Well, you can physically, but it turns out home is a place in time as well as space and barring the invention of a time machine you just aren’t going back to what you remember anytime soon. I visited my hometown this last weekend after having not being back for two years, this trip due to the visitation of an Aunt and Uncle from Vermont with a mutual relative, who is my grandmother’s nephew (I’m not sure what relationship that exactly makes between us). It was great to see everyone and I had a pleasant stay, but while home I discovered that the roller-rink I had worked at for over 10 years had closed it’s doors. Not that this should have come as any great shock -- during my previous visit I had been appalled at how run down the establishment was beginning to look as well as the general area of Milan Illinois where it is located.

It is hard not to look at the increasing entropy that was Skate Ranch and not make some Dorian Gray connection with my own advancing years. For years now I have been told by most I look at least ten years younger than my chronological age (a flattery I have chosen to believe). Does the end of Skate Ranch signal the beginning of my own mortal decline? While it would have been impractical to try to recapture my youth as a roller-rink D.J., at least theoretically it would have been an option.

While it's always nice to see new and nicer things come along, we are still sad and reluctant to the see the old touch stones of our youth pass away. Every old storefront that closes down, every celebrity that passes away, every song that now gets played on the oldies dial, all further reminders that our youth is getting more and more distant. I think in some superstitious way we feel that if the things around us do not change then our own mortality can be held at bay. Perhaps we also feel some vital essence of our own permeates these institutions and if they do not linger past our deaths then some part of us also fades away.

I think the only way to hold these morose thoughts at bay is to embrace the change, live for the future, enjoy the new. I have been stagnant for much too long in many areas of my life, probably thinking wistfully back too often to my halcyon days when disco was king (yes I said disco, you got a problem with that?)

For those of you that have read BNL before, you are probably aware that I am getting married soon. I do have the mildest of regrets at not being able to share with my bride the giddy days of abandonment that just enjoying life is of your late teens and early twenties (I having especially enjoying those years in the hedonistic '70s). Still we are both far from dead (her quite a bit less so than me). And while we won’t be gyrating to "Disco Inferno" by the Trammps on the dance floor or skate floor together anytime soon, we do plan on seeing a great deal of this world together in a new bid to grab life by the lapels and give it a good shake. [BTW as a historical note of sorts, Skate Ranch had both a skate floor and a dance floor, the latter being an impressive under-lit variety ala Saturday Night Fever]

I guess in closing all I can say is that while the past is a nice place to visit it is most certainly not a good place to live.

Wow over a month without a blog post. People probably think I've given up on blogging. OK let me tick off the major events of the last month.

Nian is back in China -- Guangzhou to be exact after a couple of weeks visiting her parents in Wuhan. She is very busy with planning our wedding, while I am content to sit back and let her. The wedding dress is purchased and the wedding location booked (Ramada Inn in Guangshou), the airline tickets purchased for my trip November 12th, the wedding to take place November 19th.

Initially Nian was a little reluctant to have me post pictures of her, now I think she is a little peeved that I haven't posted anything that shows us together, so here is a shot of us having lunch in Chicago.

What has occupied my time this month in place of blogging (or planning a wedding, which I have left in Nian's capable hands) has been a ramp up for a return to moonlighting work at the Canopy Club. I won't go into a lot of details this post, but I have finally repaired some equipment I need to do what needs to be done and purchased some additional items on Ebay that should make for an impressive return of The D.O.D.J. (The Dirty 'Ol DJ). Though most likely most of my work will center around setting up an online TV station for The Canopy Club and converting our considerable backlog of Concert Video Tapes (which for the most part I shot) to a web friendly format. Whether I might return to a semi regular job of DJing/VJing special events is still up in the air. I might be more content this time round with more administrative duties and making sure the equipment is kept up to snuff and used properly. Either way I will start to get a return again on a substantial investment in equipment that has been sitting idle for much too long.

In very recent news I have had an article submission accepted to Slashdot.org -- "Lightning Fusion And Other Hot News" which admittedly is more a series of article summaries with links to the originals. Still... Slashdot.org is a highly visited website and I have only had one other submission published in the past (I'm 2 for 6 now).

There is a big change coming to where I work, I wish I could say more, but I don't want to create any possible problems for myself. This change however is forcing me to get my financial ducks in a row and has a huge upside potential. I doubt it will make me a millionaire, but there is the possibility that my net worth could double by this time next year.

I can't seem to escape diagnosis hell, I have no symptoms, but doctors insist on putting me through more tests for a spot on my lung. Nian seems more concerned about this than I. Most likely the spot is nothing, but determining this for a certainty is turning out to be non-trivial. They were to schedule a biopsy, which would have answered all questions once and for all, but due to the spot's location they have decided against a procedure that could possible puncture a lung. Instead they are scheduling a PET scan. The down side is a negative from a PET scan isn't a completely 100% negative that a biopsy would be. I'm almost inclined to insist on the biopsy despite the risk for the comfort of the certainty, but I am deferring to my doctor's hopefully better judgment.

In closing, my sympathies to those suffering in Louisiana and Texas these days. Nian has been very curious about how such things can happen in America. The answers are of course complex and to be fair not really completely known by anyone. Though I might offer some opinions on this topic next time.