These are indeed troubled times. When war is accepted and condoned, innocent slaughter approved of and senseless killing agreed upon, there's not much for us regular people to do but look at each other (albeit embarrassedly) shake our heads nervously and say "What has the world come to?" before putting our hands in our pockets, exchanging perfunctory greetings and shambling on our way, knowing that by shaking our heads (and sometimes fists) we have done all we can. Have we?

Damn. That part was really freaking me out. But I guess it's what the blog's here for. To put in writing the weird and sometimes wonderful impulses that flash through my tired neurons, dendrites and ganglia. I can't help it. Turn on the tube, and you see an endless succession of talking heads, one after another after another..it goes on ad nauseum. Log on the web and you see a million million news sites fighting for your screen space and bandwidth. CNN and MSNBC raises it's (multibillion dollar) hands in salute as Al Jazeera peeks and scampers from the ruins of its headquarters, while the BBC struggles with lie after distortion after spin. What a crazy world we live in. I work with computers and multimedia. I did my postgraduate degree on computers and multimedia. I remember sending my first email message 10 years ago..the whole family crowded in front of the PC as my 14.4 baud modem chirped and sang the digital handshake that connected me to the Microsoft Network (THAT was a community!). The moment when those first packets got on their way halfway around the world was, to me at least, magic.

In a lot of ways, I still haven't grown up. And contrary to what some people may think, I take it as a good thing. I'm still amazed when a rerun of a decade-old David Copperfield special gets aired. I still get a tingle when I hear the theme from Airwolf, The A Team or Knight Rider. And there's nothing I'd like to cuddle up with more on a rainy day (besides a certain princess :P) than a good storybook. I admit, I was a child of the 80s. Not necessarily the best of times, but they weren't the worst of times either. Sometimes I wonder if it's better to let go and join everyone else in the grown-up world. I'm 25 now, and as my girlfriend will most probably tell you, I'm still naive in a lot of ways. I've grown slightly more jaded in the past couple years, but somehow I think the kid in me is still there..hiding.

Today's rant is dedicated to the kid in me. The kid who still thinks Game Boys are cool, and that deep inside, people are actually good (they're just acting the way they are cause they don't have someone to love them, hug them and kiss them goodnight). The kid who believes that he can be anything he wants.. and that the world (or at least some part of it) still has some magic left. I like to think that in a weird way, I carry a bit of that magic with me..and hopefully one day I can show MY kids what it feels like.

G'night, world.