I’m still watching way more television than I ever normally would, even though there are rarely any new events I still turn on the news any chance I get. I don’t know why I feel so compelled to watch and wait for every new development, but I remain glued to the news. What worries me is that so many people seem to be crying out for war and military action. While I totally understand it, and I myself think it would be satisfying if we had one visible foe that we could engage and defeat, that just doesn’t seem to be the case here. Even if everyone even remotely associated with the attack is hunted down, there can be no treaty that would signal the end of a war. As much as we would like to belive this is a war in which we can use our impressive military might, I believe it is instead a criminal act of incredible magnitude. Unfortunately, no trial or sentance, no matter how just, could seem to be enough to pay for it so we feel the need for war.

Life goes on here in Columbus though, as my sister moved into the dorms here at OSU yesterday. That makes me feel so old. Ancient really. I’m almost done with school. Where did that come from? I really miss the times I had living on campus, but visiting her dorm now made me realize that without even noticing it I’ve just outgrown that part of my life.

As it turns out, I’m still here. All flights are still grounded, so there’s just no way I’m getting to Alaska. By the time flights resume, it would leave us with just about no time to spend in Alaska so we’ve decided to cancel the trip. Its just as well really, since this doesn’t seem like much of a time to take a vacation. Even in Alaska I’m sure we’d still be hearing constant reminders and incessant news reports. (Not that I’m trying to be callous, its just that there really is no escaping it) I seem to have a lot of free time on my hands all of a sudden. Maybe tomorrow I’ll make a misguided attempt at changing the design of this page. Or just rip someone else’s design off. That sounds like a plan.

Unbelievable. I’ve been watching tv for the last 4.5 hours, and I just had to step away for a while. It just seems so impossible, but both World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon have been hit with hijacked airplanes. Even more unbelievably, both towers have collapsed. Watching the images replay over and over on the screen, I was struck with the magnitude of this, and the realization that I was witnessing pictures happening now that would surely be in the history books of the next generation. I was watching as the second tower collapsed live on television, and it was the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen. The image was so stunning and darkly powerful that I didn’t know what to think. I just hope that its finally over. I first found out at about 9:00 on Metafilter right after I woke up. At that point, just the one plane had hit a tower. Immediately, I went downstairs to check the television and heard about the second crash. As shocking as that was, it just kept getting worse and worse as the Pentagon was hit and the towers collapsed. I was just dumbstruck, and wondered what else could possibly happen. As of this point the FAA has shut down all air travel nationwide, so my trip to Alaska is at best on hold but most likely cancelled. Even if I could fly tomorrow instead, I really don’t know if I’d want to. This has all just been so insane.

“I’m going up to Alaska, I’m gonna get off scot-fucking-free…”

As of 4:05 pm today, I will be up out of here heading to Alaska. I’m all packed right now except for the most essential items: my cds, camera, and journal. I don’t know exactly what to expect from this trip, but I’m pretty excited right now. Internet cafes are supposed to be fairly big in Alaska (or so I’ve heard) so maybe I’ll post from there. It just seems so improbable that at this time tomorrow, I’ll be thousands of miles away from here. I tell you, is this modern world of ours wacky or what?

Just back from the Built to Spill show at the Newport. So good, so very very good. They played with a band called the Delusions, which has some of the people that helped out on the latest BtS album. The opening was somewhat confusing, as the very first act was just a guy who later played in both the Delusions and BtS’s sets. I never caught his name, or found out why he was playing first. He started by himself, and was joined by 2 members of the Delusions after a few songs. He seemed to have a Neil Young complex, and he was pretty lackluster. Up next were the rest of the Delusions, finally bringing some excitement to the evening. They sounded similar to Built to Spill, circa Keep it Like a Secret, but just lacking some of the charm and energy. Definitely good though; I’m thinking about checking out one of their albums. By the time Built to Spill got set up and ready to go, I was more than ready. They launched into their set, and I was in heaven. Incomplete and out-of-order setlist: You Were Wrong, Car, Carry the Zero, In Your Mind, Everyone, Made-Up Dreams, Velvet Waltz, Untrustable/Part 2 (About Someone Else), Twin Falls Idaho, The Dream Police(Cheap Trick song?), Nowhere Nothing Fuck-up, and they finished with a really impressive version of Free Bird. Cliché? Maybe. Butt-rock? Ok, ok, say what you will about Skynrd, but it really worked as a huge finale. No chance of an encore after this one, it went out big. In conclusion, Doug Marsch is my hero, and Built to Spill tore shit up. Good night.

When I left Chemical Abstracts today, they gave me one of those motivational desk plaques. I want to know who comes up with these things, and how they can do it with a straight face. I can only hope they have to at least fight back a snicker. Now this is more my style. Urgent request to self: Please, please try to find a more interesting job before you graduate. Follow up note to self: Does a more interesting job even exist? Consider changing major with one quarter left. Check student loans, scratch changing major. Sigh with resignation, grit teeth, and brace for corporate cubicle hell. This is not happening, this is not happening, this is… Oh… *ahem* sorry. On the bright side I also got a batch of going-away-cupcakes, and a mix tape.

Today I tried to buy the new skull t-shirt from Diesel Sweeties, but I was denied because the computer parts I bought for my sister on Monday pushed me right up to the edge of my credit limit. Irritating! Oh well. It will be mine soon, yes very soon.

That’s right, I’m still here. Today at work, I spent most of the day plowing through the archives of McSweeneys. So much wryness, so little time. Very smirky & self deprecating, but that’s just my kind of thing. Hi-larious. Speaking of work, I only have 3 days left at Chemical Abstracts Service. After that, its off for a week in Alaska with my father where we will most certainly be devoured by giant bears or dashed against sharp rocks after falling from a great height. This should be great fun. Really, honestly, no sarcasm. I mean, Alaska, not the bears and rocks. Yesterday, I picked up a CD-RW drive and a 40 gig hard drive for my sister’s computer, which means I’ve now got all the parts for it. All it needs now is an OS, and it should be ready for her. While I was out getting the drives, I managed to pick up 128MB of FREE RAM for myself. Ok, ok, so it was $20 with a $20 rebate, but still… FREE! CompUSA was sold out of the RAM, but having roommates that work there certainly has its advantages, as they were able to hold one back for me. Whee!

Well, if nothing else its been interesting to finally play around with Blogger. Who knows if it’ll manage to keep my interest or not though. I certainly don’t know what I’m doing here. It seems like everyone who could ever possible have a blog already does, and while I hate to come late to the party, I figured I might as well give it a shot. I’m not really planning on compelling content or innovative design (I’ll be surprised if I ever get around to modifying the template), but I really like the idea of having a place just to record day to day occurrances. I don’t know yet if I just want to keep this private and maybe let a couple of friends know, or if I want to try to make something other people might be interested in. I doubt this will ever replace my pen and paper journal, but it could be an interesting companion. Who knows? You certainly can’t do this with a paper journal after all, and isn’t that the point of this whole thing?