I spent half of May up in Oregon. I was there the first time for my Sister's kid, my first Nephew. The second time was for a college roommate's wedding, and a barbecue the day after with eight kids, most of the parents of whom I was in Salzburg, Austria, with. That was May. It's now June, and I think I've finally realized something. Maybe I'm a little slow that it took me this long, but it was probably necessary. I've got let go of the past and move on. And it's not just me, I think we all have to.

I managed to move on from England. I'm not sure when it was, but at some point I realized I would never live there permanently again. When asked the question "Will you ever go back?" my answer went from "probably some day," to "I doubt it. Maybe for a little while, but not for good." I managed to move on and accept that it was a part of my life that was over. Being up in Oregon a couple of times this past month, I've come to the same conclusion about Portland (I never had any intention or desire to think about moving back to Eugene). Portland's a great city. There is so much about it that I like, that I miss, and that I remember fondly. But if I was to move back there, it wouldn't be the same. Everyone else has already moved on, hence the title of this blog. That's what they've all been up to. I've done neither, so maybe that's why it's taken me longer to get to this point. If I moved back up there I'd be the only one not in a family situation. I'd be looking for something up there that I wouldn't find, and I think I'd rather enjoy the memories than keep searching to make more of the same ones, and lose those I've already got.

So for now I'm in Vegas. It isn't really a bad city, despite the fact that the drivers are shit, the road construction incessant, the summers too hot, the roaches too big, and the people too concerned about trifles. I have a decent job here, and that means I don't get to walk in the rain as much as I'd like. I have my own townhouse, and that means I don't get to just drive to the beach in an hour and a half. I have good friends down here, that means I don't get to see the others I have scattered across the planet.

So I'm moving on, and truly looking forward and. . .looking forward. Now I just have to convince the rest of the planet to do the same.

Let's move on, people. Let's get over this whole division thing we're doing right now. When it's got to the point that people can actually argue that the oil spill in the gulf isn't a bad thing, something's fucked up. We need to move on and realize that businesses can't be trusted to regulate themselves. We need to get over the influence that corporate lobbyists have on the Government. We need to get past this, and actually become the country we pretend to be.

We need to move on, and understand the world doesn't work the same way it did when the Bible was written. Technology has changed. Whether you believe in the Bible or not, you can't dispute that fact. And for that matter, the world doesn't work the same way as when the Constitution was written. The Founding Fathers would probably have been all for the Internet and the sharing of information, but you know why there's no mention of it being a right in the Bill of Rights but they do talk about the right to bear arms? Because it hadn't been sodding invented yet.

I don't have much hope for any of this, to tell the truth. I learned through my trips up to Oregon, but there are too many people blatantly and willfully ignoring the world the way it is and looking back with fondness at the way things were, to get out of the hole we're putting ourselves in as a planet.

I'm curious why people would want to go back the way things were? Do we really want to return to a time when women or people with a different colour skin were considered property? Let's go back to a time when adultery was punishable by stoning to death, shall we? Because I'm not sure you'd end up with even a quarter of the population left if that were to happen (look up the Bible's definitions of adultery. It ain't just about cheating on a spouse). Or we could take the Second amendment, and use it to mean that you have the right to bear arms that had been invented at that time. That's what they were referring to in 1791, when the Second Amendment was added, so get rid of your automatic weapons and pick up your blunderbusses. The bright side to that is you don't need to stockpile ammo for the day Obama stops honest businesses from selling the ammo you need to protect yourself with, cos you can load a blunderbuss with anything small enough to fit in the barrel.

So come on, let's move on. We've made so many advances in technology, let's advance our viewpoints as well.