Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Pandora is Broken, Inspiration from Twitter, Walking On, Facebook Question

I usually like to tackle my thoughts in order, but order is never how I can characterize my thoughts. Wow...that came out deeper than I meant it to, in any case Pandora failed me. All I wanted was some mellow music to read my Good Food assignment to. First it wouldn't open in Chrome making me switch to Internet Explorer (yuck) then it wouldn't play anything that made me want to read. I picked some mellow songs as basis too, Chicago by Sufjan Stevens, Reckoner by Radiohead, Too Much Rain by Sir Paul McCartney and One by U2...each time Pandora coughed up blanks. I was highly discouraged so I just exited out.

And then I was inspired by my fellow Prep and Lawrenceville alum, Carolina. I can't remember how we ended up meeting, I want to say it was during a Lawrenceville Alumni weekend event or something but we've been in contact ever since... especially through twitter. But what inspired me to blog this afternoon was her recent post at http://carotorres.blogspot.com/. Poor thing got caught in the rain and then had the perfect song come on to chronicle her struggles...amongst other things, I invite you to read it.

I've been meaning to write about the next subject for about a week. I was sitting in the Jazzman's Cafe here on campus last Wednesday, skipping my 11 class to write a paper for my 230, when people started milling around outside moving from place to place. I began to realize that you can really read a person's mood by how they walk. I think we all have some instinctive habit of noticing how people walk, the way they move their feet, the shift in their shoulders, the way their arms swing...or don't, and other little things that we all notice but don't realize we do. It is amazing to me how people who don't know me can easily say "oh you're a new yorker" after they see me walk. Its things like that that make me wonder how our brains work.

I was thinking about this the other day but what is the proper etiquette for wall posts on facebook when it comes to responding, should one comment or directly write back on the person's wall? This is the answer I came up with. Commenting on a wall post is what a person does when you want to chime in on someone else's wall post, so if Jim writes on John's wall, their friend Jack could comment on that. Am I alone in this thinking?

I conclude this post having written this in the 1st Floor Common Room dealing with various people passing through, like ships in the night.

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Sunday, March 21, 2010

Back to Basics...Reality Essentially

And so that dreaded time has come around again, break is winding down. Since my first class of the day tomorrow (Monday March 22nd 2010) is Arabic at 1330 (I'm getting myself used to military time, that's 130pm) I've decided to extend my homestay until tomorrow morning. Well in reality I'm staying home to get some work done, and I know I'll get distracted tonight in the dorms with everyone coming back. No offense 1st Ware, but I need to focus.

In any event, this delay in my departure is allowing me a few other benefits as well. I am currently on the subway into Soho to pick up another pair of the Uniqlo jeans that I've been raving about on twitter. I normally don't get excited over clothes but I was pleasantly shocked at how well they fit and how polished they feel...and for only $15...there's got to be a catch right? Guess I'll find out.

Of course as I type this, I am remembering the things that I need to do tonight...the work that I don't want to get distracted from. I have to email my proffesor my application information for the summer trip to Cairo...I do not trust the non-https website that I am supposed to submit my passport number to, yes I can be paranoid at times. I want to start, possibly finish, my story or paper or whatever the hell its going to be assignment for Good Food. I have to email for a time slot for Habitat for Humanity to take a club picture this week. I need to submit the upcoming Black Student Union event into the school calendar. And I think that's it.

Now here is the problem with remembering this now...I probably won't remember later, even though I have chronicled my agenda for the world to see, that's kind of a scary thought come to think of it, I doubt I'll remember to do all the things that I just typed out here in this email on my blackberry on the F train that is pulling into East Broadway station.

With that I think I shall end this post, I'll email it as soon as I get upstairs at Broadway-Lafayette.

Sent from my Sprint BlackBerry

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Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Penn Station is Confusing? Yes It Is...So Ask For Help

A friend posted this link: http://www.slate.com/id/2246104/, to a hilarious article detailing one woman's "adventure" through the labyrinth we New Yorkers know as Penn Station, or more formally Pennsylvania Railroad Station. Poor woman got lost following the signs to Amtrak. Mistake number one, if you're not from New York or you are from New York and are in unfamiliar territory, ask a native. Sure you may get shoved off the first or second time, but eventually someone is gonna yell at you "THAT WAY" or point a knowing finger in your desired direction.

If you don't wish to ask a native, then follow one. If you are in Penn Station and see someone in a suit with a briefcase, he is probably trying to catch Acela...I would follow him. If you see someone with luggage, they are probably trying to catch The Crescent, The Lake Shore Limited, The Vermonter, The Pennsylvanian or a whole slew of other Amtrak trains that leave out of New York. Even if that business man or that luggage carrier is going to New Jersey Transit, at least you're on the right level to be able to correct your mistake...you did know Penn Station has two levels right? If either one of those people happen to lead you to the Long Island Railroad, do me a favor a smack them because they went the wrong way too.

If you don't wish to ask a native or follow a native, then you are one of the hapless idiots that gum up the works trying to read the signs, like that poor woman from the Slate story. We New Yorkers HATE gawkers, and when you start spinning on your heels with your eyes in the sky trying to decipher whether you needed to take the first flight of stairs (if you are coming from the A C E) or the recessed escalator (if you're coming from the 1 2 3), you become a gawker and you are liable to get yourself shoved and pushed. So please, do yourself a favor, ask or follow, because I'm not going to be sorry if I run you over because you're lost in translation.

I am writing this from the futon in my living room, home on Spring Break.

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Monday, March 15, 2010

Who Wants to be a Young Millionaire? I DO!!!

I wish I had money. Doesn't everyone wish they had money? 

So let me be a little more specific. I want to have my own money, make a successful business then sell it, make another business and then sell that one...basically I want to do what this guy, Gurbaskh Chahal, did. This dude even got on Oprah...

Shoot, I want to be on Oprah too. You aren't anybody until you sit, let me repeat SIT to you Tom Cruise wannabes, on Oprah's couch.

But I digress. The real reason I want to have money is to help my Mom. If you want to call me a Mama's Boy for saying that, then I would respectfully ask you to evaluate yourself and find out why you don't have the same thought. My mother has been through things that have really made me hurt, mostly because I couldn't help. Having enough money to help her not worry about living paycheck to paycheck, or whether or not she can pay my tuition would be my way of lessening a load that she has to bare.

Of course I would I spend some of the money on me...maybe pick up that Bentley Ghost when its released. Who knows...the possibilities would be endless.

I write this from room 313 in The Andrew Hotel in or near Kings Points, Long Island, New York on a trip with F&M's Men's Basketball team...who their opening round game in the NCAA D3 tourney earlier today.

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Political Hypocrisy From Both Sides of the Aisle, and When did American Politicians Become Such Quitters?

I am infrequent visitor of www.huffingtonpost.com, mainly frequenting their comedy section when I happen to notice an update via http://twitter.com/HuffPostComedy/. This recent video with an exchange; between Rachel Maddow of MSNBC, who can get on my nerves at times even though I tend to agree with her, Rep Aaron Schock (R-Ill), the male equivalent of Sarah Palin although with considerably more brains, Former Rep. Harold Ford, the new out of stater trying to come to New York to run for Senate (the other being now Secretary of State Clinton), and New York Times Columnist David Brooks, for whom I have nothing witty to say; highlights, I think, the recent trends of hypocrisy from both sides of the aisle. The entire piece is long, 16 minutes, but the first 6-7 minutes or so provide a very good snapshot of what I am talking about.

Next, when did American politicians become such quitters. In a crucial time for the Democratic party, Senators Dodd, Dorgann, and Bayh have said they will retire...coupled with the untimely death of Senator Kennedy and the win of Senator Brown, Democrats look to be in a bit of a bind...and that could in turn cripple Washington because of the unwillingness of Republicans to attempt even thinking of thinking to work together.

But this trend isn't new, the rash of Governors that jumped ship midterm recently, McGreevey, Spitzer...and that lovely lady Palin, seem to suggest that politicians have gone soft...at least to me. In the good old days, sex scandals just meant that you were impeached but stayed in office, and losing a bid for VP meant that you went back to doing your normal job...NOT GIVING UP ENTIRELY! Look at now Vice President Biden, he went through a horrific personal tragedy shortly after being elected Senator and yet toughed it out to become the second most powerful man in the country. I'm not saying that politicians need to be super humans, but in times of crisis, we all inevitably look to our elected officials for guidance. If they are dropping to the wayside because they lost an election or happened to have an affair, who are we unelected people going to have to look up to in the end. Look at Governor Appalachia...I mean Sanford. He f*&ked up big time, but he's still in office. I'm not saying he is a role model, but damn, he came back and did his job at least...

I conclude this while sitting in my room in still snow covered Lancaster, PA.

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Poetry, Hackers and Smart Cars...Oh My...oh and Charles Barkley too

Once again poetry has reared its head into my academic life. I signed up for a course called Good Food expecting it to enlighten my knowledge as to why I and other people consider certain foods good or bad, and to the course and the Professor's credit it has done that. What I didn't sign up for was the creative writing course that has somehow been slipped into the class and that I am getting no arts credit for whatsoever (at F&M, Creative Writing the class counts for an Arts credit which is needed to graduate.) That last point is what I have a gripe with. I already do not like studying poetry because in the end it gets people no where because a rational person cannot expect for consensus to be reached on a single poem because poems are written to elicit a variety of emotions and reactions. Furthermore, to be asked to write poetry and free writes for essentially no credit I believe is unfair...especially considering how hard the professor grades and critiques said poems. At the end of the day I just want the credit for the work I am doing.

Now to Hackers...this report that I saw on twitter gave me pause: Hackers bring down Australian government Web sites in protest of Internet censorship legislation plan http://bit.ly/bMeVO2. I realize that this affects the Australian government, but it makes me wonder, in this day and age of technological advances, could Hackers be the one's that can come out on top? I understand that the world governments essentially engage in hacking in their gathering of intel but I feel like there is a higher purpose to that, to stay ahead of the "competition". Malicious hackers could take that same principle and probably shut down the whole world with a simple line of code. Yes this is apocalyptic...but we're going through snowmegedon here in Lancaster so I feel I'm entitled. :)

Smart Cars...basically I don't like them. I think they are too short and too tall and I feel like they will either get swept up by the wind like Dorothy's house or crumple like tissue paper when hit by a truck...let alone a Prius. I expressed this view on twitter, well really I shared someone else's view by re-tweeting it, and close to an hour later I was descended upon by a Smart lover from California. Granted, the tweet that I shared had a racial tone attached to it as it was part of the "Blacks don't do that" hashtag...and really I shared it because I found it funny. Whatever the case maybe, the person who jumped on me really just wasted her time. You can't convince me that those little bugs are safe, and I will never own one...let alone ride in one...unless it was an extremely dire situation.

Last and least...Charles Barkley. Why are you in a Taco Bell commercial? Why are you still on TV? Why am I wasting time writing about you? Enough said.

I conclude this post while sitting at work hoping the snow outside hasn't piled up too bad...I'd like to get back to my room to sleep at some point. I hope this finds you in good health.

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LaHood is right, Stop Driving Potentially Defective Cars

The Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, said three words off the cuff yesterday in a congressional hearing that seem to have gotten him in trouble. He simply said "stop driving it", it being potentially defective Toyota cars.

I go downstairs in my dorm here on the campus of Franklin & Marshall College to peruse the New York Times and the headline on the Business Section is the flak that the Secretary has been getting for his comments and the publicity circus the White House is going through to "clean up his mess". There is a slight problem with this though...HE IS DEAD RIGHT!!!

What the hell is wrong with everybody, common sense says if you're not sure you're car is working, you shouldn't drive it. Everyone is thinking it, but heaven forbid a political figure says it...because somehow that's wrong.

The hoops that the Secretary and the White House are jumping through are completely unnecessary and just flat out ridiculous...all because he reached into his mind and said the first instinctive reaction to the prospect of driving a potentially defective car. To him I say, keep speaking off the cuff, maybe the rest of us can learn something from his honesty.

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And Then There Were 59

The voters of Massachusetts have made a grave mistake and probably have forced the hands of the Democratic leadership to make even graver mistakes in the very near future.

The facts are these, our healthcare system needs an overhaul, costs are too high for too little care with too many restrictions and we, the USA, stand today as the only industrialized Democracy without a form of universal healthcare.

There is also this fact, the measures that were passed by both chambers of Congress were rushed at best. I understand the Democratic leadership "tried" to reach out to Republicans and that Republicans "tried" to reach out to the Democrats...but at the end of the day the world knows that neither sides "trying" was done without any real conviction, they knew what they wanted and weren't going to budge off of that.

What troubles me most is that the Democratic leadership tried to silence their dissident, and then simply placated them when it came time to vote. Yes I know that is probably how things are done normally, but seriously the President was right, its damn for a change from politics as usual.

Unfortunately the political cycle continues and because of that everyday Americans will be forced to live without simple basic healthcare. Something eventually has got to give.

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Reflection on Saudi Arabia

This piece is a reflection I did on a school trip to Saudi Arabia that occurred last year over Spring Break and I thought I would post it here as well:

I am not the typical world traveler. My greatest adventure, up until this trip, was a cross country journey from New York to Seattle, by train. I was 8 years old, and the beauty and majesty of the world that passed by my train window was something I thought could never be duplicated. The sheer fact that I was 3000 miles from my Brooklyn, New York home, on the West Coast of these United States, made me feel accomplished, and cool, in an 8 year old sort of way. I always thought that would be the farthest I would ever go from home; until I was chosen for the Saudi trip during my last Spring Break as a Lawrenceville student.

The trip had a lot of firsts for me. Before the trip even began I got my first passport, filled out my first visa and exchanged American currency for the first time. Just getting to Saudi itself had more firsts for me. My first time on a twin aisle jet, my first time on a flight over 6 hours, my first time flying over Europe and Africa, my first time seeing the Red Sea, my first time landing on foreign soil (which was the smoothest landing I’ve ever had), my first time using air stairs, my first time taking a bus to a terminal…the list keeps going. I was new to this entirely, so everything was something new to me.

Once we arrived at the terminal, we were greeted by Mr. Nazer and his men. They were all in thobes, and while I had seen them before in New York, there was something different about seeing them in their “natural” setting. Mr. Nazer especially impressed me; he seemed to command attention just in his presence. Walking through the airport behind him, and Lana who had dutifully attached herself to Daddy’s arm, I felt like a visiting dignitary being swept through by a top diplomat. With a word or two to the guards we bypassed a long line of people with green and blue passports waiting for entry. We only stopped to run our carryon luggage through a detector, and were promptly swept into three cars waiting on the curb.

I procured the front seat of Mr. Nazer’s Porsche Cayenne S and within 20 minutes of landing, we were weaving through traffic on wide boulevards lined with recognizable chains, and boutiques that would have easily melded into the upscale landscape of Midtown 5th Avenue.  The car brands that whizzed by were all familiar, the Golden arches shone brightly in the Saudi morning sun, the palm trees that lined the big streets were perfectly in a row, and I had to ask myself ‘did I miss the flight and go home?’

Even now as I reflect back on the trip 10 months later, I cannot explain the feeling of familiarity that engulfed me as we drove down that boulevard. The signs may have been in Arabic, but from its typeface or from some other recognizable feature I could more or less tell which brand or store I was looking at. Now, after having completed one semester of Arabic, I can go back and look at the pictures I took and make word some of the words like “Mercury” and “Starbucks” and cross check myself to make sure I was correct in my assumptions 10 months ago. 

Still as a think about the trip there were three aspects of Saudi life and culture that have stayed with me, life at the beach, the importance of the Muslim faith in everyday life and the hospitality of the people.

The first official day of our trip was spent at the private beach that the Nazer’s belong too. After everyone got settled in their rooms with their respective luggage, except mine which seemed to have gotten lost in translation back in New York, we got back into the cars to head to the beach.  Being in a country that revolves around religious practices and rituals I assumed the beach would be a rather PG affair with old school swimsuits reminiscent of the ones I see in black and white photos from the 1920’s and 30’s. So when I exited the beach house and saw women in bikinis I almost felt disappointed, as if I once again hadn’t left the States at all. But then I came to grips with reality and realized that the time spent at this private beach was probably one of the few releases from the abayas, the thin robe like garment women must wear daily, that so often clothed them.

The wearing of the abaya of course is something related to Muslim tradition and law upon which Saudi Arabia is based. Coming from a society that professes to separate religion from the state, being in a place that freely combines the two can be a little unsettling at first. To have a sales transaction interrupted by a distant voice over a loudspeaker saying “Allah Akbar” or “God is Great” is not a concept I am used to. To then see the streets empty of people as they try to make their way to their respective masjids, or mosques, as you become one of a few people still standing once the prayer actually starts. As you look around you realize that not everyone has made it to masjid and instead those people descend as one to their knees and touch their heads to the ground. It is then that I began to realize that people were doing the same thing all over the world, and the thought utterly humbled me. In that moment I realized the importance of Islam, not just to Saudis, but to the Muslim community as a whole.

The last point that has stuck with me was the overall feeling of being welcomed and appreciated. Perhaps the best example that was the Nazers themselves, including Mr. Nazer’s brothers. The generosity to offer to us their homes, their beds, their food, all without asking us to help out in anyway than to just be on time wherever we went. To the whole Nazer family, especially Loay and Dina, we are all indebted. And yet the kindness did not stop once we left their compound. A Saudi Princess, presumably with the blessing of her father, allowed us into her world as we visited a family farm in the city of Ta’if. We were given a tour a state of the art hospital, a personal house turned into an elegant art museum, a modern home built in the classical style to allow for fresh air to circulate at will, and each person involved ushered as with the utmost grace, care and respect. The ability to open up one’s life to others is a quality that Saudis seem to exude.

If I could go back Saudi Arabia, I would in a heartbeat. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and I feel that I learned so much, and yet I feel there is so much more to learn and experience. No matter how many, if any, times I get the chance to go back, I think I will always have a longing to know more. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a special place steeped in a way of life very foreign to us Americans, perhaps that is what interests me so much.

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Rev Obama? Articulate Bush? Not Cheating Clinton...lol jk, Questions to Ponder

While I was rushing to get out my apartment earlier I happened to hear a little of President Obama's sermon...I mean speech from the Dr. King service in DC today. I know this has been noted and said before, but the President is at his oratorical best when he is placed behind the wooden stand of a pulpit. His message is just that much more forceful, that much more powerful when he gets into the rhythm and cadence of a southern baptist preacher. If all else fails in his life, he should definitely consider a life in the ministry after his turn in politics is over, he could have a real future there.

After the President's ser...speech came his two immediate predecessors to drum up support for their joint drive for Haiti. What shocked me was that President Bush the younger has regained his ability to make coherant sentences. I did a little yousearch (youtube research) about the now ex-President's infamous inability to speak clearly and I found that he was quite the master speech giver during his 1995 run for the governorship of Texas. If you don't believe me, look videos up from his debates and speeches back then, you will be amazed. So listening to him today make coherant sentences about the immediate needs of Haiti was a refreshing soundbite of vintage Bush...not that I was a supporter in anyway...but I think I can wish him well.

That third question to ponder was simply a joke...not going to touch that topic. As I end this post I am on the NJTurnpike heading south on Megabus to Philly to catch a train to Lancaster...saved $25 over doing the train out of New York straight. Anyways, hope this finds you in good health, ciao. Sent from my Sprint BlackBerry

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The Importance of Rail Travel

As my early morning NJ Transit local pulls into Secaucus Junction, I am reminded of the sheer importence of the rails. I just read a recent article by Vice President Biden about the importence of Amtrak, espicially to him as he famously commuted to and from Wilmington, Delaware on Amtrak everyday. I don't think anyone doubts the inportence of of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor of trains like Acela, the Metroliner, the Pennsylvanian, the Vermonter, etc...but I'm always afraid for the state of Amtrak outside these parts.

My family and I take Amtrak a lot, most frquently the Crescent which runs from New York to New Orleans, but we would always get off at Tuscaloosa, Alabama...no not to go to a Roll Tide football game, but because its the closet stop to my mother's parent's respective homwtowns. Not once have I been on a train that wasn't booked, crowded and filled with people. As a kid n my favorite thing was having a freshly made Amtrak breakfast delivered to me as we pulled into a new station the morning after leaving New York. Service was always courteous and I never had a bad meal.

When Amtrak really gets special is on the routes serviced by the double-decker fleet, which normally run west and south of Chicago, with one exception. Those trains afford you an unparalled view of this country's beauty. When I was 8, my family and I went to Seattle, a 3 day trip from New York. I will never forget the stretch of rail in Montana where there was a corn field on one side, and a field of sunflowers on the other and there was this one lone tree that served as a point of reference. To my little 8 year old self it was like being in a painting...I wish I could experience that again.

I say all that really to say this, the train is not only an amazing experience, but something that is necessary for this country. There are areas in the heartland that are only serviced by Amtrak, albeit maybe 3 or 4 times a week in one direction, but at least it runs. Yes Amtrak can be late, I've had that experience, but so can planes and buses. The difference is you have room to stretch and move around on amtrak. No waiting for the snack service to go by, or being stuck on a confining bus, or sitting in traffic twiddling your thumbs...why do that if you can go in comfort?

As we pull into North Elizabeth, I highly encourage that at some point in your life, you take a long distance trip on Amtrak, it certainly won't be something you forget. Sent from my Sprint BlackBerry

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Legalize Marijuana for Government Revenue

The recent legalization of medicinal marijuana in New Jersey got me thinking, in this time of recession, wouldn't legalizing marijuana for taxing benefits make some sort of sense? I am not advocating the rampant use of marijuana...but the fact of the matter is, use is rampant enough already. Cigarettes are legally allowed for purchase and it can do more harm to a person because of all the chemicals associated with filtering modern cigarettes. Alcohol is legally allowed and the effects of alcohol can lead to liver damage, alcohol poisoning, etc.  Marijuana isn't necessarily safer than those legal substances, but it is no worse than them either.

The logic behind allowing one form of smoking over another is something I also find fault with. If marijuana is illegal for health reasons then cigarettes should be too. They both provide short term "benefits" and long term consequences...so why are they judged differently? I just think that in this time of financial woes, the government should at least consider the option of legalizing marijuana with the expectation that it would significantly and positively affect our waning financial markets. 

Beyond that benefit, I think this would allow for general oversight of this issue from the beginning, instead of having agencies like the DEA play catch up in the end. It should be regulated just like medicinal marijuana and this way someone who has a legitimate problem with marijuana may stand a better chance of getting help because of his/her interactions with some sort of official entity.

The point is this, marijuana exists, it is used heavily already, I think its time the government started to use it to its advantage, instead of using resources to fight it... especially in this financial climate...just a thought.

Hope this finds you in good health...and not smoking herb.

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An Introduction

I often find myself wishing to express an opinion about what does and doesn't happen around me. Twitter has helped me a great deal in expressing some opinions, but sometimes I need more than 140 characters to fully form my thoughts. So while I will continue to use, and love, twitter, I now have an auxiliary outlet to augment twitter with.

I probably will not be blogging everyday, but when something in the news happens that I feel could use a different perspective, or when I have an idea that could change the world...well at least I'd like to think it could. My goal is to have a forum for myself but also but anyone who wishes to have a discussion, I invite feedback and commentary...as long as it is respectful, I do not deal with disrespect. I have opinions just like the next person, but I also have a sense of decorum that keeps me from attacking others opinions...I expect the same courtesy.

Now to finer points, post ending in "Sent from my Sprint Blackberry" obviously were sent on the road somewhere, and I will try to remember to add where am I at the beginning of the post and where I am at the end of it. Other posts would have originated from my computer, like this one, and I will try and include where I am for those at well so that you, and I, can have a setting for context. With that in mind, I am currently at home on the futon in my living room.

I think that's it for the intro, thanks for reading and I hope this finds you in good health. (I'll usually end with that as well.)

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This is a Test

I am wondering how this system works, so this is my test run. I would love to do some casual blogging so if this works I'll be very happy. Sent from my Sprint BlackBerry

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