It's true that for four years, especially the last two, I have rarely done anything besides read, write, study, or do shitty work so that Hayley and I wouldn't starve as I read, wrote, and studied. My commitment to school cut out a lot of other commitments; whether that be hanging out with friends, reading novels, not getting fat, or playing my guitar. I have become rather one-dimensional as a survival mechanism. Since moving to Chicago and thus getting rid of the four hour a day commute from Kankakee I have made some steps towards increasing my dimensional space, and I'm happy with the progress.

So, since JD seems to think that I only get my rocks off by proxy of Subcommandate Marcos I have decided to let you all in on my political activities, small as they may be. Perhaps the one I am most proud of, because I'm a pretty lazy son of a bitch, is my commitment to responsible transportation. Though Hayley and I have a car, and she does use it quite often for going back and forth places, I rarely if ever drive it in the city. I have always traveled by public transportation when I could and loved the fact that in Paris there was no need for a car at all, unlike in Chicago. As of the end of winter I bought a little Schwinn road bike and I rode that back and forth from school every day that I could (lost 10 lbs. too). There really is something great about riding a bike in the city. I'm not sure if it's that death could overtake you in the form of a SUV at any moment, passing cars and making it home long before them during rush-hour, or if it's the euphoria of your body finally doing something that hurts a bit and makes you sweat. Either way, it is wonderful. It would be pretty transformative if a Church would decide to preach against the evils of cars and fought the CTA's corrupt bureaucrats to get better transportation in Chicago. Hell, I'd feel good about a Church that gets people onto bikes.

I also became a vegetarian after Easter this year. I didn't do this because I think killing things is always and forever wrong. Life indeed feeds on life, and when it does it right its joyous. But our modern meat industry is life feeding on death and its killing a lot more than a few million cows and chickens. I'm a firm believer that any new ecological thought must not posit that humans are at the pinnacle of life on the planet Earth, that we are part of the eco-system as participants and not masters. Our meat industry operates and encourages the belief within consumers that the earth is simply here for us and that our relationship with animals and the earth we all live on can be mediated by economic exchange. After literally hanging out with some cows at Hayley's parents place, I could no longer participate in that fiction. Hopefully a day will come when we kill animals in a way that puts them in a respectable relationship with us and I can again have some damn sausage.

I work a horrible job. I don't want to go into it, but suffice it to say that they are somewhat abusive to their employees by way of only getting work through temp agencies so that none of us are guaranteed employment or access to benefits. I steal time, often.

Further, I've worked on forming relationships with people and just talking to them. Even some scary drunk dudes who could beat the shit out of me. It's good to talk to them and realize that I'm being a dick in my fear. After all, I doubt they'd kill me even if they beat the shit out of me. What I wish I could do was learn some Spanish and Polish and help unite the working class poor in our area, but I don't have the disposition for such amazing work. I would, however, get behind anyone who does.

Sure, it isn't as good as going to Chiapas and participating in the Good Governments, but I'm trying to do some things to show that I'm not powerless.