WHITE SOX CLINCHED THE AL DIVISION. October is fun again.

"With Chicago's victory and second-place Cleveland's 1-0 loss to Tampa Bay, the White Sox lowered their magic number to two for clinching their first division title since 2000. After Thursday's series finale in Detroit, the White Sox finish the regular season with three games at Cleveland."

It's time to be superstitious again.

"Another aeroplane
Another sunny place
I’m lucky I know
But I wanna go home
Mmmm, I’ve got to go home
"

The sky opened up at inopportune time yesterday, while I was running only a quarter of my intended training run for the upcoming marathon. I run drenched from head to toe for one hour before the rain ceased, with winds Chicago is famous for. Running in the rain long distance sucks and there's a good probability the rain gods will 'bless' Chicago with plentiful of tears on the D-day, October 9. The streets will be empty but for die hards supporters, tractions between your running shoes and the asphalt road will dramatically decrease and you will be cold and wet for 3-5 hours.

 

This next two weeks are going to be two tough weeks.

"Put simply, the Chicago White Sox needed this. With their lead in the AL Central shrinking, with a back-and-forth game tied in the 10th inning and with a fan base collectively holding its breath, Joe Crede delivered.

Crede’s home run leading off the 10th — his second of the game — lifted Chicago to a 7-6 victory over the surging Cleveland Indians on Tuesday night." (msnbc)

I will die young here in Chicago  of heartache if I keep continuing to support any Chicago team in their respective leagues. The White Sox has been choking in the past 40 days cutting down their 15 games lead in Aug 1. to just 2 1/2 last night. The 10th inning homerun saved their bacon last night and bring their lead to 3 1/2 with 2 more weeks of games to play. We'll see if Chicago has anyone to cheer this October. But don't count on it, hope as usual, is a dangerous thing, especially concerning Chicago teams.

"'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'" (Archive NYT)

Iraq killed the pre-emptive strike strategy. Katrian killed the 'create our own reality' folly.

End of a long workday, watching Daily Show, smoking Apple shisha and plotting the next course. These are typical nights, nights of warm breeze and furious thinking, mostly over black tea. My taste of bright night life has faded away; now that I'm more interested in constructing ideas and mull over possibilities; spending time with only select few; clipping my social butterfly wing and left the consequences history.

The Economist no longer interests me, Foreign Policy bores me, and I hold Time and Newsweek in high contempt. The Atlantic Monthly is the only sole survivor in my ruthless trimming of predictable pattern of ideas; it is time to stop follow the path that no longer matters.

Do nations and states matter in the continent of Africa, as for decades they have only managed to produce despical leaders from one generation to the next, locked in the morbid dances of widespread war and poverty, morphing the grand and noble  idea of a nation into an oversized territory for thugs?

 

""Getting truth on the ground in New Orleans was very difficult," a White House aide told The Times's Elisabeth Bumiller. Not if you had a TV." (Maureen Dowd)

, can do. Nothing else really matters.

Mom and Dad are on the way to Taipei right now, attending the wedding of Dad's oldest sister's  son. I have no doubt the perenial question about my single status will be asked again in the event (as usual in a Chinese family gathering); oh, has the golden son be corrupted by the West and adopt the lifestyle frown upon by the noble merchant dinasty of the East? I think they are used to these type of questions and ready with the usual shrugs :)

I almost joined the Chicago delegation to volunteer down south for a week this weekend by impulse; unfortunately my commitment this week doesn't allow me to take any time off work. I will try again with the second and third wave in the next three weeks; hopefully there will be other groups ready on time.

Forget about the mumbling government response in the earlier days of New Orleans, you should check out the massive and quick response by the community in your neighbourhood. The response from Chicago has been amazing. You should have stand see the flows of packed goods and foods being sent to New Orleans. I'm in awe.

A friend was wondering how I stayed sane doing intensive work day in day out. I told her, no, I don't stay sane. I gave up trying that approach already. There is no sane person that prefer  work  to being outside during the very limited days of summer with its beautiful sunshines. I'd rather chill, smoke shisha and chase skirts all day. So instead of resisting the insanity, I'd just absorb all the necessary insanity required to accomplish goals and get things done. I have concluded that insanity is a must for growing a baby company.

How about balance of life, she pursued. Out of the window. My life has a balance of a two left foot dancer. It's something regrettable off course, but life is always about a compromise. In return, I get to pursue the ideas in my head and force them to reality. The consequences of this compromise are  not always pleasant. One of the peculiar thing is that you always end up with people that have made similar compromises, which in one way, enable us to understand each other; but on the other way generate fucked up arrangement.  My summer with Anna was wonderful but surreal. We were time crooks, stealing and borrowing time whenever possible. Her 24 hour shift and my seven day schedules were bad combination. In the end her compromises and my compromises ended up like pairing two north magnetic pole together. It's sad and fucked up in a way that you only wish to your worst enemy. It is true; the price of being a wolf is loneliness.

She offered her sympathy and I thanked her, but all of it  was my own goddamn fault. I am always free to make another set of compromises and choose different path. We will see whether the high stake path I am in will pay its reward. For now, it's inch by inch all the way; just like what Robert Frost wrote "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I buldoze my way making the third".

phew; tired as shit; bazillion of supplies from Chicago are on the way.