Welcome back!

Well, for whatever reason, I haven't updated since I've been home. As best as I can tell - at least, insofar as my little "Friends" list is concerned - blogging is on its way out as a fad. The only updates I see here are one guy who gets so many hits he might as well charge admission, and one other who seems to use it cathartically. To be honest, I keep the big stuff written down elsewhere, and I havean't been thinking very deeply lately. I will say this: being back in Nebraska is providing a kind of catharsis for me, too. It seems easier here to fix what's wrong, to walk my straight and narrow, to turn my radio on (as Ray Stevens said). God only knows why that is. It could be nothing more than wishful thinking, but that doesn't feel right. One major thing that's changed is my gaming - that is, it's almost nonexistent. I enjoy a good story as much as anyone else, but it's been nearly impossible to find a new game that captivates me the way the classics did: from Mario to Final Fantasy to Zelda and anything in between. I think this is a good development; as strange as it seems to acknowledge it, my parents were right: those things rot your brain. Such is the trap of any media whose sole purpose is entertainment. Yes, this even includes my beloved fantasy/fiction genre. I've heard the brain likened to a muscle several times, and I find myself hard-pressed to think of a better analogy. Some sources of information make you think and exercise that muscle; others are like the brain's Mountain Dew: lots of hype that may keep you flying high for a while, but just makes you fat and sassy in the end.

Also, be careful about when you choose to leave home. You can never go back... not really.

Drake

"I think earth, if chosen instead of Heaven, will turn out to have been, all along, only a region of Hell: and earth, if put second to Heaven, to have been from the beginning a part of Heaven itself."
--C.S. Lewis