Yech! I am more than simply pathetic. I am super-pathetic. I always like to think I could maintain things like potted plants and friendships and weblogs. . . but perhaps I'm expecting far far far (yeearrrhh!!) to much here. Oh well.

What's new eh? Well, the world went hell, New York City specifically, and now everyone thinks they are important enough to have anthrax sent to their door. And the world is rolling happily along to 1984, or at least some sort of neoMcCarthyism (wow! I feel smart saying such big words).

I want to talk about how good we, in America, are at commercializing absolutely positively anything. I want to talk about how car dealerships and fast food chains and convenient stores and Hollywood all the sudden became proudly patriotic. Seriously folks, times are hard and we're willing to make the sacrifice of lowering our prices so you can still buy those gas guzzling cardboard suburbans.

It brings a tear to my eye, it does.

Everyone is patriotic. It's cool to be American. This is not to say that I don't love living in the country I do, I'm just very sickened by how silly it's all gotten. Special TV offers for chambers you can stick your mail in so that you might open it up with a rubber glove? It's sad that people might buy this without realizing that the pores of an envelope are many many times larger that an anthrax spore . . . just carrying the envelope to your fabulous plastic box of a mail safety chamber could get you infected.

Really, Anthrax is kiling a very very small fraction of anyone here. How many people will die today of homicide, disease, neglect? Yes, you know what I'm getting at. This is nothing. Anthrax isn't even contagious. We have descended into paranoia. . . which the media absolutely loves; the bigger deal they make out of it, the more we feel we have to watch. They've got a bloodlust in their eyes, folks. They don't love to see people die; that's NOT what I'm saying. It's more like they're in a feeding frenzy--it's all just so tasty so who cares what's happening or how our reporting affects the situation let's just broadcast!!! everything is a big deal to them--it has to be, or else who would listen?

In more hometown-y news. . . I'm having a college life crisis trying to decide what I actually want to do with the rest of my life. What ever happened to running away to join the circus? oh well. Finals are near at hand, and so is Thanksgiving. Thanks.