Life Updates: I helped with a party Friday, played Riff Saturday, dropped the Culture Tech seminar and picked up TA-ship of an AI section of MIT’s intro CS course, got a little sick, and am sore from my first rock climbing excursion.

St. Damian’s Day: Forget Mr. Valentine! His institutionalized version of love has been the cause too much sorrow to deserve the word. Seven days later is St. Damian’s Day, in honor of the saint of self-flagellation. Read it as the day of self-love, joy in independence and personal drives and finding love without loss of self.

LJ Essays: I have half-written entries on the Ethics of Manipulation, the Relation between Intention and Passion, the Future of Programming Paradigms, and the Dilemma of Physics, but today they seem pedantic and irrelevant. Give me dialogue, not blank pages.

Politics: We’ve successfully installed an bloody authoritarian regime in Iraq (and we want to blame Iran). Go USA, peace-maker of the world!

State of Self: My ego is weak today. I wish I had a yardstick to measure myself against, and a window into other people’s worlds. I’m feeling overwhelmed by what I want to do, like I’m falling behind my own moving train. Otherwise, I’m great, and I love being sick.

It’s snowing!!!