Added July 20th, 2009:
    I actually got into a bit of trouble over this article. The article was apparently brought to the attention of the pastor of my home church where apparently the bit about not caring about the local Flower Festival except for the fact that they would make a lot of money got somehow read as implying the church only cared about money. What was meant by it was that I am happy they'll earn this money, as it will go to a lot of good places, and then other than that, I didn't care about the Flower Festival. No insult to my church was intended. No one at Point Loma seemed to get that reading at all out of the article, and I got a lot of positive feedback from students from small towns. Especially from the small town girls living in their lonely world. They take the midnight train going anywhere.

    Sorry.

    Since I've written this article, I've returned to Lompoc (hopefully only temporarily) so at least to some degree, I have to start caring about local things. But I still remember the outlook a big city gives you. Really, it's good to have a balanced outlook between the two perspectives.

    And it might be worth noting that the local K-Mart I mention here got driven out of business by Wal-Mart for the 2nd time since this article ran.