [each] the best...Cheers.

On Christmases, and other musings..

A Little Christmas in your Heart..

I've been listening to Gov't Mule and I have to say that it had been awhile since I last listened. Can't put a finger on why I stopped, probably just to diversify a little bit, but for whatever reason I cracked open a little bit of “Banks of the Deep End” about three hours ago and this Mule train hasn't slowed a bit. I've also wanted to write quite a bit but, again, for whatever reason I haven't put fingers to keys or pencil to paper for quite some time, either [Ed's Note: “Quite some time” for writing is more than a few days. “Quite some time” between Mule sessions is more than a couple of weeks. In case you were wondering..]

I think it's because I've kind of been muddling over some heavy shit for the past week or so. I finally realized Christmas is here and I wouldn't be back in town, some other stuff that comes up from time to time, just random tangented thoughts that have been somewhat tangled and clustered and far more personal than I usually delve into on here. The 'Pad is about fun, right? Not lame ass bullshit. At least that's my take. The only lame shit I bring up is goofy shit that happened to me that I can spin in a self-deprecating manner. Mopey Matt doesn't make for good 'Pad stories. So it goes; I'm somewhat over it as there's nothing I can do about it now except for deciding I'll be sleeping in close proximity to 48 Smith Street a year from now.

It's just kind of silly to me that I've found a way to not make it home for Christmas after I'd never been away from home for more than ten days or so up until this year. And I never planned to skip Christmas ; just between coming home in July and October it would have been hard to justify another vacation six weeks after my last vacation. So, shucks and we'll fix it next year. I know the gang was at Samm-o's Thursday night and whoever wasn't there was sucking'em up at Gipper's after 9pm. Thinking of both of those places did put a little frown on my face. I like me some Gipper's and I like em some Fletcher basement beer pong. Together we might have had a perfect storm of lighthearted, festive debauchery. And from the sounds of things no one was overly beligerent at Samm-o's, so my presence was clearly missed. Last year I don't remember being at Samm-o's; I misplaced time for a couple of hours and those hours still haven't turned up. That was back when I was young and foolish – I'm older now...

Small sidenote here. I just want to give a quick random shout-out and name drop that I should have done right after I left town in October. A couple of nights before I was heading back out, it was Friday, I believe, I'm at Gipper's with my old boss Mr. Haggerty and a couple other folks and One of the owners, Tom Fournier, comes in for some dinner. We each wave hello, as he knows my pops from way back when, as his son played him some fooseball under the guidance of Skip. But just a couple of minutes later he waves me over, saying he's got to talk to me about something. Let's just say I'm not always the most sober person in the crowd when I partake in Rollback Thursdays so I'm fairly certain he's about to bust my balls for getting nutty. Nothing of the sort! Tom Fournier is an avid 'Pad reader. So, Tom. In the spirit of the holidays I wish you a very Merry Christmas and I thank you for your continued support of the 'Pad. In the past I've done my best to publicize my patronage of L/A's best sportsbar, in fact I spent some of my 21^st birthday at Gipper's (I had drank close to a fifth of Jack prior to arriving so I ordered a beer, walked back outside and passed out in the parking lot...but the effort was there.........).

With that, I enjoy knowing who reads. So, say hello sometime. Let me know what you like of my material and what you think sucks. But if you think anything I post sucks you can piss up a rope. THIS IS FOR MY ENTERTAINMENT ONLY, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Oh, and Gov't Mule kicks some serious tail.  Don't forget that, either.

–

But in all seriousness it still doesn't really feel like Christmas. It's not the lack of cold or snow or a tree or decorations or any of those physical sorts of things, it's just my close friends and family are all 5000 miles away, for the most part. I've met plenty of cool people, I live with cool people, but, shit, it's just not the same. I can't bust my mom's chops for listening to shitty Christmas albums “just so she can say she's listened to them all this year” or my pops for opening his presents while someone else is opening one. He's selfish and greedy, really. Or getting on Krysta's nerves, well, just because it's easy and I'm a jerk. Then knowing you don't have to talk to anyone Christmas night because we're all going to end up at Gipper's anyway by six or seven and then trek to the Goose for the best Christmas party in the world. So, I know it's early, but can someone please play some Temple of the Dog on the jukebox and then sit up on top of the booths while it's playing, smiling down on the couple hundred folks packed in tight to wait a half hour in between beers because no one can move. I can't think of a better way to spend Christmas.

To those who I love: I love and miss you. To those that I miss: I miss you. To everyone else: Merry Christmas and thanks for reading.

And to all: The airport code is OGG. Just let me know the day and time you land.

–

I've been sick-ish for about a week and a half now. I say sick-ish because I'm definitely sick but I'm continually telling myself I'm not sick while trying to blame my symptoms on other contributing factors. For instance, all of this week has been super voggy. Vog is volcanic fog that I'm sure isn't exactly healthy for you. When the winds are right (or wrong, is more like it..) they blow over from the Big Island and it's super hazy and humid and it can get a little difficult to breathe. More or less, it sucks. So the vog has definitely been making me feel worse than just your standard cough due to a cold but at the same time I still don't feel that bad. My nose drips, I have a hacking cough and one of my ears has been plugged up for the last four days or so...but I'm not really sweating over it. I'll get better, right? I've been self-medicating with Wild Turkey, Steve-weiser, and plenty of salad. I can't for the life of me figure out why I'm not back to 100% yet. Wednesday night I smoked my first cigarette since July. I'm a bad person. Peer pressure is a motherfucker and those cancer sticks are just so darned tasty sometimes I need to have them. I'm not addicted...I'm not addicted..

No, I'm not addicted. They're just tasty treats sometimes.

Back to the cold. I know some of the reason I'm not super bummed about getting a cold is because it's still pretty gorgeous out every day. I'm not stuck in stale, office air all day. I sleep with my windows open. The poison has plenty of opportunity to drift away so I don't feel like I'm swimming in my own filth while I'm sick. I'd still prefer to not be snuffly, so hopefully two days off for the holiday will turn my mini-frown upside down..

–

It appears I've developed a pretty serious personality as the guy who rides his bike all the time without a shirt on. I have a rear rack ad bungee cord so I bungee my book and a t-shirt onto the back of my bike wherever I go, then if I need to wear a shirt I'll have the shirt to throw on. Then, when I head back up north I usually just ride shirtless again, even at night because it's still warm enough for me to work up a sweat so why would I wear a shirt for fifteen minutes just to take it off when I get home because I'm sweaty? I'd be left with a dirty shirt EVERY day. Talk about waste?!?! So I ride shirtless. It's pretty badass. I'm pretty badass. No big deal, ladies and gents.

It just funny that multiple people have come up and used “I know I see you riding your bike all the time, but I don't exactly know you” as an opener. It's gotta be the 'stache. Fear the 'stache. Finally, it's starting to get a little ridiculous. I think it may finally be time to locate some wax. Wax would kick the flair factor up at least another notch (From “WOOO” to “WOOOOOO..” I know eventually I'm not going to be able to go much higher. One of the bartenders thinks my look now is the spitting image of John Bonham, drummer for Led Zep. So, I've got that going for me, too. You've still got to wonder what people think when they see goofy-ass me, though, right? If I wasn't me I don't know what I'd think if I saw me. Hell, I am me and sometimes I see myself in the mirror and crack up. That's because I'm in on the joke. It's a GOOD one.

–

Thursday morning some landscapper folks came and trimmed up the palm trees right in front of our door. Now we've got a killer view of the ocean. Even more killer than we had before. One of the guys cutting down the palms was standing outside of our door and said: “Holy shit. Look at this fucking place. View of the ocean and Barbe's? That's fucking perfect.” If it's good enough for seedy landscapers then it's good enough for me. I'll leave you with this. I'm running out of steam. I don't work Friday so I wasn't concerned about staying up until all hours of the night, because if I get tired during a day off I can just take a nap. This brain dump was worth staying up until 2:30am for. And the Mule train is still going strong. In case I don't get anything else up before Saturday I hope you all have a holly, jolly Christmas. It's the best time of the year. Say hello to friends you know, and have a cup of cheer.

And in case you didn't hear:

O, by golly, have a holly, jolly Christmas this year, indeed. Cheers.

Yeah, maaaaaaaan..

Cheers.

F-ing ATM's..

I went to the cash machine last night to withdraw some US currency so I could by a little salad and, wouldn't you know it, I left my card in the machine.  It was one of those old, bootleg machines where the card slot and receipt slots are no where near one another and the card doesn't get spit back out until AFTER the receipt.  That seems pretty back-assward, if you ask me.  PLUS almost all of the machines have gone to swipes so I always have my card re-elastized before I even enter my personal identification number.  F me, man.  I was at the cash machine attached to the bank so I hope, so long as no one took it out of the machine, that the machine ate the card and I'll be able to get it back tomorrow morning.  I need to go to the bank to deposit some checks so it shouldn't be too much of an inconvenience.  But, F, man.  Not too impressed with myself right now.

I didn't realize I had left my card in the machine until Sunday afternoon when I was attempting to pay for a late breakfast.  Bollocks.  There were intentions of this post being longer yesterday but I got sidetracked and now I need to head to the bank so I can allow myself ample time to pedal to work.  Sue me.  Cheers.

My freshman year in high school I played basketball on the freshman team and we ran train on just about every team we played. Somehow I managed to start my fair share of games and we'd run the same play to start every game and I'd always get the ball under the basket and lay it in. Well, shoot it from close range and have it go in. I could sky back then but my 5'8” wasn't getting up over the rim far enough to lay it in. But I averaged about 2.5 points per game that year. Not too shabby if you ask me.

I thought of this because I was listening to some profane songs on iTunes and I remembered back to freshman year, before internet downloading caught on, and I made our froshy warmup mix by placing a cd player next to a cassette recorder and dubbing the CD track onto the cassette while muting any time a profane word occurred. I'm pretty sure I got some “Ruff Ryder's Anthem” on there too, which is pretty impressive in hindsight considering the plethora of N- and F-words DMX throws around on that particular track. I know a couple of them I had the bunk-ass clean mix, from singles or random CD's, but for the most part the warmup tape was the result of my quick fingers. I know we had “Ain't Nothin' But A G Thang” on there. We were pretty badass for fourteen and fifteen year olds.

--

For my new position as a food runner I'm required to know ingredient lists for every item on the menu. Not gonna bullshit you: right now I don't even know what some of the dishes we serve look like. This could get pretty silly pretty quickly. I bought some flash cards though so I'm sure manage. Right now one of my tests is scheduled for the morning following our company Christmas Party. I've got three words for that test: NO. FUCKING. WAY. That shit's getting bumped ASAP tomorrow AM, and we'll leave it at that.

I guess out here there's no PC police because it's not called the “Holiday Party” or any of that shit. Like, “Yeah, it's a holiday party. I know Hanukkah happened two weeks ago. We only put it right before Christmas because that's when it's most convenient for everyone.” Ya.......no. But pretty excited to get hammered drunk on the company's dime. Should be A-OK.

--

I probably should have been studying menu items last night but all I could do was play solitaire.  IT'S LIKE COLLEGE ALL OVER AGAIN.  Cheers.

[Yet another..] Glimpse into my awkward life..

This has been an odd week. I'm not sure as though it was necessarily a great week, yet at the same time I wouldn't go so far as to call it a bad week. Just more or less odd. I've spent a few down minutes during the days and in the evenings attempting to make sense of how things actually got to where they did and then transpired in the manners in which they did and as I pause to reflect about all I can really say is things are just silly sometimes.

I had a female visitor this week not named Jenny or KathV who came to the island for the week and we didn't sleep together. The fact I didn't get laid didn't bother me particularly; as a twenty six year old male I'll more or less take any hide the carrot opportunities that arise these days but I don't lose sleep when things don't go my way in this particular department. This wasn't anyone who I had crush-ed or sweat-ed on or was interested in encountering on a more intimate level as a potential “one” or any of that idealized, romanticized b.s. which quite a bit of my younger days [read: wait that still happens, just not in this particular instance so let's move on..] were spent hemming and hawing over.

Tuesday evening after dinner prior to sleepytime I offered space in my bed. She chose the couch. That was the end of my effort for the week. Call me a gentleman in that respect. A boyfriend was mentioned beforehand. I didn't detect seriousness but I didn't inquire deeply and that sneaky shit has never really jived with me so the lack of action has undoubtedly provided me with less discontent now than I would be feeling had I fornicated with some guy's girlfriend, no matter the circumstance. Karma's comes around in unpredictable ways and I don't need to be worrying about any of that malarkey biting me in the ass anywhere down the line.

I suppose my growing aloha spirit allowed me to be selfless and permit travels to the island with more or less nothing in return besides an opportunity to play tour guide around what is commonly referred to as one of the most beautiful places on Earth. If this doesn't prove that I'm a nice guy – a gentleman – than I don't know what does.

[From here I wrote another page and a half that was actually going to break down more of the week's events that provided me to think to myself, “This is just downright odd and unlike anything I'd do (or generally any person I more-or-less associate with, for that matter..), especially while I'm on vacation, and I'm quite certain I'm not the only one who would find this odd, too..” but I don't really think there's any way I could elaborate on even one instance and my thought process which followed without the strong likelihood of sounding like a pretty big asshole or insensitive in some way and today I don't feel much like walking down that road. I've grown tired of slippery slopes. But as I am generally in the habit of pseudonyming (yep, just conjured up this term. I think it works..) the names of random folks who may not wish to be included on the 'Pad I bid Shirley safe travels back east and good luck with whatever work comes on Monday and, presumably, every Monday thereafter. Hope you enjoyed your time here immensely.]

--

I clipped my fingernails today but once I left the house I realized that I should have clipped my toenails, too. This wasn't a big deal but the nails on both of my big toes had pretty legit chips in them from a hike I went on a couple of days ago. So, in actuality, I should have clipped my toenails a couple of days ago but I put it off when I got home because I don't like to clip my nails right after I get out of the shower because sometimes when they're soft from the water I trim a little too much and then I have sore toes or fingers (DIGITS!) and that doesn't leave me with a smile: it leaves me with a frown. At present I still haven't clipped my toe nails. I hiked on Thursday. It's been a busy week........

--

The aforementioned hike was the Bamboo Forest hike I've gone on a couple of times (and posted pictures of..) well back in the day. March, maybe April. It's on the east side of the island and it's gorgeous. On the walk up (Ya, it's a walk, not really a hike. It takes about an hour to go in and an hour to go back. This isn't really the kind of training I need for a potential AT thru-hike, but you can't beat the scenery so I just go with it..) you pass three waterfalls along a river and then you hop in the river and swim about 100 yards upstream and climb some rocks to get to about a 70 footer. This time around the top fall was just a trickle but it never ceases to strike me with awe. SAY YES TO THE NATURAL SUBLIME...IT WAS ALL OVER THE PLACE ON THURSDAY.

Prior to this hike we cruised the West Maui mountains. I enjoy this drive a little more than the drive out to Hana for a couple of reasons:

1. It's closer, and I don't really enjoy driving much.
2. I think the West Maui drive is more gnarly than the road to Hana. 

Hana's longer so there are more one lane bridges and the like but I really think the West Maui drive has far more truly sketchy places. You're on cliff's edge a lot more, there's a greater chance of encountering fallen rocks in the road, it's less traveled. You're right on the oceanside, at times looking down hundreds (maybe even thousdands, the West Maui's peak over 6,000 so there are times you're way the f up there just skirting the shoreline..) of feet to the ocean below. It's just cooler. And that got the day started! BIG DAY ALREADY, WATCH OUT.

Then, AFTER the hike we drove up Haleakela, a 10,000ft “dormant” volcano. There was actually a little earthquake a couple of days before Thanksgiving that I forgot to mentioned because I didn't actually notice it but apparently shit shook at the restaurant and shit shook at the apartment. It was determined to be a 4.3. When this sucker pops again it's going to be CRAZY, but I don't anticipate being here when it does. I'll activate my car's wings and fly away. Yeah...I don't have a car. Guess it better not pop soon.

ANYWAYS we made it up to the top just a few minutes before sunset so it was absolutely nutty watching the sun set over the clouds. It felt like I was in a plane, only the plane was all glass and I wasn't cramped or angry about being on the plane. But yeah, I found the views to be breathtaking and as usual I'm quite certain my pictures did in no way, shape, or form do it justice. You could see the Big Island from up there. Yeah, it's big and all but it's also far away. That was pretty wild.

It was also cold as balls on top, as you're standing 10,000 feet above sea level and I guess that does something to bring the temperature down when the sun isn't directly overhead. We brought sweatshirts but we all had shorts on. It felt like being back in Maine in a way so I may investigate getting back to the top on Christmas Day. If I can't have a white Christmas I may just have to take an quasi-uncomfortably cold one, at least for a small portion of the day. Much like in Maine, my feet weren't cold. Maybe I have magic feet but neither one seems to mind sandals in the cold. So I've got that going for me, which is nice.

Now I can more or less say I've seen “everything” on the island. I wasn't in any sort of rush to drive up to the top because I had toyed a little while back with walking up a trail on the backside that starts at sea level and goes to 9000 ft, then down into the crater and meets another network of trails that gets you to the top. It would have been a pretty solid day hike but it also would have involved things like planning so I took the easy way out. In this instance I found the easy way to be worth it, to the point I can't imagine how crazy I would have felt walking up it and then seeing that view for the first time. I probably would have been more silly than the double rainbow guy. But, I didn't walk so I guess we'll never know. I'll have to settle with hiking Everest now. Cheers.

Faux-riginal..?

I just had a pretty tremendous transition on my iTunes random play. I was only planning to listen to a little bit of Gin N Juice from the Snoop D O Double Gizzle but when that particular track ended I was pleasantly surprised with some Live Era Guns N Roses “Sweet Child O Mine.” Oh, baby. You know I like me some GNR most all of the time. So I got me some GNR at that particular time. THEN, the party continued to Alice in Chains' unplugged “Heaven Beside You.” I've got close to 18,000 songs in my library (within 300, not 3000, so it's close enough..) and music for days “(over fifty, actually, according to the neat little feature at the bottom of the window..) so it's nice to know that every now and again iTunes comes through and doesn't just throw out lame tracks when I'm on the random library shuffle. It hit some good, good tracks and that put a smile on my face. Nice evening, I suppose.

--

Today is pay day. Pay days are nice. I'm training for a new position at the restaurant next week so I won't be able to work as many shifts for the next couple weeks as I usually do while I go through the training to be a food runner. When training I do not get tipped out, eight of my shifts over the next two weeks will be for $7.25 an hour. YIKES! TIC-TACS IN STOCKINGS FOR EVERYONE THIS HOLIDAY SEASON.

But yeah, food running. This means that from time to time instead of wiping down dirty tables I will be delivering food to hungry patrons. This means more direct interaction with customers, which I'm not entirely thrilled about but I guess I'll deal. Right now I can go amongst my tasks in relative obscurity and on days when I don't feel like talking to people (read: most every day..) I just, well, don't. I put my sunglasses on and stare straight ahead.

To food run I'm require to pass a test on the menu. Ingredient lists, cooking methods, etc. I've got a 20 page packet I need to memorize for a 200+ question test. I feel like I'm back in college (well, middle school..) and I'm not happy about it. I went to the local office supply store and bought index cards to make flash cards for all the menu items and dressings and aoilis and other random junk we serve. If I actually go through with making flash cards this could be the most effort I've put into studying for anything in my entire life. This is not an exaggeration: I've never made flash cards before in my life. I've never done more than transcribe jumbled notes into more concise notes, often because of insider info on likely test questions. It will be cool to know what's in everything. I'll certainly be able to bug the shit out of a lot of people with this rather useless knowledge. And let me tell you: I tend to jump at any opportunity I have to add to my collection of useless knowledge.

–

Have you ever seen something and been like, “Fuck, that's such a good idea how had I never thought of that before?” Not like half the shit on the infomercials only on a smaller scale, something that probably won't make you a millionaire. I won't be saying, “Sham wow” any time soon. But a friend of mine has a facebook album (she's a real friend, though. Not just a facebook friend.) that she titled “3 6 5” and it contains a new picture every day. I just found this pretty cool and when I saw it awhile ago I found myself saying “Fuck, that's such a good idea how had I never thought of that before?”

It's not anything I'm thinking of adding to the 'Pad or stealing (facebook albums do absolutely nothing for me.) because, I don't know, I try to keep things original. But at the same time, what's really original, you know? Most everything that we do is the result of learned behavior, right?  Even if we're making an independent decision very few decisions in life, if any at all, are true coin flips, right?  I'm not talking about walking down the street and getting hit from behind by a car but just on a day-to-day, week-to-week, year-to-year, decade-to-decade, over the course of a lifetime can you ever actually say you had a totally original thought or action that wasn't prompted positively or negatively by something else, or a multitude of factors that occurred previous to this particular "original thought?" I don't really think of myself as having a deterministic worldview but at what point will nothing be original?  Are we already there yet?  Is building a faster microprocessor really anything "new and original," or is it just now a slight improvement over an already created process?  Will we ever reach a time when EVERYTHING has already been written down, and thoughts must regularly be footnoted?  

Where the hell am I going with this?  I don't know and I only had three beers six hours ago.  

I know I'm not the first to think this, so even this isn't an original thought. GASP! Think about that as you go about your Thursdays...Cheers (I was going somewhere with this but lost my steam. Then tried to revise and add and just made it worse.  Premature idea evacuation.  Sorry..).