Steady as we go...

RIP LeRoi

The gorge will be emotional.

A collective dream falling short?

After a long day at work, the commute home can be a nice time of solitude. I'm talking about the isolation you feel in a crowd moving in the same direction, thinking the same things, not speaking, moving in a jumbled unison.

Every time it gets me, and I wonder if this is what I want - if this is all I want...or how could I want anything else? In a world where 1+1 is supposed to add up to more than 2, is our collective dream all we can achieve?

This is how highschool and college mix

When you surround yourself with awesome people

...you get to feel cool just by association.

A good friend of mine won an essay contest in the NYTimes Magazine. Here's her article.

Keep rockin the pen, lady!

I'll be your Tine Moenster

I love people from Sweden. This name came across my desk today: Tine Moenster.

I just happened to pronounce it Tiny Monster.

I'm still laughing.

If you don't make it about the money, it'll be about the money

As I venture out on my own in this big world, I've been learning through trial and error, how best to manage money. And as I learn what works for me, and what most certainly does not, I've begun to wonder about our nation's spending habits.

Not the spending of regular, ordinary people, but the government. I pay extrordinary taxes in this country(just over 35%), and somehow we have trillions in debt. How can this be?

What in fuck sake does the government spend so much on? At least I can pinpoint my spending habits, thanks to www.mint.com. (its pretty cool, try it out!) Maybe there should be some sort of tracking like this. Perhaps some transparent way of finding out how we went from a surplus to a record deficit in about three years.

And why doesn't anyone care? Worse yet - why aren't people taking notice? As long as things keep trucking along, and people don't really have to worry about macro problems, things will never really change.

The irony of this is that things will change if we continute like this - and most definitely for the worse. Where are the americans I read about in history class? The americans of the revolution or the boston tea party?

We live in such a delicate bubble, one that shields our nakedness. If we don't make it about the money - the spending on wars or bailing companies out that have failed because of bad decisions - it'll end up being all about the money. And that's very un-american.

I wanna go camping!! (said in a whiney voice)

I can't wait for the dave concert - me, the desert, some cousins and really freaking good music...oh, and a tent. Flippin - A! I can't wait!