When in doubt ...

Deal with concrete specifics. Not categorical absolutes. Very useful thing to remember next time you have an existential crisis. 

47 Years on a Knife's Edge

Happy birthday. It's been a good while now.
Some say you're an anomaly, a freak and accident of history, an artificial and unnatural country. Well, yes, but only, above all, because countries are artificial things by nature, imagined creations of the human mind. It's easier to see that reflected in the case of a tiny, young city-state---but at heart you're not any fundamentally stranger than even the so-called great powers and ancient nations of this world.
That tiny size does unfortunately make you somewhat more vulnerable---though at least insofar as it also makes you acutely aware of the same, it is not, unmitigatedly, a bad thing. We all live on a knife's edge and but by the grace of circumstance---and the more aware of that we are the less complacent and better prepared we'll be. There is no room for complacency. There never will be.

Something you just avoid for the rest of your life

No. Those shouldn't exist. They only persist because you let them. Because you lack the courage and conviction to look things in the eye and resolve them. Of course it takes two to tango ... doesn't change what was said, only means the pronouns should be read as second plurals.
Besides, someone always needs to take the initiative; and in this particular case, considering how things started, it would be rather fitting if you did ...
Eventually. One day. No rush. But no, you don't "just avoid it for the rest of your life".  

The goddess of victory says, just do it.

So you're all at sea. The winds are fickle, the waves are rising, and there's not a bit of land in sight. Once in a while there seems to be another ship in the distance, but then on further inspection it usually appears to be a mirage of some sort.
What are you going to do now? Sulk? Whine? Scrunch into a ball and cry?
Well you're captain of this ship. Take command and steer.

Every other afternoon

Greetings from Bucharest

In summary, life is somewhat random. Always has been. Always will be. Şerefe.

They said, we said

This afternoon Mom related an incident that happened in Hotan, Xinjiang (新疆和田) a few days ago. The way she described it, a few Uyghurs, claiming disability, had boarded a commercial flight carrying heavy metal implements—purportedly crutches. Right after take-off, they disassembled these into metal sticks and start making their way to the cockpit, apparently making threatening voices in Uyghur along the way to the effect that they intended to hijack the flight, and, allegedly, that they had a bomb. As they made their way through business class, however, they were held up by the business class passengers (“一些干部和大学教授”) and then by a number of police travelling on a training tour. After a serious, extended brawl (“二十多分钟”) the hijackers were restrained, and the plane landed safely. The fighting must have been quite heavy, because two of the hijackers later died.
The Western press had a slightly different version of it. Or, they had the abbreviated official version, followed by the "German-based World Uyghur Congress" version, which states that "the plane turned back after Uyghurs and Hans began fighting after a disagreement over seat assignments", and an account of Han-Uyghur tensions in the region. The way it was put certainly seemed to give more credence to the second version of events. It didn't help that "the phone listed for Hotan police rang unanswered Friday."
Then again, you may say that the way I put it seems to be giving, or at least trying to give, more credence to the first version. That's really the whole point, isn't it: how do you know who's telling the truth? I don't really trust Chinese officialdom to tell the whole truth, especially in such a sensitive region, but I wouldn't trust a Uyghur exile group based in Europe to tell the whole truth either. Both sides would probably try to portray events in the light most favorable to them or supportive of their cause, ignoring or retouching any inconvenient details along the way. Everyone does this to some extent, maybe. But clearly, when the two accounts differ so radically, someone is just plain wrong here. 
Maybe the official version is right and the World Uyghur Congress is simply parroting their stage line, which they can plausibly claim not to have any firm evidence against yet. Or maybe it was just an extraordinarily bad linguistic misunderstanding and the "hijackers" were really just shouting things to the effect that they wanted their actual seats back.
But maybe it doesn't matter, because the [masses of] people whose opinions do matter will decide based on their prejudices, on which of the two sides they distrust or mistrust more, rather than on anything remotely resembling a cool, objective assessment. (Or in Staff Sergeant Dignam's words, "Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe fuck yourself.")
Which is very unfortunate, especially when things end up the way they did. There was probably police mistreatment involved. But I do think it was indeed a hijack attempt, and that injuries sustained during the brawl on the plane contributed substantially to the subsequent deaths. But then again, could be completely wrong. And I concede that. I don't claim to actually know what happened, before seeing more convincing evidence either way.
Sometimes I really wish I could look every one of those people in the eye, and confront them with both versions of the story, and of how they could come about. And remind them that words can tell such lies, that only those who were on the plane could have known what actually happened, that nobody should take drastic action based on hearsay alone, that the truth is usually somewhere in between ...

Nets

In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce has Stephen Dedalus famously say, about growing up in Ireland in the late 19th century, "When the soul of a man is born in this country there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight. You talk to me of nationality, language, religion. I shall try to fly by those nets."
...
And most of all, don't play it safe. Resist the seductions of the cowardly values our society has come to prize so highly: comfort, convenience, security, predictability, control. These, too, are nets. Above all, resist the fear of failure. Yes, you will make mistakes. But they will be your mistakes, not someone else's. And you will survive them, and you will know yourself better for having made them, and you will be a fuller and a stronger person.

A Murder of Crows

Just in case "a group of crows" didn't sound ominous enough. Crows are probably just really maligned though. Such a bad rap just for being black and cawing ...

w00t?

Wandern

Okay I think I'm done wandering.

 

Maybe.

And unseen things that do not die

Kan ma kan / fi qadeem azzaman

We are creatures of air,
Our roots in dreams
And clouds, reborn
In flight.

After Democritus

By convention there is sweetness, by convention bitterness, by convention color, in reality only atoms and the void.
Foolish intellect! Do you seek to overthrow us, while it is from us that you take your evidence? Your victory is your defeat.

Kelle fiyatına hürriyet

Eserlik bedava / Bedava yaşıyoruz, bedava

Listen, Listen, Listen

If you have the patience, anyway.

豁然开朗

Most days, most of the time, you're going to be annoyed, frustrated, lost, lonely, and stressed half out of your mind. But then once in a while, when you least expect it, when you've just about hit bottom and then some, the skies will clear and you'll feel light. Happy. Possibly even experience the thrill of soaring in free but secure flight. And believe me, it's worth living for those moments alone. 

So Shiddy

At least, as it turns out, I guessed right. Okay back to work now.

Some Things that Make Me Unhappy.

Not giving enough time to the things that interest me, or the people whom I care about.
Brushing things or people off (but do I have to do this in order not to be forced into the first?)
Living life blind and unreflected.
Hypocrisy and hubris.

Some Things that Make Me Happy.

Food,

Friends,

Friends and food;

Visiting,

Travel,

The Sun. 

Serenity and laughter.

Music!

Being silly;

That cosy corner of the room; 

Being appreciated.

Puffins and complex analysis ...