Post 150!

If you read nothing else of this semi-indulgent yet should-be-interesting post, read this paragraph and give me some feedback:

So, last night I was informed by a friend that the pictures on my music website were... notsomuch cool. Here's my site. What do you think? I think they're funny; but I want to find out if this is one of those things where I would do better to follow what others tell me and just quietly wish inside that the world was different.

Which brings up something, at least for your punctuationally-observant folks out there: I've come to a personal and highly effective set of punctuation guidelines for my journaling which is far broader and freer than the regular rules. I try to write down my thoughts as exactly like they sound in my head as possible. This has led me to adopt ".. " as a way to indicate a pause. Not a dead stop like a period, certainly not a fluid comma, but also not the implied linkage/continuance of an ellipsis (...). Just, a pause. It's very helpful for conveying the effect that pauses can have in verbal communication. Thoughts can be set next to each other without necessarily having to be linked or separated explicitly. I've also, as demonstrated above, adoped a semicolon as basically an intermediate between a comma and a period. Sometimes I need to make sure that I pause long enough at a certain point - longer than a comma, but not a rolling pause like " -". For that I keep ending up at a semicolon, even though it's probably not the proper (and oh-so elusive) use of that mark that so unjustly occupies such a prominent position on the keyboard. I also use " - " to indicate a pause with flow. Shorter than "..." but not the specific--set this phrase aside--meaning of a dash ("--"). I love using punctuation freely! Like, they're not regimented marks whose use and interpretation is set in stone, they're tools.. a set of marks I can use in any combination I want to achieve the effect I want.  . . . some spaces, some dots.. dots together, dots separated . . . it's like a musical score that lays down the thought and cadence of my mind. And don't worry, firebrand-bearing English language mob; I'm not saying this should be adopted for everyone and all the rules thrown out in a hellacious punctuation free-for-all. That's MySpace and Facebook :-/ It's just.. fun for me to use, and gratifying.

Tonight we had a Fuse scavenger hunt, which was fun. I was behind the scenes, watching everybody go out and come back with crazy stories and flushed faces. I am old! Nate and Sarah totally made this night happen - I did almost nothing. I could blame it on youth camp stuff, but that's cheap and inaccurate. Basically, things have been semi-crazy, so it was very nice and kind of them to pick up the slack and free me up.

Yesterday I worked on youth camp stuff all day in Mr. Pierson's office and then hit Quaker Steak and the Top of Pittsburgh with Mike, Shannon and Kayte - the Fantabulousish Foursome. It was good times, and we even got both clear skies and cool clouds while overlooking the city from my otherworldly spot. Ahh, to lay flat on my back and let the uniform motion of the clouds spread from periphery to periphery sink into my consciousness. Across the sky they crawl, lit pinkish orange from below and wetted silver from the moon behind. Uniform they crawl - miles and miles of clouds all marching at the same step, keeping the same orientation as they corporately slide over my head. The city gleams on the close horizon, and lights stretch out like arms over the dark shrubby face of the ground. Let your eyes relax as wide as they can see - let the periphery sink in to its full extent - and still all you will see is the pink of the sky and the black of a flat horizon. Raise your head, and you will see nothing but clouds stretching over you like an open ceiling. Turn your head. Go ahead and turn it! You won't find a hill looking down on you! You'll see more sky and more earth stretching out below you. Relax your shoulders.. let them widen again. There's space around you and a world that's bigger than you out there. For a moment, we're on Pittsburgh, not in Pittsburgh.

This must be a little bit what seeing God is like.

--Clear Ambassador