If I ran the world you'd be the first in the gulag.

I don't like Ron Paul. I resent that.

I got up a lil late, washed a load of clothes and just had a lil breaky. I have work later :(. But just trying to be productive and possibly get some studying done too.

A friend of the family who I've known for my whole life was found dead behind a gas station having drunk himself to death. It was a long time coming as he's been an extreme alcoholic for most of his life. He was a functional alcoholic (drinking too much but could still hold a job, girlfriend, etc.) up until his late 20s or 30s when he was the victim of a brutal mugging that left him with permanent brain damage after which point he basically became a slave to drinking. Stealing, chugging vanilla extract and mouthwash in grocery store bathrooms, anything short of physically hurting someone to get a drink (luckily he was always able to keep that moral in check). He tried countless times to get sober but fell off the wagon every time to the point of almost everyone he knew giving up on him. I last talked to him about a month ago and he was doing okay. It's got me down even if it doesn't really come as a surprise. RIP Alan. You really didn't deserve that life. Even when you were doing dark **** to get by, you were always a great, heartful person.

I don't know the guy obviously but I can't say I don't feel that somewhere in the back of my head so at least he had someone willing to post on the internet about him.

Oh and I knew a guy years ago who was mugged for his laptop and beaten so severely that he was left in a wheelchair. Some kind of hopefully temporary brain damage. He had trouble talking and his mother had to "help" him use the bathroom. He was the brother of someone my mother worked with at her old medical school job and I was out of work so I went to help out with him for a couple weeks until their insurance kicked in and they could get a nurse to do what other people including me were doing at the time.

He had trouble talking so it was hard to get to know the guy and I'm not exactly a social butterfly so I can't say we really bonded but I get the feeling he was an interesting guy. His sister who he was living with was really cool, his mother did her utmost to adopt me even though she mostly spoke Russian, I read my first Kurt Vonnegut book from off his shelf, and with lack of anything particularly to do or talk about we watched Princess Mononoke on his suggestion. Must have been cool. And he was from Uzbekistan and was a professor of that country's history and I kinda wish I'd taken the opportunity to learn more about Uzbekistan at the time but like I said he had speech problems.

Just trying to say that "brutal muggings" aren't just a particularly bad schoolyard scuffle and I relate.

I'd still take solace in the fact that you'd be the commie in the end and not I.

I would take comfort from the same, pig dog.

Sorry about your bud Frowny. Life definitely deals some folks really ****ty hands. No-one wants or chooses to be an alcoholic (or any other type of addict). For some the claws just sink in a bit too deep.

On a lighter note, doing my house-husband chores today. Laundry, cleaning, losing the battle against trying to get a handle on the insane amounts of hair our dogs shed. The majority of the place being hardwood floors makes it much easier than our old place, which was 100% carpet.

My older sister and her husband set up my 88 year old mum with a camera and mic for her PC. We just had a nice video chat via FB. Next up will be her hooking up with Sherri, Scott, and Raea so she can see the baby.

Big dogs can create literal hair tumbleweeds on hardwood floors. I lived with Saint Bernards so that definitely helped, but don't be surprised if you see a hairball or two comically blowing across the floor.