Once again, there are lots of things to talk about, but through all of them runs a common theme: cleansing.
I'm only just getting over the flu. I starting feeling a bit rotten last Sunday, and I took Monday and Tuesday off work to slack off and recover a bit. (If only there had been something on TV - some sport, perhaps - that I could have watched while I was at home in bed.) It turns out that about half the office had done the same, for the same reason. We all blame the work experience girl: she left us this week after finishing a report, but if anything comes of it, she might be back for more.
Two of my friends share a birthday today. One is an old friend from high school and uni who I don't think I've seen since I moved away from Townsville. To be frank, I had a bit of a thing for her at school that I was always too much of a wuss to do anything about - so it was a bit weird to find her on Facebook and discover that she was married! I guess this is what happens when you fall out of touch with people for years at a time. Oh well. My other friend whose birthday it is today is currently flying around the world, and I'm not. I don't lament this any more, either, and I'm certainly not bitter or jealous that so many of my family and friends have gone overseas recently without me. Yes.
I spent some time over dinner tonight watching and reading news reports out of South Ossetia. It's good to see that some people aren't falling for the western media's hit job on the Russians: the Georgians started this, with the blessing of western allies, and the South Ossetians actually want the Russians there to keep the west out. It's embarrassing that "Russia's invasion of Georgia" has already entered the vernacular of many of us in the west, by way of the disinformation that our own media is using against us. The best commentary I've seen so far was Mike Whitney's Putin's Winning Hand, although I did like this comment as well:
"The appropriate parallel would be for Canada to offer to have Russian missiles located in Canada to protect everyone from any possible Rogue States. We have one next door."
That's it for now. Still no news about work, and still no news about... anything else, but I'm working on that.