I am going to post this on Thursday

because I forgot to do it last weekend and it makes me feel guilty. It is such an easy assignment to do that I cannot make an exscuse for myself. So last week I drove to San Francisco to see my brother and I have had a difficult time adjusting to school. My brother has become increasingly spiritual over the past year and he bombarded me with one-sided three hour conversations. They led from Buddhism to Super String Theories to the creation of the universe, to etc. I felt very drained mentally after seeing him. I don't know if this seems like a cop out but I am not really that interested in where I will end up after death because I feel like it is just too far away to be a main focus in my life right now. I have always been prone to pay more attention to sensual topics over worldly topics. My brother is a very intelligent man, but when he loses a focal point to direct his energy towards, he goes off the deep end. I slept very little and felt the affects later on in the week. I missed some classes that I should not have and that always bothers me. It is Thursday and I finally feel back to normal. I hope that it snows today. I can't appreciate the cold weather without the snow, because without snow it is just plain old cold weather. To conclude I have a joke. "What did Lewis and Clark say when they came upon the Columbia?" . . . "Dam it!"

It has been a rough week

My car is broken. It is weird because I have been without a car before but when you become used to having a car it is terrible. I have to take it in to the dealership and they charge . . . 100 dollars per hour to work on it. That is a lot of money no matter who you are, much less a poor student. Enough about the bad things. I am driving (pending the repairs) to San Francisco on Tuesday. I am so excited to go because I have driven to California a lot and I always enjoy it. Although it takes a little longer I like to go down the Oregon Coast and see all of the quaint little beach towns. Although that is nice, the best part of the drive is the redwood forest. When you stand next to a colossal redwood tree you feel so insignificant. I have a tradition of eating the greatest calzone in the world in the secluded town of Miranda, CA., population 250. The last time I was there some stranger invited me to a house party. There were 50 people at the party which means that 1/5th of the town showed up. One more good thing about the drive is it gives me 24 cumulative hours to think and my mind will inevitably drift to my essay. I badly need some original ideas, as I was greatly disappointed in my rough draft. Have a good weekend.

To be honest, I just started

reading your posts. I feel like if you take the time to read ALL of ours, then we should do the same. I think that these give a very real depiction of people. It has been a good week. However, I stopped exercising and it is so hard to get back on that horse when you get off. On paper this is going to sound gross, but I washed my hair for the first time in 9 months. Shampoo and conditioner. It was like reuniting with an old friend. It is a little sad that this was the highlight of the week. Not much else. . . Aloha. Sorry I missed class by the way.

To be completely honest, it is

really nice to have completed that essay. I think when you do something that you are proud of then it is a lot easier to wash it out of your mind after the fact. This does not mean forget it completely, just not let it consume your thoughts. It has been a great week. I love this weather. It is kind of weird because as you are in your car with the heat on, you look out at the sun shining bright and attribute the warmth you are feeling to the sun. It feels like summer again, if only for a moment. You are suddenly jerked back into reality when you step out of the car and feel the sub-zero temerature. I guess sub-zero might be an exagerration, but cold. I am pretty sure I spelled that word wrong. I love the winter because when it is cold and gray outside, you feel a lot better about luzzing around your house. It also allows you to focus more of your time on your scholastics. Who says scholastics? I have no idea where that came from. My thoughts are scattered a bit, so I am going to stop writing now. Enjoy your weekend.

I missed my post last week

and I kind of felt bad about it. It is kind of inexcusable because all you are asked to do is go online and write to your hearts content. I went to a gathering of people called Barter Fair this weekend. The idea is that you are in the middle of nowhere, and everyone gets together and barters off the things which they do not need anymore. It was really refreshing because I have been thinking about my thesis for my essay a lot, and I noticed that at this festival, all different walks of life; Ages, races, income levels got together in Peace. It was pretty uplifting, and as an optimist I feel like we are moving in the right direction. The lovely honeymoon period of school has worn off and the work is becoming overwhelming again. But I guess if it was easy, wouldn't everyone have degrees? I guess that is about all. Besides one big highlight, it has actually been a fairly boring week. I am sick and I need to go get some rest. See you next week.

It is kind of a relief to do this weekly

because you write a little differently when you know you are not going to be graded. The most important thing that happened this week is that I hurt my back in a fight. It was not a malicious drunken fight, just my friend and I training. I am sure this will go way over most of the readers heads, but I was put in a triangle choke and tried to roll the wrong way to escape. Mistake. I have never broken a bone or been seriously hurt so the idea was foreign to me. However, I realized something; When you are in chronic pain, it dominates your mindset. Everything you do you have the afflicted spot on your mind. I guess you could say that it made me empathize more for those people who are in pain all of the time. I went out looking for love last night, and ended up settling for lust. It seems like all of the ladies I have interest in do not call me back. Maybe I should draft up a contract where the terms are a return phone call in the morning. I may do just that for the look on a lady's face when she is presented with it. All in all, it was a great week and tomorrow I head to Seattle to reunite with an old friend, at the Hilton. As my father used to always say, "Jake, you will soon realize that all roads lead to the Hilton." He really used to say that. In closing, I hate Paris Hilton.

To get a good idea of who I am

I am not going to tell you those basic things which everyone asks about people. An example of these things are: What is your major? How tall are you? Do you have any brothers or sisters? If you knew the answers to all of these questions you would know no more about me than I do about any celebrity in Hollywood, although my knowledge of this is limited at best. I just re-read The Little Prince and I actually believe that I understood the message of the book, so I will use the book as an influence on my first entry. I must say that my recent understanding of the book has very little to do with what I have learned in school this year and a lot more to do with my intake of Alkaloids this summer. Whoever says that you use only 10% of your brain was misled. I used to collect butterflies when I lived in Thailand because they were so numerous, diverse, and beautiful. I was so excited to start that I caught about 20 on my first day, including many different species. However, I overlooked the fact that you had to kill them to have a collection. I will never forget poisoning that first one with rubbing alcohol. The other 19 I set free, and I think it may have been one of the best decisions of my life. It is funny how you can go from overwhelmingly enthousiastic about an idea to repulsed in a matter of hours. It was the shortest hobby I ever had.