Well, today's the last day of the month, and a sixth of the year has gone by. For me, I think this year will be a sort of 'gathering of forces'. I've moved back to the US, and I'm still adapting back. For those who have never lived anywhere else, it's different. In good ways, and in bad ways. In many ways, America has gone mad. In many more ways, this is still the best place on Earth to live in.

As for my initial comment, yes, I feel this first year back will be of rebuilding for me. Gathering my power and influences back, so I don't expect much in the way of big changes. Those'll come next year, I'm sure. So I'll continue on this crappy job, although it looks like I'll have a change of role soon which might make it not be crappy anymore. I will miss the stupidity and the inept people, though. I got to laugh at them a lot, and be insolent, secure in the knowledge that they couldn't kick me out (legal issues, they're stuck with me). I'll have time to study something. Still haven't figured out if I'll go for the mundane or for the arcane yet, probably it'll end up being a compromise.

I think I arrived at a solution to Fermi's Paradox, which involves the existence of non-terrestrial intelligent life. Some years back, it was de rigeur to state that 'we are not alone', and that in all probability, there had to be many races more advanced than we are, as well as many more primitive than we are. And simple math and probability lend strength to the statement.

Enrico Fermi once asked, 'So? Where is everybody?'. Therein lies the paradox. If there are so many advanced civilizations out there, billions according to one model, at least ten thousand according to another, why haven't they contacted us?

Well, I solved it! The answer is astonishingly simple. Those more advanced than we are, and thus capable of communicating with us, are by definition intelligent, therefore they are not stupid and naive enough to make contact with us. Those more primitive, on the other hand, while they might or might not be stupid enough, just don't have the means! It would be interesting to see how many we could conquer, enslave, corrupt and demean before some powerful and benevolent race finally decided that the lesser evil was our total annihilation, though...

I will now bask in your applause... ;)

I will never understand the human penchant for saying one thing and doing another. I spent a pointless hour and a half today in a totally moronic Monthly Q&A Session. This was a conference call with people from all over the world participating, or listening, rather, while the MANAGERS said what they've said without fail every single month for a year now. That we must work together, that we must solve certain problems, that we'll get the requested support and tools, bla bla bla. And time goes on and none of the promises they make are ever even close to becoming reality. As the month progresses, there's a lot of fingerpointing, accusations, reductions in headcount, and 30 days later, another Monthly Q&A Session comes along. Where they say exactly the same things. To take a phrase from a Pink Floyd song, "Did they expect us to treat them with any respect?"

Yet no one cares. No one listens. Nobody knows their elbows from their asses. It'd be hilarious if it wasn't so sad.

Last night. On the Discovery Channel. A documentary on Progeria. Now that is one bad ass and cruel disease. Evil though I am, I would not inflict that on my worst enemy's children. The fact that the disease exists at all is enough to make one believe in God, if only in order to have someone to place the blame on.

It being Sunday, my mind has turned to spiritual matters. And from there, my thoughts deteriorated into organized religion. It is not a coincidence that the word 'organized' is also associated with crime. How totally stupid it sounds to an impartial audience when someone says, 'Well, my religion is the one and only truth, because X many years ago, God Himself came down from the Heavens and told my predecessor that this was so'. Yet it is supposed to sound like some grand truth when it is uttered by a sanctimonious buffoon to his co-believers. How presumptious it is for them to dismiss offhandedly the believer in another faith when he utters a similar statement! And how criminal it was and continues being for some to dare go to other cultures on missionary work. And yet they are outraged when the natives (and this still happens, albeight in somewhat different ways than before) roast these presumptious and criminal missionaries over a slow fire. More power to the natives! A pox on organized religion!

I saw Office Space today (yesterday, really, only I logged on late so it's tomorrow now)... It's supposed to be a comedy, but it is exactly the way the company I work for, Consulting Systems Company (not its real name, but maybe the initials will give you a hint), does business. So I found it funny, and frightening at once. The way the lead guy gets into management, by basically not working anymore, just goofing on the job and playing games all day? My managers just HAVE to have gotten where they are using that route... LOL Well, that just proves that in the Corporate World, promotions are NOT based on performance. At least, not in Consulting Systems Company.

It never ceases to amaze me how the same people can screw up in exactly the same ways, over and over again. I am slowly coming to the conclusion that evolution is now. Like it or not, humanity is now divided into Homo sapiens, and Homo superior. It's the only explanation that makes any sense. Emotionally, though, I still feel that some people are not human... This isn't by race, as many have tried to do in the past (and today), it's a question of intelligence and values. If you're Homo superior, you just understood what I meant, if you're not, then, run along. Don't read this. It'll only make your head hurt...