Finally, a good summary of exactly how the Republican presidency is one of the more clear examples in recent history of how to best use what Gramsci would call the "Ideological state apparatus" to manipulate and distort reality through mass media.

A nutjob drives a tractor into the duck pond where I almost lost a kite two weeks ago, 200 yards from the Vietnam Vets memorial, and the site of last October's anti-war protest... all on the day that this President decides to get us closer and closer to a catastrophe.

Better stuff, for sure.

Plaza Suite, which The Arlington Players performed last month, and for which Arthur (the director) and I designed the set, got mentioned in The Washington Post. Of course, their archives are not really available any more.

Pictures Available here.

Broken.

Somehow, others at the place where I work now have managed to accomplish what life crises haven't: I now feel broken. In spirit, broken. In drive, broken.

I have always been proactive, self-directing, gap-filling.

It seems that this has made others who have no direct authority over me upset because they can't control this.

And, as one would have it, they've managed to, through the use of the Adult Tantrum, create an environment in which I cannot take a step without seeking their ratification.

Why is it that I so rarely get to finish telling a story, or speaking about what's going on with me? I always make an effort to listen to others when they're telling me what's going on in their lives, what their worries are, what their joys are... why do I seem to have an inability to elicit that from those to whom I've turned in the past? It's become almost endemic amongst a certain subset of friends.

Maybe I just think I'm speaking and am not actually being heard?

The US vetoed a UN Security council resolution condemning Israel for a retalliatory attack that left 7 UN Relief workers dead.
The US was the main leader of stalwart opponents in a WTO negotiation on relaxation of pharmaceutical patent enforcement within poor nations hoping to deal with health crises like AIDS.
The US government defends its process of detaining middle-eastern immigrants after they show up for voluntary registration, even if they were in the process of formalizing their residency within the country.

This year's pumpkin is dedicated to one of the scariest men currently in our country's government, John Ashcroft. I'm sure that he's successfully scared the kids away from wanting to do anything that involves interacting with anyone not vetted by the christian/conservative/warhawkish right.

I saw Jaime Bayly speak today, I re-encountered my first Portuguese professor from Berkeley at the same lecture. I also went to the Holocaust Memorial Museum. And I spent $1450 I don't have on car repairs that had to get done.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Once again, I experience the mainstream news media's information blockade first-hand.

I'm employed! Employed!

Meet Nextel's new Manager of Developer Programs.

We may now exhale.