http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1839708,00.html

Sooooo, a bunch of scientists just exclaimed that exercise will help you lose weight. Does this make anyone else want to hit themselves in the head with a blunt object?

As I was driving in to work this morning, the guy in the car in front of me decided to clean his windshield. The result was that my own windshield was sprayed with that vehicles windshield wiper fluid, which struck me as funny as I thought, "The car in front of me just gave my car a facial."

I then proceeded to clean my own windshield because of this, which I'm sure then sprayed onto the car that was behind me. So that person was getting not only my car's fluid, but that of the car in front of me too. I'm not sure what to call that one, but it's pretty gross when you think about it. It also makes me wonder how long the chain had been going on. Was the car in front of me prompted to clean his windshield because the car in front of him did so? And how far behind me did this go? Questions I will never have answers to.

I think my next goal will be to make about 5 cars in front of me clean their windshields at the same time. I will call that one car bukkake.

Spore!

OMG, it's finally time. I thought this day would never come.

http://www.spore.com

Spore is coming out on September 7th. I first heard of this game probably close to two years ago, and the idea just seemed quite brilliant: You start out controlling a single-celled organism, and you help it evolve until it's a space traveling intelligent life form. How epic.

Well, the game seems to have sneaked up on me, but I've rectified the issue. I just pre-ordered my copy two minutes ago =)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4682260.ece

I love stories like these, because it just gives me so much material to use in regular conversation here at the office (because Mark and I thoroughly enjoy making fun of mankind).

First, the two of us spread panic through the office by delivering completely exaggerated versions of what, exactly, these scientists are about to do. We now have half the office convinced that on September 10th, we're all going to be sucked into a black hole in France while being attacked by mosquitoes and chased by clowns on bicycles. (They all float.)

I also like the fact that the Swiss are doing this. So they've gone from making watches, to making doomsday machines. Quite a step up, isn't it?

I remember a dream from last night. This happens only rarely as I typically don't remember my dreams at all, but when I do I always try to figure out the source of what was in the dream. First of all, the setting was the Old West. That's an easy one -- my father watches Westerns a lot. Yesterday when I walked by his room on my way to take a shower, there was a Western on his TV. Now, in addition to me, there were 3 other people in the dream. One of them was my grandfather, and I don't know who the other 2 were. I've thought about my grandfather pretty recently, so it's no surprise he showed up in one of my dreams.

I'm not sure the meaning of what happened in the dream, however. All I can remember is that the 2 people I didn't know disguised themselves as my grandfather and me, and vice versa. Then, those two guys disguised as us were killed. I seem to think it was a shootout between them and the two of us, but I can't be sure. After the shootout (if it was such a thing), my grandfather and I looked at each other, not sure who we were, and then we both took off our disguises at the same time. Then we smiled at each other, and that's when I woke up.

This would be my reaction as well.

I don't like family gatherings. This is not an uncommon statement by any means, but my reasons for not liking them are probably a bit different when compared to that of the common man. I'm sure most people dread such events because there's always that family member that no one can stand, but who is inevitably invited to every family gathering out of necessity. That person is family, and therefore must be included even if everyone hates them.

There's a twinge of irony in that, for me.

For myself, I don't like family gatherings because my family really doesn't know or understand me. I will be the first person to admit that mostly, the reason for that is my own fault. There is obviously no reason why I couldn't let them know who I really am, aside from my own unwillingness and fear of doing so. That fear being the fear of becoming the person that I mentioned up in paragraph one. That would be the irony I was talking about.

Do I know for sure that it would happen? No, of course not. But that doesn't stop the anxiety when I think about it. Typically, it didn't much bother me that my family doesn't really know who I am. Not until recently. And this is the part of the whole thing that has be intrigued, and has had me analyzing it. Why does it sort of bother me now?

It's probably a combination of things. It could be that as I'm getting older, I'm desiring more and more to act like myself. It could be that after years of typically not saying more than 5 words to my family members, I would like to be able to carry on conversations with them if they would accept me. It could be that after being brutally honest with a few other friends in my life, that I would like to continue the trend with everyone else.

While all of those are probably true in a way, I think there's one other reason. And, I think it is the main reason.

I lost a friend, recently, and I lost this friend because I wasn't honest with them. There were other contributing factors, but I firmly believe the lack of honesty was the main reason for the destruction of the relationship. The reason I was not honest with them is because I believed everything would be much better if I wasn't. And for the longest time, that was true. But then they started to make incorrect assumptions. They started to (and probably still do) believe that I was just naturally a liar and two-faced. And, no matter how much effort I put forth, and no matter how honest I was with them after they started believing that, it didn't matter.

I also understand, however, that if this person would have had any shred of maturity, or even any bit of understanding of my situation, things would not have concluded the way they did. But it doesn't make it any easier, and it doesn't stop me from wondering what I'm supposed to do.

My feelings are mixed. In one sense, this whole situation has given me a desire to be more open and honest. In another sense, it has made me want to construct even larger barriers. And in the end, I'll probably end up in the middle where I've been my entire life -- putting everyone on a need to know basis. And most people don't need to know.

I feel better now though, because writing about something always helps me.