A simple wish

I wish something good to happen until 2016 is over. Anything that would break the patterrn. 
I am not holding my breath though.

"the perfect drug"

Some things never change...and that's OK.

This is a catastrophe

That's from three days ago:

Why isn't that the one and only thing people are talking about!? What is there that is more important and crucial???

Apparently everything else.

Last night I couldn't fall asleep (yes, seriously) because I was scratching my head in search of ways to avoid Doomsday. Because that's where we're heading to, and fast, way faster than I thought. And I couldn't think of anything a regular anonymous Earth inhabitant such as me can do. I Googled "How can I help the planet" and all I got were numerous equally useless articles advising to recycle, compost, walk to work, change light bulbs etc cosmetic improvements that would only alleviate my conscience rather than have any real impact. That won't do. But something surely can be done. Something more than a Facebook status or a blog post. If only I knew what, and how. 

Why not?

I have an idea for a sci-fi movie:

Finally the question “Are we alone in the universe?” is answered: alien spaceships land on Earth. It turns out that aliens have no intention of invading our planet. On the contrary, they want to have nothing to do with us, humans, or our planet. The sole purpose of their visit is to dump their cargo - thousands of their fellow aliens convicted in crimes on their own planet. The Earth would serve as a prison for them.

After the initial panic humans find out that their new companions are not criminals, murderers etc scumbags but scientists and artists whose ideas are considered dangerous and threatening to disrupt the artificial order on their native planet.

The humans, who are on the verge of extinction, make the surprisingly smart choice to work together with the abandoned aliens and to restore life on Earth.

And they all lived happily ever after.

The end.

Life imitating art.

To sarcasm or not to sarcasm?

I read that sarcasm boosts creativity and it got me thinking: do I use sarcasm? The answer is a firm "Y"...but that happens only mentally and practically never verbally. It's not like it happened overnight. It takes me a lot of practice and discipline to keep sarcasm inside my head. After all, it's not people's fault that they are not, let's say, up to my standards (but, hey, most of the time even I'm not up to my own standards so it's nothing personal) and to let them be aware of that will lead to no productive outcome so why do it? It's not like people will learn from it and try to do better next time (yeah, I wish). No, it will only make them feel bad - either about themselves or me; or both. So to let sarcasm out of the bottle would only serve my ego, which would be equally ugly as whatever has triggered it. My ego (and anyone's ego for that matter) does not justify that.

All bets are off

I wonder how many people will post "It's the end of the world as we know it".

Now the question is: how much damage can be done in the four years until the next election?

What the fuck is wrong with you, people?

A week ago there was a report on Euronews: 
"World on track to lose two-thirds of wild animals by 2020" - World Wildlife Fund

Later on I saw it as an article on some of the Facebook pages that I follow. The majority of people who bothered to react used the crying emoji. Personally I didn't hesitate to click on the angry one.

And that was it. The news about the sixth mass extinction in the entire history of planet Earth was just news like any other that flashed across the media stream like a falling star and vanished.

I don't get that. I JUST DON'T GET THAT!

Let me say that again. 2020. That's 3 years from now. Not 3000, not 300, not even 50 but 3!

That's not news, that's a death sentence.

It was obvious that this world was going to hell but I've never imagined that it could happen in my lifetime.

To bring the world to mass extinction of species is a crime against life so hideous in proportion that it requires a new word. 

It doesn't make much sense to worry about retirement plan does it? Yes, I know that's not funny. I'm not laughing either.

Lacrimosa

Lacrimosa is Latin for "weeping" - Wikipedia

Yesterday one of my colleagues, with whom I share neverending passion for Terry Pratchett's books (but that's all we share), came to me to tell me in an excited voice "Did you know that "Lacrimosa" was a piece by Mozart?" which caused me to react in the manner of a slight shock "What, besides the band?!" and that, in its turn, provoked a puzzled look on his face "There's also a band that goes by that name?!"

I should've have guessed that someone like him wouldn't know about Gothic bands. It turned out he was referring to one of the vampire characters from "Carpe Jugulum", one of the Pratchett's books about the Disk World.

And that's how I got to learn that one of my most beloved pieces of classical music is called "Lacrimosa".