My relentless positivism should not mislead you: never have I believed and never will I believe that humanity is perfectable, that I am perfectable.

I believe in progress. I do not believe progress moves in a straight line. Nor toward an inevitable end. Nor toward a preferable end.

And while we are clarifying: once I believed misery is more interesting. Perhaps it is, but I would never again seek it for that reason.

But that is not to say the absence of misery is ideal. Misery is beautiful. Misery is everywhere. Misery is necessary.

Call me any dirty name you can think of: positivist, secular humanist, progressive. But I am not naive. I do not seek silly things, and I do not seek anything for silly reasons.

Mutation is the answer to everything.

Change. Mutate. Become. Metamorphose. Evolve.

You cannot create change in a vacuum. You cannot create change in anesthetized, warm, soulless rooms. Change is pain. Pain is useful. You must do something with it.

And when I say something seemingly stupid like:

There's only one direction I can go. I believe that. :Up.

I don't mean that literally. Of course there are other very possible, even likely, directions. But I won't allow it.

Which is to say, it is time for another revolution, lest I stagnate.

I have become comfortable. I have found my place. I have found my people. I have found things to occupy myself with and I have mastered them. Not comfortably numb; comfort = numb. No place to stay.

So I am ready to throw myself at the world, to feel the staggering, searing pain of existence, of humanity. I have sheltered myself from it: it was necessary; I fattened myself up from in the shadows. And now I am prepared. For reality, misery, mutation and true happiness.

There is no freedom too great for me. I want to feel and know the world. I'm flying to Europe. Nothing can hold me back now.

It's the price of rootlessness. Motion sickness. The only cure: to keep moving.
Mr. Lies, Angels in America

I'm not sure how I feel about this layout yet. Obviously, the quotation fits me perfectly. But I'm not at all sure about the layout.

The quotation is from The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean and the image is the elusive ghost orchid.

And... I have nothing else to say about it. It's too blah and too much a rip-off of my last layout to have any strong feelings one way or another. Expect tinkering. Suggestions welcome.

So on with the show.