How goes it?

First and formost, I am exhausted. Things are wiggling in front of me and I don't like it very much. I dont knwo how long ill be abl to mak this before exhaustion kicks in and I pass the F out! Anyway, here goes.

Day Three of the great southern trip!!!


This day was known quite simply as Alabama day. It was, perhaps, our most action packed day. We got up arly, rising with the very stars that happened to have fallen on Alabama, and raced toward the state line from our hotel in Georgia. It was an incredible feeling crossing into Alabama, as I feel it really encapsulates the heart of dixie. We stopped at the welcome center and took note of the new time zone, as Alabama is Mountain time, or something. We rocked out on incrediby comfy and cliche southern rocking chairs and then said adios, getting back into the SUV and blazing through northern Alabama.

We saw a sig for a flea market every sunday, somewhere near Decarur, Georgia. We couldent resist, and I doubt any of you readrs could eaither. We pull off the road and into this magical place where the southland is strong, and ride down a long dusty dirt road ( no joke) to this massive warehouse typ place. They wre slling melons and produce outside of the place, and then as we passd thorugh I could feel the hot stares of angry southerners as thy gawked at our MASSACHUSETTS plates. We entered, and I could write for days about this palce. The country people smoked freely in their stands, and th scnet of tobacco filled the already murky air. Confedrate paraphanalia abounds. I almost bought a CSA shirt, and no, I am not a confederate. Just to hav one, thats all. A man sold Ryan and Jim some variously flavord ciders, and I ended up buying a book for double the price it was marked at from a fat woman who wouldent show her face to me. Sketchy!

We left this place--rather hastily on the departure-- and got back on the interstate, with the destination of Alabamas largest city, Birmingham, in our hearts and on our minds. We drove for a while, and noticed more and more religiously themed overtones on the side of the high way. W eventually arrived in Bham, also known as the magic city, also known as Bombingham, also known as the most racist place in America, also known as th belt buckle of the bible belt! Your city can't stack up.

The streets were deserted.

I mean it. No one was walking the streets of a city almost 400,000 strong. It was incredible. A rouge exception explaind to us that this was becuase everyone was in church, ad it would be impossible for peopl to walk those incredibly wide and empty streat when they were getting their worship on. So we just walked the streets ourselves! But we encounterd a homeless man who asked us for change in the most complimntary fasion ever. We couldent oblige him.

We explored the city more, around UAB and th hospital. Then we left. I will return someday, birmingham. I have things yet to do with you.

After birmingham, we went out toward tuscaloosa, to Moundsville archeological park. Its a lot cooler then it sounds, and it actually sounds prtty cool. Lots of big ol' native American mounds and such.


I hate to do this, but im to tire to continue. I will finish this entry tommorow, with what happend today and the remainded of Alabama Day.

PCe

Wax poetical

Day 2 of the grat southern trip

This was the day that we went to Gettysburg, nice and early in the morning. We encountered an over eager historian type who told us about the park, then went on a short tour of the museum before getting out into the fields thmselves. There is something humbling and queting in walking through the fields where tns of thousand died and the fate of our nation was largely determined. We posed on top of monuments and lookd ovr the rocky outcrops to the battlefields below. After that, we decided to leave the park and make a bee-line toward Alabama, our destination for the third day of our journey.

We missed th supposed second sonic on th list, locatd in Winchester Virginia. We drove for what felt like forever before getting off the high way in the small town of Salem, Virginia. Here, we were able to find sonic, and wer greeted by a strange fellow bearing an excess of honey mustard and the nam tag that read "Fuzzy Lumpkin". This fine fellow decided to make a game of Ryans well known honey mustard infatuation, and smotherd him in an excess of the sweetest sauce. Ryan enjoyed it very much.

We then drove through what I consider to be the prettiest region we encountered in our trip, that of Western Virginia. It was rolling hills and farms, beautiful green land. It was gorgous, especcially th areas around blacksburg and christiansburg. We drove through Virginia into Tennessee, which stood in guady juxtoposition in comparison to the rural beauty that was W.Virginia. We stopped at a wafflehouse near Knoxville, and it was an experiance. Its a prerequisite to be overweight, miserable and otherwise mishapen to be employed by a wafflehouse in the Tn. Valley, if you were curious. From there we continued to Jettison southward, into rural westrn Georgia, where we found a hotel and stayed the night, watching olympic weight lifting (heavy weight women) until our eyes were weighed down into sleepy submission.

Now for today-

Slept in late, got up, mulled about. Didnt do much until my mother got home from work, when we then went to I-party for my fathers birthday, and bought im some cool stuff. She then took me out to Outback and w discussed some aspects of my life. There are so many things that only my mom knows about me. You can easily say we are extreamly close and feel no apprhension in doing so.

After that I guilted myself into working out, did alright. good military presses, but my legs were really sore so my explosivness in olympic lifting was not really there. Gotta improve that, thinking of buying some Glutamine.

Hung at the basement after that.

I am over the river that tore through the forrest earlier this summer, but the ocean of the year beggining is wide and I think I might b still stranded. I speak in illusion, but man do I miss what once was.

Rant suspended for the time being.

Quote too?

The long return

Th southern trip was great. It was eye opening, interesting, and altogether facinating. Plus it was a lot of fun just hanging out with my friends for a few days on the road. As it is such a long excursion, I am going to b chronicalling the happning in one day at a time intervals, combined with th other events in my life and the occasional rant. So this should b interesting.

Friday morning of last week, we all meet up at the Basement at our predetermined time. Me, Jim, CP, Lane and Ryan all pack our things up, and thn hit the road. Prior to leaving, howevr, we talk about the possibl sighting of bigfoot. Turns out it was all a hoax on the news, but it made for some intersting car time banter. We blaze down th highways at alarming pacs, stopping at th occsional rest stop to re-fill our provesions and strtch our legs. W make it to gettysburg Pennsylvania at the nd of the day, and set up our tent at a local camp ground to rest for the big day tommorow, which will be documented, coincidently, tommorow.

As for today in RL, nothing to exciting. Slept in for a bit, went wimming, worked out. I went to Kennys pig roast, which was pretty cool. Its always nice to see those guys again. Anyhow, after that I went to the basement, whre I was alone for a while. Then we went to the playgound and hung out for a while. For some reaosn, I felt wicked happy there, but then I becoma fairly miserable. I'm so moody sometimes it sickens me, honestly.

Rant time:

I dont feel like talking about anything in depth right now, so I guss I'll make this quick. Love is not a hoax. I have no intentions left me anymore, and I'm ok with that, honestly. But It might be a long and lonley road.

Life looks better from a star thats right above from where you are

This will be my last blog until at least next thursday, unless situations change and I come into contact with a computer. Today was my last day at work, and I am glad to be done with that place. I have honestly never been around more miserable people trapped in a life they dont enjoy then when I am there. The scary part is, I have a sinking feeling that Mico isint that unusual as far as work places go. But a I know I am destined for education, hopefully I'll be able to avoid all that.

I suppose that that is a bit of an anouncement, so I guess I'll make it now. I decided a few months ago that I am going to work in education, in ome capacity anyway. Probably a high school or middle school teacher, although I toy with the idea of working at a community college. Also, a big part of me wants to work in ESL in other countrys. After I graduate, I'm going to teach english in Asian for a year. Should be fun. Its nice to have ome idea of what I'm going to be doing with myself down the line I suppose. The ultimate goal, as always, is to be a writer, but as anyone who write knows, one mut write to be a writer, and I just dont write that often. I wish I did, and I easily could, but I just don;t. No explanation, just excuses. But what happens to a dream defered? I'd rather not know, and I promise you my name will be in print down th way.

Also, I am looking into getting an olympic weight lifting coach and sriously dedicating myself to the training of strength athletics. I have a lut for glory, for individual exaltation, and I will not be sated until I achave that which I apire to. Lets see how far I can take this, shall we?

LAter tonight, I watched the Olympics. It was the Female Gymnastics individual finals, and I had two heavy favorites in Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin. I find thm both very attractive, and alo athltic. Does it speak to my inherent sexism that I chose that order for the words? Maybe. Anyway, Nastia got gold and Shawn Johnson got silver, so it was definetly a success. Hopefully they will be back for more a few years down the line.

It's rant time....


Todays topic....Insomnia- Fact or Fiction, and arnt you to tired to tell anyway?

I have a lot of troubl getting to sleep a lot of the time. Most ights of the week, epccially lately, I'm lucky if I get 5 hours. Then I generally gt a two hour nap in the aftrnoon. Whil I dont think that thi qualifys me for Inomniac status, I do belive that I should be catching more Z's than I am, especcially as I considr myself a strngth athlete and les recovery time means less time to train means les progress. But I digress. Is Insomnia a real diase, or i it all in your head?

I find that the reason I cant sleep is uually an ovractive mind. I reflct on the days evnts, and soemtim major life themes and motiffs. It an odd xperiance, and even though I waste aay with little to no sleep, I end up being a bit more knowldgabl to my inner self then I was. but I'm getting off topic. Is it a real condition, or do I ust have to much going on to rest my weary mind?

Well, I alrady said I dont have insomnia, so I guess I'm not the person to ask. But I dont nccisarily belive it legit.

I need more interesting rant topics....



Quote "Me, we". Shortest commencement speach ever delivered, Mohammad Ali to th graduating clas of Harvard some random year.


Dunno when I'll be back, Love you all!


-DH

What is up with me?

I get o moody, and nothing triggers it. I really dont undertand it. I can go from having a blast to being bummed out in the blink of an eye. I wonder if everyone i thi way? Today wa ok, worked, came home, took a short nap then went to the movies. Hung out with some new people, and I'm sure I'll be getting to know them better as time goes on. Anyway, I have a headache and I'm a bit overtired, but the blog must go on. So here goes nothing.

Sometimes Irish muic really relaxes me. Othertimes I think that its not even really Irih muic that I like, but rather Americanized irish muic. Which bring me to todays rant. National Allegiance: tribute to who you are or standing on a pedestal made of race?

I was born in Winchester, Massachusetts, which conincidently i also one of my least favorite places in the world. But that not the point. Being born on American soil, I am 100% American. I have actually never left the country, and only once have been across the Mississippi river. So I'm very much born and raied in America. However, when people ask my nationality, I have never said 100% American. I identify most strongly with my Irish and German roots, although apparently I have a good deal of English blood in my veins as well. (My family hail from Coventry, if you were at all curious). Is this right?

Well, I have never been to Ireland or Germany. Neither have my parents. If you go back far enough, someone has, but i have almost nothing in common with that person culterally. Be like me and a true german having lunch together proba bly. Having never left America, how can i claim any allegiance to any other nation? In reality, I'm American, and nothing else. But why is that so....boring.

I am probably les bored then most, as I love American lore and history. But still, comparitivly, it much les interesting then the complex and ever chngn hitories or thoe other nations. Theres something empowering about having come from knights and lords, as opposed to shoe shiners from long island and salesman from des moines.

Anyway, im to tired or this right now. More tommorow, then none for a bit.

On today, nd my key is stuck!

Hello readers. Hope all is well with you. Tody was exhusting. I barely slept at all last night, so for the first thrid of the day I was quite the zombie. I hate not being well rested, but I made it through the day and slept like a baby this afternoon. Workout went well, but I did not have the fire like I should. Next time, I hope.

Onto the rant! (Ps: I promise these will get lot better once I go back to school, as my life will probbly be more exciting and ill lso have no time constraints in which to write. I'll probably feture some new aspects to it, different parts. Should be fun!)

Rant: Naturalism, and finding wonder in the strangest and most normal places.

I was wlking over to the basement tody, and I saw meteor. It streaked acrss the sky in blaze of white light, and then it was gone back into the drkness of the night. I then remembered tht tody was the lst day that the persids, or the Tears of Saint Lawrence, were supposed to be visable. So I thought about it, and had my head cocked u to the sky for the rest of the walk to the door. It blew me way. Here I was, thinking about my workout and what I need to improve upon, and a huge rock burns up in the atmpsphere above me, leaving a trail of light. It was like a miracle. It made me really appriciate the wonders of the world, the under bellys of leafs and the strange swarm ming of ant colonies. The world is a mystery, and when I see things like that it makes me think about how it would be hard for everything to have just happened. Surely something must have designed something as complex as the human body. But Evolution makes sense to, and perhaps the designer is just trial and error, what works and what doesent. but maybe its not. No way to tell. I'd argue that the fact that science exists at all, that there are a set of rules and principals to which everything in existnce is goverened, is more evidence of a designer then any biological feat. How coincidental is that that everything happens to make sense? Obviously something is going on here. God or no god, and I dont believe he is neccisarily benevolant if he exists, the world is still a marvoulous place filled with stuff that routinely blows my mind on the daily. For all the bad inside of it, theres a lot of interesting shizzle.

Quote!

"All good things are wild, and free"- Henry David Therou

Against my better judgement

Against my better judgement, I am still awake and have decided to blog. So here goes.

Today was average. Work went fast, followed by a quick nap, the a great workout session. hung at the basement afterwards. Thats about it. I'll speed up and go to the rant.

Rant: Diary of Anne Frank

This book is powerful. There is no debate about this. I am reading the diary of a young girl who lived through, and eventually died under, one of the worst situations in all of modern history. Its incredible. It just makes the entire dark situation seem all the more real and human to me, to read the thoughts and desires of this girl not so unlike myself. I remember being her age and thinking so many similar thoughts. I have actually grown a bit of an affection for Anne Frank. Shes a great protagonist and its incredible to glimpse through her eyes at a world I can hardly fathom, let alone understand. And she makes it all the realer, and thus more crushingly sad, along the way.

There are some people in this worl who think the book is fake, writte by Otto Frank, her father, as a way of validating the supposedly "False" holocaust. This is ridiculous, and holocaus deniers must seriously be drinking some strong koolaid. For gods sake, ther are phtographs and body counts. There are many many people still alive today who lived through it all, and saw the five chimineys of Auschwitz with their own eyes, who tasted typhus at Bergen and generally were treated as animals or a time. Its revolting to me to deny such a thing. Thie argument is that she writes at a level that the typical 13-15 year old girl in this time period would not be capable of. I think a better argument would be to deny the holocaust ever happened because it contradicts so many basic human truths, and leaves me absoulutly faithless in humanity. Theres no way something so grotesque, so disturbing and all encompassing that even still it evades my comprehension could have happend. Except it definetly did. so is it so unbelivable that a 14 year old girl could have cptured the actions of these monsters in an eloquent manner? I'll leave you to decide.

The attitude she has throughout the book is unbelivable. I dont know that I know anyone today who could see something beautiful in that type of darkness. Anne Frank, rest in peace. You are a beautiful person, and honestly, your diary is a testament, a shining hope for man kind. If a young girl can love and hope and wonder in times as dark as Holland, 1945, then maybe theres something worthwhile out there after all.


In the immortal words of Anne Frank- "Despite everything, I truly believe that people are really good at heart"

Tommorows post- A recap of a mindless day, followed by a discussion about birds. Or anything else.