Happy newer year.

I leave town this morning. I really need to start packing.

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Finished Microserfs. Did I mention I was reading that? It's Jiayi's fault.

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I think I have pretty poor circulation. Far too often, when I stand up after sitting for a while, I get blood rushes like you wouldn't believe. It's sort of Zen.

Now when that happens, I picture bits of my brain suffocating and it's a lot less enjoyable. I usually decide to lower my centre of gravity, on the basis that this will get the ol' blood moving.

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I may not get a chance to replace the CD I got Erik if he doesn't like it. He'll be gone when I get back. Perhaps I shouldn't have gotten a CD that there's a significant chance he won't like.

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I was out for a significant portion of today, and I patronised a "fast-food" restaurant to provide some sustenance. I do not know if you are familiar with their establishment; their meat has far more or far fewer corners than is usual, depending on your personal definition of 'circle' and 'square'. I did not, however, order anything from their menu involving a meat patty. I did not, in fact, order anything off of their menu at all. I ordered an item that was not on their menu.

They got it wrong. What exactly makes an illegitimate fast-food item correct?

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I am under the impression that I am writing in blank, inoffensive prose, but it is in fact very early in the morning. I look forward to reading this and cradling my head in my hands in shame.

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I saw a film today.

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If I ever quit, I'm going to do it like these guys seem to be doing right now.

Oh wait. I beat them to it. Didn't stick.

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Lacking a satisfactory end to this, I'm going to just say "Cheers" and be done with it.

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Cheers.

Update: I still have yet to suffer some sort of major emotional/self-identity crisis. I better get emotionally worked-up soon or my readership will lose interest.

If I had to come up with an emotional malfunction I have, I'd probably come up with something like 'contentedness' or 'catharsis'. But that's not really true, because I go between 'contented', 'happy', and 'sleepy'.

EDIT: I just looked up cathartic, and it turns out that I was basically wrong. I was thinking of it in the Aristotelian sense of being an emotionally clean slate, not this psychological stuff with bad memories and powerful emotional release and all that stuff. So basically, ignore what I say, because I don't know what I'm talking about.

Happy Chanukah as of last night.

I didn't get this post up when it belonged. Studies have shown that turkey makes you sleepy and contented.

('Studies have shown' is the equivalent of saying 'I think I heard somewhere that')

Happy Christmas.

My Platform:

I am in favour of good lighting, hygiene, and cheese curds so fresh they squeak when you chew them.

I am against ennui, advertising, and the common cold.

I am looking for volunteers and a button-making machine.

What is wrong with proportional representation? Or free votes? Or international development? Or civil rights for everyone?

And what's the deal with tax cuts? And 'Stand up for Nationalism'? And bigotry?

My God. I'm almost glad I can't vote. Maybe I'll just move here.

In our cycle of procrastination, this week brings us to Achewood, Pandora, Google Earth, and this jerk.

Tune in next week for more exciting happenings, where by "more exciting happenings" I mean "more happenings that are exciting", but by "more exciting happenings" I also mean "happenings that are more exciting".

MSN = obso-freaking-1337.

Some jerk just shot about sixty gaping freaking holes in my anonymity.

To save the world,

We need to dig wells, and we need to teach locals to run them.
We need to teach them how to farm sustainably and profitably. We need to teach them how to sew or to teach, to start up business. We need microcredit.

We need education, we need ARVs, we need condoms, we need hospitals.

We need plumbing installed, sewage treated, roads built, schools opened, power installed.

We need a large group of efficient, dedicated, retrainable, able-bodied people, instantly deployable around the world.

That's right. We need to rededicate the army.

We need to retrain them. We could get well-builders out inside of six weeks, and experts to train the locals within ten. Within a year we could have full-scale infrastructre being installed and handed over.

We need support at home. We can call it the 'War on Poverty'. Let's apply the lessons from down south for good, not evil.

We need propaganda posters. We need the rhetoric. We need the public on side.

We need the money. We need rationing at home. We need every person to 'do their part'. We need to adjust spending, we need to issue Victory Bonds, we might even need to run a deficit.

We'll need equipment, and materials, and food, and socks. We'll need to recycle our soda cans and our war ships.

We'll need more people. We'll need recruitment, and signing bonuses. We may need the draft. This is war.

And we'll win it. Who can disagree? Who can conscientiously object? To use everything we've listed for good, for the first time. For the most momentous act of good in all of human history.

We need to start.

I have just finished reading a paper written by my brother, and have determined that some day, I would really like to write a book with him.

It would end up being a very good book, because we are similar in all the right ways and totally different in all the right ways, and we care about some of the same things.

I don't want to belabour the point now, because now is not the time. Not until he's more charitable with couch space and more liberal with the remote control.

The word of the day is emergencrisis.

Curiously, the fusion adds humour, thus lessening the impact to below the level of either of the words used individually (fusion fusion, as in emergencrisisyphean, loses impact altogether). As such, this word could apply, to, for instance, a massive term paper almost overdue and being written at 12:33 AM with insufficient research.

On that note,