Observe, Perceive, Employ

Being a romantic and adventurer, I'm not a mist-hater. It makes the world look dreamy, beautiful yet uncertain, discovery prone, demanding exploration.

Atlanta, caught between watery clouds, made me come up with all these hypotheses yesterday. One could gaze up to a certain distance, but after a point landmarks seized to exist to the trained eye. And today, there seemed to be innumerable streets, buildings, and cars lighted up outside the window. Almost an unusual, puzzling amount. The confusion, however, was short-lived as I recalled the mist and realized its affect on how I perceived the same view on two (or rather, three) consecutive days.

Is that what's so attractive about a momentary change? A fresh way of looking at the same, familiar, taken-for-granted surroundings. Thinking about them from a previously unknown or overlooked perspective. Appreciating the existence, the legacy, and smiling away...

Aroma Reboot

It has been a month since a cigarette stick last danced between my fingers. A month since it last kissed my lips. A month since it filled my lungs with guilty pleasure. Fingers don't reek of disgust anymore and deadly coughs are close to nonexistence.

Pockets feel both heavy and light - no 20-packs, no gum-sticks, no liquid scents. Limbs only shiver when necessary, when stepping out is a requirement. Nervous system craving nicotine is dismissed as soon as it's realized. Which, by the way, is inversely proportional to time - as time moves on, cravings decrease. In other words, time lapse between two successive cravings is on a rise.

Held the last black butt between my right index finger and thumb on November 11, 2009 at 12:10am. Looked right into it, said good-bye, and put it back into the Kretek Black Box. Idea is to get it framed and celebrate! Everyday!

Travel Green

Stopped using MARTA - Atlanta's public transit system - at the end of my Spring 2009 semester at Georgia State University. In spite of working at the university over this past summer, I chose not to commute using the train. Initial reason was to get in shape. I bicycled, walked, even ran to work sometimes. After a couple of weeks, however, addition of a second job - about 20 miles from GSU - on my daily to-do list, prohibited the possibility of foot or public transport, leaving the sole alternative: burning petroleum every single day of the week. And so I did, for the next eight months, until December 1, 2009.

Ever since my decision to move to the heart of Midtown Atlanta - Intersection of Peachtree Street and Ponce De Leon Avenue - I had been excited about walking to everywhere! However, after the initiation of the Daily Fuel-Burn program, I started driving to everywhere! Even if I had to go a few blocks to Tenth and Piedmont, or even worse, two blocks to North Ave and Piedmont!

Thus, four days ago, on the first day of the last month of the last year of the first decade of this second millennium a.d., after several months of procrastinating the application of this idea, I decided to again start using Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) for all my in-town commutes.

Happy to announce: I am now a Green Commuter. And with this mother nature love comes the free tool of just enough alone time to get in touch with one's inside nature, to keep it in check and make sure it's getting enough music, podcast listening, and reading time.

Signing off,

-Happy Soul, oh yeah...