Of mass killings and mustaches

When you're younger you think that "adults" have grown up, have matured, and have managed to do away with those puerile impulses that seem the mantle of adolescence. Turns out that getting older just makes it much more socially unacceptable to give in to one of those impulses, and much harder to justify if you actually do. Allow me to explain.

I was in a meeting today on the International Criminal Court and the keynote speaker was a woman who had been the head mediator between the government of Uganda and the head of the LRA, a rebel army in northern Uganda. She had just gone through 20 minutes of descriptive accounts of atrocities committed: mutilations, beheadings, mass rapes, etc. and was ready to take questions. I started to raise my hand in order to ask a question containing the following words - intransigence, non-governmental organizations, intractable, immutable, and mandate. Instead of stringing those GRE words into a coherent phrase, however, I immediately thought of my old roommate Ryan Sandberg and his mustache. For your viewing pleasure, and in an attempt to reinforce the futility of fighting off the full-body laugh that threatened to engulf me upon conceiving of this image, I offer the following picture of Sandberg.



Suffice it to say that the interrogative I had planned quickly became an impossibility. I was no longer concerned with sounding knowledgeable, articulate, or prepared. I was willing to settle for not knocking the guy next to me over as I fell, choking and spitting, out of my chair and onto the floor. Luckily, I managed to regain some sort of composure and was able to pass it off as a quasi-believable coughing fit. My only hope is that everyone in the room thought I was overcome with emotion at the atrocities just mentioned and that my reaction was attributable to the aforementioned occurrences.

I'm realizing that my first couple of posts can most charitably be described as fatuous, and that inane might even be a more appropriate description of them. Therefore, tomorrow's post will likely contain an update on more of my current life and future plans (yes, I figured my life out and will let you know the details tomorrow along with a plea for input) and possibly even some ruminations on topics of interest. I want to stress, however, that my blog will never become a blow-by-blow of my life (is there anything more boring than those?) or an attempt to disseminate my views on political matters. I don't categorically rule out the possibility of occasionally mentioning an item of interest, but this won't be one of those-Clinton said this, Romney raised that, this is why my position on the healthcare budget is correct-type blogs. Not that it matters, because I still don't think anyone actually reads this. Which I why I can state that Sam Wright is actually straight, and I just made fun of him because I was intimidated by his charismatic masculinity. I can mention that he is my idol and my role model. I can even say that at nights I put on a suit and pretend to take calls on my Blackberry while formatting spreadsheets, all in an attempt to be Sam Wright. I can safely say this because absolutely nobody will read it. Except maybe my mom. Love you Mom! You kick ass.