Shrink wrap

Setting: North Texas on a sunny, mild winter day. Park. Bike trail.
Character: Me
I can't believe someone would ticket you for riding on a trail in a public park... Oh cr..a-- Thud!

As I was riding my bike today, flying down a pretty quick single track path at one of the biggest parks in Arlington, River Legacy, I had a bike accident. I really have no idea what happened, except as I came around this corner, going real fast, I was thrown forward off of my bike. Luckily my legs were able to slow down as they scraped the pedals, and my bike wasn't injured because me and the ground broke its fall. So as I exhaled hastily, with my bike on top of me, and my pain receptors warming up, all I could think to myself was; Praise God.

Today, as I actively combated boredom, I played about an hour and half of Halo online, and began dabling with Adobe GoLive, the webpublishing software. As I made my mid-afternoon blog pass, I was suddenly inspired. I decided that I had sat around in my filth long enough, and decided to go for a bike ride. It was as I was lying on my back on the trail, that I realized that the best experiences in life don't come from software or games that come in wraped in pre-shunk plastic wrap. My most meaningful experiences have all been on mountain tops, bike trails, in Shanty Town, or any place that exists outside of the pixel. I will probably not remember the time that I did awesome on Halo2. Instead, I will remember eating an extravagent meal in Paris with my family. I will remember hiking for miles around Versailles with my mom. I will remember the time I peed off the mountain summit with my high school buddies on Trek. I will remember the few moments of time as I fly off my bike, just before I crash back to earth.

Indirectly, I can thank Justin for getting me off my ass, and away from the shrink wrapped lifestyle:
"So after reading this, get up from your computer, find someone around you and get into their life. Find out that people have their ups and downs just like you. Learn to use tools like the handshake, hug, and eye-contact instead of always settling for finding a bigger media market or audience. Learn to enjoy the audience of one."

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