update

okay, havent been updating much of late, but thats just cause i havent been bumming much. now dont get me wrong, im being a bum, but that just translates to me sitting in my parents house all day playing my mandolin.

this past weekend was spent in richmond with my sister, frank, and vincent (who turned 22 today, happy birthday.) we did some drinking, and some swimming and climbing on bell isle (to the left is a picture of my ass as im climbing up the side of something or other.)

last night i also had the fancy to invite myself to the "life guard olimpics" that where being held at the splashdown water park in mannassas. my brother and friends from work where competing in them, so its not so odd a place to go i suppose, but the main reason is that it got me off the couch.

if anyone has a good idea of what i should do with my life at this point, im up for suggestions, heh.

what Ive been doin.

not so much bumming of late, last Friday i headed up to new york with my father to visit his family, and didnt get back till Tuesday. im just staying at the house for a few days till i go back down to Richmond on Friday for the weekend.

but anywho, more on new york. we (my father, his brother steve, and me) pretty much went up to do some yard work and help out my grandmother a little bit, she is kinda going crazy, and like most old people, doesnt understand how to do most things (banking, computers, whatever miscellaneous modern thing.)

we broke all that up by visiting with other family, that Saturday was spent with my father's uncle bob (one of them, dads mothers brother) who has a house up in the mountains, and is prolly the leading expert on the paths up there (he wrote a book on em, a link to which is now in my 'links' section.) his daughter and son (dads cousins) were there too.

i dont really ever see any of them in a casual setting (anything but funerals and weddings) so it was pretty cool just to hang out and do a little lite hiking with everyone.

later we visited some of dads childhood friends, many of which still live in the area, i met steves beau sandy, who was a lot of fun to bicker with, and had breakfast with his other uncle bob (fathers brother,) who then took us on a lottery ticket run. i got some mega millions numbers, didnt take the 37 mill, maybe next time.

all the while i was strumming away on my mandolin, im getting pretty good at that thing nowadays. (ill come to your house and play up an down the major scales for a few bucks. for a few more, you may get Greensleeves!)

but yeah not all the details, but this is a blog about bumming, and none of that was bumming, so youre lucky you got any of it!

first step of wwoofing.

havent updated in a few days, just havent really been on the internet, much apologies to all my loyal readers (all two of you.)

a few more days spent in borders, dont remember if it was one or two, but who cares, i read a whole book, "the name of the wind," but other than that, nothing really worth mentioning here.

yesterday though, came back the the house of my parents to take my sister back to richmond and get ready to go up to New York and visit some family on my fathers side.

started off by going to Todai (sushi bar in fair oaks mall, good stuff) with my brother, sister, and brothers friend john (jon?) from missureie. roxiehalo as i know him, being that its his gamertag, and jeremy and him met over xbox live back in his shameful halo 2 days.

after todai, brittany and i headed down to richmond where we basically sat around and had a few drinks till we fluttered off to sleep.

the REAL interesting news though, is that (haveing sent it to my sister, being that i wasnt sure exactly when i would be home to my parents) i finaly got my hands on my "WWOOF-USA directory of farms." for all who dont know, that is a (rather large) list of farms across the USA, with small descriptions of themselves, who accept wwoofers.

anyone else curious about what wwoof is (if i can figure it out) ill provide a link to their website on my blog here.

books and comments.

hmm, seems i somehow disabled commenting on my newer entrys, i think ive fixed it now (and here i was just thinking no one gave a damn)

also, as i have finished the book i was reading, and will still prolly be in woodbridge for a few more days, im fishing for reading suggestions, so comment with whatever your favorite books are, or just ones you think i should read.

more woodbridgeism.

the past few days have seen much less panera and borders than normal

After we left off from my last update, john and i decided to head out to ikea for some table diveing, but we weren't hungry, so we just took a long nap. nothing to write home about.

that night though, we went over to maddies house for a roof from the rain and some heavy drinking (as her parents were out of town.) we all partied up and till around four, saw a little be more of each other than we probably needed too (not that im complaining), and had a good nights sleep (inside.)

after my good, couch induced nights sleep, and some playing with maddies dog, we went to el paso for a quick lunck then back to borders for a few hours (i know, boreing, but i NEEDED to finish "bone," which i did.)

takiah was in town, so i rallyed the troups (myself, her, miller, jeremy, alex, and a few of jeremys friends: cameron and "roxiehalo") for a good movie, as miller owed me a ticket anywho. long story short (or short story shorter) public enemy was good, but lonnngggg. always nice to see miss kiyah though.

after that, we just crashed behind sams club, and came back to panera for some tea and free wifi this morning.

and now for something completely diferent!

As far as i see it, their are two main reasons someone would start a blog, the first, and more practical, is to inform friends/family/anyone reading of the status of some person, organization, or event. The second would be to make a greater effort (greater at least than simple word of mouth) to pass on to others some wisdom or view on the world. you've already seen me write the former, no i figure its time for a little of the latter.

first of all, let me preface this by stateing two things:

-first, i, as any of you to whom i have ever discussed matters of such know all to well, am an avid believer of subjective universes. that is, the thought that their is no such thing as a universal truth, and that truth (and everything else for that matter) is a far more personal reality.

on a simple level, your favorite ice cream flavor and my favorite are not the same, but we both think that they are the best ones. to you pistachio is the best tasting ice cream in the world, to me, the obvious truth is that rocky road is supreme. we are both right, cause we both believe fully that something is the truth, and yet there are two answers to what is the best ice cream.

on a more complicated level, the reality around you that you take in and interpret isnt necessarily the same as the one i do. your physics may not apply the same was as the ones by which i see the world, blah blah blah, so on and so forth.

-second, and probably the point that invalidates this whole 'rant' to be, is that i feel that wisdom, and things of the like, can not simply be told to you and understood. you must associate with, live, and learn things before they have true meaning to you.

your mother tells you not to touch the stove when you are little, but you dont truly know what it is to be burnt by it till you do touch it.

Hinduism tells you that everything in the universe is one, but you dont truly KNOW this until you listen to the world around you and feel the connection personally (less definable than the stove analogy, forgive me)

hmm, you know, in defining those to thoughts, i have forgotten what my original point was, but no worries, i think that this lays a good base line for anything to come further from my mind.

till next time.

the story continues (though with nothing TOO new)

another day, another morning in Panera, typing away on linda (though Pandora hasn't been fired up yet):

yesterday after we (john and i) hung out in Panera for a few hours (roughly from 7 till 11,) we made our way back to my best friend, Borders!

Borders was pretty much the day, we napped, and i got more "bone" read (magic number is 987,) and i gotta say, perhaps i didnt FINISH reading it when i was younger, cause i dont remember much of what is going on, and the light-hearted comedy has all but disintegrated into what is now a full blown high fantasy drama.

Kelly (much to my surprise and joy) stopped in at borders to deliver something that would help me in my wanderings (for which i thank her,) but only stayed hour or two.

after we left borders (at around 1030-11 that night, yes, we where at borders around 12 hours, get over it, i like borders,) we (now me, john, erin, and madeline, and soon, robert) made our way back to dennys, got us a round of water, and waited for it to be midnight, as erin assured us that as soon as the date was "7,11" we would all be awarded free Slurpees (and who could, or would even want to, pass that up?)

long drive and 3 seven elevens later, no slurpees, but it was good to hang.

me and john eventually found a nice basketball court stay the night at, and i actually got 4 or so good hours of sleep (though i dont think john was quite so lucky)

and that, my (very few) readers, is pretty much the story.

also, i hope you all enjoy the steady decline in grammar and editing in this blog, it will only get worse.

The first steps.

First of all, yes, I have succumb to the modern devil that is blogging, and I don't care what you all think, I got time on my hands, and this is a better outlet than gambling.

So as I'm sitting here mooching Panera's wifi on my new netbook, hereafter to be referred to by name, as "Linda" (an asus 1005hd, for those to whom it is relevant) I find myself strangely unable to think of what I could say to make the past few days pop out. They were, in actuality, quite mundane and uneventful (not at all a BAD thing) so I suppose I'll just retell the entirety of them.

After sneaking back into my house for one last nights sleep in my large, comfortable bed on Tuesday night, I woke myself up early, so as to dodge my parents on their way to work, and eventually made my way over to best buy, were I bought (in cash) my beloved Linda. New toy in hand, I decided to head over to some free wifi to grab Linda some freeware anti virus, among other "essential" programs. Nothing too exciting.

After I dicked around on Linda for a while, I headed on over to Borders, were I, in no particular order, read 563 pages of "bone," met up with john, and took a nice nap. Several bookstore hours later, we met up with some of johns friends and drove around before winding up at dennys (who fucked up my order, meh) for some cheap dinner.

After dispersing from everyone, john and I found a nice gazebo (about the third choice of places) to spend the night and got some (about three hours) sleep.

Now, back on Linda in panera, listing to classic rock streaming on pandora, I find myself re-reading this entry, only to marvel at how miraculously boring it is. I'll be more interesting later, I promise.