Long Way Round

That's the statement our premarital counselor gave at the start of our session. I knew he was on to something the moment he said it.

I've been pretty quiet here on my personal blog. The main reason is, I'm getting married and preparations for the big day have been taking up most of my free time. We have most of our big ticket items now taken care of, and I've been working on our wedding blog, which has been surprisingly fun. We've also completed half of our pre-marital counseling and it's given me much to think about regarding relationships, marriage as an institution, and the distant future.

Most of our discussion revolved around differentiation, that is according to Dr. David Schnarch in Passionate Marriage, the "ability to maintain your sense of self when you are emotionally and/or physically close to others." Being the independent people we are, it has been both revealing, heartbreaking, yet hopeful to know how difficult it is to work on a healthy differentiation in our relationship. It will be a long journey indeed.

I've heard from many married friends that marriage is hard work, and that it's not just warm and fuzzy feelings. I've even heard that love takes a closer semblance to a willful decision and a conscious act more than a passionate emotion or a satisfying feeling. I knew all of these things cognitively but I did not know them experientially.

But I think I do now, if just a taste.

I wish I could say that being in a long-term committed relationship is always as sweet as those Haribo gummy bears and as nice as those temperpedic beds. But often times, in my mind it is more like running long distance and surfing the waves of the Monterey bay coast. It requires hard and grueling work but when you cross the finish line and when you stand on your board and ride the wave... it is literally the best feeling in the world.

Odd and morbid food t-shirt at threadless.

 Go here to see the original plan.

 http://iamdz.net/2009/06/21/towards-a-grand-unification-of-cutlery

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David Shin
Sent from mobile phone

I'm not much of a gamer, but I found myself getting sucked into playing this. Warning, don't play it if you have stuff to do, or if you're at work. I'm serious. Otherwise, enjoy.

http://www.kongregate.com/games/ArmorGames/demolition-city

This shows up now when I boot up my shiny mac. You too can hack your way to retro Apple look of yesteryears by going here.

ripped from lovelypackage.com

Lifted from http://www.qbn.com/topics/441052/?page=652.

The Big Dig House, located in Lexington, MA, is made of 600,000 lbs of recycled material. Most of the material was free, minus the transportation costs. More and more, sustainable design and constructs intrigue me.

Get to Inhabitat to read the full article and peep the full gallery of the house. It's stunning.