Welcome Winter

4 months. That's how long I've been in New York. That's a third of a year. That's longer than a semester at college. Enough time for 2 jobs, 2 trips out of state, 3 concerts, 8 trips to the grocery store, 4 trips to the cleaners, 3 haircuts, and a trip to the zoo.

Incidentally, I also turn 24 in 2 days. As our ability to contextualize time's passage in terms of a lifetime increase, the rate of passage appears to accelerate. This is similar to the notion of time slowing down when experiencing a traumatic or high-stress event. It's a fallacy made real by our ability to recognize it as common occurrence, something to bemoan when catching up with old friends, something that makes us sympathize with our parents. It is an old idea that we take time for granted, but that doesn't make it any less poignant. Perhaps it makes it more poignant in an era of instant, where it is difficult to take time to do things or let things bloom on their own accord.

So life now moves faster than ever for me and I've lived in New York for 4 months and will be 24 in 3 days, so 1/72 of my life has now been spent here. These thoughts make me happy.

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I feel bad for Satan. Not the Devil, but good ol' biblical Satan. I don't know if there's any figure who's had a more tarnished reputation than him. And I'm not talking about a reputation where all the good things he did are relegated to footnotes for the average person like Genghis Khan *(seriously, the dude was more progressive than your average Tea Partier: equal rights, unbiased meritocracy, literacy, freedom of religion, all while controlling the largest empire in history whose expanse could only be stopped by freak weather (see: Kamikaze) or poor dilomatic timing). No, Satan was about as mean as an overbearing boss. If you look at the facts, God sucks in the OT. Forced a man to nearly kill his son to prove his faith, disseminated human language because of a tower, and reduced the population of every species on earth to 2 more or less (clear proof that God, and by extention creationists, are scientifically brain dead, since repopulating with 2 viable individuals is about as likely as me turning into a woman tomorrow). Satan, on the other hand, makes an appearance in Job, where he waigers he can make Job lose faith. God takes him up on it, and destroys everything he has to prove it (literally everything, including his family). Satan's simply a middleman. Oh, and the whole apple thing, not his fault. Who's the omnipresent guy putting forbidden fruit in a garden in the first place, or not keeping tabs on who he lets in? Flash forward to the New Testament. God isn't going around destroying everything in site, but it's not as if Satan takes up the torch. Yeah, he tempts Jesus, but it's Jesus' own fault for going to the desert in the first place.

Know where we got our modern-day Satan from? Faust. And 19th century paganism. And god-fearing Puritans. Bastards

Interestingly, Satan in Islam is actually a tragic and sympathetic character for his unfailing devotion to God. Long story short, Iblis, as he's called, refused to bow to a newly created Adam when God asked the angels to. His devotion to God would not allow him to bow to anyone but God, especially a lesser being. His devoted disobedience gets him cast out of heaven. Yeah, God's a dick.

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This is a good song from a good album. One of the better ones of the yaer
Gayngs - "Faded High"