I haven’t written anything for this blog in over a week. I’ve been busy, gimme a break.

Yes, yes, some of that busyness may have included trying to beat Fallout 4‘s Nuka World DLC on survival difficulty (which I accomplished last night after killing all the raider bosses, thank you very much). Some of that busyness may have also included writing new music (which I did last week and I’m really excited about). But really, it shouldn’t be an excuse. I can take a couple minutes out of the day to write. And that’s what I’m doing today.

3/14 was a pretty big day for many reasons. 1) There was the nationwide school walkout. It’s no secret that I’m pretty pro gun control, and it’s great to see that someone (err…a group of someones) is finally starting to stand up against this shit show that’s been going on for the last 15 years.

When I was in high school, there were always mumblings about walkouts, especially during the Bush administration. People were pissed off about everything from immigration to military intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan, but nothing ever really happened. I think once or twice a few kids held up signs during lunch, but that was about it.

But yesterday, thousands of kids walked out of school to stand up for their right to be alive, to not be afraid to go to school. Fuckin’ a, kids. Fuckin’ a. Students in the North East, whose classes were canceled because of the blizzard, staged walk-ins instead of walkouts. They actually went to school – in a blizzard – just to stick it to the man. I’m not 100% sure if it’s going to make a difference or cause the do-nothings in Congress to take action, but I’m glad that they’re getting out and doing something, glad to see that the fighting spirit is still somewhere out there.

2) Stephen Hawking died. That was a pretty big deal.  Look. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no physicist, but I love philosophy, and Stephen Hawking influenced a lot of the conclusions that I’ve drawn about life and the universe.

He hosted a lot of shows and made guest appearances in a lot of programs I used to watch when I was living at home. Stephen Hawking’s Universe was one of my favorites. I remember him talking about all sorts of stuff that really resonated with me during a very interesting point in my life. I was thinking a lot about the universe and purpose and time travel and all that jazz. You know, typical shit that stoners think about. (It should be noted that although I am no longer a stoner, I still think about this quite often.) He was a great mind, and it’s amazing that he accomplished what he did.

Speaking of life, the universe, and everything… Douglas Adams would’ve been 66 on March 11. And talk about influencing the way I look at the universe…man oh man. If you’re not familiar with Douglas’s work (yeah, we’re on a first name basis, so what?), you need to be.

I was reading the Hithhiker’s series during my first semester at UTSA.  The first book took me a total of about four hours to finish, and after that I finished the series over the course of a few days. I just couldn’t put it down. If you’ve been on the fence about whether or not we actually serve a purpose in the universe, if we really matter, give the trilogy (there’s five books) a read.

Then, when you’re done, read LITERALLY EVERYTHING ELSE he ever wrote. Meaning of Liff is great for a laugh. Last Chance to See changed the way I look at the world around me. And the Dirk Gently series gave me faith in mysteries again. Did you know he wrote three episodes of Doctor Who in the ’70s? Did you know he developed computer games in the ’90s?

Sometimes, we get a lot out of people before they die. Like Stephen Hawking. Granted, he never figured out the equation that could explain literally everything in the universe, but hey, he had some high points.

But for every mind we’re able to appreciate, we lose 10 too young, like Douglas Adams. That makes you appreciate what they did while they were here all the more, doesn’t it?

3) Yesterday was Pi day. I’m not one to ‘celebrate’ useless, ridiculous, absolutely meaningless ‘holidays’ that were made just so we have something to post about on social media, but I’d been in the mood for a good ol’ fashioned pizza pie for weeks. Yesterday when I got home, my lovely wife had made the greatest fucking pizza I’d ever had. What was on it, you ask? What made it so special?

It wasn’t a pizza at all. She took spaghetti squash, chia seeds, and bread crumbs to make a crust. She put marinara sauce, onions, spinach, and cheese on top. She baked it. She put it on top of a spinach salad. It was so amazingly delicious that I dreamed I was sailing on a boat made of the crust in a sea of marinara sauce last night. I’m still getting little phantom tastes in my mouth here and there, just wishing that I still had some to eat.

Vegetarian eating is awesome. I love it. I’m not a vegetarian. Oh no, far from it. Put a bleeding red steak down in front of me and I’ll finish that thing before it even has a chance to cool off. We’re just not eating meat as much as we used to. I feel better. I exercise better. We’re spending less at the grocery store. It’s awesome.

Well that’s about it, I guess. Nothing much else to update on. I hope, whoever you are, that you’re having a great week.

Cheers.