Out of eight universities in New Zealand, only two (Auckland and Otago, conveniently located at opposite ends of the country) have any archaeology program whatsoever.

I had to drive today for the first time in a very long time, because a wheel fell off my dad's truck. He said it was just sitting in the Borough Hall parking lot and a wheel fell off. It's fixed now, but for most of the day I had to chauffeur my parents and my siblings around, because we were suddenly down to just one vehicle. It seems strange that only having one vehicle was such a hassle for us, especially considering all the places people were going (Borough Hall, Library, High School, grocery store) were in town. When I was little we lived a mile out of town and got by just fine on one vehicle. Maybe I just don't remember what a hassle it was because I was so young. There was so much stuff we didn't have back then. We didn't have a VCR until I was in third grade. We didn't get more than one TV station until fourth grade. We got our first video game system (a second-hand regular Nintendo) until I was in junior high. We didn't get a computer until two weeks before I left for college, and we didn't have the internet until a year later. Is this really progress? Or are we just creating more needs so that it's harder for the people who are behind in the game to catch up? Probably it's just an indication that I need to do this blogging when I'm less tired, so that there's a chance I might say something halfway original.

I was looking at some online personality test (no idea which one, although they're all basically the same and the results are usually not much better than a horoscope anyway), and I came across a question something like "Your friends come to you for help with..." And I honestly couldn't pick any of the choices, because there wasn't a "none of the above." My friends don't come to me with their problems. The whole concept of close friends that help each other through tough enotional crises is completely foreign to me. Which I think proves that I hang out with some really smart people. Because if you have a problem (aside from a purely technical issue like "how do I do tables in HTML" or "someone needs to do the dishes"), coming to me is the last thing that will help. I want to be a sympathetic, loving person. But I'm a complete failure at putting that into practice. I have a gift for saying the complete wrong thing when confronted with a sensitive issue (and sometimes I even manage to screw up a non-sensitive issue). So I suppose it's good that I don't need much emotional support, because I wouldn't be able to return the favor (being a heartless bastard has its advantages). Maybe that's why I like the internet so much -- all I'm ever required or able to do for anyone is to enclose their name in a series of parenthesees: (((Some Person))).