"Motherfuckers better realize"

(quote: Saul Williams, Coded Language; video: excerpt from V for Vendetta)

Stress. I started this yuppie gig quite capable of leaving the myriad stressors in the cube. But then it expanded. It required of me to travel outside of its 9-5 domain. It seeded me with worry and doubt, an ever-increasing demand on my nervous system and my time. But it is not these qualities of the thing that I would criticize; things worth doing all require their sacrifices. But it isn't worth doing. At the end of each week, I have nothing of my own. My link to the thing I do is severed by my paycheck, my email, address, the institutional supports that girder my productivity. This is no way to spend 40 hours a week.

In between the various lines of work, I'm applying for Grad School. A professor, very unorthodox, sent the letter to me for review. It turns out I'm significantly better at the literary criticism game that I would have ever given myself credit for. If I were to take the aggregate efforts and credit awarded in my Engineering career and place them next to the state of my English career, it does indeed seem I was in the wrong field the entire time.

The linguistic carnival that is the 2008 Campaign is drawing to a close. Looks like Obama is going to win. But I can't help but pay close attention to the absurdity of the discourse. Obama is a "Marxist", "Socialist", "Communist" when he mimics back the tacit subtext of modern capitalism. Sarah Palin is "folksy" because she is an idiot. No one lies, they "prevaricate", "dissemble", "misspeak", are taken "out of context". Obama is a "Muslim", and thus essentially a demon. Michelle Bachmann and certain parts of Virginia are "pro-Amerikuhn". Plans to reduce taxes for everyone but the top are characterized as tax increases on everyone (after all, we can't have Capitalism without False Consciousness). Meeting someone who once planted a bomb is collusion with terrorists. Owning 13 houses is irrelevant, having gone to Harvard is elitist. If we, as voters, fail to see through the mess the media and the candidates (mostly the Republicans) have made and cannot grasp the false Truth they've arranged, we're taking a further step towards rule by the stupid.