Musicians trust their bandmates. Painters trust the strokes of their hands and the images in their minds. I trust the words to fall out into the right spaces. Engineers trust their math. We trust in the competence of the other drivers on the road. We believe in the world and its rules, together, and together we make it real. Sometimes, though you've got to just take a second to remember that it all is pretty strange. Cities, money, buildings, jobs, concrete, fences, plastic. We are compelled to create these strange things in the world, all to the end of making our lives 'better'.

But I feel best around a fire, under the fire of stars far distant, and within the warm glow of trust and love that I feel from my friends, my family, my tribe. That is where I will always feel best. So much of what I do every day is just a means to get back to that simplicity. I work hard to achieve moments when I do not have to do any work at all. But I cannot help but wonder, often, if I've been deluded along the way. That we've been tricked by the frantic momentum of society and history. I cannot help but feel that pieces of this vast puzzle have gone missing or hidden and that what we think we're looking for isn't really the point of it at all. There are certain things we must always try and remember: trust your friends, love your family, eat well and dream wild and often. When I remember those things the world feels full and true. When I forget them, I feel skeevy with grumpy ickiness. Today was a grumpday. There was nothing I could do to change it.

But I'm home with the kitties and Lu, now, and I have a few little things for you:

Google Spreadsheet. Sign up if you want to check it out when it's released. Right now they're only rolling it out for a few. I signed up this afternoon, but haven't been invited to check it out yet. Google Calendar rocks, though. Lu and I are using it to plan our wedding. An online, shared spreadsheet would come in handy now, too.

If you're using Smugmug, here's a tool to upload directly from Windows Explorer.

And here's The Duke Spirit. First heard about them on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic (of course) and I saw their name up on the Warfield's marquee on the way home today. Driving guitars and distortion with a lot of heavy drums and interesting lyrics. Took a few clicks to get to the songs, but there are some you can download and even more you can stream. Their show is on 6/18. If I wasn't in the midst of wedding madness, I would try and go.

Thank god for DVR. It means I haven't missed the Daily Show yet. Oh and hat tip to Chel for the little kitty video!