June 19, 2000: I like the Adbusters phrase "mental environment" a lot. It pushes you to think of your mind as a place you spend a whole lotta time, your thought patterns as features of a permanent personal landscape. And it begs the traditional environmentalist questions: is this environment being cared for? Is it being polluted? Is it a place I want to spend my time? Is it overcrowded? How do all the pieces fit together? It also forces you to question common symptomatic treatments for mental unease such as eating when you're bored or shopping when you're depressed.

And it makes me wonder what my own mental environment looks like when I spend many hours each day "inside" an abstracted realm of symbols and ideas, with my attention somewhere completely "outside" my immediate surroundings.