Word Is Born proudly presents "Paolo's Random Thoughts":

• Katrine and I just saw a gang of three sizable raccoons prowling the neighborhood. Is the Olympia problem heading north?
• I ate a lot of Mexican food and drank tequila last night at various locations with Kailyn and Katrine.
• Speaking of Mexican food, Moos moves in tomorrow.
• I cannot take calls during the weekdays for another couple weeks because my parents used up all of our family plan minutes. If I don't pick your call and it's the middle of the day, don't be upset. If I don't pick up your call and it's the weekend or after 9, then you can go ahead and be upset.
• Although I can't take calls, I can send/receive text messages. I feel like I've been tricked into working for the enemy.
• I'll try to attend numerous Stadium High School events this weekend. The school is celebrating a remodel and its 100-year anniversary with a three-day extravaganza. For more information, visit www.celebratestadium.com.
• My band is competing in a Battle of the Bands at Club Impact in Tacoma on Saturday night. It's all-ages and the "suggested donation" is $10. We're playing at the Stadium High School celebration Sunday at 1 p.m. Admission and food are free (correction amended). What a deal! For more information contact me or visit the focuspoint MySpace page. We just posted new songs we recorded last weekend, too.
• Lastly, take your time to enjoy the following video of Stephen Colbert slapping morning news shows silly...

The other day, I went to Cafe Fiore at 11 a.m. to enjoy espresso and my newspaper. Unemployment can be a treat in this way. I was immediately drawn to the frontpage Seattle Times article "Hundreds of kids flock to state's new online schools".

According to the article, "Insight School of Washington, the state's first fully online high school, stopped accepting students after 650, and has 1,000 more who've expressed interest. The Washington Virtual Academy, a K-8 based in Steilacoom, has 652 students registered, and another 500 in the application pipeline."

Now you might call me old-fashioned, but I think there's a certain social value to attending school. I've never been a fan of home-schooling either, but that's the suprising thing about this online-education phenomenon -- only about one-quarter of Insight's students are coming from home-schooling. Close to 500 of Insight's enrolled students and their parents were so unhappy with brick-and-mortar schooling that they chose the new alternative? That's a little scary.

I think young people need to be in an environment where they can interact with each other. Eventually they will need to gain some social skills or otherwise be ill-prepared for higher education and/or employment. No doubt, high school in particular can be a tough time for many people, but parents should encourage their children to overcome challenges, not avoid them. Fear of potential hardships should not outweigh the potential for success.

Today is the fifth anniversary of 9/11.

There's plenty of blame to pass around about why the event happened and about the mistakes that have been made since.

Yes, the war in Iraq is a disaster, the world thinks a little less of the U.S. than it did five years ago and, in that time, we haven't been able to capture or kill terrorist poster-boy Osama bin Laden.

Still, we have been able to prevent any further attacks on U.S. soil, and that is something that should be applauded.

Matt was in town this weekend, and on Saturday night we met Sarah and Jeanna in Queen Anne. They wanted to go to a couple bars on Capitol Hill. They offered to pay for the taxi. OK. We're game.

Well, at the end of the night, everyone got scattered. Matt and I lost the girls and needed to get back to Ballard. We didn't want to pay a $35+ cab fare, so we decided to walk back to Queen Anne and catch a taxi from there.

And so the long walk began. Our route is detailed in the map above. By the time we got to Queen Anne, few taxis were still on the road and we couldn't stop the few that we saw. They were probably driving home for the night. So, we continued our trek to Ballard. We actually jogged for a while because it was getting so late. I don't want to see 4 a.m. like that again.

In the city that's been waiting to blow since "Big Butts" and "Teen Spirit"...

...I've been making music. You'll soon hear it. I'm going back into the studio with the band tomorrow, which should be a nice break from the stress of the job hunt. I thought I actually had some marketable experience, but I'm coming up short like Shaq at the foul line. I do have a lead with Amazon.com, so I'm crossing my fingers that I'll be employed in Dot Com Land again soon.

In the mean time, I've been hanging out with Katrine non-stop and working on photographs (like the one above) for a gallery that I will be displaying in our hallway. Exciting stuff. I also went out to Mona's (in Fremont) for half-off bottles of wine with Sarah and Jeanna the other night. I particularly enjoyed Sarah's observation that she often finds her drinks "either full or completely empty" and Jeanna's story about a new gay bar where straight men will work and wear colorful shirts that read "Forbidden Fruit."

People in Seattle I still need to see include:

• Shelter girls
• Chris Brown
• Theanne
• Willoughby

If I haven't seen you and your name is not on the list, then it is of the utmost priority that you contact me immediately, for I have not seen you in some time and have forgotten about you. I'm off to band practice. Hooray.