Surgery

Finally, a problem that's been plaguing me for almost a year and a half now is over with, for now. I've had ingrown toenails for that time, due to a number of reasons, from cutting them improperly and my hike down the Grand Canyon, which made things worse. It's painful and problematic, especially after it became infected. So before I head off to London, I finally got it checked out by a doctor in Burlington. I thought that I was going in for a consulting thing, but after thirty minutes, I was limping out of there with the problem somewhat fixed. Some local anestetics, some clipping of the overgrown parts of the nail and some bandaging, and problem solved. Hopefully it will last for a while.
After that, while I couldn't feel my toes, I stopped by my dad's office to help them move. Ever since KAS started, they were in an office building with a couple of other companies. Now they're in their own office a couple miles down the road. From there, I went and visited my grandmother, talked with her for a little while. She's had a bit of a rough week, because one of her neighbors died the other day, and while I was there, she recieved word that a close friend had been killed in a car accident. After that, I visited my friend Sarah, then went back home. Almost ran out of gas on the way back, then went and picked up my friend Kyle, who's spending the week with us while on break.
Yay for vacation!

Stronger Calls to Pull Out of Iraq

For once, I've been somewhat paying attention to the news that's been going on in the world, and over the past couple of days and weeks, I've been seeing rising amounts of discontent against the administration and the current war in Iraq. I don't usually go to politics here, but I wanted to put my thoughts in order about the entire affair.

To go back a bit, this is where I'm at. I go to a military college as a civilian, a liberal on a fairly concervative/moderate campus. I'm in the minority. A lot of people are going over to Iraq, and a lot support the war. In addition, I've been taking a class called Topics in Global History: Nation Building. It essentially focuses on various cases of nations attempting, suceeding or failing to build a solid, democratic nation. We've studied Haiti, Somalia, Kosovo, Bosnia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, The Congo, scattered South American Countries all at once, Germany, Japan and a couple of others that I'm forgetting at the moment.

While we haven't done anything with it, Iraq, and Afgahnistan are currently undergoing this process of nation building, establishing a democratic nation in a nation that has had little history with democracy. It's fate is still very much in the air. Will democracy take hold and suceed, or will it fail, and fall prey to some factional party or dictator again?

One of the main patterns that we've seen is a number of current nations that were once colonies, and some of the ones that still have problems, such as the Congo and Rwanda, can trace their problems back to European meddling. Rwanda, for example, had two seperate ethnic groups that worked together in a fairly complicated society. Problems started when the Dutch colonists went and actually seperated the two ethnic types, putting it down on paper and favoring one over the other by putting them above the other in the government. This caused a number of problems through the 20th century, and was responsible for the genocide in the 1990s.

We've also studied foreign intervention when it comes to building nations. The US has done this a number of times, with Haiti just prior to World War II, with Somalia, Haiti again, Germany and Japan. Germany and Japan were sucesses, while Haiti and Somalia were not. In class, we discussed reasons that at times, these have failed. The main differences between the recent Haiti occupation and Somali and Japan/Germany seems to be the length of time that we helped them out - almost a decade, before we pulled out and turned over control fully. In Somalia, soldiers were only there to help the UN distribute relief supplies, and in Haiti, soldiers were only there for six months, before a bulk of the forces were pulled out. In both times, much of the work that was accomplished was peeled back, more so in Somalia, which is still pretty bad off. In class, we discussed that the average amount of time for nation building with assistance took nearly seven - nine years.

So what does this mean for Iraq and Afghanistan? Well, influencial senators and congressmen on the democratic side are starting to push for a pullout as soon as possible. The invasion of Iraq was in 2003, two years ago. Pulling soldiers out now would most likely undo everything that's gone on there in those two years. We're training their own army, police and helping with the entire infrastructure - vital things if this is to work, not to mention trying to keep people from killing each other based on religion. We still have a very long way to go.

Keep in mind that I never supported entering the war, for the reasons given, and was fairly disgusted when the votes to enter Iraq came in. I still don't like the fact that we've entered a conflict that has so little to do with the War on Terror (And it's been a very long time since I've seen/heard that mentioned anywhere.) But, we did get outselves into it. We took out their military and much of their internal structure. If we pull out of the country now, we could very likely leave it in a situation that will easily lead a minority faction or dictator into power, and that would bring everything right back to square one.

If that happens, it happens, but it does absolutely jack shit for the US's reputation as a nation and it brings us down and I'm really annoyed that we've been put in this situation in the first place. And personally, while I don't like sending people over there, I really don't see much of an alternative until the new nation is up and running somewhat on it's own, and able to take care of it's own internal problems, without our aid. Then, we should pull out. I just hope that that happens soon. Really soon. Hopefully not seven-nine years, but we don't want this to end up like a Haiti or Somalia.

Wow, I'm slipping...

Okay, time for a geek moment. I'm usually on top of what's coming out in Star Wars literature. I'm usually out there the first day for a new book, read it within the week and then await the next one.

Now how the hell did I not even know that a new one is coming out next week?!

I suspect that the answer comes from being busy with Lexia, school and being fairly annoyed with the last couple of books, which are Post-NJO, and which I haven't been able to get more than a couple chapters into.
Apparently, Dark Lord, one that I was actually looking forwards to, it being released next week, the 22nd, by James Luceno, about Darth Vader just after Revenge of the Sith. Looks to be pretty good and the reviews that I've read are positive. I doubt that I'll be able to get it anytime soon, because it's a hardcover.

Okay, now off to lab.

The World Before

I finally finished Karen Traviss's latest novel in her Wess'Har series, The World Before. Like the first two, I was absolutely stunned at how well it turned out, and it's become one of my favorite Science Fiction series thus far. If you haven't read it yet, there are some spoilers coming up.

The series is one of the harder ones to describe to people who haven't read the books. In book one, City of Pearl, the main character, Shan, is an environmental enforcement officer, and is approached by a government minister to oversee a mission to a colony that had been thought lost. It's 200 years away, and she's convinced to for various reasons. She's shipped out with a group of scientists and royal marines, and they land on the planet to find an interesting situation. First, there's three alien races with claims to the planet. The Wess'Har, a protector / hippy race, dedicated to preserving the ecosystem of the planet to protect the Bezeri. And there's another race that's been trying to get onto the planet for a long time. Their arrival upsets a delicate balance with the colonists and the Wess'har, and things are further complicated when two things happen: It's learned that one of the aliens, Aras, who befriends Shan, is infected with a parasite that makes him damn near invincible. And when one of the scientists kills an bezeri child in a science experiement. Furthermore, Shan is later infected. When the humans arrive, allied with the other alien race off planet, things get even more complicated.
In book two, Crossing the Line, Shan has moved to side with the Wess'har, to prevent the parasite, from reaching humans. (It essentially prevents you from dying) Agents on the humans side and the former marines work to stabilize an alliance with the other aliens, and work to try and capture Shan and destroy the parasite in it's natural form to prevent it from entering the human population. While this is happening, conflicts are brewing and war is almost inevitable. Shan is captured, and before she can be turned over to Earth, she accidentally infects one of the Marines, Ade, and jumps into space, and is presumed to have died. And in the midst of it all, the bezeri have been essentially wiped out by human agents and a colbalt salted nuclear warhead - which angers the technologically superior Wess'har.

Now, this brings us up to The World Before. The Wess'har have called in their ancestors, whom they broke ties with thousands of years ago, to help with the Human alliance and possible war. (Basically, calling in heavy guns) Shan is found floating in space, and survives - something I didn't see coming at all. This brings some tensions between Ade, her and Aras, whom have formed a relationship, being the only people infected. War is still brewing, and the new Wess'har want to reach reach to correct all the environmental wrongs that have occured. The other alien race (I'm blanking out on their names) also have a deligate who wants environmental controls on his planet (their species population grows too fast) but that causes more problems when he returns home. Things are spinning out of control.

Keep in mind that this is an extremely brief and limited summary of the books. There's a lot that I've missed.

I was really happy to have read this book - Karen is outstanding at description and characters, and some scenes I get chills at reading - such as when Shan wakes up to Ual's death at the hands of his own species. The book is much faster paced than City of Peal, about the level of Crossing the Line.
This entry also feels like just that - an entry. I got the impression that this was mainly a tranistional part of the story, with a lot of things about to happen throughout it, but which we'll see resolved later on in books 4-6. (Next book is entitled Matriarch- Karen's working on it now) But some major things did happen here, things that I didn't expect. Shan is back, the Human alliance is almost shattered by politics, and the Wess'har are somewhat split over how they should proceed. Furthermore, it was mentioned in Crossing the Line that the Wess'har from City of Pearl and their ancestors from the World Before don't see eye to eye on how they should go about doing things. I really got that sense, and really disliked the new guys because of that - Karen did an outstanding job getting that across the pages to the reader.

But, the book is an outstanding read. Karen is, in my opinion, one of the best contemporary Science Fiction writers out there. This series is dynamite and it's only going to get better. I have absolutely no idea how she'll proceed. And that's a good thing. If you haven't read the series - do so. Now. You're missing out.

Pillar of Lights

Music Meme

Whip out your music program, click the random button, and pick out 10 songs. Alter the name by turning it into a convoluted, wordy synonym. For example: Silent Night = Nocturnal Time Completely Lacking Noise

1- Movement from a shoreline in a large body of water.
2- A query as to the nature of live on a nearby planetary body.
3- A single luminecent bulb on the front of an automobile.
4- Multiple persons moving to music by the light of earth's only natural satellite.
5- A causeway with multiple turns.
6- A story from a beacon placed at the edge of a Lacustrine body as a warning to mariners.
7- Minute, wooden infantry men designed for a child's imaginary battles.
8- Ocean body that no one has the slightest interest in.
9- A complete halt of movement in a bipolar molecule.
10- Lack of orientation, coordinates and direction in a black vacuum.

Maine

As I mentioned the other night, I was in Maine for the weekend, visiting my friend Sam, who I work with at camp. I had a really good time - Sam's a really good friend of mine, and it was good to see him for the first time in a while. I got to check out his campus, probably a little larger than Norwich, and with a larger town around it with some good things to have. Like a book store and movie theater.
I also got to see how they ran their games club, from which I'll probably take some pointers to our own club here at Norwich. There's some big size differences, but I got some things that I can begin to impliment. I guess we'll see how that goes in the coming week. Plus, Sam picked up the newest Age of Empires game, which is amazing. I just got the demo on my computer and I'm thinking that I'll have to find my own copy, because it works on my computer. Woohoo!
The drive over wasn't bad at all. It was a bit long, four hours each way, but it was a fairly easy ride. I basically stayed on the same route, and the only complicated part was driving through a couple of cities/large towns, navigating through some of the side streets. Mapquest was handy for that part, but downright useless for everything else. Their directions were annoying. I just used the printout map that came with it to get to Farmington.
Picked up a couple of comics while I was at it - got the first and third issues of the new Spiderman run: Evolve or Die. Still need to pick up #2. It's a long, 12 issue crossover with three Spiderman comics out there. Interested to see how it turns out. I also picked up the latest issue of B.P.R.D., following the Frog Wars storyline, that's turning out interestingly. And I picked up the second issue of Rogue Squadron, which is becoming a slightly disapointing story arc...
Now, sleep, hopefully to finish the World Before so I can get moving on 1776 and St. Alban's Fire.

Jarhead

I finally got around to seeing Jarhead tonight, with my friend Sam and his Girlfriend. It seems like a fairly appropriate choice for Veteran's day. I'm currently writing from Maine, at Farmington. I'm here for the weekend, visiting Sam and just getting out of Vermont for a little while. I need the change, because I'm feeling that I'm falling into an emotional rut once again. Gah.

So, Jarhead. I read the book a while ago, and found it to be fairly readable, engaging and annoying. It wasn't written terribly well, but it had a fairly interesting story. So I was interested to learn that it was being made into a movie, and even more interested when I heard the cast for the project. Jake Gyllenhaal, Jamie Foxx and Peter Sarsgaard, all actors whom I've seen before and liked their works.

I wasn't disappointed by the movie at all. On the contrary, I felt that it was much better than the book. The story follows a twenty year old marine, Anthony Swoffard, a third generation Marine, who enlists in 1989. While in the service, he trained as a marine sniper, and then was deployed with his platoon to Iraq for Operation Desert Shield, which later became Desert Storm.

The film goes deep into 'Swoff's' and some of his platoon mate's minds when they're deployed in the middle east. The director, Sam Medes, does an amazing job showing the dispair, boredom, anger and frustration of the two leads, when they're out in the desert, with years of training and nothing to shoot at. In a sense, they're fighting themselves. We see them when they're bored - his platoon mates shoot camels for fun, mutilate charred bodies, fight with each other, swear, yell, cry and sit looking out into the desert.

Medes uses the camera wonderfully, and I've not seen anything else by him to compare, but there is some outstanding imagery used here. A couple scenes, such as the first mortar attack, when the soldiers see the burning oil fields, when they're rejoining their platoon after recon, all outstandingly shot and filmed.

This is not a Black Hawk Down type of movie - very much different. There's not nearly as much action, save for the mortar attack and a couple of random bombings that we see here and there throughout their time in the desert. Instead, the movie focuses on the soldiers, and what their deployment means for their own minds.

In a way, it's depressingly too familiar to me. I'm not enlisted, don't plan on it any time soon. But I know some of those Jarheads. I could pick them out in the background and knew that some of my friends now at Norwich could be one of those guys. And I hope that they'll make it through okay.

Yellow - Grey Escape

I've been writing a lot of poetry lately, much of it never to be seen my anyone, but this one came out very well in the resulting drafts. It's from an idea that I've been bouncing around in my head for a while, and last night, while half asleep, this came out of the following. Let me know what you think.

Yellow Grey Escape

I'm driving down
the path of overcast sun
and shadows of
the late day.

It's an ideal light
like I remember
from the movies and
memories
of before

I see looking out
A man on the front steps
of the tired house
sitting in the ideal
yellow grey light of
the late day
staring at the
sky, wondering
where the past has gone.
In the open now,
fields of the midwest
all around
a lone line of
single
telephone poles standing
in the field of
yellow grey grains

And the sun doesn't
set, while I sit alone
on the hood of my car
listening to the song
that brought me here.

I sit in the idealized
light
looking at the empty streets
of the downtown
as a newspaper floats across
caught by the wind.

It's warm, an ideal
temperature for the season
just between warm and cool
Yellow and grey.

And for a minute
I smile.
Content.

Snow preperations

I finally got around to putting the snow tires on my car, which means that for the first time in the time that we've owned my car, it's going to be driven in the winter. I drive around a '90 Toyota Camery, good car. It's got decent gas milage, and it's easy to drive. Only problem, that they tend to rust, given the alloys used in the framework and whatnot. So for the past five or six winters, we've kept it stored in the garage, and it's kept it in good shape. We're trying to keep our Durango (Gah, I hate that laviathan) off the road as much as possible, given that the gas prices are enough to be a huge pain. We'll probably use it when the roads get really bad around where I live.

Facebook added a new feature, photo albums. Fun little concept, I stuck a group of images from Arizona and Celebration 3 up for people to look at. I realized that I don't have a whole lot of images, or me or of things that I've gone on. I have almost no pictures of anything at camp, despite that I've worked there for six years now. London, I'll be taking a lot of pictures. Hopefully not enough to make me stand out as a tourist. Now, for a haircut. I'm getting sick of longer hair.

Blogger Meetup

I went to the meetup yesterday, found a very interesting group of people. There were two govenatorial candidates, a liberal activist, several webdesigners, a gun nut, reporter, two librarians and one poor guy that got caught in the corner that we trapped in.
Basically, one of the Seven Day's reporters started a weblog called 802 Vermont, and started a list of Vermont blogs. The list is quite extensive, and the first time that she tried this, she only got three people to come. This time, there was nearly twenty five, all with various backgrounds and ages. I knew one person there, Philip Baruth, who taught at the Champlain Writer's conference when I went there. I was only there for about an hour, but people exchanged names and web addresses, and what their weblogs were about, what they used for hosting, complained about comment spammers and some other random things. One of attendees I found worked at Norwich University, where I go to school, which was a funny coincidence. Overall, a very fun group of people there. I was the youngest there.
Here's Cathy's writeup, (she organized this entire thingy): Nice ta meetcha. I even made it into a couple of photographs.

EDIT: Here's one of the pictures I made it into. Got several compliments for the shirt at the meetup:

Artist of the Month: Amos Lee

Let's see if my memory will allow me to continue with this on a monthly or semi-regular basis: I'd like to highlight various artists that I enjoy listening to, ones that fewer people have heard about, or know little about. So, this month, I'm going to recommend a new artist named Amos Lee. Lee has just released his first self titled Album, which has resulted in some good sucesses thus far.

He grew up in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and attended the University of South Carolina, where he became interested in music while he studied history. After he graduated, he returned to Philidelphia and taught elementary school. After a while, he left to pursue a career in music, releasing a self produced EP that did fairly well in the area. The real break came when grammy winner Norah Jones heard his music and asked him to open for her 2004 tour of America. Between 2004 and 2005, he recorded his debut album, which features Jones on two songs- Colors and Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight. Since that first tour, he has opened for two more musicians, Merle Haggard and Bob Dylan, which went over very well. One of his songs, Arms of A Woman, has been filmed as a music video, which can be seen on Yahoo's Launch. His official Website is http://www.amoslee.com , which has some information about his CD, song lyrics, band and tour details.

Discography:

Amos Lee

1- Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight
2- Seen It All Before
3- Arms of A Woman
4- Give It Up
5- Dreamin'
6- Soul Suckers
7- Colors
8- Bottom of the Barrel
9- Black River
10- Love In The Lies
11- All My Friends

Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight EP
1- Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight
2- Jails And Bombs
3- Speed of the Sound of Lonliness

My Thoughts:
I first heard Amos Lee's song, Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight, on 104.7, the Point, the only good radio station in the area, mainly because they play a lot of music like this: new and upcoming, good stuff. It's a very catchy song, with a laidback beat, good vocals and lyrics. I try to keep paper on my at most times, and for once, I remembered the name of the artist enough to look into him on the internet. Later that night, I bought the song on iTunes, and it's quickly shot up onto my top 50 most played list. Later, when I was in Best Buy last week, I found a copy of his debut album for around $10. It's since proved to be a great album, with a number of great songs on it. Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight, Love In The Lies, Black River, All My Friends and Give It Up are my personal favorites on the album, but the entire thing as a whole is extremely listenable. A number of people have compared him to the male Norah Jones, and there are some similarities, not just from her role producing and appearing on a couple songs. Lee's music is a wonderful fusion of Jazz, Folk and Blues, coupled with a great hand at writing and singing. The songs are both simple, but have some weight to them. He just played up here in Vermont, at the Higher Ground, something that I'm still kicking myself for missing. I'm really hoping that he's going to return here, with a new CD. He's got a very promising future, and hopefully his future stuff will be up to the same level that his first album is at.

I took this from Sarah- Take your music list - put random on and write down the first line of the next 20 songs.. then leave it up to the people who read your LJ (if they can be bothered) to guess them. If not - just have 20 songs stuck in your head at once and implode. 1- Every day, every day with you, every letter, every way you do. 2- I ain’t no wide eyed rebel, Oh, but I ain’t no preacher’s son 3- The wind blew and her hair stood still 4- An address to the golden door, I was strumming on a stone again 5- Last night I dreamed, while I was walking that I died looking up... 6- Don't call me hippy cause the way that I look 7- Where can a sick man go, when he can't choke down the medicine, the old Doc knows... 8- Up and Down, puppy's hair, fleas and ticks jump everywhere... 9- I am driving, 85 and the kind of morning that lasts all afternoon... 10- Load up on guns, Bring your friends, It’s fun to lose, 11- It's 9 oclock on a saturday, the regular crowd shuffles in... 12- That Cuban Girl, that brought me low... 13- Live a life less ordinary, life a life extrordinary with me. 14- I am thinking it's a sign, 15- There was a decorated General with a heart of gold... 16- Fine, I understand, Okay with me, if that's the plan... 17- So long ago, I don't remember when 18- The evening was long, my guesses were true... 19- Waiting for the break of day 20- Lights go out in a carry safe, tides that I tried to swim against.

Excitement

"Dear Diary: Today, I was pompus and my sister went crazy. Today we were kidnapped by hill folk, never to be seen again. It was the best day ever."

I just got home to a phone message that was waiting for me. It was the Lexia program- I've been accepted for the 2006 Spring semester session in London! I'm actually going!
I don't know what else to say, just that I'm extremely happy!
Wee!

VT Bloggers: Meetup

7 Days Newspaper has an online blog section, 802 Blog, lots of links to VT blogs, various new articles from around the state, all in all, an interesting site to read. They're apparently doing a get together:

Vermont Blogger Meetup II — it's official
Date: Saturday, November 5
Time: 3 p.m.
Place: Langdon Street Cafe, Montpelier
Cost: Free, but you might want to get somethin' to drink while we're there.
Who's invited: Vermont bloggers, blog-readers and the people who love them.

Spread the word.

I might head out to this, if I'm not doing anything hugely important, which I don't think that I will be.

Serenity DVD: December 20!

It's official: The Serenity DVD will be released on December 20th on DVD. Amazon.com has it listed, so go preorder it NOW.

Here's the DVD cover:

Not quite what I was expecting, but it's a decent cover. Looks a bit like the Chronicles of Riddick DVD cover.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone.
Hope that people are having fun and all that, I haven’t had the occasion yet… I’ve got some back homework that I’m trying to plow through, plus writing up a presentation on Drumlins for tomorrow that’s loads of fun, let me tell you…
And, I was distracted by my sister watching SG-1. I’ve gotten her hooked on the show, so when it’s playing the next room over, there’s no way that I’m going to sit around doing homework…
As I was sitting, watching the last episode of Season 8 and the first episode of Season 9, I realized that Halloween is the premier geek/fanboy/fanatic holiday. 1- It gives us an excuse to dress up as an alien, monster, hero, you name it, without having people question it. Granted, we have things like conventions, where no one will look twice (in dumbfound curiosity) at a group of storm troopers walking down a hallway or some such thing. 2- Free candy. This is the best holiday for geeks, on just those two alone. Now, I’m a little annoyed, because I’m sitting at home working on homework (and, incidentally, this), instead of running around in my storm trooper armor. Usually, I’m hesitant to have it on in public, mainly because I feel extremely out of place, but for something like this, I’m actually in the mood to wear it.
So, I’m stuck at home, but doing things to make doing homework easier. I’ve got the Battlestar Galactica Miniseries, Season 1, Children of Dune, Firefly, Halo, Halo 2, Hitchhiker’s Guide, Jurassic Park, Republic Commando, Serenity, Star Wars (Selections from all), Stargate, Atlantis, Taken, The Island and War of the Worlds soundtracks, as well as a couple other random songs thrown in, to listen to, shuffling. Great music selection. Coupled with a cup of tea and a blanket, I’m comfortable for now.

Also, the SciFi channel printed one of my recent letters in their weekly newsletter:

The Book Isn't Broken
I'd like to respond to a couple of the letters regarding the future of publishing, about the material and the
medium. First, I believe that there is no need for the medium to change—why fix something that's
not broken? Books have been around for hundreds of years, and best of all, don't require batteries or anything but a good pair of eyes. E-books require a reader, electricity and that they don't get erased by mistake somehow.
Material-wise: There are a number of good books coming out that seem to have a fairly "updated" view of the world. Specifically, I'm a big fan of Karen Traviss' Wess'Har series, which has really taken a very different view
of first contact and humanity, and which employ some extremely complicated plotlines before you get to the second book. (Book three being released this week.)
The other is Karin Lowachee's War Child trilogy, which have employed some more adult themes and views that differ from anything that I've read from Asimov's era of writing. I've found both trilogies to be extremely well written, with outstanding storylines and very complicated and mature concepts that wouldn't have been written a long time ago.
Times are changing, and what needs to be changed has been, and will continue.
Andrew Liptak
JediTrilobite(at)gmail.com

Now, back to homework. Enjoy the candy!

Random Acts

One of the things that I really like about some of my friends is the extremely random things that we do. Take my friend Eric for example- One of the many things that we completely agree with is that we should never plan anything out. A) It never works, and B) it's never any fun. I think that we both like seeing where randomness takes us.
This is about what we did today- I ran into him today when I went in to drop my sister off at her piano lesson. Eric and I decided to hang out for a while. We then decided, that after I dropped my sister off at her friend's house, we'd go up to Burlington, just for the hell of it. So we did. We stopped up at Bestbuy, where I found a copy of Amos Lee's newest Album, which is outstanding, and that Best Buy was giving out copies of HBO's newest series, Rome's pilot episode. Pretty cool. We then went up to Church Street, walked around for a while there, in Borders and Quarterstaff. Ran into Rachel and her friend Kara, talked with them for a while.
It was good to be among proper villians again- Eric and I are extremely alike, and it was great just to talk for a while about everything. We don't see each other much, so it was good to catch up again.
On the way home, I picked up a hitchhiker, dropped her off down the road. Never done that before, felt good to help someone out. She was kinda weird though. Large vocabulary for a highschool girl.

Passport!

Had a couple welcome surprises when I arrived home this evening. First, the power was back on. Always a plus. Second, I got some financial aid for travelling abroad, and most of my paperwork is ready to go out tomorrow. Third, I got my passport, several weeks early.

Edward Hopper

On the message board that I frequent the most, someone's got a thread going about the top 100 works of art. Came across Edward Hopper's work through it- some really fantastic stuff there. Ever since Humanities class in High School, I've kept my eyes out for good artists. There's a very simplistic and visually appealing quality to his works. Here's a couple of paintings that I came across that I liked:

City Sunlight

Chop Suey

Nighthawks

Gas

New York Office

More information on him here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Hopper