Hot Damn!

(As opposed to cold damn, of course.) It was an interesting weekend. After a long time, Mag and I hooked up with some friends from debater days that have recently moved into the Twin Cities. Seeing Bill and Kelly was pretty cool, but it was also unnerving to see them with not one but two kids. Wow! That’s a real wake up call. People our age are actually late to start families, by world standards. I don’t feel like a grown-up all the time anyway, and compared to them I am not. Seeing them was one of the most fun events we’ve had since we moved here. There was excellent conversation, good food, and their kids were well behaved. I even got to read “Fox in Socks” to their older one. Yesterday I received an email from another dear friend from back in The Day. Alana writes that she is now in South Carolina about to start law school as well at the USC. She has a child, too.

I like to include little personal updates from time to time. It’s because this is my own archive, and it’s fun to look back and see the order that things happened in. One of the cool side effects of maintaining a blog is the ability to correlate dates with memories. Already I can look at a day that I shouldn’t be able to remember anything about and get a good idea about what I was thinking based on my bloggages. Also, this site is a big Google beacon anyway. I want people I knew but lost track of to find me. I’m trying to get more Google Results for “Nathan Hobbs” than the other Nathan Hobbses. I notice that my Law School essay is getting the first hit on Google amongst my pages. I better go add a link back here.

Ok, now that I’ve done that I’ve noticed that I’m Top Ten among the weblogs they have listed – well, number 10. Among the Hs. But I am beating Hanging On by a nose. In your face, Eric!

I saw this article in The Onion and was really having to restrain my tacky guffaws.

To cope with this incalculable loss of life, within hours of the accident, the citizens of Mound City responded with a spontaneous outpouring of crappy mementos. Despite the presence of such disturbing reminders of the crash as tire marks, headlight shards, and blood-stained pavement, Mound City residents have come here day after day, adding more tacky shit to the steadily growing pile.

The Onion always is the funniest when they strike close to The Truth. For instance, those roadside memorials. There are no shortage of news articles dealing with them – this one, written about a year ago, is perhaps the stupidest piece of “journalism” I’ve ever seen. Wow, did someone really create a roadside memorial? No. You’re putting me on. In other places, law enforcement officials are removing these shrines, often to the chagrin of the mourners. Photographers are particularly fond of crosses. Of course, my mom is the proper authority to comment on these things. She’s very involved in the field of gravestone studies and the relationship of us with the dead. (I see dead people!) I’ve been trying to get her to start a graveblog like ColdMarble Musings, but she’s been busy.

Bonus!

Soft drink snobs unite! Get your super funky non-alcoholic fizzy beverages here. Does not answer the question of whether it is Soda or Pop (or Coke, as I still refer to any beverage of this category).