2 0 8 4:M i s s i v e 23

I distinctly recall that it was a beautiful clear night when we approached the port of Old Orleans.

(In case you missed the missive where I explained that destination for this part of my journey -- Old Orleans was allegedly a wild bit of a town located on the Bay of Mississippi, which had separated East and West America since the New Madrid Quake of 2023 that had been brought on by unregulated excessive fracking in the heartland which had opened a larger fissure filled quickly by the rising waters of the world.  Earlier in my preparation, I had overlaid a map from my time onto a map from this new time, and it had appeared to be in the area where Tuscaloosa, Alabama once stood.)

Captain Sandy had wrapped up everything that she had needed to tell me earlier that evening and she was busy coordinating the details of our arrival, and so I was alone at that moment, just staring up at the stars.  Admittedly, science hadn't been my strong suit in high school, but in that moment, I was pretty sure that I remembered something about how, based on the extreme distances on which the galaxy was based, it could take up to thousands of years for some of the starlight to reach earth.

I concluded that, since my time travel had only sent me just some sixty-plus short years in the future, there was a good chance that the stars upon which I was gazing made up the *same* sky that I would have seen had I been doing the same thing back in 2017.

So as this particular monthly update of the VitalNet comes to a close -- as another reminder ... taking advantage of that loophole is *exactly* how I'm able to slip messages back to you in 2017 via the Facebook on the last day of every month -- I encourage you to do the same thing.

Go outside.  Look at the stars.  Know that they are the same stars that have been in your sky for years before you and for years after you.  Your problems ... your issues ... your troubles ... your concerns ... in the grand scheme of things, recognize that, despite how overwhelmed you may feel in your moment, they too shall pass.

And through it all, those stars will still be shining.  Those stars are the promise that, just like them, humanity will survive.  Sure, there will be uprisings -- and of course, things will change -- but those same stars will be blazing brightly as we arrive at our future.

I can't wait to tell you more about that future on the last day of the month next ... but until then, I remain Ilion in 2084 as brought to the future by t1a7n72.lif., communicating with you through the use of Troy in 2017's social media account.  As I've said before:  stay safe and take care of each other and when you get overwhelmed, take a deep breath and look up at those stars to re-orient yourselves.  We'll get through this ... and we WILL arrive at our future ... together.

Random Posting for Penn State 12/30/17

Here are 9 Nittany Nuggets from today's football game:

1.)  SPOILER ALERT (in case you are reading this over on the Facebook AND you have the game DVRd for later or if you are watching it on delay):  Woo-hoo!  I loves me a bowl game ... but I *really* loves me a bowl game when we are winners.
2.)  What say you SAYQUON?  I see you've recently gone on record with saying that you might wait until the Jan 15 deadline to announce your future plans, but I really really do hope you don't end up a college dropout.
3.)  So you might know that I'm not extremely sports-focused -- which might explain why it took me a bit to figure out why these kids from Wisconsin were wearing purple today.
4.)  That being said, I might have been much more engaged in football a long long time ago if they had had the cutesy rebus puzzles back when I was little.  I'm pretty sure I saw one on the sidelines tonight that included Ronaldo the soccer player + Spongebob Squarepants + Sunday (and I sure do hope I'm not spilling more secrets) ...
5.)  Hey new offensive coordinator Ricky "Ronnie" (Rahne) -- where were Bobby, Ralph, Mike and Johnny?  (NOTE:  You must be of a certain age to understand this reference.)
6.)  Speaking of play callers, it's been established I'm not some fancy footballer ... but maybe that other team would have done a little bit better if they didn't have so many people calling plays.  Have you not heard of "too many cooks" and what happens if there are too many of them in the play-kitchen?
7.)  Hey announcermen -- I was disappointed that you didn't have to pronounce the bowl sponsor somewhat robotically like they do on the commercials every time you said 'play-stay-shone'.
8.)  Hey announcermen -- thanks for putting us on notice.  The one to watch for next year is Yetur Gross-Matos (who apparently inherited Joey Julius' 99 jersey) ... although you could have been slightly less creepy when you described him in the broadcast.
9.)  I don't care what anyone else says.  *My* player of the week is going to *have* to be good ole Trace McSORLEY what with his 28th consecutive game owith a TD (in addition to all of the other records he continues to accumulate every time he takes the field).

In closing, thanks to DaeSean HAMILTON for the story about your relationship with your brother who is on the spectrum (and who likes popcorn and green ice cream based on the screen shots every time the camera panned to him in the crowd) ... and here's to another exciting season (maybe even with Saquon?) starting up again on the upcoming Labor Day weekend and just know this -- it will be here sooner than you expect!

WHAT SAY YOU SAYQUON?:
https://www.landof10.com/penn-state/penn-states-saquon-barkley-sheds-light-future-nittany-lions-hope-jumpstart-pass-rush

WELCOME RICKY "RONNIE" RAHNE (WHERE ARE THE REST OF NEW EDITION?):
http://www.pennlive.com/pennstatefootball/index.ssf/2017/12/penn_state_ricky_rahne_offensi.html

CATCHING UP WITH THE HAMILTON BROTHERS:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2751471-brotherly-love-beyond-words-psu-wrs-unique-bond-with-sibling-with-autism

JUST ONE MORE ... thing learned from Charlie Brown (December 2017)

JUST ONE MORE ... thing learned from Charlie Brown.

Somehow, it's already December 1 ... and although there have been signs of the holidays for awhile, what with some stores putting merchandise out on or before Labor Day, it all ramps up from here -- full speed ahead and you WILL be bombarded with inescapable marketing and messaging in attempts to get you to spend more money than you have and to engage in more things that you have time to do. 

What better antidote for all of that holiday hoopla than to stop and reflect on lessons we all should have learned the very first time we watched the Charlie Brown Christmas special.  Seeing as how the mission of this "just one more" concept is to embrace  incremental change in order to empower folks (or just me) to stay positive and solution-focused in a day and age where problems often seem insurmountable, control often seems out of reach and apathy often seems to be running rampant -- it seems like featuring just one more lesson each week from this Charles M Schulz' classic is on point.

So whether it's about dealing with depression or countering crass commercialism or remembering the real reason for the holiday or just singing to save your sanity ... there are plenty of opportunities to pause and reflect and recharge with just one more ... thing learned from Charlie Brown.