Cav's Place

Finally have those two shelves I needed to make the bookcase the way I wanted it. How many months has it been since I got it? Either way, was finally able to arrange the books right and also have a place to put the clothes that are in my room, because so far they were just piled up on my desk.

Speaking of books, the book fair is the week after the next… Wonder if I’ll manage to grab anything while there. It worked last year, but that was certainly just because I didn’t plan it. I just stumbled upon this place with books in English, many of them fantasy books, and managed to grab something before I could think it through properly, therefore not giving myself quite enough time to panic. Actually I did panic when the thought of buying something first surfaced in my mind, so I walked out and gave myself time to recover, then went back, constantly repeating to myself that I was just going to browse through them until I just grabbed something and could somehow manage to make the purchase.
This year I have a list of no less than 15 books that I’d like to get, assuming I’ll find that stand again and they’ll actually have them there. That’d certainly allow me to start reading again, as much as I hate the idea of purchasing a book just for myself as opposed to how it was when Andra and I were managing that library. Either way, what I currently have in the pocket of the pants I wear when I go out will just allow me to purchase one, which would be rather pointless… If I were to ask dad for some more money, I could go up to five at the very most, and most likely just three. Still, it’d be something… But the real problem is that if I go there meaning to buy something I’ll almost certainly panic even before I’ll get a chance to try…

Since none of the three posts I currently have swimming through my mind are going to write themselves and I can’t even seem to get started on them, I’ll just post one of these things… Got it from Alina, and the rule supposedly was to answer each question using no more than two words. I’ll just ignore that rule completely, since you know I can’t be brief. I also took the liberty of removing six questions that I had nothing relevant to say about, seeing as there were 16 removed in her version anyway, considering that the title was “104 questions” and there were only 88.

1. Ever been given an engagement ring?
Hell no, she didn’t have a death wish. Then again, seems like she didn’t really have the desire to stay together either.

2. Longest relationship:
1173 days. The only relationship…

3. Last gift you received:
Something stupid from my parents, obviously. Just left for me to find, not actually given as a gift, since they knew what reaction that would have caused. Can’t say I remember what it was, but probably some clothing item that I threw away somewhere or perhaps didn’t even bother to do that much, leaving it for them to put away.

4. Ever dropped a cell phone?
Guess so…

5. When was the last time you worked out?
About four hours ago.

6. Thing(s) you spend a lot of money on:
Nothing… I would spend a fair amount of money on my computer every two or three years if I could, but I’m not in a position to do that.

7. Last food you ate:
An apple.

8. First thing you notice about the opposite sex:
Probably the hair? It’s something you can notice from any angle and even if you only see the person’s head.

9. One favorite song:
Edenbridge – Forever Shine On.

10. Where do you live?
Bucharest, Romania.

11. High school you attended:
ICHB.

12. Cell phone company:
Orange…

13. Favorite mall store:
Uh, none…

14. Longest job you had:
None in practice. On paper, I’ve been an employee of dad’s firm for the past four years and eight months.

15. Do you own a pair of dice?
No… Not unless you count the stupid “naughty” ones that came with FHM a few months ago and ended up thrown somewhere in my desk.

16. Do you prank call people?
What the hell? Of course not!

17. Last wedding you attended:
I believe I was dragged along to my dad’s sister’s wedding when I was a little kid…

18. First friend you’d call if you won the lottery:
I wouldn’t call anyone, I’d e-mail them. Jen’d be the first.

19. Last time you saw your best friend:
I don’t have a best friend… Last time I saw a person that I truly considered to be my best friend at the time was November 17th, 2001.

20. Favorite fast food restaurant:
Can’t say I have one. I liked the pizza from a few places, but that mainly applied to the ones from Iasi.

21. Biggest lie you have ever heard:
Really couldn’t tell you. Too many, unfortunately, and there could be many more on top of the ones I know of.

22. Where’s your favorite place to eat with friends?
At home!

23. Can you cook?
A few simple things…

24. What car do you drive?
I don’t drive and won’t even consider it at least until driving will no longer cause pollution.

25. Best kisser:
I only kissed Andra, so go figure.

26. Last time you cried:
About eight months ago, if you mean actually being able to cry my eyes out for at least several minutes. Otherwise, my eyes get moist and I choke on tears usually a few times each day, but can’t actually cry.

27. Most disliked foods:
Too many.

28. Thing you like most about yourself:
Not giving up on my ideals, not letting the world tell me what to do even when it won’t allow me to do anything else.

29. Thing you dislike most about yourself:
Not being able to express myself, to put my thoughts into words. And cowardice.

30. Longest shift you have worked at a job:
Never worked any shift…

31. Favorite movie:
The Lord of the Rings I guess? Especially the second and third ones.

32. Can you sing?
No way!

33. Last concert attended:
Dad took me to some event organized by a radio station once, I think it was about ten years ago. It was one of those things where a lot of singers and bands sing a couple of songs each, so I guess it could count as a concert. Otherwise, none.

34. Last kiss:
September 27th, 2005, around 4 AM. Last thing Andra did before going out the door… And out of my life…

35. Last movie rented:
I never personally rented a movie and it’s been a very long time since I last watched a rented movie, eight years at the very least, probably more like ten.

36. One thing you never leave the house without:
Underwear? Or, if you exclude clothing, probably my keys.

37. Favorite vacation spot:
I’d much rather just stay home, if you don’t mind. But I’d prefer my home to be somewhere at the edge of a mountain town, surrounded by forests.

38. Laptop or desktop computer?
Desktop!

39. What jewelry are you wearing?
None, keep those things away from me!

40. Sleep with or without clothes?
With, unless it’s one of those truly terribly hot summer nights. Or unless I’m not alone, it’s not too cold and she doesn’t mind. But she usually did mind, so it didn’t even happen back then.

41. Who sleeps with you every night?
Sadly, nobody…

42. Do long distance relationships work?
It all depends on the people involved. They certainly can work, but it’s really hard, and sad, not to be able to touch the one you love.

43. How many times have you been pulled over by the police?
Being pulled over implies that you were driving, and I don’t…

44. Pancakes or french toast?
Pancakes.

45. Do you like coffee?
No way! Even the smell makes me sick…

46. How do you like your eggs?
When I cook them I try to fry them in water instead of cooking oil, so they end up partially scrambled because I keep moving them around in the pan to prevent sticking.

47. Do you believe in astrology?
No, though it’s mildly amusing to read certain horoscopes.

48. Last person you talked to on the phone:
Some woman from the shop I ordered my video card and the parts for dad’s new computer from, doing a survey. It was over a month ago.

49. Last person on your missed call list:
An unknown number.

50. What was the last text message received?
Last evening, the creature telling me to answer when she knocks on my door. I was at the window, enjoying the storm, so I guess any knocking got drowned out by thunder.

51. Number of pillows:
One…

52. What are you wearing right now?
A dark blue training suit.

53. Pick a lyric, any lyric.
“Reality is sometimes stranger than fiction
Whatever happens in my dreams
I know it can’t be worse than this
So I prefer to sleep”
(Epica – Mother of Light)

54. Can you play pool?
Doubt it.

55. Can you swim?
Don’t think so…

56. Favorite ice cream:
Vanilla and caramel. Andra was buying some like that… Actually, I think it also had strawberry, but I didn’t particularly like that.

57. Do you like maps?
Somewhat, it depends on how interested I am in the area they illustrate and how easy they are to follow.

58. Tell me a random fact about yourself.
When I was little, I thought that trees caused wind (since they always moved when there was wind) and therefore wanted to cut them all down because strong winds scared me… And now I’m an environmentalist who also enjoys strong winds and storms…

59. Ever attend a theme party?
Not unless you count those I was forced into during the first few years of school.

60. What is your favorite season?
I was saying winter until about six years ago, but it hardly ever snows anymore and yet somehow it seems to be colder and colder inside. So, lacking the winters of the past, it’s probably spring.

61. Last time you laughed at something stupid:
Yesterday, after seeing what Sacha Baron Cohen did to Eminem.

62. What time did you wake up this morning?
Wake up fully: 1:10 PM. Get out of bed: 1:45 PM.

63. Best thing about winter:
Snow!

64. Last time a cop gave you a ticket:
Never happened…

65. Name of your first pet:
Never exactly had a pet of my own. But Andra’s cats also became mine while I was living there, or at least Bubu did, so I guess that’d be the name.

66. Do you think pirates are cool or overrated?
This romanticized version of them that we’re used to seeing is pretty cool, but otherwise…

67. What are you doing this weekend?
Moping around and feeling like shit, as usual?

68. Birthdate:
October 15th, 1984.

69. What do you want to be doing right now?
Cuddling…

70. Are you on a laptop?
No way, can’t stand them!

71. Are you smiling?
No…

72. Do you miss someone right now?
Terribly, as always since she left. And a couple of other people too, though to a far lesser extent, of course.

73. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Wherever she is… Otherwise, if you’re talking about where would I want to move to, a Northern European country, if I were to magically learn the language.

74. Do you have a crush?
No…

75. What is your favorite name?
Elena maybe? Claudia could be second…

76. What color is your bathing suit?
Don’t have one.

77. Have you ever been on a cruise?
No and I don’t intend to either.

78. Are you upstairs?
There’s no “upstairs” in the apartment… Unless you’re talking about the fact that the apartment is not at ground level, in which case yes, I’m “upstairs” in the building.

79. Are you in love?
Very much so…

80. Have you ever been in the hospital?
If you’re talking about actually being hospitalized and spending at least one night there, not since I was released from the maternity after I was born.

81. Do you wish you could see anyone in particular right now?
Obviously. And not just her…

82. What are you going to do after this survey?
Continue moping around and feeling like shit? I’ll go take a shower soon, then check to see if Andreea’s on. If not, probably get back to playing Final Fantasy VIII, which I recently started.

I have a couple of posts on my mind, but it doesn’t seem like they’re going to get written these days. That’s how it always is… It’s quite annoying right now because I insist on not putting them in drafts, knowing that whatever ends up there has very little chances of seeing the light of day anytime soon, and therefore risk losing the entire train of thought. But, again, that’s how it always is…

Eating pretty much always makes me very sad. Even if I somehow manage to be in a reasonable mental state before getting out of my room to eat at night, I still get extremely sad as soon as I put something on the table. It has to do with eating alone instead of with her, hearing dad snoring in the living room and the creature watching TV in her room instead of Andra shuffling about or sleeping quetly, having to make very little noise in order not to wake them up instead of her, being here instead of there… Happens when I happen to be alone and go to eat during the day too, especially when I actually try to fix a little something for myself, or just consider doing it. Doing these things alone and for myself instead of with her or for her… It’s a very direct reminder of how things stand, of what I lost, of the fact that I’m now stuck here and she is… Wherever she is…

I wanted to say a few more things, but there’s no point. I’m sitting here and staring blankly at the screen. It feels so wrong to always look for something to keep yourself interested and at least somewhat “functional” for a little while longer when you know there’s no point in it, nothing to work towards…

I’m looking at the Gallup “moral acceptability” survey results and shudder. It might just be about the United States, but what makes it worse is that I’m sure the results would have been even more worrying in a very large number of other countries. Don’t even want to think about the results of such a survey here in Romania, for example…
But let me go through the results and try to analyze them. I’ll also say what I think about each issue, of course.

Divorce. 62% of Americans feel that it is morally acceptable and 30% feel that it is morally wrong. It is seen as being significantly less acceptable than last year, when 70% saw it as such.
I think I’d have had to skip answering this one, because it deals with a broad issue and doesn’t specify the circumstances. That means I can’t comment on the results either, because I can understand both points of view, depending on how each person interpreted the question. I see breaking up as one of the most morally wrong things a person can do when it causes significant and long-term suffering to their former partner and said partner didn’t do anything to deserve such pain, such as being a repeat abuser. However, if it’s done as a result of such heinous acts or if it’s simply on common agreement, it’s not wrong. And, either way, it doesn’t matter whether that relationship was a marriage or not, so I don’t like that they were referring specifically to a divorce.

The death penalty. 62% feel that it is morally acceptable and 30% feel that it is morally wrong. There is no change in acceptability since last year.
The average American seems to be for the death penalty but against abortion. Some consider that to be logically inconsistent, but I don’t necessarily see it as such. The thing is that a person isn’t given the death penalty for no reason, so people can consider that some crimes justify such a punishment. However, I oppose it not because it seems too harsh, but because it seems too lenient. I have no problems with killing a person caught in the act or even someone who is obviously a threat to the safety of others, even without catching them in the act, but death is a release and those who are guilty of crimes which could be punishable by it usually deserve far worse. It’s morally acceptable but, if you can catch and jail the person, it’s just pointless.

Buying and wearing clothing made of animal fur. 61% think it is acceptable and 35% see it as wrong. This is seen as being significantly more acceptable than last year, when only 54% saw it as such.
It’s certainly disturbing, considering what those animals have to go through in order for people to wear clothes made out of their fur and that technology has long since advanced to the point where we can manufacture better materials for clothing than animal fur. It is wrong and no longer a necessity, so there’s no excuse for it.
I’m not surprised that more Americans see it as more acceptable now than last year though. It could be a result of the economic crisis, because displays of wealth and status become even more desirable under such conditions and, unfortunately, fur clothes are still seen as such a display.

Gambling. 58% think it is acceptable and 36% see it as wrong. 63% considered it to be acceptable last year.
I don’t exactly see why this is a moral issue. I actually find it rather sad that it is included among the others. It can be argued that it’s rather stupid, potentially addictive, certainly dangerous once it becomes an addiction, but morality has nothing to do with it.

Medical research using stem cells obtained from human embryos. 57% think it is acceptable and 36% see it as wrong. 62% saw it as acceptable last year, so there is a noticeable drop.
The drop is rather worrying, considering all the diseases that could be cured thanks to this research and that nobody is harmed in the process. Still, the percentage is reasonably high and there is hope for the future. The fact is that even if embryos are created specifically for these stem cells and then destroyed, everything happens at a very early stage, so we’re just talking about a bunch of cells. There is no harm done because it’s not done on an actual being.
As for the reason for the drop, I think it has to do with party lines. Even the Gallup analysis says as much. Some Republicans might have thought it through and decided that they were going to support it while their party ruled, even if that was against their party’s policies, but now that the situation has changed they want to show their support for their party and therefore support all of its policies.

Medical testing on animals. 57% think it’s acceptable and 36% think it’s wrong. 56% saw it as acceptable last year.
This is extremely disturbing! Yes, it can help people, but those animals are put through a tremendous amount of suffering for it! They’re living, thinking, feeling beings just like us; we can’t keep doing this to them! Especially now that most of the technology required to perform these tests without the use of animals and make them even more valid in the process already exists. That technology should be developed even further, to completely eliminate the need for animal testing and thefore get rid of any excuse its supporters might have. Unfortunately, so many animals have to go through so much suffering just because some people want to give “human rights” to a bunch of cells simply because they contain human DNA. I’m talking about those who oppose stem cell research, of course.

Sex between an unmarried man and woman. 57% think it’s acceptable and 40% think it’s wrong. It is seen as being somewhat less acceptable than last year, when 61% saw it as such.
Are those 40% serious? As someone put it after I gave her the link to these results, “welcome to the 21st century, we hope you’ll enjoy your stay”. What do some papers have to do with sex? It can be a great thing or a terrible thing, depending on the people involved and on how they choose to view it, but marriage has nothing to do with it. Not even religious marriage, seeing as for the right people the sex itself could almost be considered a spiritual experience…
The drop is likely also explained by party lines, Republicans supporting the party’s official policies more than before because they’re no longer the ones in charge and have to appear more united if they want to regain that position.

Having a baby outside of marriage. 51% think it’s acceptable and 45% think it’s wrong. It is seen as being somewhat less acceptable than last year, when 55% saw it as such.
I for one say that having a baby, considering how overpopulated the world is, is the worst crime anyone can commit. But if I were to ignore that and just focus on the question, whether you should only have a child after the wedding or not, then the answer is very obvious. Once again, marriage has nothing to do with it; a person’s right or ability to have or raise a child is not determined by it in any way.
Once again, the drop is explained by the Republicans closing ranks.

Gay or lesbian relations. 49% see them as morally acceptable and 47% think they’re wrong. 48% considered them to be acceptable last year.
This is tight, and it’s quite disturbing. Still, the trend seems to be positive, so perhaps there will come a day when people will no longer care about sexual orientation, seeing same-sex relationships the same way as male-female relationships. I can only hope we won’t need to wait too long for that day to come, because this intolerance they exhibit towards those who cause no harm says a lot of bad things about humans as a whole.

Abortion. 36% of Americans feel that it is morally acceptable and 56% feel that it is morally wrong. 40% saw it as morally acceptable last year, but the change is even more significant than that, as an in-depth analysis reveals. This is the first time since the issue of pro-life vs. pro-choice was introduced in Gallup surveys, in 1995, when more Americans are pro-life than pro-choice. It also seems to be the first time since 1975 when there are more who think that abortions should be completely illegal than those who think they should be legal in all circumstances.
I find this extremely worrying, considering the huge overpopulation problem that we have. The way I see it, it’s not living until it’s born alive and with organs developed enough to sustain that life, and you can’t accuse anyone of killing something unless it was living prior to their intervention! And during the first three months of pregnancy, before any real brain structure starts to develop, it’s certainly nothing more than a lump of cells growing inside of you. So is a tumor. I doubt many people would have any moral issues regarding the removal of one of those…
But the morality of it isn’t even an issue anymore. The world is so terribly overpopulated that it’s crucial not to add even more people! Even if you consider a fetus to be a person, it’s quite obvious that Earth is far more important than any one person. Seeing as the birth of that person would harm Earth, there’s no question regarding what needs to be done. It’s a necessity more than it is a question of right or wrong.

Cloning animals. 34% think it’s acceptable and 63% think it’s wrong. 33% thought it was acceptable last year.
I can’t say too much about this because I can understand both points of view. Personally, I don’t think it’s wrong to clone animals which aren’t too high on the evolutionary scale, but I’m leaning towards being against cloning great apes, dolphins or exceptionally intelligent individuals from other mammal species. Cloning itself isn’t wrong, after all some species use it as a form of reproduction, but those species are very simple. Once you get to highly developed and intelligent animals, it just doesn’t feel right anymore, because those animals tend to have much more complex and clearly defined personalities and therefore making an exact copy of the body might have troubling consequences. I’m thinking about those animals becoming aware of the multiple copies of themselves, or of the fact that they’re an exact copy of another, even if it died before their birth, and don’t like the idea.

Suicide. 15% see it as morally acceptable and 80% see it as morally wrong. There is no change in acceptability since last year.
I find this result appalling, though unfortunately not unexpected. My stance on this issue is very clear: Everyone should have the right to die when they wish it. The right to die should be as much a human right as the right to live. People should also be able to ask a doctor to help them die just as much as they’re able to ask one to help them live. What’s immoral is forcing people to continue living if they no longer wish to do so! We’re talking about a person’s right to choose what to do with their own body, their own life. It should be one of the fundamental human rights and freedoms, so how can those people say it’s morally wrong?

Cloning humans. 9% think it’s acceptable and 88% think it’s wrong. 11% saw it as acceptable last year.
As I said above, when the question was about cloning animals, I have problems with the idea of cloning animals which are high on the evolutionary scale and have complex and clearly defined personalities. Humans are one such animal; nothing more, nothing less. So I seem to be in agreement with the majority when it comes to this…

Polygamy, when one husband has more than one wife at the same time. 7% of Americans think it’s acceptable and 91% think it’s wrong. 8% saw it as acceptable last year.
The wording ruins this question. Even the word “polygamy” bothers me, but the definition they chose to give for it makes it even worse. Even I would have to say that the concept described here is morally wrong, simply because it gives one gender power over the other. If they would have asked about “polyamory, when a romantic relationship involves more than two people”, I’d have said that it’s not only morally acceptable, but something which should be strongly encouraged, as long as everyone involved knows exactly what’s going on and agrees with it. I doubt that this would have changed the results significantly, but it would have certainly made far more sense.

Married men and women having an affair. 6% see it as being acceptable and 92% see it as being wrong. 7% saw it as acceptable last year.
If you think about it, this could theoretically be a case of polyamory. The question is whether the affair is hidden from their spouse or not. If it’s hidden then it’s morally wrong, but what’s wrong is the lying, not the secondary relationship. If it’s not hidden then it’s a very clear case of polyamory and therefore completely acceptable. But people had to choose an answer based strictly on the information they were given, so I can’t blame them for their choice.

Overall, people are far too conservative in areas where they should be liberal and far too liberal in areas where they should be restrictive. But everyone already knows that and sees the results of this attitude in the world around them… I only wonder when will they also realize the connection between the two and do something to change these attitudes, because things certainly can’t go on like this much longer!

Earth is insignificant in the grand scheme of things. It’s less than a grain of sand in the great desert of our galaxy, which is but a grain of sand in the great desert of the universe. But Earth is all we have, it becomes our own little “grand scheme of things” and we compare ourselves to it. That’s normal, since we can’t influence the universe or even our own little galaxy, but we don’t even do the comparison with Earth right. We want to believe that we’re much greater than we really are and forget that we’re mere microbes even when compared to our insignificant Earth.

To put it in terms the human brain is more familiar with, let’s assume that Earth is a person, with one year of that person’s life being equal to 100 million years in Earth’s life. That’d make person Earth about 45 years old. On that scale, humans appeared 17.5 hours ago and civilization, starting from very ancient ones, appeared about 30 minutes ago. Person Earth barely had time to notice us invading its body! But we are invading, and spreading like the deadliest virus ever. Ten minutes ago there were about 200 million of us. Two minutes ago, less than 500 million. Then, about one minute ago, we hit the one billion mark. 15 seconds ago there were three billion of us. Now we are 6.7 billion and our numbers are still rising…
Still, even if person Earth is not particularly strong among its kind, we’re too insignificant to matter. It got infected with us this morning and is currently having a rough night, but within the next few seconds we’ll either vanish or learn to turn from parasite to symbiote and get our numbers back down to manageable levels. Either way, person Earth might wake up the next morning and assume it was all just a very bad dream, though it might need a couple of days to fully recover.

But what about a single person, if that’s what humanity as a whole is? Well, I for one know that I’m just a tiny microorganism, being born, living and dying within less than 30 seconds of person’s Earth life, all the while being lost among billions and billions of other microorganisms of various kinds. And guess what? So are you and so is each and every one of us! Even if you’re thinking about your potential lineage, it doesn’t get much more significant. You, your children, your grandchildren and probably even your great-grandchildren will all be born, live and die within one minute of person Earth’s life, just as lost among the countless other microorganisms you share this body with.
But we can’t seem to keep that in mind for long, can we? We keep thinking that we matter, that our little actions and desires are truly important, that our species is great and we need to procreate either for it or, most likely, just to fulfill our selfish desire of leaving something behind, something which won’t matter any more than we do anyway… Actually, no. Perhaps the worst part is that most of us aren’t thinking at all most of the time…

That’s the problem. Humans want to believe that they are far more than they are and think far less than they should. The two certainly seem to go together, though I don’t know whether the lack of thinking is a result of the delusion of grandeur, seeing as we couldn’t maintain it if we’d stop to think things through for a moment, or the delusion of grandeur is a result of most humans’ real inability to think well enough to realize what our significance truly is.
But what if we were to change this? What if we, as a species, were to finally accept our place on this tiny speck we call Earth? What if we were to accept that our world doesn’t revolve around us any more than the Sun revolves around it? Wouldn’t that perspective allow us to see more, and wouldn’t being able to see more allow us to actually do more, both for ourselves and for our tiny world? Nothing that the little bacterium that you are can do for itself in its seconds-long lifespan will have any real significance, but if you were to place a few building blocks at the foundation of something greater than yourself, and greater than all of us, something that could actually mean something in our own little “grand scheme of things”, it could really make a difference.
If we allow ourselves to realize how small we are, even when compared to our pale blue dot, we could actually start doing something great. But until enough of us do that, all of us, all of our thoughts, actions and voices, will be lost in petty squabbles and selfish desires, which create a background noise and a fog too thick for the few who are different, who might already know what needs to be done, to penetrate. Unless that will happen, unless most of us will truly wake up within the next few seconds of person Earth’s life, we’re all dead men walking and our deaths will be as insignificant as our lives…

The clock is ticking, and it’s our clock, not the Earth’s. Earth will survive and recover no matter what we do, but it is us who will become nothing but a vaguely remembered bad dream if we fail to drastically change for the better before it’s too late. And if that happens it’ll be our fault anyway and nobody will take pity on us, but the really sad part would be that we’d be taking many of the other species we share this little planet with down with us, and they’re not to blame for what’s happening. They’re nothing but innocent bystanders who would be blown apart by the blast that our recklessness is causing, and we have a responsibility towards them not to let that happen.
As for that clock… At best, we’re seconds away from it being too late, so it’s long past the time of doing things incrementally. It would have been better, nicer and easier for all concerned if this change would have started much earlier, because right now we need to get our hands dirty, most likely also bloody, and do whatever it takes to bring about this change within those next few seconds. Those of us who will do these things risk being recorded in humankind’s history books as crazies or even tyrants for a short while, but Earth’s history will speak quite differently of us if we succeed, no matter the cost and no matter the means… Considering how small we are, all we have to lose if we don’t is everything… Keep that in mind, if nothing else.