Thank goodness for media fasts...

I had a load of translation to do today, and in addition to the television "fast" I've been on for a while, I really didn't pay attention to the Internet until late in the day, and so I must be among the last people in the world to learn that Osama bin Laden is dead.

Perhaps it's a sign of age, but I don't see the bastard's demise as any reason to celebrate, particularly. My mind focuses on a famous photograph of a sailor kissing a woman, taken at or near Times Square in New York upon the general release of the news that World War II was over (V-J Day, if memory serves). It made sense for the pair to be kissing, even though they were strangers to one another, because the war was finally over and everyone could go back to their "normal" lives.

Today, we're stuck with DHS, TSA, the NowSpeak-named Patriot Act, and reams of rules and regulations that will long outlive bin Laden, not to mention some number of organizations, on the other side, devoted to following bin Laden's path. And thus, in the end, bin Laden's demise strikes in me the same note as the hunt for and capture of a rabid dog—a necessary task that has to be done, though normally accomplished without the use of extreme interrogation methods (but hey, Obama's the Prez, so it's okay, y'know?). Then, too, the dog didn't exactly choose its path.

* * *The snow was still around this morning, but it's gone (mostly) now.

I look forward to better weather ahead.

Cheers...

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPad.

Small achievement...

I've just gotten to the (purely arbitrary) 100,000 "points" threshold at memrise.com. I've been exposed to something south of 450 new words/ideograms/concepts.

Two words: Whoo. Pee. (With such a number of points (and a sawbuck), I can get a latté at Starbucks.)

I am currently ranked 33rd on the site. The #1 participant on the site has something like 310K points.

Still...