Yesterday was my birthday. Dr. Maude, the sprog and I went out for my birthday dinner Sunday night, to the Tibetan Kitchen. Nepalese is always a good idea, particularly when feeling empirical; why that\’s the case, I don\’t know. Just shit talking, most likely.

I had a great little entry on choice, Fred Schneider, transhumanism, and the future of humanity, but then I lost it while juggling tabs and clients.

Instead, did you know that zombies are now a reality and that the USA is moving further into the reaches of hell? Judge for yourself.

We (the family: Dr. Maude, sprog, and myself) touch back down in the USA on August 12 in DC. We\’ll be there through October. Then we\’re coming back here. To stay.

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\”The Minority Report\” is currently on free tv, holding the sprog captive. I admit, it had me going for awhile, too. Watching wacky Scientology-boy descend upon my home city made me a little misty-eyed. I only get homesick when presented with visual evidence. Seeing those brownstones, supposedly in Woodley Park or Georgetown (a chance, but looked more like Glover Park), really made me miss the landscapes. Neighborhoods, buildings, architecture, population footprints, black skin, Spanish accents; sometimes, there\’s no place like home. Fortunately, I\’m one of those people who can imprint on just about any place and make it home.
DC\’s version of the brownstone rowhouse, 300 block of Park Rd NW

graffiti here in my backyard, CBD Brisbane		 For the past four months, home has been here in Brisbane. I wouldn\’t exchange the experience for anything in the world. The weight off my mind has been literal and figurative. It feels good here. Damn good here. There\’s definitely a worthy difference between this country and the one from which I\’ve come. We\’re due to go head back in August, which I\’m not looking forward to in the slightest. I\’ve grown attached to the attitude of the Australian populous and to my (much easier) life here. Things here are different, in so many ways that after the first few weeks here, it no longer seemed worth mentioning (nor possible) to document the various nuances. Now that leaving day is nearing, I wish I had tried to keep up with it.

Even though it won\’t be the same culture shock as before, though, it does appear that I\’ll be getting another chance. It\’s weird; since 1999 I thought the year I would be 24 would be a big year for me. Looks like I\’m going to be right. Though we\’re getting back to DC in August, it turns out that we won\’t be there for long. Just long enough to jump through the hoops of the Australian embassy again and to close up shop.

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The Dr. and I have been watching and reading the USA news. Particularly in regards to everything that has happened in the last month (you want a real list? \’cos it\’s long, and I\’ve been keeping track), we just don\’t want to be apart of it. It\’s getting worse. Yes, there\’s finally been an apology for not outlawing lynching, yes, an 80-year old man is being hung out for Mississippi Burning, yes, Till\’s case has been reopened; why are we so happy about 60 year old problems that are just now being addressed? Wouldn\’t it be more helpful to act on bullshit as it happens?

We\’re getting out before the Real ID goes into effect. And all the other bullshit. I don\’t care anymore if this makes us smart or cowardly; I feel like I can do more by keeping my head on straight and getting an education, and I can\’t do that there. I\’m too overwhelmed by the constant barrage of conservatives, and the feeling that the whole country is being flushed into a septic tank. I don\’t want to go back to hearing my family\’s whiny complacency, or to having people in my own (residential) building give me shit because of the political shirt I\’m wearing in the public elevator. I\’m tired of having my car visually searched every day I go to work, and I don\’t want to have to face another national guard armed with a semi-automatic gun during my commute ever again. We weren\’t living in Palestine, just Washington, DC — capital of the land of the free, home of the brave, and all that other shit. Free to go shopping, maybe. Brave to stay put? Maybe. But maybe yellow is the new black.

So happy birthday to me, and fuck U.S.America, my home, sweet home. I\’m coming back to get my books, and then I\’m getting the fuck out of la-la land. I just wish I could bring my grandfather with me.