Happy 2016 hapless readers! Say hello to Goldy. He's in his goldiborous pose. I fear I frequently fail to express my joie de vivre adequately. Nihilism does not preclude it. Facing facts does not circumscribe it. I tried to make that clear in the last paragraph last entry. But let's be more explicit and specific.

There isn't much that makes me happier than listening to my wife speak an East-West patois as she tries to help a fellow student with their English homework. -Better wife, better life, she says. True dat. I have certainly been granted an interesting life, to bring this Shanghai native to BFE Illinois. How many times did I swear I'd never live in the States again? Even if I did, nowhere but NYC? But I've had enough lectures about not telling you what I had for breakfast to make me reluctant to share the tale. Many of the adventures included breakfast. There may also a thing or two about me the TLAs don't know yet what make life a little easier for it. Suppose some of it is documented around here somewhere. Look if you like. Mostly good times, strangely. And today my obsession with psycholinguistics is just completely satisfied by the code-switching upon which I eavesdrop.

Good thing I'm so easy to please, as mass murder, injustice and environmental disaster continue apace. And I am painfully aware. But that's alright. I seem to have earned some sort of death's head icon on dailykos from my estimate that Trump would inflict less mass-murder than Clinton. It's kind of cool, piratical and therefore not inappropriate. Trump has since confirmed his commitment to the military industrial complex which has forced a bit of a retraction. Doubt that'll remove my jolly roger. Bernie is the least of the evils, but plutocracy will win anyway. Our pets eat better than half of the humans on this planet. Trying to engage zionists and democrats in conversation gets me consistently dissed. But that makes me happy.

It really is miraculous to be alive. I do so hope you're enjoying your amazing ride. So many are not. We could try to treat each other better, we could try to be honest about the facts, but my latest situation is as remarkable as usual. I get to witness the corporatization of academia first-hand. Maybe a little depressing, but also a genuine experience. I was there when the NSA set up an office on campus. Not completely unlike my presence in NYC on 9-11. Wrong place, right time. Lucky synchronycities of my life. You're welcome to say good or bad luck. I just say -happy to be here.

True, I just wasted the better part of a day getting the colors 'right' on the front page. Trimmed some links and gave the blog a sidebar too. Next project, rotating links on the frontpage? Any other suggestions? *Clink* -pin drop. I do it all for you. Luckily I love the sound of silence too. I really do. Told Noam how sorry I was I never got to praise John for 4'33". One thing I know I didn't document well enough was my time on the monk's mountain and the hows, whats and whys. Ahh, next project, reconnect some other writings. Ongoing, actually. I'll put some more mountains in lost. I'll continue uploading my personality to the computonium cloud. After human rapaciousness renders the environment uninhabitable by human society perhaps lizards or aliens or lizard-aliens will appreciate a little good-will.