You know, I was thinking of going off on a ‘kids these days’ curmudgeon rant, berating how the youth have their noses stuck in their mobile devices and how in my day, we were sociable and more attentive.  But then I got to thinking.

When I was 16, my family went to the California Redwoods.  As we finally arrived after days of driving my father excitedly invited us to look around and behold the majesty of nature.  We glanced up, then back at what we were doing.  At one point, one of my siblings even declared: “What’s the big deal, dad?  It’s just a bunch of trees.”   <: |

Despite being devoid of cell phones, we managed to find all sorts of distractions – walkmans and books, mostly.  In fact, I distinctly recall being somewhere in the middle of ‘The Two Towers’ at that point.  Actually, to my fathers’ credit, I do distinctly remember the Redwoods, and I appreciate having gone there.  Although I do have to admit, my interest may have had something to do with the fact that I was pretending to ride a speeder-bike escaping from Imperial Troopers as we drove through the trees…

-Dave

Ah, the internetz: holding our delicate social lives together.

On another note, I want to give a shout out to the Parkes family.  Pacsil Penguin’s screen name is Zua The Avenger, a name once given to another penguin a long, long time ago.  I attribute much of the creativity I have to the nurturing comedic influence of this family during my ‘formative’ years.  Go Parkes!