Holy fucking shit, I live in the dumbest country on the face of the earth.

Huh. Not entirely progressive, but nicely written.

And finally, the thing that makes me want to go hide in a monastery...wait for it...yep, the world's beacon of democracy and freedom tortures and kills its prisoners. Of course when we do it, we're fighting terrorism. When Saddam does it, he's oppressing the Iraqi people and we have to kill him.

I don't believe the US is going to end its world dominance so lamely. I'd really expect a military conflict with China or something, an event that history could record, instead of decimating American goodwill worldwide in the process of trying to get everyone to help us depose a two-bit psychopath dictator whose only real claims to fame are that (a) he might have weapons of mass destruction (many of which the United States helped him develop when we were using him as the counterbalance to Iran in the 80s), and (b) he has and is perilously close to the oil America needs so desperately.

It's sad. It's like a successful crime lord getting busted for shoplifting or something.

Bwahahahahahahaha. Boondocks is brilliant.

I'm tired. It's possible I should learn to kick people out of the house earlier, but really, what fun is that?

I'm really unexcited about the current project at work. It's sort of dull, it isn't my design, it has to interop cleanly with some other systems I don't quite understand, on and on. Apparently I also only have 9 days left (including the weekend)--I thought I had 20 working days, but maybe that was only true on Monday of last week when I was supposed to have started. No, it wasn't, if March 20th is actually the due date. Oh well. This is the kind of thing grown-ups do, I guess, focus and do the things they don't want but are responsible for anyway.

Feeling just a little unfocused after last night, but the cure for that is always the same: a little more sleep, and better joriki development. Joriki> is the ability to place one's mind wherever one chooses, sort of a combination of the ability to concentrate and the ability to be mentally and spiritually present. I think it ends up being akin (all these terms are interrelated) to mushin, "no-mind".

Anyway. Power of concentration. Close enough.

I don't have any angst to share at the moment. Really. Shocking, I know. But things are good. It's not like things are perfect, but what else should I be doing? I'm here and I have this wonderful life and I can actually be in it and feel maybe for the first-time that the world is three-dimensional, something I'm connected to and part of instead of it being a moving painting in front of my eyes while I watch.