Off By One

If you’ve done nothing wrong, you’ve got nothing to fear
If you’ve something to hide, you shouldn’t even be here
You’ve had your chance, now we’ve got the mandate
If you’ve changed your mind, I’m afraid it’s too late

We’re concerned
You’re a threat
You’re not integral to the project

Update

Interestingly, today Bruce Schneier wrote an article about culture’s war on the unexpected that fits really nicely with this. It illustrates the flat-out falsehood of the statement “If you’ve done nothing wrong, you’ve got nothing to fear.”

I have a hard time reading this; I realize that it’s unlikely that any of this will happen to me, but that’s not because it can’t, it’s because on some level I’m already suppressed in that way. This stuff makes me sick inside.

It’s a peculiar thing for me, given my generally materialistic bent, to be in a position where I simply don’t want anything material — not actively, at any rate.

Over the course of the last year, I’ve been given two gifts that, between them, have transformed my life from one of material desire to one where I now have a hard time thinking of what I could ask that anyone ever give me as a gift.

One was the iPod that dad bought me for christmas, and this is a big one. Since getting it, I have listened to more music (in 8 months) than the five years previous all together. It’s brought me back to a mental place where I can appreciate music at my leisure, and a place where I both seek new bands and appreciate old ones that I had let fall by the wayside. For example, right now I’m listening to Rammstein. Hard to go wrong with silly-ass techno-influenced german heavy metal

The other, though, is a bit smaller and would seem to be a really simple, small thing: This coffee maker has become indispensable in the week and a half since it came into our house. Imagine the joy of having fresh-ground, fresh-brewed coffee waiting for you every morning. It’s so nice, I don’t know what else to say, other than it’s just that nice.

Yes, I’m gushing over a coffee maker. Deal with it.

This stuff makes me happy, and leaves me only coveting books and skydiving. And computer parts, but those are a whole other category unto themselves. C’est etrange, non?

Went out to the bar last night, for the first time in ages. Okay, that’s a bit misleading - i was working at the bar. Jenny(i?), who i suspect most of my readers don’t know, has put together a fairly decent replacement for the now-completely-defunct spooky kid night that used to be the soft, gooey centre of the local goth/rivet scene. And, being that i’ve worked with her before, she asked me to do door/bouncer duties.

Hell, it’s cash

So, for the first time in ages, i’m back “in the scene,” as it were. Fun, fun, fun.

Honestly, though, i did have a good time. I was bored as all fsck, so i think i’m gonna bring a book in future, until it gets busy enough that i don’t have time to get sick of it, but other than that, it’s all good. Saw some people i haven’t seen in ages, and the expected new faces, and the night looks - and sounds! - like it has a lot of promise. On a scene politics note, it appears that the longtime spooky DJ in town is pissed at the existence of this night, cos he’s not involved. Kinda funny, really.

The highlight of the night, though, has to be the fact that i saw Jess again, whom i’ve much missed, and - contrary to my expectations, she wasn’t pissed at me anymore. We got to sit down, talk, catch up, and it was good. I’ve missed that gal a lot. Apparently things are not good between her and Jamie (read: dead bad) and that’s a shame, but it looks like she’ll come out of it more or less okay, so that’s good.

Not a lot else to report. I’m actually sitting down and poking at that IDE project that’s been occupying space on my sidebar (look left, dear reader, as long as this is on the main page) for months, essentially statically, and i hope that i might have something to show for it soon.

Uhm…

Yep, that’s it. What’s new in all o yore lives?