Feeling Fine.

Hey Everyone. I know I kind of freaked out the other day, and I want to thank you all for your advice. For the record I'm feeling much better today. I'm not sure I can honestly say how much of the advice I took, but what ended up really helping is the fact that I had a few extra days off for the weekend, went to a nice wedding and reception, and just got to spend time with friends. I really think the amount of time I've been working, thinking about work, and fretting over the work that I still had to get to was really getting to me. Time to myself was a sparse commodity and I needed it. So, thanks again for your help, suggestions, and well wishes, I really appreciate it.

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I've been working in my workshop lately on the latex foam swords (pictures to come later, promise), and I'm realizing that as a workshop my basement floor sucks. Every workshop I've seen that's been owned by a "I'm a manly man with a workshop" person has had a good, old, dented-scratched-and-painted-on workshop bench that looks old and quite possibly hand made. I do NOT have the skills to make my own table, but desperately want one of these things, if only to feel "complete," I guess.

Does anyone out there have a good workbench and know where to get one, have plans on how to make one that I can show to someone more capable than myself? I love working on stuff, but using my bandsaw while sitting on the floor in front of it just lacks that safe feeling.

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Went out on Sunday with some friends to a little place called Fuji Grill. The atmosphere was invitingly warm and cozy. The decor was beautiful and the wait staff friendly. It's very difficult to find fault in a place that my "I'm not picky" picky friend Derek deems as "surprisingly not bad!" (In his defense, he was rather adventurous in what he ordered, and I was glad it paid off for him. Me? I got the fried chicken.)

This is definitely a new place to put on the "must return" list. Good food, and an extensive sushi list means that if the quality remains the same in all aspects I can see this becoming one of the top spots on that list.

Awesome time.

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I have a bunch of ideas banging around my head and I'm going to let a bit of it out today later in a relatively well thought out post here on my journal. So a quick poll of those interested, which of the following would interest you more:

1 - The Zombie Apocalypse and Why You Should Quit Smoking Now

2 - Jeremiah's Guide To Becoming Famous - Rule 1

3 - You, Me, and the Short Bus We Rode In On

You, Me, and the Shortbus We Rode In On

Humanity is stupid. We're born useless but cute so that our parents will love us, and our defenses up until we're about 5 or 6 all swing around that fickle thing known roughly as "motherly love." It's all because of the cuteness that there are so many babies wondering this land, the cuteness and maybe one or two reasons that I can't think of because man, kids don't DO anything.

From an evolution standpoint I just don't get it. We don't have claws, or teeth capable of doing much more than tearing and chewing pre-killed foods; the only big amount of hair (for most of us) is on our heads where supposedly it helps keep our heat in but in actuality is little more than a pawn in the mating ritual games we play; our bodies are a joke when looked at compared to other animals, all our parts out there where they're unprotected, easy pickin's.

So here we are, the race that got the short stack when it came to "survivable qualities,"the race that just simply doesn't make sense as a dominant species and what do we do? We breed, take over the place, and rule with an iron fist.

I think we might be back-sliding.

We have this magnificent brain that we're told is the reason we were able to dominate and subjegate the planet around us. we've used it to invent things to make life easier and more fulfilling, we've even used it to go to the moon*! Our brain IS our huge survival factor in this world.

Somehow though, we debate that evolution is just a theory and that Creationism is a science. We destroy one another in war that is obviously very anti-survival behavior. We create wonderous beautiful things, art, music, theoretical sciences, and the things to crush it all beneath an onslaught of destructive sciences, some of which could simply happen accidentally**.

Everything is automated now. People can't do simple math because we have calculators for that; they can't be bothered to spell check because we have machines for that and besides who cares, right? People aren't learning the basics before they jump into the higher levels, they just skip what can be done by computers, trusting little things, big things, and all levels between to the machines that make life simpler for them. Simpler, faster, and more interesting, these are our overriding goals, even as it makes us less knowledgeable on those things that got us there.

We have our big brains making big machines, making up for parts of our brains that we don't want to have to use, like simple math. Eventually our brains degrade to the point where they're not a survival factor any longer because we rely on the computers to help us. The computers deteriorate because we don't remember how to fix the robots that fixed the computers. Everything falls apart and there we are, staring at the wild animals, holding our crude clubs, and freezing in the winter.

But hey, at least our babies look cute, right? That'll keep the species alive when our brains are no longer enough.


*Okay, we used rockets, I admit it..
**We are currently trying to create mini black-holes on Earth. This doesn't sound like a good idea to me, anyone else? Other things that scare me are attemping to reach absolute zero, messing with our ozone layer by using it as a radio transimission enhancer, and putting missles in space, pointing...outward?