Pneity

It's been one interesting fall. This year isn't much like last. Last fall, I started back at school and had the mentality to just get through and keep pushing until done. I got through, but the four months felt like seven years. No exaggeration, either. But this time, it just feels weird. There's something unsettling about it. It's taking forever, don't get me wrong. But this time around, I've stayed so busy that it feels like school has consumed my life. Staying that busy has made me focus on my personal projects a lot, too. I sold my desktop computer so I only use my Surface now. But due to that, I had to offload a lot of data. So I expanded my webserver's storage and bought a bunch of external drives. I even got a RAID enclosure that can handle SFTP and a bunch of other fun stuff. My data has never been in so many places. Even if something happens to one of these drives, it can be swapped out. If something happens to the raid, I can pull from the backup mirrored array I have. If those both fail, I have two off site duplicates on externals, ready to go. So at this point, I've got all the tech I've ever wanted. Technology is absurd. Classes aren't going well. I've procrastinated enough to let it affect my grades. But whatever. Just passing this semester is enough for me. I have to so some actual work work tonight just after midnight. Meanwhile, my government tries to dismantle not only all decency, but also the best thing that happened to me, the Internet. This is gonna be a frustrating battle to lose. If not this time, then next time. My local senator already decided his position and it's the position of someone who got paid off. On a lighter note, one cool thing that's happened has been that I've been drowning in great music. It's been a cool year for music.

The last 26 hours have been pretty neat. I picked my brother Tom up from the airport last night just after midnight. He flew in from Chicago for Thanksgiving. We went to a bar close to the airport to do some catching up. It was disappointing because the place was dead, but it was still nice to catch up with my brother. I don't get to see him but once or twice a year. After a few drinks and some sobering up time, we headed back to my house for the night. It was late, so we caught some sleep. He and I are a bit apart by age, but the way he describes it, he's already got a foot in the grave. It's silly. At any rate, the diner was closed this morning because of Thanksgiving. So we headed to Uniontown hungry. Caught a drink at a McDonald's drivethru because we were parched. We arrived to his wife's parents' house for a proper Thanksgiving meal. Our family's Thanksgiving is delayed until Saturday due to work schedules matching up. I ate well and watched Football. First game I actually watched in years. Afterwards, we went to visit dad. We played Spades for about five hours. I don't understand that game, even after all that effort. My sister in law and I lost our asses. But it was fun. Mom got home from work around midnight and we said our hellos and goodbyes. Until Saturday, I suppose. But the main reason I felt the need to document the day's happenings is that on my way home, I stopped for gas in Belle Vernon. On my way out of the shop from picking up a drink and a candy bar, my buddy Chad came in and didn't notice me. I said his full name in a stern voice to him and he looked up very confused, but only for a moment. He smiled like crazy when he realized it was me. There was a time I called him my brother. He was my first friend in the school I had just moved to in middle school. He and I go way back. And like so many other friends I've had, things changed between us and we lost touch. Not so much in the way of we never see each other, talk, or reach out. But that he and I don't really align anymore with out lifestyles. I'm really straight-laced and he's very carefree about most everything. Rumors spiral out of control among former friend groups, but I feel he's really been into bad stuff lately. The biggest thing about this interaction is that he was talking about his life since his divorce and how things are going great for him now. I hope he's right and I wish him the absolute best. I want him to be well; I want him to do well. He's still like a brother to me. But it's troubling to know that for just about everyone I know, that's a tall order. My last aside as a note for today's events is that my brother and I talked about having to talk to dad about his recent.... racist tendencies. It's become insufferable, as I understand. Even in your 60s, friends can be a bad influence. Don't do small towns, kids.