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I woke up this morning and made myself a bagel. The family was still asleep after being up late last night watching the light show the monsoon put on, so I decided to peruse the interwebs and catch up on some news. I started out reading an article on Yahoo about the new technology in cars, and how they are vastly different from cars just 10 years ago, when I ran across the line "inching us ever closer to the self-driving car that many of us clamor for." Who are these people clamoring for self driving cars? Driving is an experience. I don't care if you like street racing, autocross, rally racing, rock crawling, trail running...it's all an orchestra of man and machine coming together for a moment and conquering a landscape. It's stress relief. It's so many things, but it should not be an autonomous experience. If you want "autodrive" ride a bus or train. Cars are meant to have a personal relationship with their driver, not be a transportation butler. This may be your cup of tea, but the whole automation of everything to me is a bit scary. With the NSA issues that have happened since Edward Snowden blew the whistle, we should be more afraid than ever to connect everything we own online and yet more and more things are being connected. I for one will still take a manual transmission and a carburator, you can have your auto butler, and I'll enjoy my ride.

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I can't believe it has been as long as it has been since I last posted anything. Life has been moving by fast. I was contacted unexpectedly last week about the possibility of some major life changes. I don't want to delve into what those are at the moment, but I'm very excited and should know more soon. I find it somewhat ironic that this "thing" is happening at this time. I look at my post title and realize my year long self-discovery mission is dwindling down. There is less than a month until the year mark, and then it's done. I am not sure what I will do after that. I don't want to say I'll abandon this blog, but I think I want to stick to my goal and leave it as a year mission. I'll probably pick up a new one, just so I can keep spreading my thoughts that are deeper than 140 characters out into the universe. So while it might be somewhat cheesy, I think my theme song for today is Bowie's "Changes." Lots of them are happening and the bulk of them are good. My year long storm isn't over yet, but the clouds are definitely breaking up and the sun is shining through. The bulk of negativity and despair that I've been harboring, not only for the past year, but for the past few years seems to be in the rear view mirror. I'm looking forward to what the future holds and leaving what the past had behind.

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For me personally, I've always lived a life that felt equal parts tradition and modern. I spent many a summer in small town America wasting away the days of my youth on baseball and county fairs. I also spent a majority of my life growing up in a melting pot of one of America's largest metropolitan areas. I've seen the benefits of living in a place where everybody knows everybody and time stands still. I've also experienced the wonders of 24/7 life lived in relative anonymity. One of the things I've come to realize as the good ol' US of A enters into year 238 is that the America I live in now is no longer the same America I remember growing up, and yet it still is. Just this past month I've grown to embrace "the beautiful game" of soccer, and quite honestly it has taken baseball's place for me. American football will always be my #1 sport of choice, followed by basketball, but I long ago lost my love of baseball. For one, I think the sport is too watered down and contrition should be considered. Secondly, it is no longer the sport I remember as a child. It's too commercial, to corporate. Not that other sports aren't, but to me it has changed the simplicity I loved about the game as a kid. I also think it has a lot to do with the way America has changed. The Hispanic population is far greater than it was when I was a child and the immigration of it's people have brought about it's culture, one aspect being futbol. I listen to a lot of sports talk and one local host tried to compare the 1980 US Men's National Hockey team to the current US Men's National Soccer team. His point was that while we are currently riding a wave of patriotism associated with the World Cup, the movement would die down once the world's biggest sporting event came to an end. I have to politely disagree. The cultural background of America has changed in the past 34 years for one. Secondly, kids watching soccer today are going to have far greater access to the sport than kids that watched hockey in 1980. I say this because the financial investment to begin with is far less. To play soccer, you merely need a ball. To play hockey there is a pretty substantial initial investment. You have to have a rather large list of equipment to play, and you are going to have to pay for rink time unless it's the middle of the winter in the far norther parts of the country. Soccer you merely go outside and play. It's a lot like baseball was when I was a kid. You only needed a glove and a ball, and the neighborhood could share a bat. I'm excited for the opportunity for soccer to take hold. While it is a relatively modern concept in the US, it is a very traditional game the rest of the world over. Even on a deeper level, I'm excited that the US can still absorb traditions from other parts of the world and meld it into her fabric, which is what we've done best for 238 years. It comforting for me to know that I can still have a balance between tradition and modern.