Excellent. Everything’s clean. Back on the horse. Thanks to the PC junkies for your feedback. Much appreciated. And thanks to Sara for sending me the link that dives into the conspiracy theory about Macintoshes new Darwin Operating System and the unholy crusade behind its worldwide implementation. In short, Darwin is to Anti-God as Open Source is to…ummm…Communisms? Who knew?

Large amounts of yelling outside on my street last night. Kids having arguments at two in the morning walking home from the pub. So much yelling. What’s the deal? It seems to me that everybody’s looking to be heard. Everyone is raising their voice and jabbering on and on at top volume. Every time I turn on Fox News they have these huge screaming headlines that take up a third of the screen. The first word of the title is almost always “Crisis”. Jesus, I hit that channel and jump right our of my seat. The world is ending. More attacks. What? What? But more often than not it’s “Crisis: Martha Stewart may or may not be going to jail and may or may not be making crafts anymore”. Huh? Or, “Crisis: gallop polls indicate that more and more people are switching to decaffeinated coffee, and switching their interior design schema from Feng Shui to Indian Vastu.

And it’s not just Fox News. There’s one station with some bald headed guy whose name I think is Chris and he literally just shouts headlines and yells at guests. I can take about one minute of that before I feel my brain start to protest and pound double fisted against my skull. I’ve even noticed it on the weather channel, where the forecaster stops just short of a full blown Armageddon like tone to introduce the hazy skies that will “darken Minneapolis” as a result of the galactic fires burning out west.

The yelling phenomenon is starting to poison print too. The use of the exclamation mark, something that was once used with caution and temperance, is now used as often as the comma and the period. My personal favorite is the multiple exclamation mark!!!!! Oh, so you really mean it huh? And that’s to say nothing of the emails that I get where for some reason the sender has elected to lean in hard on the caps lock key. As part of my work I used to get a lot of email from lawyers where every word was capitalized. That was tough. Maybe lawyers are professional yellers?

Man, I’m starting to sound like an old man with this post. Am I telling? Naw, there’s nothing wrong with a little curmudgeon complaining now and again as long as it’s kept to a nice conversation (inside voices now Johnny) level.

I’m just going to try and and figure out strategies for a simpler, minimal, less noisy existence. Take pleasure in minimal html and the silence of cats, the quietness of wood and the joy of headphones. Shhh….