05.21.01: Two weeks of rest and relaxation. Not as much debauchery as I had planned for reasons to be explained below), but I am well rested.

I came into the office to make some headway on my thesis. A few hours away from the TV, I thought. Instead I have written a page and a half and spent the rest of the time on the internet. Procrastination is a tough thing to master, and I think I have it down to an art. Don't try this at home.

I'm going to have oral surgery on Friday. I have developed an infected wisdom tooth. I woke up a week ago Saturday with a dull throbbing pain in my jaw. AS the week progressed, it got progressively worse. I called around looking for some pain killers, to no avail. Finally, I contacted my mother. It turns out, in her good thinking, she has kept me on her dental insurance, thus allowing me to breathe a sigh of relief. An emergency Thursday appointment at the dentist led to a Friday appointment with an oral surgeon, which in turn led to a week of antibiotics and fairly weak prescriptions pain killers. I have a Friday appointment to be sedated and have things pulled our of my head.

I asked for the full sedation, since I have a general phobia of dentists anyway, and a compounded phobia of surgery. If I ever needed open heart surgery, I'd probably just ask them to let me die. But, I wanted to be as unaware as I can for the procedure. They obliged me. I have only $135 to pay our of pocket, thanks to Met Life (in a REAL economy, emergency surgery should be free . . . ).

Thus, although hydrocodone and alcohol is a VERY good mix, alcohol nullifies antibiotics. Thus, I have abstained from imbibing noxious intoxicants for nearly a week.

I got an interesting email from a previously anonymous reader earlier this month. I have had a short but interesting conversation with her. I wonder how many others out there read on a regular basis silently, from the shadows of the World Wide Web (thanks, Al Gore!) I encourage responses from all readers. The questions I pose on this site are only rhetorical if nobody answers.

In response to last months poll . . . (quoting myself)

Fun facts: NY Jay gets on average almost four times the traffic that my web site gets. However, I amount to 57.14% of all his referrer traffic; his link to my site constitutes 1.38% of my referrer traffic. 12 of his last 20 visitors who followed links to get to his site were coming from mine.

Conclusions:

1. People are following any link they can just to get off my site
2. Jay needs some meta tags to get picked up by search engines
3. My friends love him; his friends hate me
4. None of the above

Contest: Choose one of the options above. Email me at faith@freeshell.org with your answer. You may win a prize! No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited by law. Cash value of my opinion 1/100 of a cent. Employees of Fuck the World, Inc. and its subsidiaries are ineligible.

I have received *two* responses. One is from Tanya who said that b) Jay needs more meta tags. My now non-anonymous but up until recently silent reader said that I do not update enough (which I count as a vote for d) None of the above. Sadly, I think the latter is correct, I do not update nearly enough. Perhaps I can reconcile that with an extra long post today? I will attempt to update more often if you (collectively) promise to respond more often to my content. I feel more motivated to update when I feel that I am not merely talking to myself.

Stay tuned soon for a new rant RE: George W. Bush's idiotic foreign policy towards Cuba's political and economic system.

For more on the American example in the world as a politically "free" country, please read this. Pay special attention to the following:

• AUTHORITY FOR DELAYING NOTICE OF THE EXECUTION OF A WARRANT (SEC. 213)
• SUNSET (SEC. 224) which precludes the expiration of the most egregious parts of this bill
• DEFINITION OF DOMESTIC TERRORISM (SEC. 802)--sounds like I'm a domestic terrorist now!

05.07.01: Another semester survived . . . barely. The next few weeks will be working on two projects this summer:

• A careful study of Berkeley and his idea of number
• Thesis (argh)

Today was the most productive uneventful day I've had in a while. I registered for summer classes (and money will be sent to me soon, I hope) and I moved my non-moving car off campus to prevent being impounded (towing my car to prevent from being towed, if you will). Aside from all this, I've been in and our of sleep until 5:45 PM, and got in an episode of The Simpsons and Law and Order. Band practice tomorrow. I've booked a few shows for the band, so we will be coming to a bar near you, if and only if you live near The Brass Mug.

Went to see Cannibal Corpse last week. Pissing Razors opened up, and they always kick ass. Can't go see Slayer this weekend, or at least so says my online summary of my checking account.

Issue: there is a big scandal concerning the state of affairs of the foster system in Florida. Apparently, the State of Florida *lost* an 8 year old. They haven't been able to locate the girl for almost a year. But, the news media make a bigger issue out of the girl than they do about the system. They are not calling for systematic reform: only to find the girl. Who knows how many others will be "lost" until people realize that reform begins by looking at the disease, not a symptom therein.

As another example of this, the Enron controversy. Enron did not do anything wrong within the boundaries of capitalism and the ethic of profit. The disease is capitalism, and it stands to wonder how many more companies like this will exist while people continue to believe that capitalism serves them well. It's about time to treat the disease, people . . . our country is terminally ill.

What is reprehensible is that people do not see a problem until it affects them. The human rights conditions in Afghanistan have been reprehensible for 18 years, but it is only now that people are taking a look at the issue. Where have they been for the past decade and a half? The Taliban was not "evil" when they were destroying Buddhist monuments throughout Afghanistan, nor were they "evil" when the United States set up the Taliban government to be used as a pawn during the Cold War. It's about time that Gov. George W. Bush lists himself, his father, and the entire Reagan administration on his rhetorical "Axis of Evil" list.

05.02.01: Happy belated May Day. It's a worker's holiday. It's the day that the workers rise up, and let the bourgeois class know exactly what they do for them; it is a time to rebel. Steal your employer's "time." Time is money, THEY say. I'm not buying. Take back our labor, borthers and sisters. Let them know.

I've been busy. Done my grading, but still need to finish one paper. Life is swell for those taking thesis/dissertation hours. I just barely passed my German class with a B-. Any lower, and I would have not graduated. Mad props go out to the instructor, she kicked my ass to get the final assignments in. If you know me: people who tell me I can't do something make me stronger.

Will write more when I'm sober. I've been drinking for almost 12 hours.