Remember when I said 'what if' was seductive? Well, 'what if' has just become a disbelieving 'alright!'

I drove to work slowly this morning, taking in the beautiful clouds and listening to Moby; This song occupies a Deep and Wonderful place in my soul: a place filled with the most excellent of memories and one of my very favorite people in all the world...I arrived at work in a good mood, still indulging in the echoes of the past, then got busy collecting trash around campus with a couple of exhausted students. Man, post-finals students are messy, messy creatures. Right in the middle of all this revulsion I stumbled across the hubcap I had lost over a month ago. I had thought I would never see it again, but there it was, lying all covered in dirt and weeds in the bottom of the vee ditch! Very exciting.
Campus is as desolate right now as the aftermath of a bombing raid...I have never stayed over Christmas before, and I have never seen things so forlorn and silent. Still, it is nice. I like the calmness and all the echoing empty space. But the kitchen is completely shut down, and that is a real bummer. Folks are talking about Mupu lunches with beer though, so good may come yet...

I got myself a girlfriend. And she's better than all y'all's 'cause she has purple hair and wings!

What is the very best quality one can discover in another? Humility. True humility.

"What if...?"

Perhaps the most seductive and exhilarating phrase in the English Language.

All is leaves and wind and brittle sunlight today...Quiet, contemplative and pretty. A perfect Autumn day, though it is almost Christmas. Where has this year gone? Everything and nothing has changed, and plans that were concreted in place have been torn from their foundations and tossed to roll down the slopes of tomorrow's shy hopes. And what is to come? We never end up quite who or what or where we thought; but with wry recognition are ready to admit we are not far from the tortured fairyland of childhood. All the innocence, passion and fear of the young mind is not gone; it is merely buried under the so-called 'lessons' of maturity---an excuse for fortifying our souls against all the pain we have experienced that we are sure has been undeserved. Rip it all open---leave these thoughts; throw away the selfish notions that do nothing but keep us from love. Hope, as ever, is the key. Whether ruminating about the past, glorying in a present joy, or trying not to grin about some delight just around the corner, life cannot be allowed to become boring. Lose hope, lose virtue, and you lose not only your soul, but even the momentary happiness you seized at the expense of prudence. For we are a people who have been granted knowledge. We have no excuse. And for all our desperate running, Christ will never give up the chase.

Thinking about work, the future, and all the bright things that can happen when you are full of fun and hope. A weekend of drinking and talking and enjoying some of the finest things with the finest company has restored my faith in the beauty of life. Now if I can just kick this cold...

In San Luis Obispo...just went to my first Byzantine service...Smoking the Hooka with some of the best folks in the world...

I wandered around the house at least six times tonight looking for something to eat. Finding nothing, I decided to smoke a cigarette instead, when the upstairs neighbor hung over the stairs to gave me leftover doughnuts from her shop...two gooey ones later I wasn't feeling so hot, but still hungry, and upon searching the cupboards and fridge yet again I discovered about an eighth of a bag of chips and a single Rolling Rock. Score! I won't go to bed starving tonight, baby! As for the rest of my vastly interesting life, allow me to account for it with a little poem:

Once upon a grave time
I discovered a crumpled rhyme
On the cold backstage
Of a thought of mine;

Unprepared for that sound
I left it for the dim background
But comments from a slying friend
Sought hard to bring me full around...

Weeks later under warm sun
Thinking of God and things I had done
I said to the grass
How cruel your fun---

Now under a night-filled sky
A lost idea may indeed fly
Born in frailty
Breathing but to die.

So when my wheels may Northward turn
Time and hearth at home to burn
Could joy be greater (I ask)
If that old rhyme I could but learn?

We've decided to start a new hack channel called HTV: mostly it would involve Mr. Six chewing the hack and doing his notorious 360 Back Stall, as well as some killer hand stalls, the patented 'Child-Bearing Hip Stall', and special performances at undisclosed times by 'Pickles', the transient Cucumber Midget. Stay tuned...

It's 3:20am, I have to work at 7:30am, I we have just finished up one of the best jam sessions we have ever had...ah, nothing in the world can hold a candle to good friends and hours and hours of beer and music...

I can't believe I never heard of these guys before. They are quite possibly the coolest band ever