Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down

In the wake of the inexplicable fight-or-flight reflex I succumbed to last week, I am staring unemployment in the maw. Time to start making half-hearted attempts to sell my soul! Multinational corporations, quasi-non-governmental organizations of various stripes, and people I meet in bars - the bazaar is open. Alas, given the nineteen years (or so) I have spent amassing degrees of questionable applicability or practical worth, there are few takers. The "lack of applicability" bit is a deal-breaker for those in the first two categories, and nineteen (or so) years' worth of tics and pallor do for the rest.

And yet my mood could be worse. Whether I end up loitering in universities for a bit longer or not, I am finally beginning to see the benefits of the real world. For instance, when I receive an email that announces the following...

This presentation will discuss the plight of humankind: briefly how we reached this point and how religion is used by power, and more fully the new strategy of the Pentagon to secure and maintain the "creative destruction" of global (American) capitalism for the next several decades.

The presentation will feature an in-depth analysis of the Pentagon's strategy for total domination, focusing on its Future Combat Systems program, and how this strategy negates traditional progressive responses. The presentation will then discuss the role of progressives and possible solutions, highlighting the potential for a paradigm shift based on quantum physics [oh dear sweet Jesus, no - ed] (and progressive strategies toward that end).

...I will no longer feel mortifying shame that this person is in some sense a colleague of mine. (The presenter is apparently a scholar of Peace Studies, the existence of which department reduced me to inarticulate gurgling sounds upon initial reading.)

Meanwhile, the sun is shining and I am contemplating my own "paradigm shift based on quantum physics": the more precisely I comprehend exactly where I am, the less I have any idea of where the hell I'm going. Perhaps the bar.