Music: Sufjan Stevens

I very much like the music of Sufjan Stevens and I have for a long time. I recommend him. Thanks to Jason (of whom I enjoy reading his large repertoire of writings and musings) I learned today that Sufjan rather suddenly and unexpectedly released a new album titled "All Delighted People EP." There are some brilliant things going on here. Lots of great transitions, key changes, and even time scale changes. Usually when people try doing all of it together it blows up on them. But it seems to me that Sufjan has pulled it off very well.

Something about Sujfan's music is extremely transcending. Find a quiet corner where you can daydream and listen to an album of his.

to do or die

Sometimes I think: if I were to die, what I would want others to know? Yes, its a sad thought, but it's a reality. Without discussing death at all, or anything of the sorts relating to death, I want to get right to the point and share things that are similar to the former thoughts; things that I wish to impart upon. Instead of waiting, writing down, or willing anything upon my departure, it seems most fitting to share them here. These things I speak of are things that moving me, are beautiful to me, brought great pleasure to me, brought great character to me, put me in a state that I cannot explain but only ask, that you dear reader, try them yourself.

Here are five:
1) Read as much JD Salinger as you can.* His writings leave me amazed and feeling eloquent. The feelings I get could be described as inspired or transcending. It's as if I see something very beautiful that words cannot describe. I cannot describe it. It's a similar feeling I get when I watch children play or do anything for that matter.
2) Watch small children do anything. Just observe them.**
3) Ride, or ride on a motorcycle.
4) Go backpacking for at least 5 nights
5) Write thank you notes to everyone for everything.

*Please pick something beyond Catcher and the Rye, its got to much hype attached to it.
**see #1.

*Sigh and its 28 degrees out

I must admit I am a bit out of practice with writing in blog format. I find myself detesting the word "blog," as I always have, thinking of really stupid things to write about, hating the other things I think about writing about, and then realizing that not very many people read this yet, so then not really caring, only to think about what happens when lots of people do read it and then they read back to this?!

My solution is that I will someday, probably shortly, delete this blog and start over. That is, after all, what blogging is all about, right? Its about telling people what you're going to do, making excuses, justifying why you "haven't blogged" and then stop blogging again. Then you start new blogs and get new pictures and new friends and new... (Oh, sorry, I just haven't blogged for a while and get side tracked.)

I was going to just conclude my blog post there, but:

I think Im sorry for being sorry, but I just told you about it so now Im not.

Really, all I want to share is this product (because everyone knows I only endorse the people that pay me the most.) Click here for Buchla and Associates. They seem to be making some really badass things.

Because everyone likes a good tool

Hello world.

I have always been a fan of social experiments. Ive always liked exploring the mental state and lifestyle impacts of various changes. I like to try new things. I like to participate in fads, then to retreat. I like to go against stigmas and then be stereotypical again. I like it all. In some broad generalization, I would say that I like to experience things, in extreme ways.

So for the last 600 days I have experienced NOT blogging. Not one bit. I stopped writing and I stopped reading anything related to blogs. I must say, it was nice.

I have learned and observed a few things about blogging since that time. I have since grown to generally hate blogs more, but also appreciate something about them more. (At some point I will divulge my thoughts on blogging, not now.) And in the end, I resort to coming back. I am back as someone who feels I can share something with the world. I am also back as a person who loves to write, and this is a wonderful outlet. Finally, I am back with Rocketpack, as a tool. I hope this place might be helpful to someone. I hope that someone (you) might learn something from here, or perhaps, if I am lucky, they could at least think about something they have never thought about, wished upon, laughed about, dreamed of, or cried about.

Because everyone likes a good tool.
And everyone likes a good read.

Welcome, welcome again. *whistles like a bird call
Jared

how much is a plover worth?

continuing on the thoughts about the cost of saving the environment, how much do you think a piping plover egg is worth? just an egg.

go ahead, write a bit, lets see some numbers.

only in nebraska...and california

so i was hanging out with Girl last week. we were down in cortland, home of the hopluia. we had parked and were talking in the car. For a preface, let me mention that Girl is part Asian. me...im 100% wild indian. so imagine wild indian and asia talking in the car parked in downtown cortland.

up comes a woman.

a modestly clad white woman probably in her 60's. one could easily assume she would be kind, moral & respectful. not true. she comes up to my window and taps on it. i look at her a moment and think 'ok, THIS is rude.' typically the only time people tap on my window is when i get pulled over for speeding...so i thought maybe she was a cop...i roll down the window. she starts explaining that she has a petition and goes on and on and im zoned out because im still thinking about what Girl and i were talking about. (we were in a heated debate whether or not a hawaiian lay is considered patriotic.) at the end she looks at us and says 'basically its to reverse affirmative action.'

?!?!

we both kind of looked at her in shock. eventually Girl said 'no thanks' and i followed with a 'im not interested.' i wanted to shout 'wild indian and asia in the house...do you even know what youre asking us!?' but white woman quickly turned her head and marched away. which was kind of rude in and of itself.

i didnt even think stuff like this happens in nebraska...reversing affirmative action? really? i remember when i lived in california, they did this. there were too many white boy minorities not getting into college and someone thought they should reverse it. whatever.

but in nebraska?

i read about it today here. and after reading the article and our experience...im just left with kind of a sick feeling in my stomach. tomorrow is july 4th. its about celebrating our independence from tyranny...a free county where everyone can have opportunity. this country is a melting pot of minorities from all over the world. we are all minorities, but somewhere along the way it seems like some people want to separate themselves (from themselves)

but at least we get to shoot fireworks right?

the warm globe revisit

so Mike and i were talking about global warming. we came to a few general core agreements about it. and maybe one would not be able to call them agreements, but mere observations. here is how mike summed it up:

"...we first need to realize that such actions will have consequences. And, if these consequences outweigh the initial threat proposed by global warming, then the best course of action would be to just get out of the way and to try not make things worse by starving people and shipwrecking economies in the name of environmentalism."

nice.

it is a very interesting exercise to place a monetary value on things. and when i say things, i generally mean the well-being of people, life, death, poverty, quality of life, etc. if one wants to tackle the global warming argument with logic and practicalness, they need to be able to place a value to these things. or at least have some argument to justify why its important to say...save the world.

but thats hard to think about...what about on a small scale...what about saving one endangered bug? lets start with that...how much is this bug worth? is the well-being of the bug...the life of the bug..is that worth $1 dollar? yeah, i would say so. ok, agreed. but is it worth $100,000,000,000,000 dollars? one bug? i would say no. and why is that? well, i think for that much money, it would be better off to save some actual people. it would be better to save the people of a indigenous tribe in the jungles of congo. human life is more valuable than that of a bug...yeah?

well, we could get into the whole Noah's arc tale and how God put animals on the boat cause God loves his animals...sure. BUT for the sake of this conversation, lets just say a bug is not worth trillions, but is worth one dollar.

so now we need a sharp double edge sword to be able to divide bone and marrow...to draw the line. and that is pretty hard. its like the philosophical debate of a pile of rocks. if you have a billion rocks, its a pile of rocks, yeah? and what if you take one away, is it still a pile? Yeah, i would say so.

But what happens when you have just 3 rocks left...and you take one more away...is it still a pile? and one more? well then its just one and its not a pile anymore, is it?

oh boy, this could get tough.

But going back to bugs...there is a beetle here in eastern Nebraska. endangered beetle...the tiger beetle. and it is only found here.

how much is that worth?

http://lincolnjournalstar.com/news/local/doc486a8b2b41e5b255304622.txt

uuh. where did you leave that 9mm?

anyone missing a a fully loaded 9 mm Hi-Point C-9 semiautomatic pistol?

well a 5 year old kid found it today in the alley where you left it you dumba$$

http://lincolnjournalstar.com/news/local/doc4856b094f30ad159344233.txt

what would you take with you?

for some reason i find this picture extremely moving. just a dude and his cats. when it boils down to it, nothing really matters except a couple of your good house friends that meander around. or your fiancee's house friends ;)



















Brandon Smith, 23, carries Bender, right and Fry, his fiancee's cats, to safety Thursday morning in southwest Cedar Rapids. (from desmoinesregister.com)

above average aisle

i read today that the average man walks down the aisle when he is 27.1 years old. 25 years ago that number was 23.2. (for women, its 25.8 and 20.8, respectively.)

i always wanted to be above average.

weezer - red album

if youre an old school weezer fan from the days of pinkerton and the blue album, you might appreciate the song 'the greatest man that ever lived' off their new self titled album, weezer (the red album).



most of the songs off this red album are pretty cheesey, like the last albums of the last 5 years. i havent really ever figured it out. but thats not my business. hopefully they will stick together and start doing some better stuff. and this song is slightly promising.

this site will give you a reality check

http://www.globalrichlist.com/

gas the motorbike

ive had my motorbike for almost a year now. tonight i was crunching some numbers. last year i put over 1400 miles on it. it gets 65 mpg, my truck 17mpg. at $4.00/gal gas, thats $250 in savings. not bad considering 1) i will probably ride a lot more this year 2) registration is $53 3) insurance $98 and 4) im on my way to answering question #486.

question # 486

the question i often ask myself on boring days at work is question #486. And question #486 is: should i be a professional pilot or a professional motorcycle racer?

question #487 is what am i going to have for dinner.

Ratatat album release

Ratatat is one of those bands that will always put you in a good mood. Ratatat is one of those bands that when theyre playing the background, every one asks 'who is this.' they are.

And they are coming out with a new album on July 8th called "LP3". check out this vid of one of the new songs:

datarock - bulldozer

bulldozer by datarock has been stuck in my head for weeks now...

dearest scammer

dear hotdealsncalif,

i wanted to do business with you today, but my senses stopped me. your ebay seller rating has a negative 2 score. hotdeals, how is this even possible? ncalif, how did you let this happen? how would anyone in their right mind want to buy from you? i wanted to get sweet dremel 300 youre selling today, but alas! i cannot risk it. though i care for you, you are outwardly a scammer. your feedback is positive 25%. thats like having the glass 3/4 empty.

not full, hotdealsncalif. your deals arnt so hot.

Big Oil Man, Youre sly like a fox

Top executives of the five largest oil companies tried to shift anger over high prices to a debate over supplies Wednesday, leading a senator to accuse them of acting like “hapless victims” while racking up record profits....“’Current up cycle,’ that’s a nice term,” replied Leahy with sarcasm, “when people can’t afford to go to work” because gasoline is costing close to $4 a gallon. {continue reading via msnbc}

Glad to see our government trying to crack down on coerciveness. Regardless of who's to blame, Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. has a good point. Not too many people are going to benefit when gas is $4 a gallon.

the magic what?

this has got to be one of the most rediculous things. i have ever seen. in my entire life. (the magic wheel)

nostalgia

This map brings back 10 years worth of memories. Ten full years of random and exciting and dangerous memories. There are so many of them. and this place...its so far away from me now.

At the top of the map (north) there is the town of Petaluma. I moved there when I was in the third grade in 1989. It was right after the big earthquake that rocked Northern California. So no, I never felt an earthquake when I lived there. If youre the type thats into earthquake stuff. The big fault up there is the San Andreas fault. You might notice on the map a big triangular piece of land thats all green. That is Point Reyes National Seashore. San Andreas fault is slowing moving that whole piece of land north. You can pick out the divide if you look closely. They say it will be up near Alaska in a few billion years.

Petaluma is about 45 miles north of San Francisco. At the bottom right corner of the map is where the Golden Gate Bridge crosses the San Fransisco bay into the City. Its marvelous. The big body of water on the right is part of the Bay. and the water on the left is the Pacific Ocean. Yeah! Pacific Ocean! Surfing right?!? Well yes, but its cold. The ocean up near San Fran varies by about 6 degrees year round. It hovers around 54 degrees. You need to wear a wetsuit if youre going in. And people do. At the botton of the map, you might notice "Stinson Beach" Thats a good surfing spot. In fact, there was a shark attack there when I was in about 6th grade. Off the coast is one of the best breeding and feeding areas of sharks. Yeah! My poor mother, she was always petrified when I went to the beach to do various activities.

On the right you might notice Highway 101. Great highway. As one drives south into sanfran, it becomes like six lanes all curvy and ups and downs. traffic moves pretty fast and the drivers are crazy. I learned to drive crazy as a result. Well...and also driving out to the beach. We lived about 30 minutes from the ocean and there are some of the funnest roads going out there. Often, after school we would just drive out there. Maybe park at a cliffs edge and watch the sunset or listen to the ocean waves crashing. It would be a regular occurrence to see business men from the city to be out on the beach during sunset with their shoes off and ties loosened just relieving some pressure of the day.

I particularly loved driving out to Point Reyes, or thereabouts. Point Reyes is an amazing place. One could get lost in there for a few days at least. There are waterfalls that fall right on to the sand like 100 ft and then carve out mini grand canyons in the sand after every high tide. There are hundreds of sea lions that hang out in the hard to reach coves. There are sea shells, there are mountains and ferns and trees and trails that they have to trim the undergrowth away just so one can hike through a gauntlet of greenery.

Theres little coastal towns that have such a fresh salty smell and usually foggy brisk mornings. Saltwater candy is sold, oysters, crab. I would go 'poke-poling' for crabs on jetties of rock and then boil them up at our sandy campsites. Skimboarding and boogie boarding were regular past times. If you ever happen to make your way into my Nebraskan living room, you will see my trusty skimboard hanging on the wall. Theres not much use for it anymore.

And that sharp point out at Point Reyes... There is a lighthouse there. Oh the beauty and wonder of that lighthouse. We would meet people there from all over the world to come to that point to whale watch. There is something like 300 steps one has to walk down to get to the actual lighthouse. Men of old would make that treacherous trip in 80 mph winds to light the old lantern.

Then there is Mount Tamalpias to the south. One can see this mountain from the city. And the trails there are amazing. I loved going backpacking there, or biking. I will never forget, on a 3 day backpacking trip, we were hiking through the dense trees and came into a clearing only to find an outdoor amphitheater where sound of music was being acted out! Such is the analogy of these places around northern California. There are so many little treasures hidden. So much beauty.

And thats just around the area. There are also redwoods to the north, Napa valley across the way, mountains to the east beyond the central valley where fruit grows enough to fill pharaohs storehouses. There was whitewater rafting, and snowboarding. There was random road trips and the Sunday afternoon drives. There was the near perfect weather all summer of 60-70 degrees. The fog, the rain, the occasional snow. The smell.

Its all back there. And often, i am taken back. I am reminded of it and daydream of those memories constantly. For ten years I was there and never had a dull weekend. And people have no idea. No one really knows the memories I have dwelling right under the surface. And its such a strange feeling. Simply put: a nostalgia of permanent proportions that has woven into every aspect of my life. But the regret and longing to return is not overwhelming. There is contentment in it all. I will always remember returning to Nebraska to go to college and when i did tell people I was from California (which was rarely), they gave me this look of utter confusion. "why are you in Nebraska?" Ha! I would laugh inside...if only you could understand. Then came graduation and friends moving. Everyone moved away it seemed. To Oregon, New York, Chicago, Montana, Germany, Phoenix, Washington, and even California. They have this itch. They hate it here. Well let me tell you a secret: people hate it there too. Everyone seems to hate where they are from.

But I, I dont really have that itch, just the duality of having lived it all once...a long time ago it seems. I am thankful for the contentment and the memories.