I do, in fact, still exist.

So all of the recent comments have been spam.  Don't go looking for them, what the spamfilter didn't catch I manually threw in the spamtrap.

The reason is kind of obvious, I have not been posting lately.  This is my vacation week, supposed to be spent catching up on classes where I was behind, preparing for a test in ASL on Monday, populating the blog with posts that I've been meaning to do, working on some other projects, and stuff.

Did any of that get done?  No.

Unless "And stuff" includes "Hang out with Lonespark and family," in which case that went great.  But it was one day out of ten so far (will be 11 in total, not all of them are technically vacation days, but it matters little to me if I don't have school because I don't have classes on that day of the week or if I don't have school because of vacation.)

But more notable, blogwise at least, than Lonespark and family is the total lack of progress in all conceivable areas on the days that I wasn't with Lonespark.  If I don't post I don't get comments and the spam takes over.  Which is why Dennis Markuze (an old fashioned spammer who does his work manually instead of with spambots) is the most recent human being to post a comment, and the only human being to say anything on the blog since we stopped talking about The Core (link to the movie, not discussion) on the first Vanishing on 7th Street thread (link to beginning of discussion of The Core in that thread).

Clearly I need some content, but I also need to catch up in school, and I also need to get out of school offline projects done, or at least started.  I need to study.  I need to do so many things.

Also I need to make money if I want to try to get to Greece which I really want to try and I don't think it's out of reach because it's a one time thing.

Think of it like a bottle drive, you can make a lot of money in one day, but if you think, "I could do this every day and make a living of it," then you're overlooking a critical factor: You already took the people's bottles.  There aren't any left to take the next day.

So there are things that could no way support me in making a living that none the less might be able to get me enough money to go to Greece because it doesn't matter if in the process of making the money I destroy any chance of making money the same way in the near or distant future since I only need the money once.

Time spent attempting such things is time spent not making content for the blog.  (Though as a reminder, if anyone reading this should be rich -unlikely in the extreme, I know- there is a donate button.)

So the question I'm left with is what to do.  Next week things probably go back to normal except I'm further behind in school and ... um ... poetry:

    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.

    Surely some revelation is at hand;
    Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
    The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
    When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
    Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
    A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
    A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
    Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
    Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.

    The darkness drops again but now I know
    That twenty centuries of stony sleep
    Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
    And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
    Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

-

No, my school problems will probably not lead to the rise of the Antichrist, but "things fall apart" is probably a good description of any given period in my life.

But, yeah, still here.  Even if it's been a week since I posted anything.

Talk amoungst yourselves.  I'd give you a topic but I don't have one.  ("Rhode Island is neither a road nor an island," perhaps?)

Actually, on the subject or Rhode Island, this is Sarah Vowell talking about one of its founders:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

I like this clip and tend to play it whenever the opportunity arises.

I don't like her voice, extended exposure can actually be painful for me, and yet I believe I could listen to her speak all day with no complaints.  What she has to say is enough worth listening to that any discomfort her voice causes me is negligible in comparison.

She's on the Daily Show there to advertise for her book, "The Wordy Shipmates," which is available in hardcover, paperback, kindle, audio book on CD, and audible audiobook.   If I knew what I were talking about I'd probably know what an audible audiobook is.  Apparently I can't link directly to it but if you follow any of the other links it should be a click away.