andrewsw

Depending on your point of view (any predestinationists out there?) this may be a pointless goal in the sense that there is little we can actually do of our own free will to accomplish this – if it was destined that we go, then we will go (and do everything necessary that goes along with that) – and if it wasn’t, then we won’t (and we won’t do something necessary to going there).

I’m not here to make a theological statement against predestination, and so that’s why I’ve decided to remove this from my list of places that I have as destination “goals”.

Arriving late on July 25th, and leaving on July 26th, we only got to see a little of the downtown area, but it was clearly a nice and artsy place with a lot of emphasis on the performing arts. There’s a lot more I could write about this, but I just wanted to write something before I forgot to write anything.

I just went to (a few days ago) and came back from (today) a place in Florida and I flew through the Orlando International Airport. If you are departing from there and want to get through security quickly, there is a thing called http://www.flyclear.com/ which claims to enable you to do that, but it costs around $80 a year, if I read correctly.

The last time I went to Florida was in March of 2005. I’ll be going there again in August of 2006. I go for certain people, not for the place itself.

I was talking with an art student who had just transferred from a larger institution (at least larger in terms of art) at a larger city. He mentioned that there, when nude models posed for figure painting, they didn’t try to hide their private parts. Here, however, when nude models pose for figure painting, they always position themselves so that their private parts are covered by a limb or a shadow or something like that.

This is just one of the many subtle things that says something about this area. There’s more to say, and I’ll be saying those in other entries, eventually, hopefully, but for now, I wanted to get this information out there.

Missouri, when driving through it, if one pays attention to the billboards, one can notice a few special things.

There are only two types of billboards on the highway.

1) Church-related billboards.
2) Adult entertainment billboards.

Once you stop laughing at that, the caves in Missouri are definitely worth visiting, and Branson is worth at least looking into, not to mention the famous Arch of St. Louis, but other than that, I can’t think of much else, although I hear that the “Precious Moments” creator has established an entire chapel in that motif there.

I’ve had family in Springfield, MO, and thus it has special meaning to me, even though they’ve all moved or passed on.

If you do visit, the Bass Pro Shop complex is impressive for the sheer variety and size of all that is there, even though I’m not really into that stuff.

Okemos is the town to the east of East Lansing. As such, it has a long history of being the place where Michigan State University students would go to drink alcohol back when East Lansing was a dry town – but that was long before I had anything to do with MSU.

With the rise of the Meridian Mall and the stores near the Okemos highway exit, commercialism in Okemos has obscured its historic one-room-schoolhouse past.

Its “being away from it all” and some degree of reputation for having a quality school system resulted in rapid growth of it as a suburb, and so now it has many many doctors and lawyers living there. These rich people contribute to high property values, which results in a very well funded public school system in Okemos. Affluence has its costs, and so it is not an idilic school system, to be sure.

There are many fine eateries, from French-inspired mid-western-style Villegas to the great Chinese food place that is She-Shiang Garden, not to mention the well-hidden but execellent Japanese place that is Akagi Sushi.

I went there many times when I was at MSU. I want to go back one of these days, but I don’t know if I’ll make it there this trip.

On my journey, I had a long layover in Minneapolis. I visited with a friend there during that time, and we went to the Mall of America as part of the visit. I bought a second carry-on luggage item, and walked once around the mall, and that was it. I’d like to spend a bit more time there, but alas, that will likely not be for another several more months at the least.

I was a graduate student at Michigan State University for 8 years (I’m embarassed that it took me that long – but 2 for the master’s, 6 for the PhD, and I did change topic once during the PhD).

I’m about to go back there for a little while – I should be there tonight! As I’ll be in travel status, posting and cheering will probably be delayed as I’m unsure about the full extent to which I’ll be able to access this site for extended periods of time.

I’ll write more about the place when I return.