well, back from the ol' homestead and haven't had enough of a moment since my return to do an update. almost as soon as i returned on Saturday night, i went out with Paul & Brax, and had a bit of an adventure.

on the home front though, to complete the story of my recent visit, Friday was political discussion day. dinner rolled around and mom provoked the whole thing. dad had been amazingly quiet about the emails we'd exchanged ( read them here: first email & second email ) and only my mom & my little brother had talked to me about them. well, after mom brought it up, then it started. i think dad & I were talking for about an hour and a half, not really making any progress at all, just talking around each other's arguments. we pretty much covered everything. he's a pretty stubborn man, and i conceded a few points to him in the hopes that he'd realize i wasn't arguing just to argue and ignoring my logic on that basis.
      i was disappointed by my father's selfishness and narrowmindedness. he's a very intelligent, thoughful man–generally–and i hold him in high esteem. but the struggles that he has had to face in his life, from the time he was a little boy growing up in the "hollers" of virginia, while building his character and intellect to such an enviable level, have also contributed to and molded this mindset that prevents him from automatically thinking of others (far removed from himself) before himself. his arguments were pretty much all concerned with the immediate impact of some of the ideas that–of necessity–must be considered for their long-term advantages or the advantages they will provide to others who may not currently have them.

thankfully our talk(s, eventually) never grew to the argument stage, but i think we both got flustered at some points when we thought the other was just not listening or understanding. it's frustrating to attempt to explain these abstract concepts you've got buzzing around your head, to not be able to sufficiently explain them with the language we're given. hell, i run into that all the time here on this weblog.

overall, i had a wonderful weekend with my folks and little brother (who ain't so little anymore–he's 13 and his shoes are only a half size smaller than mine… ). much more pleasant than i'd thought it might be. sometimes, though, i think my dad just puts up with my shit because he knows it would break my mom's heart if we were to truly have some kind of split. don't think i've written about my relationship with my dad here, perhaps that'll be a subject for a different time.

      in other news

www.mchawking.com has updated finally and have a new song by that hip-hop master–MC Stephen Hawking. The new song e=mc hawking isn't quite as good as the previous tunes, but still worth a listen. If you've not visited the site before, my two favorite songs would have to be entropy, and fuck the creationists. where else are you going to get a healthy dose of humor, hip-hop, and theoretical physics in one go? nowhere, baby, let me tell you.