to read.

trying to keep The Team of People Assigned to Monitoring My Internet Activity busy, that's all.

"Early in the 1950s, Saadat Hasan Manto, arguably Pakistan's greatest prose writer, defined, almost inadvertently, a type of 'Ugly American' that the Cold War would fix in popular imaginations across Asia: the representative of the world's greatest superpower who, though superficially friendly and generous, pursues America's national interest at the expense of all other concerns; an often blundering figure who never ceases, while leaving destruction and chaos in his wake, to claim the highest virtue for his deeds. American cultural cold warriors, then clustered at a U.S. Information Services (USIS) offices, had approached Manto with a lucrative commission - write a short story for publication in an Urdu journal they subsidized - after he publicly ridiculed Pakistani camp followers of Stalin. Spurned by non-aligned India, the United States was trying to persuade Pakistan's generals, along with artists and writers, into joining its anti-Soviet crusade. The famously mercurial Manto insisted on taking less money than was offered by the Americans and then submitted, in place of the promised short story, a caustic 'Letter to Uncle Sam,' mocking America's claims to moral superiority over the Soviet Union."

"Dear Uncle," Manto wrote in one of the letters, "My admiration and respect for you are going up at about the same rate as your progress towards a decision to grant military aid to Pakistan."

from an article by Pankaj Mishra, titled "Dear Uncle Sam...Why do India and Pakistan see America in such opposite ways?"

to-do list.

- watch the last three republican debates.

- read the president's job speech.

- finish reading 1984.

- blog about how it IS 1984. try not to sound crazy, but then remember: "Perhaps a lunatic is simply a minority of one."

- finish this truly awful issue of a magazine, Foreign Policy. they tricked me by naming it after my favorite subject. they filled it with LIES.

- broaden my horizons.

- muster enough courage to kill the spider on the porch without my roommate noticing. she builds unhealthy relationships with them. but THEY build webs of destruction and try to kill you.

- watch a lot of gilmore girls. why?

lorelai: rory, stop studying before jess gets here. boys like 'em dumb, right jackson?
jackson: right. if you can navigate yourself around a tree, keep on walking!

lorelai: give me half of the danish, and some of your coffee.
rory: you can have the danish, but i'm keeping the coffee.
lorelai: what is a danish without coffee?
rory: the eternal question springs up again.
lorelai: sad danish. lonely danish. step-danish.

luke: there are no stupid questions.
lorelai: how does ink come out of pens??
luke: i take it back.

mr. gilmore: i'm still waiting for the inner workings of a frog's intestinal system to be of use to me in my work in the insurance industry.

what do you mean WHY?

- don't get the flu shot. or the flu. i'm probably at a higher risk now that i don't have children sneezing on me all the time. my immune system used to be k-i-l-l-e-r. i've weakened in my cubicle.

- embrace more technology. warily. the fact is i've had this desktop computer for 6 years. a laptop may be in order. but don't even talk to be about a mac or an ipad or this.

- be still, and know that He is God.