the sun rises at midnight here, according to my unchanged watch

instant revelation of the day, which may or may not be remotely correct or even contain a shred of truth:

I listen to music because it helps me understand my emotions.

I will contemplate this as I listen to DJ Shadow and get back to you.

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Websites think they're sooooo smart. Google now believes I am French, based upon I assume my IP address, so's now when I call up google it automatically forwards me to google.fr. Which is fine, except it gives different results, and they're mostly in french. Same with wikipedia. Same with Blogger (which is google, so that is expected but annoying).

I don't know how to tell it that I'm not french. If I type it into the search box do you think some proto-sentient computer somewhere will say, "Ah. I see. Let's send him back where he belongs."

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French language experience of the day: after my ride up the local hills, legs all cashed out and looking like a wet badger, I am carrying my bike up the manymany steps to our apartment. An older guy is washing off something on the stairs, and looks up and me. "Bonjour," I offer, and he replies in kind. He then lets loose with a barrage of words and I catch not-a-one. See, that's my strategy: if I can catch one word I can probably get the gist of what someone is saying. Body language and a word, fill in the details with my own little story. Not this time.

So I look at him quizzically. "Pardon?", I ask. He says something else that includes escalier, the word for stairs, and laughs a bit. I laugh too and say, "Oui, oui," and continue on up.