This is my first post from our family’s cute little Asus Eee 2G Surf 7″ (Lush Green). It’s about the same shade as a pack of Wrigley’s Doublemint and weighs about the same (as one of the big packs). Its small size may save my back and kill my sight (and maybe my wrists). What it will save is our budget, since, at $300, we could buy six of these for the price on one Macbook Air or Pro, and bring despair to the house of Jobs. (sorry xJane!)

I also don’t have my ftp settings on hand, so instead lovely images from Google or Flickr, you get these little Amazon ads, compliments of my handy Amazon WordPress plug-in.

I’m currently in Long Beach State’s library, where I am ostensibly rewriting my fiction pieces for submission or studying for class–ideal motivation for procrastination. I realized that I had neglected you, dear reader, far too long. Isn’t it nice to know where you fall in my priorities?

In the lobby, I found a copy of This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women. Flipping through it, I was pleasantly surprised to find Science Fiction Grandmaster Robert Heinlein (if you haven’t read Stranger in a Strange Land, I highly recommend it–sex, friendly cannibalism, and Christ-story!) What did this old atheist believe in?

“I believe in my neigbors,” he said. “I know their faults, and I know that their virtues far outweigh their faults.” (Obviously Bob didn’t meet my neighbors.)

“Take Father Michael, down our road a piece,” he continues. “I’m not of his creed, but I know that goodness and charity shine in his daily actions. I believe in Father Mike.”

He names countless other neighbors, expanding to include the entire human race. He closes with this:

I believe that this hairless embryo with the aching over-sized braincase and the opposable thumb–this animal barely up from the apes–will endure, will endure longer than his [and her] home planet, will spread out to the other planets–to the stars and beyond–carrying with him his honesty, his insatiable curiosity, his unlimited courage, and his noble decency. This I believe with all my heart.

That takes some faith. I share his fool’s hope. It’s about the only faith worth having, in my mind. Wren recently mentioned that song by Sting: “If I ever lose my faith in you, there’d be nothing left for me to lose.” Amen.

So here’s to you, dear neighbor–I believe in you.