People ask me all the time - “mounty, what makes America great, in your well-traveled opinion?” And I always answer, free wi-fi. Nowadays hotspots are as common as Democrats. Hotels used to charge extra for wireless internet; now they have to offer free wireless in order to stay in business. It used to be only the trendy coffee shops (including Starbucks) offered free internet at their shops. Then trendy restaurants started picking up the craze - places like Atlanta Bread Company and Panera Bread. Now places as mundane as McDonalds and Waffle House offer free wireless internet. Expect to live a shorter life courtesy of all those internet signals whizzing right through you, everywhere you go (except Kansas, who, in a brilliant long-term strategy, is staying out of the technology sector in hopes of someday running the country - they’ll live normal lives while we all die at 27).
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Back in the days before Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0, I gave the old bird a shot. I gotta be honest, even with friends going ape over it, I didn’t like it. Honestly, it looked and acted like Outlook. (”New! Improved! 98% less features!”) It was a bad clone of Outlook - clunky accounts interface, no calendar, no tasks, no appointments, no nothing. If you had POP mail and didn’t mind restarting your mail client three times in eight hours then Thunderbird was the client for you.
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In true geek fashion, and after inspiration from visiting ThinkGeek.com, I whipped up this wallpaper. Thumb below; click for 1600×1200 version. For smaller monitors, just center the image and you’ll be fine, all the way down to 1024×768.

This weekend has capped what may possibly be my busiest week since August of last year. Note: I don’t mind being busy. In fact I rather like it. It’s just when I get busy and exhausted that I get a little loopy.
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After graduating (which, for you loyalists out there, is the reason this place has been so quiet) I began the daunting task of moving me and my accumulated stuff from the dorm room to the new apartment. Providing further dauntage was the acquisition, assembly, and arrangement of new furniture, which took the better part of 10 days. But I’m pleased to announce that all has been made well in the new physical mounty’s corner, right up to the neighborhood kids playing football in the street as I pulled in today. Yes, you who know me know my passion for football. I love the game. I love playing it; I love watching it; I love the endless debates about rivalries, draft picks (oh, and Ed, experience should have told you to keep your trap shut [2/3 of the way down]), and how injuries are going to affect the coming game. The Quartet’s former bass singer felt led to pursue a doctorate degree at Clemson, so he is no longer traveling with us, but he and I used to have many fun arguments about how our teams, division rivals Philly and Washington, were going to fare against the opponent du jour. So obviously I love the sport. I just don’t love it enough to find joy and satisfaction in finding the blessed pigskin on the other side of my car windshield. But then again, this is Taylors, and there’s pretty much nothing to do in Taylors except wish you were in Greenville, Spartanburg, Anderson, Simpsonville, or any other of the myriad larger towns in the area, so I can easily forgive the guys tossing the ball.

Lastly, but not leastly, [your profound closing thought here!]

As I was packing to move to my new apartment this morning, I came across this quite that I had several years ago printed out and hung on my dorm door, back when I thought doing so made a strong statement to the rest of the world. (Hint to current dorm students: it doesn’t.)

Bible students may recognize the title (and definitely should, once I explain it) as a take on Warren Weirsbe’s NT commentary series, entitled Be _____, with some adjective that sums up whichever book he happens to be working on. Back in my undergrad days I remember working through some of these commentaries, particularly in the epistles, with my prayer group. I came across this snippet in Be Joyful, a commentary on Philippians (emphasis mine):

Too many people think that a “spiritual Christian” is mystical, dreamy, impractical, and distant. When he prays, he shifts his voice into a sepulchral tone in tremolo and goes to great lengths to inform God of the things He already knows. Unfortunately, this kind of unctuous piety is a poor example of true spirituality. To be spiritually minded does not require one to be impractical or mystical. Quite the contrary, the spiritual mind makes the believer think more clearly and get things done more efficiently.

…somewhere in the early 1980s, the great poet/urban philosopher known only as “mounty” was born. Mounty helped shape a generation, teaching his followers to grow more cynical with each passing day; to look gift horses straight in the mouth; and to look for the clouds behind every silver lining. He championed the causes of strong coffee and witty office banter. And he was probably the number one cause of gray hairs for his professors at college…until 2007, that is, when, three days after his birthday, he finally graduated after seven long and productive years. History alone will be the judge of how this sage affected his generation.

Requiescat in pace, man - classes are done as of 11:00a this morning. Whee!