I <3 My Ducks

civil war game tonight. I'm gonna get my game watching on at Rennie's, where my roommate works. He's sharing his 35% discount with me tonight, so $2 beers are now $1.30. Plus he's driving me to and fro. Holla. Here's a video that I *just* can't get enough of.

I smell rooossseeesss....

smartz

I have (for tonight anyway) come to the conclusion that the internet, or rather my obsessive use of the internet, has made me dumber. I have vast amounts of information quite literally at my fingertips, and it's so easy to find that perfect sentence of information that answers any random question I might have. As opposed to finding a summation, paragraph, or essay that prods and pokes my brain to think about what the answer could be.

The internet also provides me with enormous opportunity to procrastinate doing things like reading books, talking with folks about ideas and thoughts, and sitting around thinking, which I used to do quite often. And now I still do, but my thoughts are monopolized with inane daydream scenarios or....what to tweet.

While I may KNOW more things, I honestly feel like my capability to think abstractly has diminished. Though -- I also feel this might be largely in part due to working an 8-5 job. I do think working 8-5 has also crippled my attention span. It was bound to happen.

But I love the internet for its endless bounty of musical exploration. Lately I've been into the New Moon soundtrack, The XX, Neon Indian, Hockey, and ...well as usual...Girl Talk.

And now back to reading Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins, which has proven to be really thought provoking, even though I'm only 44 pages in.

Busy!

I have been TERRIBLE about updating my blog. Admittedly I attribute this in part to the feeling that the wonderful things about Oregon I have loved are no longer a novelty to me, though I continue to enjoy them. Perhaps I should change the name/focus of the blog.

But truth be told, I have been busy. Work has been lively and productive, and I have had the opportunity to tackle new projects. We are gearing up for a huge trip in February to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. I will be accompanying 50 high school-aged youth and 8 adults, who will be serving as mentors/chaperones, for a week in Vancouver. It is definitely an exciting and adventurous prospect. The three Oregon-based mentors (myself and two of my friends) will be taking a quick trip to San Francisco in a couple of weeks to meet the youth and other mentors. Since we're all friends, we decided to make a weekend out of it and see a bit of San Fran and stay with one of the mentor's sister in Carmel-by-the-Sea.

I've also been busy outside of work with my book clubs, a Pilates class I recently started, volunteering at the KLCC radiothon, going to Duck games, and planning upcoming events! This weekend I'm hosting a few friends at my house for a Julia Child's cooking night, going to a Pumpkin Food Social at the UU Eugene church (all food will have pumpkin in it), and heading to Portland for a matinee of either Where the Wild Things Are or Paranormal Activity and going to a preseason Blazers game against the Nuggets. Tonight I hope to start an applique project for my friend's soon to be born baby. I also hope to make a pumpkin dish for the pot luck tomorrow. I'm debating between pumpkin ravioli and pumpkin muffins.

The fun doesn't end there! But you can see I've been pretty busy, and as a result I feel like I've neglected some of the simpler things I enjoy, like finding and purchasing/downloading music, writing, etc.

Ok, now that I've enjoyed a quick break from working, it's time to get BACK to work.

Moved!

Well, I've moved again! Let's have a rundown of the places I have lived in the past year and a half, shall we?

I lived at my parents' house in Arlington, TX for a year and a half before moving to Oregon in May of 2008.

Once in Oregon, I subleased a room for two months, sharing the house with two law school students. This was definitely a time of adjustment, as I learned about Eugene and tried to make some friends.

For the month of August, I lived in a boring house on the boring side of town. The exciting part was that my roommate was kind of crazy! I GTFO as soon as I could.

From September 08 through Sept 11, 2009, I lived back in my old Eugene neighborhood (the Friendly Street Neighborhood) with Susan and her two dogs. A cute house (albeit in shambles), a roommate very similar to me, and VERY dog friendly. It was a good place to live, and I have lots of fond memories here.

My landlord decided to put the house up for sale, so I began looking for new places to live. It was unlikely that Susan and I would find a place that would accept our combined three dogs, so I looked for other options. I found a house in Springfield that was in my budget, would take Luna (without a deposit!), would provide me my OWN bathroom, and was a nice, clean house with a normal, responsible, easygoing and friendly roommate. I jumped on that opportunity!

So here Luna and I are, living in a new house...again. The biggest adjustment this time was the two cats that my current roommate has. But Luna and the cats seem to have chilled out a bit and are getting along wonderfully. I'm still able to get out and about in Eugene, though I really miss being able to walk to the organic food market by my old house. I also miss my old neighborhood, but this new one has an excellent walking/biking path right by my house. Luna loves it.

Hopefully I will get to stay here for awhile, though I know it's not permanent. Who knows where life will take me next?

math sux

I just realized in the last post about three-year cycles, I went from 1995 to 1991. Did I mention that in 2000 (presumably an "off" year) I failed algebra? yawp.

I move next week. A lot of people are moving. Mostly....moving away. My favorite gas attendant is one of those people.

3

Today I was thinking about which years in recent life have been my "best" or favorite years. Then I nodded and realized they occur every three years. (3 is inexplicably my favorite number)

2007 - My hair was doing amazing things this year. I also made some new and amazing friends whilst having a blast with my current friends.
2004 - I went to Costa Rica, made new and amazing friends, loved my job, did well in school, learned a LOT, and went to Bonnarooooo.
2001 - a LOT of new experiences and realizations came to me this year.
1998 - again with the great hair. Just happy times all around.
1995 - I learned the difference between respecting authority and respecting those who deserve respect.
1991 - completed 1st grade, where I had the most amazing teacher, Ms. Bobbie Gournay.

I can't get much earlier than that. So basically it seems like 2010 is going to rock. What could possibly happen?

I could (will!) pay off my credit card debt.
Dallas Mavericks will win the championship.
I could make even more awesome new friends.
Will my hair finally come through and do great things once again?

Having thought about this, I'm looking forward to 26. I think 24 and 25 have been important and valuable transition years. Bring on the awesomeness!

line in the sand

I remember when I was a Senior in high school, I started becoming interested in politics. On one of the first days of my Government class, my teacher said for us all to stand in the middle of the classroom. Then she said "If you believe abortion should be illegal, go stand on the right side of the classroom. If you believe abortion should be legal, go stand on the left side." I watched, dumbfounded, as my friends scurried to their respective sides of the classroom. My mouth hung open, slightly confused at what was going on. Was I really going to have to think about this and make a decision? Right then? Right there? Not only was I going to have to decide, but I was going to have to let everyone know what my decision was.

Ms. Howard rescued me and said "If you don't care or haven't quite made up your mind, stand in the middle." So I went to the middle. I hadn't quite decided how I felt about the very delicate subject of abortion. At this point in my life, I didn't see it as a black or white subject. But then she said, "If you believe gays and lesbians should have equal rights as heterosexuals, stand on the left side of the room. If you don't think that, if you think they should not be able to be married or adopt children, stand on the right side of the room."

There was no ambivalence or wavering for me on this topic. My best friend, a gay guy, was in that room with me. My former best friends, extremely conservative people, were also in that room. These were people who told me my gay guy friends were going to hell. At that moment there was only one place I belonged -- standing next to my friend as he stood for his basic human rights. I wasn't embarrassed. I wasn't anything but proud to be his friend. I could see their eyes uncomfortably shift, as they realized what just happened. They were facing a man whose basic rights they thought should be denied. They were facing a friend with whom bonds had been broken because of ideological beliefs.

The line had been drawn.

How do we cross that line? How do we meet in the middle, and, rather than compromising, come to an understanding of each other?