Today, my Jennifer actually turned 30 years old. Yesterday, however, we had her party here at the house. Though a fraction of the folks that were actually invited showed, we still had a decent crowd I think - a crowd which was made up mostly of family and people Jenn and I know from work. All in all, I think everything turned out rather well. However, as you can tell by the cake here, Jennifer has a rather pessimistic view of aging which she shares with our society at large. Growing old is inevitable. The kids that think they're so cool today will feel totally left behind by the generation which comes after them. 'Twas ever thus, and ever thus will be... I'm going to be 36 this year when August 19th comes around and I feel totally cool about it. There is always more to learn and so many different ways to evolve and express myself that I do not feel limited or ashamed in any way. As I often quote from my man Tennyson: "Old age hath yet his honor and his toil..." This body is not meant to live forever. Whenever I go out in public somewhere I'm quick to remind those around me that everyone we're sharing the room with at that moment will inevitably be dead in 100 years' time. Jenn just thinks it's a morbid thought, but I find it quite liberating really. If you look at it in the right way, you see the simple truth that the most important thing for someone to do is to make the most of this very moment - RIGHT NOW. It reminds me of Nike's oh so popular slogan from
the Nineties: "Just Do It". I watched this show on MSNBC one time that talked about successful businesses and their stories, and they said that people were writing in to Nike during that particular campaign saying that they "just did it" and it changed their lives. Obviously, such a phrase means different things to different people. I challenge you, oh readers - what does it mean to you?
It makes sense when you think about the plot of the movie as well. Shrek and Fiona have grown apart and allowed other things (false beliefs) interfere with their relationship. It culminates so well, because if you look at the card, the male and female on the card could choose to free themselves from those bonds if they so wished. The scene with the dragon (which represents all those things that tore them apart - black magic, separate dream fulfillment, holding on to anger, etc.) represented all those things up to that point. It's bloody brilliant! I wonder if they did this on purpose, as it seems so perfect.
Back on my MySpace blog, I wrote at length about my time in the wilderness. I go to a certain place outside of Van Buren called Lee Creek Reservoir every time I get a chance, and most of the time I'm with my father. He knows it best, as it is an area (now turned into a park area by the city of Fort Smith) in which he grew up as a small child. It's so typically Arkansan - creeks and rocky ledges abound, and if you get up early enough you can spot deer usually in the process of sprinting away from you.
took my camera out there early last Saturday morning. We picked a couple of cups' worth of blackberries. I also got some interesting insects in the camera lens that were lurking about the blackberry patch. I even found a dung beetle scurrying around in a pile of deer shit, though he had dug himself too deeply by the time that I had been able to get my camera out. I didn't think we had those in this part of the world...
urday when these pictures were taken, my father and I saw several deer. They were much too fast and much too surrounded by wilderness for me to have gotten them in the eye of my camera, however, because I still haven't figured out how to do manual focus (you'd have to be able to do that in order to focus in the distance) because the automatic focus keeps catching the trees in the foreground. One of the first deer we saw were a couple of fauns - one still possessing the little white flecks on their bodies, resembling Bambi...
For years, I have suffered from insomnia. I have tried all kinds of remedies from Kava Kava to Trazadone, but lately I came to a realization thanks to a Dr. John Selig. John is the stepfather of one of my best friends, and a month or so ago I had a chat with him during which he asked me to rub my index finger across the top of my thumbnail to detect any ridges that might be there. Mine was full of them. He related that this was a sign that I was vitamin deficient, and I agreed, as my diet is a horrible one. Based on this, I made a resolution to get back into taking vitamins again, but since I have a hard time swallowing the damned things, I haven't been very consistent in the past. (Choking for like 10 minutes followed by yacking them up will do that to you...) Soon after this when we were at the store, Jenn noticed some gummi vitamins that were for adults, so I decided to give 'em a shot. Usually I question the authenticity of any vitamins sold at Wal-Mart, but it seems like the better the vitamin, the bigger the pill. These suckers turned out to be the best vitamins I've had to date! I could feel the energy after the first day or so! What's more, I have had much less trouble sleeping. I used to depend on energy drinks to keep me going through the day and had developed a one-per-weekday habit. Now I'm good to go without that stuff. It's great! I'm thinking that one plus of chewing them is that the vitamins may get more readily absorbed in this manner. So, if you guys are insomniacs or just find yourself dragging through the day, you might want to get on some vitamins that work for you. Like I say, I've fought this stuff for years and nothing has really helped consistently but this.
