Inevitable

Everyone's either moving or helping someone else move this week so we'll have an easy question that doesn't take much thought. It's the question you should have all been expecting long, long ago, but I held off.

We don't want to know until it's born so give us your boy name top three and your girl name top three. Thanks!

And just remember if your picks don't get selected there's always other children. You could even have one if you wanted.

The Pearl's Core

Alright so I was sitting here rereading some of our posts-as is my want-and I came to last week's question and comments. Nate said that growing up is like being a pearl with new experiences being constantly laid down and wrapped around around mind and personality. As you grow and mature the surface of you changes and you yourself notice changes in the way you behave. The way you used to behave is still there, but it slowly gets buried as you gain new experiences.

Makes a certain amount of sense huh? Clever guy Nate, you should read his book some time. It's rather good.

Anyway, what I got thinking about is what about the core of the pearl of your mind? I've conducted many hours of informal study on personality in general and the ways people tend to follow certain patterns and fall into categories. One could easily say, and I believe rightly so, that this is because of the social conditioning that one under goes from birth and that what we see and interact with is merely the outer most layers of the person.

But what about the pearl's core? When you strip away all the layers that have been laid down over the years what's there? Are people born a certain way? Is that antisocial misfit you work with at the office that way because they were born that way or because they were layered that way? Does that bubbly and helpful girl act that way because she has an innate born instinct to be helpful and kind or did her parents simply teach her since birth?

Can a person overcome and completely bury what's in their core or will it always shine through no matter how hard they try to cover it up? Are we slaves to our cores or are we the masters?

This sucks don't you think?

Starcraft 2 is going to be coming out some time this year. As long time Caravan fans may recall Starcraft came out ten years ago when we were all sixteen. We are now all twenty six, give or take a couple of us. Before I was obsessed about this game, but now not so much. I've grown and matured and I hate it. I want to be sitting outside stores waiting for this game, but I have better things to do. I need to go to work and pay bills and help people move things and have them help me move things. I miss the days when I could be free to be an immature, self-centered teenager. Does anyone else?

So my question for the week is this, does growing up mean you have to give up on things you once enjoyed or does it mean you don't feel the same need to do those things the way you did before?

I want to want my Starcraft damn it!

Are you happy now?

Recently while I was updating our myspace page I was describing Adam and how he hardly ever smiles and when he speaks it's usually some truthful fact that no one wants to hear. It got me thinking about the Truth in general. In our modern times it seems with media spin doctors, talking heads, and politicians constantly talking at us the Truth is hard to find.

But does Truth even exist? What is Truth? We each may have Truths. Are mine the same as yours? Could Truth be something the human mind invented to make it feel safe? Is there such a thing as Truth in the world or is everything we think of as Truth merely a lie we all agreed to?

We're back

Hi everybody, we're back. Nate had to come back after a week and a half to break up with his girlfriend, but the rest of us made the distance. Rich is frothing over the new Avatar preview. He'll probably be posting something tomorrow.

On baby news, what about the name Tyler? It's a boy and girl name. We like the sound. How about you?

In the words of Marvel Comics

See you in thirty! We once again are going to be going without the internet for an entire month! I don't know how we did this last time, but we've decided to do it yet again. The big question is how are we going to keep ourselves occupied. Hipster got himself a book from the Redwall series to read. Nate and I plan on writing and working on our strength training. Adam is going to be doing whatever the hell it is he does all day. The others are going to be working and wondering why we're freaking out. They don't use the internet much anyway.

So, I guess we'll see you all in thirty days. Ta-ta!

No, thank you Alanis

Searching through youtube I found this one. I wanted to share.



Alanis was always one of my favorite artists. I love her stuff. I thought this was hilarious when I saw it. I think she's crying for the defunct women's movement.

If Ignorance is Bliss

If ignorance is bliss does that mean that intelligence is misery? Think about it. Ignorance can be blissful because you don't know or can't necessarily imagine things that could go wrong. You're happy because as far as you can foresee everything is golden. However, if you're smart enough to see what can go wrong then you're not going to be happy about it or anything in general.

Thoughts?

I've always liked Gwen

Hi Everybody! How ya all been? It's been a while since I posted. Baby production takes it out of ya. It doesn't look like we've had many good talks since I went on unofficial hiatus. Boys are so silly aren't they? Without someone who knows what they're doing they just sit around playing and talking about video games. Anyway, on with the post!

My two favorite silent headaches, Nate and Adam last summer had a informal contest on who was the most like Prince Zuko from the Nickelodeon show Avatar. For those who don't watch the show, Prince Zuko is the shows bad boy anti-hero who had a seriously messed up childhood and is less than emotionally stable. Nate managed to win the contest of sorts after a few weeks of well...stepping up his "Nate" game. I'm at this exact moment being told by my husband that Nate clinched it by walking up a mountain during a thunderstorm. Now at this exact moment I am typing with one head as the other is massaging my head.

Anyway, it seems that the two of them think of Zuko as a role model of sorts. The other boys like Zuko enough, but don't have the same fervor and zeal that Nate and Adam do. Nate dressed up and dyed his hair to be Zuko for Halloween and as you may know his avatar here is a still clip of Zuko. They love Zuko and want to be Zuko. One of the more three dimensionally messed up characters I've seen over the years and they want to be just like him.

Now while it may be obvious that they love him so much because they feel they can identify with him so much what I'd like to know and discuss is why they would want to have him as a role model. Surely, if they feel as angry and sad as Zuko does on the show they would want to have a role model that's happy and content as emulating that person could perhaps give them themselves some degree of the same.

Do we choose to be like someone who is just like us? Or do we choose our role models because they remind us of ourselves? And if we choose them because they remind us of ourselves then why bother at all if they don't inspire us to change?

We are so clever it's scary

Ten years ago Nate and I would rent games at Home Vision video. Although once we forgot to return a game for a full week and racked up quite the late fees. So we never went back. Last week we finally did and they didn't know us! We got to rent this cool Avatar game without having to pay our old late fees! All we had to do was wait ten years! We are so smart sometimes it's scary.

We'll be back to the weekly questions soon. We're still recovering from Seattle. Well, that and playing Avatar games.

Does this make us wrong?

We all just watched Crank. Ever seen it? We highly recommend it. We couldn't stop laughing. We're fairly sure it was supposed to be a comedy. Of sorts. This is post 101 by the way. Having come along around post seventy something I probably shouldn't take the credit, but I still feel proud. The others tell me I should be too. Go me.

Imperfection for Girls

Lindsay Lohan has recently posed nude recreating a Marilyn Monroe photo shoot. If you'd like to see feel free. It's okay, you can look.

Upon looking at these pictures my first guy reaction was that she looked kinda chubby and rounder than I would have expected. Although as I looked at other pictures I realized that I thought she looked that way because I, like pretty much the rest of the world's population, have been trained to think girls are supposed to be perfectly flawless thin stick figures with large chests. When I see someone that looks like a real girl my training kicks in and I think she's supposed to be thinner.

While Lindsay is quite good looking in those pictures she doesn't have that artificial look to her. Her stomach isn't ripped with muscles, her skin has freckles and marks, and while her breasts are large they don't have that gravity defying perk to them. Also her hips, god forbid, have flesh over them.

I say good for Lindsay. Being trained too, most likely more so as a Hollywood girl, she must feel the constant pressure to be thinner, perkier, and all around more boringly "perfect". Letting these pictures of her body go out is a step in the right direction for the world being untrained. As I find myself saying a lot imperfection is so much more interesting. If I want a Barbie I'll go visit Nate at KB and buy one.

Hi folks!

A full update after a good night's sleep. Nate seems very happy to see us.

God, I'm bored

They've taken off for the week, but I stayed behind. With the weather Hipster, Kate, and Rich went out Sunday morning before the next storm hit so they could be sure they didn't stuck here all week. Dragonrane, Adam, and Shawn left this morning.

So here I am, alone, sitting in my basement by the lackluster fire in Albany NH for the next week. Mandy's car is broken again and she has doctors appointments anyway so I probably won't even get to see her. God, this is going to be boring. I was at Shaws today and a Backstreet Boys came on and I instinctively turned thinking I was going to see Hipster starting to dance, but no. I went to Music for Less and found the next season of Full Metal Alchemist and was all excited that me and Rich would have something to watch, but then I remembered. I still bought the Full Metal of course, but I'll have to watch it alone now. I don't even have to go to work at all.

This sucks.

Give us a week

We're heading out Monday to my mother's wedding. While we can do this from anywhere, we'll be taking a break from it for the Seattle fun. We'll be back next week. See ya's then!

Still

For the record, Final Fantasy 6 is still the best game ever. I've played a few more games since I said this statement a couple years ago, but FF6 is still the top. Just wanted to mention.

Oh you didn't know? You better call somebody!

I want to share this. I felt the need.

cuz this is thriller!

On Jan 19, 2008 8:24 AM, James Quinn <hipsterjq@gmail.com> wrote:

Alright guys! My mom's wedding is Feb 14th and I say we learn how to dance thriller! Who's with me? Adam, your dance skills will be greatly needed! We need to show those west coast people how we roll up in north conway. Who's with me?!

-Golden Sun

so, let me get this straight, not only am i going to spend the next three weeks learning how to dance like michael jackson, but then i'm going to have to fly to seattle and dance in front of a large group of people i've never met.

whatever, where do i sign?

-K

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I don't plan on flying to Seattle, but I'll dance during rehearsals for fun. I'm sure you'd pull me in even if I said I wouldn't so I might as well go with the flow on this.

-Darkened Prism

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The west coast won't know what hit them. Can I get the back though? I suck at dancing.

-Rain of Lightning

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I think the Mrs. and I are going to sit this one out. She's not in the mood for dance numbers and I'm working these days a lot. sorry man. But if you need any help with anything I'd have expertise on you just say the word.

-Shawn

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Rich and Nate have two left feet and Thriller isn't the shortest number we could learn in three weeks. We better start practicing...yeah.

-Truthful Shadow

What's your theme for the year?

Now that we're a week into 2008 and we've had time to get over 2007, what do you plan on doing this year? Or perhaps, we plan on doing nothing. It will be the special kind of nothing though that we excell at so much won't it? So whatever we plan or don't plan what will the song that sets the tone for the year for the each of us? Mine



I'm setting my sights on a calm relaxed tone this year. Getting all angry at life is getting tiresome for me. While I'm sure I'll still get pissed now and then I'm going to try to just chill.
I'm in no big rush. I just want to relax.

A surprise phone call

I was woken up this morning at Caravan House by the phone ringing. It was 11 and everyone else was gone doing chores or at work so I had to wake myself up and get it. Of all people it was my semi long lost sister. Seems my mother's boyfriend proposed to her new years. She said yes, so my sister and I are going to have a step father. Susanna (sister) also informed me that the guy was married before and has a nine year old son named Ben. We get a new brother too.

Once I had woken up more and it sunk in that I'm going to have the little brother I've always wanted I got thinking about what makes family family. I think of my fellow Caravan-ers as brothers and sisters. Are family whoever you feel close to or is it only who the state has papers saying you're family? Should we tell Ben that you guys are his brothers and sisters too or should it just be me and Sue? If I consider you guys my brothers and we have no blood relation why shouldn't he consider you brothers too?

I mean what only child ten year old in his right mind wouldn't want to wake up one morning and suddenly have eight super cool older brothers and sisters?

Lord Defalco

Nate won the lord contest. It was by a good margin too. I can't help but think that by getting a girlfriend the exact day it started was somehow part of his plan. It was also the six month wedding anniversity of Dragonrane and Boykind, Adam and Kate's six month anniversity, and his year and half anniversity. If he did somehow plan all this he deserved to win.

So as of when I log off and let him take the computer Nate will be changing his name here from Mike to Lord Defalco. 2007 has been a good year for us. The best part of which was the addition of Kate, Alisha, and hopefully soon Mandy. The latter of the three we just haven't gotten around to sending the invite too, but we will be doing so soon.

We look forward to another great one in 2008! See you all soon!