The perfect retort, as we all know, has an unfortunate habit of arriving late. For instance, that douchebag (like countless douchebags before him) who tried to verbally override my assertion of world citizenship? Goddammit, Fa. You freakin' should've said "NO, I'm not going to categorize you. I'm going to CASTRATE YOU." Insert diabolical laugh.

In my mind, the sound of those last two words would leave an impressive ring upon the air.

Anyway, so. I hate food. I hate everything I eat. Except for grape juice and that aloe vera drink. And I hate the fact that I'm chastised by mi querido padre for my picky-ness (since apparently I'm at fault) while no one stops to think that maybe Fa is sick of everything because she's a VEGETARIAN in a freakin' MEAT HAVEN where even broccoli cheese soup contains chicken broth and she's frickin' SICK of all the cheese pizza, macaroni and cheese, and frozen vegetables that she's forced to eat.

So, neophytes. Think vegetarians aren't marginalized in our society? Think those crazy vegans have all the dietary options they could ever hope for? WELL THINK AGAIN, YOU STUPID CARNIVORES. THIS SOCIETY IS BUILT FOR CARNIVORES, GOVERNED BY CARNIVORES, AND FREAKING CATERED BY CARNIVORES, SO DON'T YOU EVER SMILE SNIDELY AT ME AGAIN AND SAY, "Well, we have a lot of vegetarian options. Like salad."

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH I BANISH YOU ALL TO HECK.

Hey, that was a pretty good post. Begin depressed, culminate unhinged. I think I'll celebrate with some aloe.

HOLY FUCKING CRAP. There's a Scots Wikipedia. Not "Scottish English," the actual, modern English dialect. It's the Scots' own weird pseudo-English language. Check out their 9/11 and George W. Bush articles. They're so surreal. Awesome.

Anyway, it's a hobby of mine, if you couldn't tell. Looking longingly or in awe at foreign languages. I visited the 9/11 Wikipedia article today on a whim… and I've got to tell you.. that thing is a world language treasure trove. So is the Bush page, now that I think about it. On the left where the corresponding articles in other languages are listed, I found a bunch that blew me away. Like the Anglo-Saxon (Old English) page for Bush? The Cherokee page for 9/11? (ᏚᎵᏍᏗ 11, 2001 ᏗᎦᏘᎸᏍᏗ!) The Gan page (a variant of the Chinese language family)? Welsh? (Cyfres o bedair cyrch terfysgol ar yr Unol Daleithiau oedd ymosodiadau 11 Medi 2001…) The Kölsch page? (Man, I'm so good… I knew it was Germanic.) Then, of course, there were the obligatory entries in Esperanto and Ido, my two favorite constructed/international auxiliary languages. And then there were some links that I didn't get time to investigate, yet intrigued me nonetheless… like Eesti and Euskara. Oh, and Swahili and Latin! Then the series of L's: Lëtzebuergesch, Limburgs, Lietuvių, and Latviešu. I think the last one might be Latvian. My wrists hurt after copying and pasting all those URLs.

Anyway, one might suppose it sacrilegious, linking to a dozen articles on 9/11… but isn't it amazing? So many different ways to say the same thing. And yet so many problems. It's this kind of cultural misunderstanding that created this article in the first place, wasn't it? I sincerely wish more people could see the truth… and stop destroying each other over silly matters of contention.

Follow your common sense
You cannot hide yourself behind a fairytale forever and ever
Only by revealing the whole truth can we disclose
The soul of this sick bulwark forever and ever
Forever and ever…

"Seif al Din"… couldn't say it better.

The rudiments have always been misinterpreted during history, despite the good intentions of many disciples whose faithful believe was strong and unswayed. Most leaders interpret the old words to their advantage in the attempt of gaining leadership and power over those unfortunate enough to fall under their maliciousness and manipulative ways. This misuse of trust will forever stain the pages of history, echoing the exploitation and the frailty of decent men carried away by nurtured rancour…

In other news: Today's Sarah Connor Chronicles was practically a filler episode. But I can't wait for the story on Cameron's origins. I've always thought she was modeled on a real human. I think all Terminators are.

INTERNET ACCESS DIATRIBE: As Fa has been infelicitously Internet connection-less for more than a year and has relied on the capricious munificence of the public library system for all of her cyberinformation exigences, and due to extenuating circumstances on the weekend following the commencement of the 2008 Summer Olympics (and the fact that no library opens its doors in the dead of night), she, unlike the millions of bloggers who already take this (personally) historically inaccessible luxury for granted, was not able to blog about the aforesaid 2008 Summer Olympics in a more timely fashion than conflicting library hours and various nettlesome errands could possibly allow.

The humble author also wishes a malediction upon those who churlishly snigger at Fa's tragic privation.

Now on to the main course!

Olympics, Olympics, Olympics! NBC, our national television network here in the U.S., has devoted practically all of its broadcast time to coverage of Olympic events. I've always been somewhat disdainful of organized sports, but competitions between athletes from around the globe? Displays of sportsmanship transcending cultural and political barriers? Commentary that for once doesn't pertain to that odious testosterone-fest known as American football?? I am all over this one, baby.

In addition, that opening ceremony was a glorious splurge. Incredible! Over 15,000 individual performers! The choreography, the training! The sheer engineering involved! If you haven't seen it, WATCH THE FRICKIN' CEREMONY AND PREPARE TO BE AMAZED. If you don't… well, then you're an effing pariah.

Commentary on the Parade of Nations: I actually stayed up to watch the entire procession — no problem when one loves seeing and learning about different nations and cultures. What was especially of interest was the reception of the various teams, measured by political sentiments and the volume of cheers/boos. The U.S. probably got the noisiest and most sustained cheers aside from the Chinese. Australia and North Korea also received warm welcomes. Iraq was cheered surprisingly loudly, in direct contrast with Iran, the only team I remember that was booed. And there were some tense moments when Team France filed out into the stadium, but the audience applauded them just as loudly as for the others. No jeers or violence from ultra-nationalists.

And is anyone else slightly ticked off that Taiwan is being forced to participate as "Chinese Taipei"? I looked this up online, and apparently this is nothing new. But still. They're not even permitted to use their own flag! WTF.

Also check out NBCOlympics.com for more streaming video and insanely extensive news coverage.

On another note, the ongoing armed conflict between Russia and Georgia that's escalated to war… does not look good.

Mozilla Foundation is attempting to set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloaded in a single day. Help them achieve that goal by downloading Firefox 3 TODAY!

I tried looking for a button in Traditional Chinese… but of course, they always overlook us… the bastards.

Here's one in Spanish, too, just for the heck of it.

You know what? I love the feeling of internationalism. Did you see the map on this page? There's just so many downloads all over the world. Even in less Internet-accessible areas such as Sudan and central Africa. It makes me feel a little better just to see all these Earthlings gathered together, typing and clicking away in front of their computers and keyboards, transcending ethnic and political and cultural boundaries, united for a common purpose…