The answer is 42

I don't know which is more depressing: the fact that my friday night plans are invariably a glass of wine and Project Runway with mom and Larry or that I look forward to it.

Is Elana going to keep it together for one more episode? Who's going home tonight? There is a measure of enjoyment in watching the designers try to fake enthusiasm for the QVC and Lifetime sponsored schlock. I'm sure its kind of like getting architects to come out and gush on camera about how much they love fake stone cladding and gold-tone.

Let's face it, I've been unemployed for nearly three months now, underemployed for six months, and out of school a year. Thank God for the six month grace period on student loan repayments. I should not be going out and spending money on food and drinks, is what I'm getting at here.

Actually, I am trying to act as ruthlessly selfish here as possible. My aims are nothing more than all of it: the architecture job at the international office, the European lifestyle, the girl. Despite all the luck, friendship, love, and faith that I have been given, I want the world. The responsible thing would to be get a job in Phoenix or Houston and live with my parents until they throw me out. Maybe Oklahoma City.

Anyway. One thing that brightened my day was the Chatroullete version of Miley Cyrus' awful Wrecking Ball music video. Basically, the video shows a nameless bearded guy in white briefs and a beater enacting the video while lip synching to it, opposite to the view of the people on the other end of the camera. It's a hilarious send up and really works because you can see the other people's reactions, including the "wtf?" transition to "lol", and in many cases, spontaneous singing along.

It's a song by a pop star, parodied by anonymous person, who recorded the act of sharing it with complete strangers on the internet, which was shared on a social media site by cousin's husband. To my view, this is the purpose of the internet. Yeah, it was great to share technical data for the scientific advancement of nuclear weapons and subatomic particles. However, we can lose sight of the bigger picture. Sometimes, the internet is a mirror to what it means to be human.

It is believed that the millenials (I'm not really a millenial, a bit too old, but I have a lot of millenial tendancies) as a group are more uncomfortable socially in person, but vastly more engaged in the social networks. The downside, of course, is that so much gets decided in informal, person-to-person interactions. Communities and nations hold together because of agreements made over coffee, in the elevator, at the bar, at the water cooler, and in the grocery store. The upshot is that the conversation is global. Almost. I should really say that the conversation has the potential to be global.

Next week's readings on Social Media and Globalization will be from chapters 3, and 5. Also be sure the watch every TED Talk. All of them, ever. You should be able to find them online. Tweet your TA if you have difficulty locating the website.

I had a kind of duhpiphany a few days ago as I was working on personal improvement ideas.

duhpiphany n. portmandeau of duh and epiphany. A sudden, startling realization of an obvious truth. e.g. "button down shirts look better when you iron them."

blog n. shortened portmandeau of "web log." An internet based collection of sub-truths, hysterical opinions, and duhpiphanies.

I've read books about brilliant, talented people who have succeeded in doing amazing things. Thinking about what they had in common apart from talent (which gets you not much in life) was largely working thier asses off and refusing to give up after setbacks. Half of the massive Beatles biography is basically those guys working thier asses off all over the place, tirelessly, before they really mastered thier craft and built up a following. Dr. Snow spent years and years working to convince Victorian scientists that diseases were spread by tiny organisms and not by "bad spirits in the air." One entire book I read about probability and random chance was that life is basically a series of chances. If you need to roll a 12 to win, and you roll an 8, roll again.

Searching for a phrase to unite two ideas about working hard and repeatedly going after what you want, suddenly that platitude "Hard work and perseverence" went through my head. It was like seeing it change from needlepoint filler into Flaming Holy Writ. Hard work and perseverence no, really! It's true! It is absolutely the key to success.

Whatever success is. I think it's 42.