what's going on?

My job is sending me to Siggraph 2009, which is cool. I'm excited to go and excited to visit New Orleans.
I'm taking an online creative writing class, which is interesting.
Meditative lately- the fourth of July always makes me think of our political history, of war and fear and things I try to not think about the rest of the year. And I'm deeply emotionally involved in current events in Iran, and feel hopeless to take any appropriate action. Which is why I generally suppress these kinds of thoughts, I guess. All my twitter and facebook friends are probably sick of me nagging them about it.