Indifference is Bliss

I paid off an automobile on Friday.

I "bought" a 2006 Nissan Frontier Crew Cab 4X4 Nismo in June of 2006.
The synonym for 'purchased' is in double quotes because few people actually buy a car. Cars are financed, yielding people in debt, like I was.
I am no longer in debt. I used money saved while working my ass off at UCSD as well as the bonus I got from joining Actel as an American. No, the company is not ethnocentric. They just happen to hire most of their interns from Canada...University of Toronto to be specific, which I understand rivals the best universities in the U.S. when it comes to engineering...so I guess they don't "happen" to do it, they hire these kids for a reason, a good reason, as I can confirm after working with some of these Canucks for 3 years. They are sharp.
But back to the point...I don't necessitate extra expenses for a work visa as I am a Californian douche by birth.
So while the "facilitating your trip back to Canada" meetings I was called to as an intern at Actel were designated nap times and work diversions for me, I still gladly accepted the cash handouts Actel gave to interns for relocation fees, holiday travel, and being a SUPREMELY INFERIOR Canadian in general.
This essentially boils down to an analogy for the continuous VIZIO HDTV upgrades my Romanian friend enjoyed from Costco until they got wise and changed their policy.
But, like Tiberiu says, "It's their policy, you can't feel guilty. I have a much bigger TV now."
So, after all this diction, the point is that I had extra cash from a "signing bonus" and from my own transfer-to-savings monthly discipline.
I used it for a down payment on the redneck-mobile mentioned above. Yes, I concur, it's akin to the compensation Marty McFly had as a present-dream car when he returned to the future after going to the past and back.
But...I can snatch my 'rents' boat to wakeboard in Don Pedro, climb any mountain you want to go to for snowboarding, bring home the Christmas tree, and move your fucking couch, though that won't happen unless you buy me a burrito.
So, in short, the new University of Toronto intern can ask me why I chose to buy a pickup truck during my "short stay in Cali", not knowing that I fucking live in this state, but when I take the five of us to Arikato for sushi in fall and the same five plus boards and skis up the icy mountain in December without chains, they can shut up and sleep to the music playing through my Nissan iPod interface in comfort.

Listening to
Silversun Pickups - Swoon
Led Zeppelin - BBC Sessions
Tricky - Knowle West Boy
Air - Talkie Walkie
Portishead - Third...only with chocolate syrup

Watching
The Rock - Blu Ray, bitch
My salt water creatures
The Office
Futurama

Drinking
Sutter Home - yeah, cheap wine, but it's like juice...delicious
Jim Beam & Diet Pepsi - because "Jack 'n Coke" is so cliché
Water - 2 parts hydrogen, 1 part oxygen

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

A few things...

Earf Day
Caught a glimpse of the voluntary human extinction movement, and while some of the site content is well written and mildly insightful, mostly I was moved to laughter. The thing that is comical about paradigms like this one is the inherent contradiction in how "humanity" is perceived. On the one hand, humans are seen to have no special rights or claims on our planet, and then on the other, are treated as some kind of supernatural being. Pick a side. If we are just another insignificant species, then recognize we are natural to this planet. Granted, (some of) the species has grown some measure of intellect, but we are by no means wizards...the plastic, aluminum, silicon, and...stuff...used to make this laptop was not conjured with a staff, rather harnessed from the planet. You can't create or destroy matter...I can...but not you.

I'm not saying to ignore the adverse artifacts our endeavors create, just to recognize we are not above nature. You don't shit where you eat (unless it's good for the soil and helps you to grow more potatoes for fry baskets). And if Agent Smith is right, that we are "A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet..." then we are still a natural one.
So as I was sitting in my living room, perversely watching some doves mate on my patio railing, surrounded by cacti, fern, a ficus, a lime tree, a bird of paradise tree, and another human...I thought, it is a happy Earth Day, like everyday. Don't ruin what makes you smile, and don't require a special day in April to be less destructive...without purpose.

Tank Update
The 10 gallon container of ocean reef life in my living room saw some additions and some sad subtractions of late. I added a beautiful Sea Star and a Sally Lightfoot Crab, but the crab died...or rather...transformed into hermit crab, snail, fish, and bristle worm food...

Up The Wall


Hermit crab riding a sea star riding a snail:

Megatron:


The next addition might be an Arrow Crab, mainly for their diet of bristle worms which are a virus, a disease, a cancer of the tank...the arrow crab...the arrow crab is the cure...but I'm apprehensive to send another crab into the tank after the death of Sally...we'll see.


Tribe Tribute
- Both of my sisters now have a master's degree. They are twin success stories and I love them a whole heap.
- My pop just started up an online store, Bolter's Cycle Specialties, which is doing well.
- My brother in law recently got his pilot's license and flew us from San Jose to Groveland for pizza and back on Thursday night...
Best way to view Stockton and neighboring cities: way the foxtrot up in the sky...away from Stockton and neighboring cities.
The chariot:

Windmills:

Crop Circles:

San Joaquin Lights: