Order, Chaos and Life Underground

I’ve stumbled on a few things lately that have taken up residence in my daily routine. I stumble on a lot of things during a week, but these things I actually like.

Puffins ||  I was only introduced to these little guys last week while on vacation in Yosemite. Of course, I’m not talking about the four species of penguins that you’re thinking about (because we all know that Yosemite is full of penguins). I mean the kind of puffins that can be found in aisle four at Trader Joe’s. It’s the kind of cereal that bodes well for people that like candy. I thought it was a temporary pleasure until I bought a box yesterday…and finished it this evening.

NPR + iTunes || The only consequence to urban living (read: never stepping foot into a car) is that I never get to turn on the radio, my main resource for staying informed on local, national and world issues. But I recently discovered (that I was the last person to discover) the radio feature on iTunes. And after thinking it was probably too good to be true, I hit the button and sure enough, up pops KCRW simulcast. Heaven. Now I can work and stay informed, all from the comfort of my home office.

Naked Juice ||  I’ll admit, my first thought upon seeing the little bottle was “suburbs.” Just another cute little gimmick that all my rich (read: credit card debt) neighbors in the valley can buy to “stay healthy.” So one of two things happened: One, I got sucked in somewhere along the line. Maybe I’m the suburbs when it comes to Naked Juice. Or two, that stuff really is good for you. Seriously, there actually is a pound of fruit in every little perfect and precious bottle. And when you add in that I can get them for $2.00 instead of $3.50, well, you can call me suburbs every day this week.

“Sometimes I think the people to feel the saddest for are people who are unable to connect with the profound - people such as my boring brother in law, a hearty type so concerned with normality and fitting in that he eliminates any possibility of uniqueness for himself and his own personality.”

Doug Coupland, Life After God, 50

A friend, fellow hiker and professor in college is walking the “trail of death” from Indiana to Kansas this summer. I’ve been following his trek on a daily basis.  To read about the trail of death and Keith Drury’s walk across the midwest, try here.  Cheers…

Congratulations are in order for Newark’s newest mayor, young gun Cory Booker. I first learned of this story while watching the Oscar nominated Street Fight a few months ago. It documents the Newark, NJ mayoral race in 2002. Booker vs. Sharp fighting it out on the streets. Booker lost despite being the overwhelming man of conviction, experience and vision (the doco tried to be neutral, but it was fairly obvious). This time, Booker won with 73% of the vote. I can’t wait to see what happens over the next four years in such an important battle ground.

“I believe that you’ve had most of your important memories by the time you’re thirty. After that, memory becomes water overflowing into an already full cup. New experiences just don’t register in the same way or with the same impact. I could be shooting heroin with the Princess of Wales, naked in a crashing jet, and the experience still couldn’t compare to the time the cops chased us after we threw the Taylor’s patio furniture into their pool in the eleventh grade.”

Douglas Coupland, Life After God, page 48

The truth is, I got tired of blogging. Tired of the comments. Tired of working way too hard on each post. I kept feeling like the one-life blog was getting worse…and worse than that, I wasn’t having fun. So I decided to break-up. Maybe for good…maybe for a month? I quickly learned my break-up was more like a seperation. A break…a time to re-imagine and re-vamp. I guess this is coming back halfway. A secret blog of sorts where I can practice what I’ve been thinking. To the right you’ll find “Useful Ramblings” - a place where you can link to my favorites. Then there is “Metro to Anywhere” - the group of blogs that I read the most. From those you can find your way to everyone else.

Order_I like the idea of having some sort of order to each post. Like maybe breaking up each post into a category. Like “reading” - “culture” - “personal” - “theology” - “news” - “films” - etc. I think they’ll be short, sweet and often. I like my house clean. Makes sense that I’d like my blog to be clean too.

Chaos_As much as I like order, my life is bent towards chaos. I’m sure the Blog will reflect this in some way or another.

Life Underground_It’s official now. In my pursuit of faith deconstruction, I lost friends, respect and followers. My response was to go underground…which is where I’ll be writing from.