Winter weather blunderland

This last Friday I woke up to the biggest snow that we've seen in over ten years. I was really disappointed because I was supposed to go to Charlotte that day and celebrate my friend's birthday. (Happy Birthday Devin!) I had the weekend off as well, how many times can you manage that? Reluctantly I stayed instead of braving the monsterous storm. However, being stuck at home isn't that much better.

I think snow is only fun when your younger. The older you get the more you learn to see snow as a fluffy nuisance. When your a kid all you have to worry about is school and when that gets canceled you then have time for the more important things in life such as video games, sledding, snow ball fights and hot chocolate. It's only when you grow up and get a job or have friends that aren't right across the block that snow looses some of it's magic.

It gets much worse when you have to shovel the stuff. By then no magic is left and you pretty much hate snow all together. I don't want to sound cynical but it's really hard to love something that has you walled in tighter than the FBI at Branch Davidian.

It was shoveling snow that I spent the most productive parts of my day. During that time I managed to pull myself away from my current dislike of the weather in order to snap a few photos documenting it. These are a few that I shot.

Connected. Or how my iPhone is ruining my life

Recently I acquired a device of masterful capabilities.
I can chat and game, I can surf the web and I can even keep up with my blog like I am doing right now. I am amazed every day at what it does that I often wonder at what it can't. This device is none other than my iPhone (or more specifically my iPod touch but iPhone sounds so much more sophisticated.) iPhones have become so mainstream and ubiquitous that you may be wondering why I am referring to it in mystic, shrouded terms like a cnet writer talking about the lasted electro-gadget. I can't answer that, I guess it's my vain attempt to take up valuable bandwidth talking about my life.

But having this, dare is say godsend, has been revolutionary. I can now do so much at one time. I have now become connected, one step closer to downloading my consciousness into the singularity. I have millions of apps at my fingertips now that encourage me to be more productive. I have a calender, an alarm clock and a thermometer. Now I know that these items individually aren't particularly spectacular enough to write about as they are, but when together in the confines of a sleek, black box suddenly productivity has become cool!

However, this sudden connection has me wondering if too much of a good thing is really a good idea. For instance, my family and I are watching the holiday classic Home Alone. Instead of sitting there and being content with laughing at the antics of a small child as he foils the attempts of two bumbling crooks as they try to rob his parents house I found my self itching to multitask. It seems as if I can't sit and do just one thing anymore. I may have an acute case of onset IIPADD, iPhone induced attention deficit disorder.

I've noticed how much my facebook usage has increased now that I can check and update my status on the fly. I've become one of Those People. You know the ones. They're the people that feel the need to announce every mundane moment of their lives. Now I'm no Ashton Kutcher and I still believe I will never own a Twitter account I just think I can now better understand Those People.

There is a more disturbing occurrence, however, and that is how much this thing is taking me away from my simple pleasures. I should really say that it's worming it's way into how I enjoy them. Those that know me also know how much I love to read. Usually I will bring a book to work to enjoy on my break. Now days it seems the iPhone has taken precedence. Its not that I've chosen to check my mail during my 30 minutes of solace, it's just that I found a way to read on this thing as well. I recently got an app containing two-hundred odd classics. And yes, Moby Dick is one of them. Gaming is another issue. Why play on a console when I have all the virtual rapture I can stand on this?

So I ask is there any redemption for me? Can I find peace? I think so, it just may take time, patience and a lot of thumb exercises. Until then I will love every moment spent with my new favorite friend.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone...was there any quesion?

Life, Death and Sadly Enough Nickleback

I was working the other day,
mindlessly droning away my existence.
The radio was buzzing
the soundtrack to my misery.

Song after song.
Pop hits from yesterday and today
play one after another
again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again...

Suddenly Nickleback's "If today was your last day"
burst the seams of the store's speaker,
cutting through my usual dull disgust
to drill down to my deeply repressed revulsion.

I HATE THIS SONG

This song makes me want to kill myself.
Ironic.
This tonic of suicide inducing sonics
suck the light out of my soul and crush the only thing I know.

Life

Thanks Nickelback, thanks a lot!
Radio trash rock.
Blood clot in the brain of pop.
Chuck Norris look alike is on my butcher block.

"If today was your last day
and tomorrow were too late..."
The muscles in my eye twitch out of frustration
while my heart beats with desperation

I try to fight the nauseating feeling of distress,
the gloom mortification
that comes when I realize
How fruitless my life may be

It's as if Satan himself had penned these lyrics
just for me
in order to drag me down to the world of sorrow and despair
that is his dark wood

Unavoidably my thoughts turn
as I ask myself the question at hand:
if this really was my last day.
What then?

My spirit sinks as I realize
all the things that I haven't done.
All the dreams unfulfilled
and all the love that remains unrequited.

I didn't get around to seeing Dr. Furnish for the last time
to tell her that I still think she is the greatest teacher ever.
And I didn't make it back to school for a degree in
something.

I couldn't travel
to Iceland, Oregon or France
or to see Sigur Ros
and kiss at the crescendo of Ara Bartur.

New friends half a world away
remain unmet.
While Old friends lost to time
were left unreconciled

I never made love
in the summer, in the fall, in the winter, or in the spring.
I never told anyone how much I love them
or how much I needed them.

I wasn't able to see the birth of my first child
and hold her or him in my arms and stare into their beautiful eyes.
I never got the chance to teach my son how to play baseball
or see my daughter off on her first date.

I just wouldn't sit down to write that book,
just to show myself that I could do it.
I rarely worked at something that I loved
because I loved it.

I never learned to treasure each new wrinkle on her face
as we both grow old together.
Nor to learn to just sit and let time go by.
I don't know what true love really means.

I feel all of this in a rush
as that pernicious song
muddles its way through
verse, chorus, verse, and bridge.

It drags my wake
with each of its trite pronouncements.
I feel dead
long before this terrible song ends.

But still the awful question remains,
the one I would that no one ask of themselves.
What might I do
if this were my last night?

I would thank you all
for letting me speak.
I would say that you're doing fine at living
but that you could do better.

I would race to my family.
I'd beg their pardon for all the misdeeds I have done.
I would forgive my parents of their faults
toward me.

I would pray to God,
telling him that I could have done better
and should have done better.
I would ask that he but seal my heart for his.

I would try to find you
just to tell you that I do love you
and that I need you so very much
no matter how silly it may sound.

But no matter what,
I would seek simply to be happy
and learn to feel what is beyond this life
and hope that it is much more exceptional.

However I feel that it is not my time (thankfully).
Many of us, if not all, will live another day.
I would ask that you never live a day as if it were your last.
Instead, persist as if it were your first.