An Introduction to Ambient

This is a list of good essentials (imo) and starters into different styles of Ambient music. Some I may have made up or may not be in the right categories. I do what I can.

You will like this if your name is Andee.

Minimal:
Minimal ambient music is the roots of ambient music and many consider Brian Eno to be the father of ambient music. It's a definitely a good starting place. Minimal is relaxing and contemplative - book reading music, perhaps, sleep is good too.

Artists include:
- Brian Eno
- Stars Of The Lid
- The Dead Texan

Download sample pack: here

Neo-Classical:
It's exactly what it sounds like - New classical music. Usually piano-centric; very atmospheric and nostalgic. I enjoy Neo-classical the most on rainy afternoons or early in the morning.

Artists include:
- Ludovico Einaudi
- Johann Johannsson
- Worrytrain

Download sample pack: here

Ambient Acoustic:
Warm acoustic guitars sets a good mood for anything. Road-trips through the desert, formal dinners, sitting by a fire in a snowy log cabin, or just relaxing on the grass.

Artists include:
- Sumner McKane
- Kaki King
- James Blackshaw

Download sample pack: here

Ambient Lo-Fi:
Often giving off a creepy vibe, but wonderful once you get to know it. Ancient rituals, old dusty houses, and crackling, worn-out recording equipment.

Artists include:
- Natural Snow Buildings
- Pocahaunted
- Grouper

Download sample pack: here

Ambient Post-Rock:
If you're unfamiliar with post-rock, it's a usually-instrumental style of music for using rock instruments in a very non-rock kind of way. Songs are usually long, don't follow a normal rule of verse-chorus usage, and end up being pretty epic. Translate that to ambient music and it's quite something to behold.

Artists include:
- The American Dollar
- Hammock
- Jesu

Download sample pack: here

Ambient Electronic:
Electronic beats and stylings that usually end up sounding pretty romantic. For lonely nights staring out the window, heartaches; For distant city lights; For holding hands, and making out.

Artists include:
- port-royal
- Lights Out Asia
- The Album Leaf

Download sample pack: here

Minimal Techno:
Pretty self-explanatory, but very hard to imagine if you've never heard it before. Music for relaxing with friends, music for late-night drives, music for cleaning your room. If you're not a fan of "techno" and related genres, it's still worth checking out - It's not very similar.

Artists include:
- Evan Marc & Steve Hillage
- The Field
- Loscil

Download sample pack: here

Space Music:
Exactly what it sounds like. Music for dreaming of being in space, for stargazing, for falling asleep. So infinitely pleasant if you're in love with space.

Artists include:
- Jonn Serrie
- Steve Roach
- Seetyca

Download sample pack: N/A

Drone:
Drone, light drone, and dark drone are all really the same thing, but with different moods. Drone is a very good word to describe it, because that's what it is - Long, droning tones, wavering wavelengths, and big soundscapes. It may sound boring, but once you start, you cannot stop. I like to think it adds an extra layer of silence. You'll see what I mean.

Artists include:
- Aidan Baker
- Windy & Carl
- Eluvium

Download sample pack: N/A

Light Drone:
Drone with a lighter, innocent flavor. Usually the stuff you want to fall asleep to. Sometimes good romantic dinner music, or late-night snugglings and smoochies as well.

Artists include:
- Slow Dancing Society
- Northern
- Stephen Philips

Download sample pack: N/A

Dark Drone:
Drone with a sinister, evil flavor. Stuff to creep yourself out, to make you feel like a villian, or to just satisfy your craving for something... dark. Not for little girls.

Artists include:
- Lustmord
- Vrodhgr
- Rosetta (B-Sides)

Download sample pack: N/A

Drone Metal:
Distortion off the charts, dense walls of sound, slow brooding drums, drowning out vocals, thoughts, and melting your skin off. Nothing has ever been so brutally lovely.

Artists include:
- Nadja
- The Angelic Process

Download sample pack: N/A

Doom Metal:
Candles go out, eyes cry blood, livestock dies, hoods are donned, stormclouds hide the sun, a swarm of locusts descends, the wind howls. Prepare for the darkest hour.

Artists include:
- Sunn O)))
- The Mt. Fuji Doomjazz Corporation
- Omega Massif

Download sample pack: N/A

How Not To Live In The Forest

I'm not sure if I can go the rest of my life not living on the Olympic Peninsula. I long for it even now.

It's Good To Be Single

It suddenly dawned on me.

Doing what you want, when you want! Spending your spare money on fun things! Not having to worry if your breath stinks!

Video games, longboarding, and peeing with the door open; Good times await!

\o/

Good Things

...take a lot of work.

Sometimes the work'sn't worth it.

Tonight, my hair's soft...

[俳句]

(Social Oddities) Pt. 1 of ?

The Social Oddity of Not Being Able To Say No:

In our culture it has kind of become impossible to oppose anyone by saying no to requests or by asking someone to change what they're doing if you're aiming to be polite. It practically defeats the purpose of asking someone a yes or no question in some cases, but would be altogether more rude if you didn't give them the option at all in some more cases. All of this can be avoided if you're someone who doesn't care if you're rude or not.

Example 1:
You're in class and whoever is speaking asks if the crowd minds if they talk and extra 5 minutes into your lunch time. Since it would be rude for anyone to say "No, I'd really like to get to lunch on time," the speaker only hears the random one or two people who yell "Yeah, go ahead!"

Example 2:
You've made plans to hang out with a friend later and are going to his place to watch a movie and play some games. When a second friend asks if he or she can come as well, you would be rude to deny them, but you tell them it's not up to you because it's not at your house, so you proceed to call your first friend and ask if your second friend can come with you. Naturally, since the host really doesn't have any solid excuse not to let your second friend come, he would be obliged to say yes, even if he didn't really like the second friend or would rather just have you over.

Example 3:
You're in a car with some friends, not good friends, but people you're comfortable around. Someone puts on some music that you don't really like. It's not that it's bad music or that it's particularly obnoxious, it's just really mediocre (See The Killers). You can't just ask them to turn it off because you don't like it without sounding rude.

Why Hardcore Techno Is Good For Me

The secret to a good, long run is Hardcore Techno (&/or Gabber). Some time ago I may have decided that it was Drum and Bass, but that is no longer so. Drum and Bass is good, but it often makes you run at a pace that wears you out quickly and the pace often switched from too slow to too fast too often. This is not so with Hardcore Techno - I've just been running the past couple days to a compilation called Masters of Hardcore: Chapter XXVI and it just keeps me going and keeps me pumped like nothing I've ever run to before. I can close my eyes and get lost in the music and don't really feel tired until I stop - it's like it compels me to dance but instead I put that energy into running. The only thing keeping me from going longer is my feet get numb because I don't have running shoes.

I've decided I'd like to produce some myself, and also start a netlabel for it. It would be called Granite Breaker Records (GBR -> Gabber ;D) and it would slay. We will see how this pans out. Must acquire Reason... I'm not sure if Ableton is the right tool for this.

--- Unrelated notes ---

Anyway... I'm on track for finishing my assigned Bible reading this year, so that's something. In order to finish on time I must read about 12 chapters a day, which takes me about 45 minutes depending on what book I'm in. It's kind of burdensome, but it's getting me into the Bible every day, which can only lead to good. My roommate Jon is also determined to finish, but he's so far behind he has to read 28 chapters a day - I've been really impressed though, the past three days he's been keeping up and making it a priority.

I also found out a few weeks ago that I'm on the Ecola Festival Team this summer. That means I get to spend my summer doing something I hate - Listen to Christian music. I can bear it though, because it enables me to a) Take a road trip b) See the Eastern side of the U.S. c) Promote Ecola d) Hang out with the other cool people on the team, and e) Not get a job. I'm looking forward to this so much!

Lots of exciting interaction with ladies in my near future. My good friend (and ideal older sister) Rachel is coming to visit tomorrow which I am STOKED about. She's like me but in older girl form and more fun to be around. Then on Easter weekend I get to go visit my friend Maddie (who I interact with mostly by sending/receiving mix CDs to/from - we haven't actually talked in person that much...) and see Noah Gundersen, the best folk artist from this side of America. I'm not usually this lady-oriented, it's scary.

The Far Cry 2 map editor is the best thing since the Tribes 2 map editor.

That is all, hopefully some more serious or insightful things sooner/later.

3rd Term Is Upon Us

No updates for a long time... well. Been busy and stuff.

First order of business, just got back from Mexico, we went down there this spring break to help out with construction on Baja Bible School, which is going to be super awesome when it starts this fall. If I wasn't already two-years deep in Bible School I'd sign up right away. I would write a ton about my experience but it's late and I need to get up early tomorrow.

Second, third term of Ecola is starting as of today and for that, I am stoked. I'm really ready to be done with this place - it's good, but it's time to leave the greenhouse. Less than seven weeks to go!

I guess this isn't much of an update, I'll try to get on that this week sometime.

Tearing Sutures Out

But he somehow keeps smiling in spite all of that,
While I keep finding ways to push the good out for the bad
Oh, how selfish of myself to always say that it was more than I could take,
Like it was pain I could not shake,
Like it could break me with it's fingers, throw my body in the lake,
And I would slowly sink away
But the Truth is it was sorrow that I made and would not face.
See, I keep falling for the future after tripping on the past.
And I am always tearing sutures out to make the anguish last like it defines me.
Or reminds me I've found comfort in my suffering
And uncertainty in happiness and death,
Because what's next is such a mystery to me.
I am terrified of all the things I feel but cannot see.
--La Dispute, The Last Lost Continent

So often in life this defines me. No, not at the moment, at the moment I'm doing fine. I was just reading over these lyrics tonight and realized how accurate this was to my life. When I get depressed or down, I find myself staying that way just for the sake of staying that way, like it brings some sort of twisted comfort to me. It just comes so naturally and I don't really know what to think of it.

Being 'down' also comes very naturally to me. I remember a few weeks ago, one of our teachers told us to come to class depressed to get into the right mood for Ecclesiastes, his topic for our class. I was like, "I could totally do that," because I think I usually just default to that. Like, staying optimistic is like holding onto a rope ladder, and all I have to do is let go and fall backwards to walk around with an ornery look on my face, not feel like being around people, and see everything pessimistically. Even during good times where I'm generally bright and cheery, I can put myself in this mode almost instantly.

But really, I'm not letting go of that rope ladder very often. Things are alright. I need to update more.

Worship: Wrong (Rewrite)

I think I got it right this time... I hope so. This is something very important to me, and I hope I've articulated it correctly.

I've got a problem with our current state of doing 'worship' as a church through music. Let me count the ways:

1. It's too easy. The very first instance we see the word worship being used in the bible is when Abraham gives the ultimate sacrifice, a foreshadowing of what God would do for us later. He says "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you." (Gen 22:5). There's something to be said about this, and to me, it's that worship often takes sacrifice on our parts. Giving of our time or possessions, serving others, being outside of our comfort zone. Many other examples in the Bible where the word worship is used is often in context of God appearing and men falling on their faces in His presence.
2. We worship in the wrong tense and perspective. Almost always throughout the Bible, we see Israel praising God for things he's done, all throughout the old testament and through the psalms. Worship is always in present or past tense, after God has done something great. I'm not saying we shouldn't have hope for the things God is going to do, but we can't know what those things are. We often say things along the lines of "following all of our days," or, "less of me, more of you." These are also examples of focusing on what we'll do for God instead of what He's done for us as well as promises we can't keep - after all, we know that we are only capable of following God as it was His grace that has saved us, nothing of our doing. "Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (Phil 1:6). So it's good to have hope that we'll be kept in His grace, but as far as our worship goes, I think we should both be focusing on Him, not making promises, and focusing ourselves on things He's already done for us.
   
3. It lacks creativity. Honestly, I don't think I should have to turn to secular music to find anything innovative. We are definitely failing to display God's attribute of creativity in our music, using the same simple formula over and over again. If we're writing music for God, the best audience we can have, why are we not creating masterpieces, why have we created so many cliches for ourselves, and why does all our music sound so similar? Granted, there are a few Christians who really do create innovative music that is even recognized by secular critics as great (Sufjan, Danielson, Various Metalcore bands), but as a whole, the entirety of our "Christian Genre" lacks any effort to break the mold.
   
4. It's being used for profit. This part disgusts me outright - read this:

   WorshipMusic.com offers one of the best values in Christian music. Our mission is simple: to increase worship on the earth! Make us your one-stop store for worship & praise music by Vineyard, Integrity Music, Maranatha, Worship Together, Hosanna!, Kingsway, Passion/sixsteps, Hillsongs, Brentwood Benson and quality independent & import worship music.

   If nothing else is taken from this blog post, I hope that this would. I don't get passionate about a lot of things, but this just boils my blood. The fact that we're copyrighting and selling our words that are supposed to be for God is unbelievable to me, and honestly, I recognize it as outright sin. You can't serve the world and God at the same time: You can't write music to make money from, and write music acceptable to God at the same time. You just can't. An interaction between you and God should be between you and God. What if you started selling personal letters between you and your girlfriend? Think of even moreso how much of an offense that is when you're doing the same thing with your creator.
   
5. It's replacing true worship. When I say the word "worship" the first thing that will come to mind is probably singing. I think this is very weird. Whether it's been intended or not, our whole mindset of what worship is is now defined by the act of singing. Is that seriously all we're gonna give? Granted, I know lots of Christians spend lots of time serving and worshipping in many other ways, but why don't we ever define feeding the homeless as worship, or painting someone's house, or sharing what God has done in our lives, or trusting God instead of worrying about something. None of this is considered worship, and if I were to tell someone that I don't enjoy going to church and singing, I would probably be accused of (or atleast thought of as) someone who doesn't worship God.

Honestly, there are countless ways to worship God, and singing is just a very small part. I believe a big part of why Christianity in America is so weak today is that people have the mindset that the only thing worshipping God requires is 20 minutes of singing every sunday and that they're good for the rest of the week. No, worshipping God is much more than that, and it's an act we should be doing every day. Simply, giving the glory to God - whatever that may look like. I can't tell you what that's going to look like in our own life, that's up to you and God. I would suggest it as a topic of prayer perhaps? You might be surprised.

My roommate Kurtis suggested something cool the other day. What if instead of sitting around singing along to some familiar and overplayed song, everyone got an instrument and literally just made a joyful noise, singing out thanks to God. Even if you can't play an instrument, most of us can bang on stuff or sing to some extent, and while it may not sound the best, the whole group would be expressing themselves the best they could, with words from their own mouths and sounds from their own hands. I can only imagine a scene like that to be a sweet aroma rising up to God.

More good insights on this topic from Kurtis. We share mostly the same view - he articulates a few things better than I, as well as a different perspective. Definitely check it out. @ Integral Truth.

Worship: Wrong

Hello controversy.

(I need to rewrite this, it's messy and doesn't convey anything in particular clearly enough)

I have a big problem with musical worship. It's just sort of slowly evolved over the years, starting with feeling inadequate because I didn't feel the need to raise my hands during worship and thought I might arrive at some higher level of understanding that would all of a sudden make me want to start raising my hands. I later started realizing this to be a lie. Then I started noticing a trend at how much "worship" is focused on ourselves and not on God and a big "Here I am to worship" mentality, often lying to God through song with words like "You're all I want" when, humanly, there are hundreds/thousands of other things we want all the time. We sing to God empty promises about giving our whole lives to Him, yet go on living for ourselves. Many songs contain lyrics that are personal and meaningful for the writer of the song, but the rest of us have to cut strange puzzle pieces to fit our experiences into these songs. I really started analyzing the things being sung instead of just singing them and came to the conclusion: We're doing it wrong.

This was fine for a while, I thought maybe we just needed to write more God-centered music and looked to hymns. Hymns are better lyrically, there's no doubt. They lack cheesiness and for the most part, focus on God's character and things he's done and altogether just contain more universal truths. They satisfied me at first, but now I'm weary of them as well. I'm weary of merely singing to God and calling it worship. I'm disgusted that the term worship now means "singing Christian songs together" instead of "giving glory to God in any situation." We have designated times of worship - 20 minutes, five songs, three times a week. Seriously? I thought this was a lifestyle. I thought this could manifest itself in countless different ways. I thought it was about trying to offer a worthy sacrifice... how does singing for a few minutes require any sacrifice at all on your part?

Worship has become an industry, and this is the most sickening part. Read this excerpt from WorshipMusic.com, it speaks for itself:

WorshipMusic.com offers one of the best values in Christian music. Our mission is simple: to increase worship on the earth! Make us your one-stop store for worship & praise music by Vineyard, Integrity Music, Maranatha, Worship Together, Hosanna!, Kingsway, Passion/sixsteps, Hillsongs, Brentwood Benson and quality independent & import worship music.

This is disgusting. Just the fact that worship songs are copyrighted is outrageous. On top of that they're being sold. Praises to God are being sold.

I can understand people who make praise music need money to live on. Get a job. If a (secular) musician from, say Magic Bullet Records has a passion for music, he puts his soul into it and creates an original masterpiece, then makes creative and personal packaging for it (often hand-made), and then sells it for $8 or less to barely cover the cost of it and gets his money from his day job, not his creative output and passion. Why then, can a Christian musician use the same over-used four chords that every other Christian musician uses, maybe remake some cliche praise songs in their own "style," put a pretty picture of them self on the cover of their album, and sell it for $15? The secular big-name recording industry is disgusting enough doing the same thing, but as Christians? Why are we following the example of the corporate money-grubbing recording industry instead of maybe... not making a profit on their "songs to God?"

That brings me to another point - Why is Christian music so un-innovative all the time? Why is it so cheesy? Why does it have to sound the same and why is it its own genre? Why do I have to turn to secular music to hear something creative and heartfelt? If our audience is God, shouldn't we be the ones that are leading in musical innovation instead of being decades behind? Isn't God worthy of a "new song" like we always sing about? Why do we keep putting out the same old thing?

Now, a few disclaimers:

1. Worship is very important. Very. I just don't think we're doing it right.
2. There are some Christian musicians who are actually innovative - see Danielson and Sufjan - people that are more popular in secular society even than in Christian circles.
3. We see singing praises as a model in the Bible with Psalms and a few other places. Note this is a very small part of worship and I would say, not required at all (We don't even see Jesus singing in the gospels). If you want to add a bit of singing to your worship - that's great. More often than not, we see people adding a bit of worship to their singing, though.
   

I'd like to people stop calling "singing praises" worship and start thinking a bit broader. How can you worship God the best? It's different for everyone and different all the time, so I can't tell you. Maybe step out of your comfort zone to do something the Holy Spirit's been convicting you of for a while? Maybe ask someone how they've been blessed that day and then sharing how you've been blessed? Praying for someone? Admiring God's creation? Giving up a prized possession in order to help someone else out? Hey, maybe at some moment you can worship God the best just by singing to Him. There's definitely a time for that for many people - don't let it drown out all the other times, and please, stop calling it worship.

Note: This might be messy and hard to read, I'll have to go over it again tomorrow and maybe rewrite some of it, I'm quite tired. Enjoy.

God and Leather Saved My Hide

Fun fact: I took my new longboard down a hill that is much too large for it and ended up getting bucked off because of the wobbling from my massive speed. Luckily, I was wearing my leather jacket, because I ended up sliding for like 5-7 feet on my stomach and only came out with a little scratch on my palm and loss of breath for a minute or so. If I hadn't remembered my leather, I would've been thrashed. That's something to be thankful for. Overall it was a humbling and exciting experience.

I took a longboard trip to Seaside today with a few other people from school. I ran into a student in the parking lot and we were riding eachother's longboards around when he mentioned that Kevin, his RA was going to Seaside to longboard, so we hopped in my car to go join them. I thought it was going to be a good mixture of students and staff, but turns out the guy I brought was the only student there. Still, it felt good to actually go do something with a student for a change, because that's been a hard barrier to get around for me. However, after today I can see myself making more trips to Seaside for longboarding, because lots of students have longboards - and they're even students I enjoy being around. Sweet deal.

Also: Perhaps some direction for this summer, there's a possiblity I might join the Ecola Event Team where we travel around the country to different concerts/events and set up an Ecola booth to try to get new students. This may just be the traveling I've been longing for, while also doing ministry at the same time. Sure, I can't stand "Christian music," but I think I could get past that.

Boise is still a very high possibility for next year.

ps. This marks my 50th post on this blog!

[Note to Self] Display Problems

Disregard this, I just had this problem again and couldn't remember how to fix it. It has nothing to do with anyone else but myself, I just needed a safe place where I'd be able to find it again.

When your display won't show the full resolution, the fix is very simple:

1. Make sure drivers are installed
2. Restart computer
3. When the computer starts to boot, immediately unplug the monitor from the back
4. Unplug the monitor from power
5. Wait until the first log-in noise sound
6. Login (Right arrow, enter, password, enter)
7. Wait until the second log-in noise sound
8. Plug monitor into power
9. Plug monitor into computer
10. Change resolution

And Then I Realized...

...I'm the one that's doing alright after all.

Reunion Weekend

This weekend at Ecola is reunion weekend. I was excited, but I don't remember why because it's probably the most unnerving thing I've gone through in a while.

Recently in our intern classes, we took the DISC test to find out our personality types. I scored a high C which is on the passive/task-oriented side of the spectrum and which makes a lot of sense. Generally people like this get worn out and stressed and can't work when there are a lot of people around. This is very true for me. The whole night last night I sat in the sound booth and didn't leave that comfort bubble until I finally did leave and go sit behind the merchandise table with people I knew, casually greeting some people who would walk up. It's weird because I've always been this way, but didn't really know why or take notice of it in the way I'm doing now.

Before this weekend I felt pretty distant toward the rest of this year's student body, and with the reunion coming up, I was looking forward to seeing a lot of people I was close to. Turns out I wasn't really close to anyone. As far as friends go, I tend to find a few and stick with those few all the time. I have a lot of acquaintances who I find pleasant, but very few people I actually feel comfortable around, and most everyone at this reunion is an acquaintance and if they're a little more than an acquaintance, there's always someone else that they know better that they're going to be hanging out with anyway. This leaves me in a strange limbo of familiarity and insecurity and I find that when one of this year's students walks in the door, someone who I would normally feel distant from, I practically breath a sigh of relief that there's a few more degrees of comfort added to the room.

Overall, this weekend more than anything, is drawing me closer to this year's class in a strange psychological way that I totally didn't expect and which will be for the better.

Verbal Intimacy

I was thinking the other day, the steps of verbal intimacy to anyone around you or, the order in which we get to know each other.

Application: College-age people. Go to the next step when current topic starts lacking new material. (I believe the order of this wouldn't always apply to the elderly and younger children. With middle -aged people I think it might be similar, but maybe future not being as high up on the list.)

1. The basics - Age, where you're from, what food you like; Icebreakers.
2. The past - How life has gone in recent or distant past; A background.
3. The future - What is life going to look like next summer, next year.
4. The daily - How yesterday or last weekend went, how your day is going.
5. The mutual past - Reminiscing on memories together, inside jokes.

It could go further than this, I had originally had it to three steps, but recently changed it to these five. It might call for revision later.

An update on my daily:
Last weekend I got to go snowboarding for the first time in two years. It was just the best and I was completely exhausted afterward. I really felt like I was 'getting away,' which I desperately needed - I haven't felt that in so long. New requirement for wife: she must snowboard with me.

An update on my future:
As of now, I'm seriously considering moving to Boise and working at a library. Boise because Kurtis and his friend Alex are planning on getting an apartment there. Library because I think it would be really cool to put books away all day. All that sorting and finding, not to mention the countless book covers you'd be exposed to - it would totally broaden your horizons of what people are reading.

People's Lives

Oh what it would be to know the ins and outs and deep mysteries of our fellow man. So many people are going through so many different things and I see little hints of what's going on, like passing by in a car and seeing the trim on somebody's house through all the foliage out front and then forgetting about it. I wish I could stop at each house and get the grand tour, but right now I'm just in too big of a hurry to get to where I'm going, as if I'm late for something. But then again, I don't even know where I'm going and what I'm late for, so what keeps me from stopping at these houses and getting a tour? Why can't I avert my eyes from the road ahead of me...

There's so much life everywhere that we're all unaware of. The complexities of you are only the beginning of the complexities of life around you but most of the time, we don't realize, and I would venture to say - don't believe - that anyone exists but ourselves. By example, try to think of what someone is doing right now who's not in the same room as you - it seems so weird and unnatural that people are existing everywhere outside of the context of you.

Enter the problem: We don't care. There are some people, a very limited selection that have found that they do care - These people are the light of the world that Jesus talks about in Matthew 5. Why is it so hard for the rest of us? I deeply desire to have this desire for real, but in the mean time, I'll just fake it because I think it must be better than not caring at all.

Speaking of people, check out Little People.

Anticipation

Well I let that whiny post sit at the top for too long. About time to drown it in something positive.

I am so excited to go back to Ecola. I like to make myself even more excited just for the sake of being excited about something again - But then again, I don't really have to, because I'm way too overly excited in the first place. I'll head over there tomorrow instead of waiting until Sunday. I'm coming home!

I think I might want to move to the desert later. There's a certain solitude I find in the desert, I think it might be good. We drove through a little town in California called Borrego Springs where you can just pull off the road and go drive around in the brush and sand and dirt anywhere you want to. It's completely surrounded by a national park and allows you to camp anywhere within it, so it's all just open to go explore. That would be just the greatest. I'm looking forward to see what I'm going to do next summer and next year.

Meanwhile, I just bought an R4 for my Nintendo DS which allows you to load DS games in the form of roms onto it, so I can now have this huge library of games. Games I never thought I would enjoy: Space Invaders Extreme. Seriously, if you have a DS, you need to get this game - even if you don't particularily like Space Invaders - I didn't until I tried this.

Had a good drive around in the snow tonight, icey roads and whatnot. The Land Rover is still as good as ever. As we were heading home, the two cars ahead of me started sliding and swerving all over this steep hill we have to get up, so I pulled off the side a bit incase they started sliding down the hill toward me and I had no problem starting again on that slippery hill from an almost-stop when I saw them finally slide their way over the top. Power and control like that feels great.