it's not like i'm not a fan of music and/or technology, in fact, it's what i do...but this whole portable audio thin is getting out of hand. first, there was flash memory, then CD MP3 players, and now the dreaded iPod. i should declare that i think the iPod is brilliant and wonderful to bring your music with you wherever you go, but it also helps in taking us away from each other. everywhere i look i see these little white ear buds sprouting from people's ears, completely closed off to the sounds of their environment.

i think Apple has exceptional designers, but everything they make looks like it belongs in a doctor's office, perfectly white and sterile. Steve jobs did for Apple what Rudy Guiliani did for Manhattan, he made it hip and trendy and for the rich. now, not only are we physically removed from each other...we are subconsciously separated by class, who's in? who's got iTunes?

it feeds this consumerist society, it's perfectly American. buy more, eat more, think you're better. of course, this all comes from a graphic designer that drives a jetta and has a blog.

today on my train ride in from the western burbs, i saw this city from the tracks. i couldn't help but feel like it looked so serene from a distance, like every part of it was peaceful. and as we pulled into the station, i saw it's underbelly and was faced with how deceptive that thought was.

like a tree infested with termites, it feels so fragile, so close to falling apart when you see the suffering. city of big shoulders. sandburg was an idealist. i wrap up on city with a phrase seems to not give poetry justice. to assume it can hold an urban jungle in it's palms, gives literature so much credit, it jumps to too many conclusions. not enough room to breath.

this city is bold, but it's scared, and i'm part of it

happy independence day america (one day late). yesterday i was going through some of my music and i came across this cd my friend gave me that i hadn't listened to ever. i always saved it though, because i knew i'd listen to it when i was supposed, so i did yesterday.

it was a Johnny Cash cd, with a little Charlie Daniels Band mixed in there too. but i came across this song whose lyrics i thought were appropriate for the day i listened to it.

the song was Ragged Old Flag.

i'm not a nationalist, but i am a patriot...with all it's screw-ups, i am glad to be in this country, even if i'm not proud about it all time. this is my independence-ness.

i just spent a week out in colorado, and i had a great time. i went white-water rafting and rock-climbing, but that wasn't even the best part. the bigness of the mountains out there reminded me just how lacking my midwest hometown really was of magnificent natural beauty. i was also on the trip with dale (the artist) and he inspired me so much by his likeness to a child in the sense that his attention was captured by the awe and wonder of everything going on around him. like it was the first time he had seen it, even though as well-traveled as a man he is, it obviously wasn't.

i remembered how small i was out there.

when i get some pictures back, i'll put them up, but it was a good time, good time with people and by myself. but yesterday i returned to the mundane, energized.

i am officially the smelly kid at work. over the memorial day weekend the sales team moved into our cool new showcase office on the first floor, in fact so cool, that i wasn't allowed to go. it's okay, now i can sneak in late and undetected. but i was tucked away before, when there were people around...now i'm tucked away with NOBODY around. i consider that my cube has been turned into an "office." an office of other cubes which i choose not to use, but since i am the only one out in the open...they are all mine.

supposedly i am going to move somewhere sometime but for now, i can play my music loud and come and go with none being the wiser. at least i have my red stapler.