Sucks. Blah.

Today is this guy Matt's last day – a surprise to me as it wasn't really announced, nor had he made the decision before me; apparently he got a job offer he wasn't expecting and took it. Anyway, Dennis – a co-worker that sits next to me whom I still don't manage to talk to enough – asked if I wanted to join a few of them for lunch as a going-away for Matt. I accepted.

It was just five of us at a restaurant around the corner, and they were all pretty cool people. I knew they were, but I always felt like an outsider because I've been tucked away on another floor from the main group. And it's not like me to make myself available and chatty to semi-strangers.

So lunch went well. And then I got a surprising revelation: Dennis asked if anyone wanted to go to the roof. The roof. I've been here eight months and just now I hear that we can go on the roof?

Anger.

The roof was amazing, moreso because the days here are usually marked with boredom. Being able to see the skyscraper-less skyline of DC and the surprising number of tall cranes set up in the general area, and the cool breeze and sun, was so refreshing.

And then I threw a piece of a french fry off the roof.

So on our way up to the roof, Kumie pressed the P button on the elevator, to the right of the 10th floor button. I was like, ‘So P doesn't mean parking, eh? That never made complete sense to me because it was at the very top’, to which everyone laughed at me.

Updating is difficult. I want to post some pictures tonight. Everyone needs to see bunny love.

(I've always started developing an interest in viscachas (my current desktop), because I read the Wikipedia entry on chinchillas and found that they have relatives in the family. There's also one short video of viscachas. They're like big chinchillas. I love them.

‘All the Love in the World’ reminds me of first moving into the new apartment. Summer was fresh and the apartment was much cleaner. Seems like a dream.

The blasts caused panic across many cities leading to massive traffic jams. Reports say parents rushed to bring their children home from school.

From my experience four years ago, unless you're out in the boonies, the entire country is a traffic jam. I do not exaggerate.

My dad is from a relatively ‘country’ area, yet the town was crammed with rickshaws. An ambulance (I think those are relatively new to Bangladesh, since that was the first time I'd seen one) was slowed to a crawl.

People don't move aside for anything, unless your car has some sort of parliamentary banner plus one or more police escorts.

Anyway, as a muslim, I must say that I'm really starting to hate other muslims. There's a culture of religious ignorance that pervades the majority of them. I won't get into hadiths, but suffice it to say that it's not enough to have a holy book: a bulk of things practiced today stem from ‘scholarly&rsquol intervention.

And rather than risk human mistakes, they err on the side of conservatism and do much worse to their souls and others around them in hopes of following, literally, man-made rules.

Humans suck. Small animals [in love] rule. I'm out.

My poor Asma. She ended up staying up all night as well because she was waiting for me to go to sleep.

Why have I been up to relatively unhealthy hours, destroying my eyes and stressing myself and the wifey?

The CulturalConnect. It's an experiment of sorts, and we officially launched phase 1 just moments ago.

It was all riddled with last-minute complications. Next week will be much smoother.

I'm nervous about the reaction we'll receive from the first newsletter, but I'm also looking forward to sleep tonight.

Papaya is totally the dominant one. A bit of a surprise, but not really. Full story tomorrow? I don't know if/when I'm going to sleep tonight. Sigh.

So, he apparently he's been sober for more than four years, including the making of With Teeth. Which puts him in a different mindset all together, like a different person. Which means I can't judge this in the same light as the previous albums.

I still think it's a bit mediocre in a lot of ways, but I'll give him his props now.

It's a bit eerie to read that he doesn't want to die. Like it's his life mission not to. Maybe he's still depressed, but he's working on it and not letting it drive him?

Like I know anything about his personal life. Psh. Last post concerning anything here, I swear.

Or it could just be the three hours of sleep amplifying things.

Sorry.

[edit] Just talked with Amy. She's gonna check out if I'd be able to get into any application development projects any time soon. If not, I told her I'd stay on until the end of the month, and she's cool with it.

I called Sean and Jenny – our downstairs neighbors who were looking after Shirin and Papaya – Friday night to check up on the girls. He said that they were both good except that they weren't eating much.

I realized then that they actually missed us. And that made me miss them more.

So today I tried to give them a thorough enough scratching and played around with them. They are definitely thinner than I last remembered (some bones being more prominent through scratching), but Papaya is now eating her pellets like it's nothing, and I suspect Shirin will be doing the same.

Next time we go away for a long period of time over the summer, I might just have to take them to Illinois for Hasan to watch, if he's free at the time.

Poopoo and Choochoo.

Champaign today.