This has been the first 24 hours in 7 months when not a single Ukrainian soldier was killed in Ukraine. Putin doesn’t want to feed the Donbass Region and is now regrouping for a new strategy. What that strategy will be is yet unknown.

In the meanwhile, Ukrainian volunteers – who have financed the entire defense effort – are wrapping New Year’s gifts for the soldiers. Most of whom are also volunteers. This is the grandest example of a civil society in action I have ever seen. For 7 months, people are maintaining a very successful defense operation against an enemy who is vastly superior in terms of weaponry, resources, and manpower. All of this is done while avoiding any interaction with the corrupt governmental officials.

The US Congress has made a decision to give monetary aid to Ukraine but that is a mistake. If you want to give money, give it to these volunteer organizations. Otherwise, it will all be stolen by corrupt bureaucrats. A lot of money has already been donated to the Ukrainian army. People were donating their last dollar or two to help the army in combat. But all of those resources – all of them – were stolen by governmental mafias.

And while I am at it, North American slavists kind of suck. The Ukrainian friend was at a conference,  and an eminent American scholar announced in his talk that there is an ethnic conflict in Ukraine that has caused a civil war.

The friend asked him if he had any evidence to support this (truly outlandish) claim.

“Yes, I  saw a video on YouTube,” the eminent scholar responded.

I already knew that slavists were a bizarre bunch, ever since a visited the Chair of the Department of Slavic Studies at McGill and saw that he was sitting under a huge portrait of Putin and a tiny little portrait of Pushkin.

I’m thinking there must be a reason why Slavic Studies is a dying field.

The Ukrainian friend and I also discussed how phenomenally offensive it is that the Russians are making such a meal out of Ferguson and using it in their stinky propaganda war.

Stupid freaks.

Am I dreaming or is it true that the Senate unanimously passed the bill to provide weapons to Ukraine?

God, I thought this would never happen.
Now the House needs to pass it. I hope Obama will not stand in the way.

Thank you, Senate! I think I love you.

I just spent 4 hours with a friend from Ukraine wondering if this ever was going to happen. And then it just happened. Wow.

A Ukrainian friend came by to share a cup of coffee. I served some baklava, a cake, some crackers , and placed a chunk of Manchego cheese on the table.

“Ah, salo!” the Ukrainian friend commented, eyeing the cheese.

Another excruciatingly stupid article, this time about politics. What is it with people today? Has the avitaminosis set in already?

People keep asking for suggestions of activities that can improve their psychological health. I just discovered one such activity: bird-watching. I put up a huge bird-feeder in front of my study window. And right after I did it, it was like a scene from that Hitchcock movie The Birds. Birds descended on the feeder like it’s the second coming of bird Jesus.

I have already seen bright-red birds and two birds that look like small, flying peacocks: bright blue and with a spreading tail, or whatever you call it. And right now there is a grey bird with a bright red head. I obviously don’t know the names of birds in any language.

Staring at these birds is one of the most relaxing meditational activities anybody can come up with. Highly recommended.

Sometimes, I step outside the confines of my blog populated with brilliant readers, my circle of ultra-intellectual friends, my group of out-of-this-world smart colleagues and take a peek into the universe inhabited by folks whose reality is very alien to mine. 

And there I discover things like these. To say that they freak me out is an understatement of the month. Is it possible that such extraordinarily infantile creatures actually exist? Are there people over the age of 11 who read the linked text and feel that it speaks to them? 

I hope not. Oh, I so hope not. The possibility that adults who function in the real world are capable of seriously telling people “just be yourself” is daunting.

The reason why I’m not going on the job market to find a better university is that a better university does not exist. People spend years pining for a place with more responsible students, more intellectual colleagues, better course assignments, more research-oriented environment, less obnoxious administrators, less ubiquitous and inept support staff, more attractive geography, better possibilities for a rich personal, social and intellectual life, etc. but that place doesn’t exist. That imaginary place is just an excuse to delay living until such time when it can be accessed. But that time will never come.

There is a single place where this Kingdom of God can be found on earth. That place is inside oneself. Displacing the causes of one’s unhappiness onto the external factors such as colleagues, students, administrators, etc, is convenient in the short-term but enormously defeating in the long term. 

I’m not suggesting, of course, that people don’t look for new jobs. All I’m suggesting is that they don’t look to a job to give them what a job, any job, by definition cannot offer. When I first arrived at my current school, I met many people who had spent their lives absolutely convinced that if only life had offered them an opportunity to work at a more prestigious school, they would have published a lot more, learned a lot more, and been significantly happier. None of that is true, though. Wherever you go, there is one thing you can’t escape is yourself. On any campus on the planet, you will still be yourself. And the unhappiness you feel will travel everywhere by your side. 

This is why I decided six years ago that I was going to have the time of my life at this school, that I was going to have the best students on the planet, the greatest colleagues anybody could imagine, and do really good, high-quality research. And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing while many other people have spent this time sighing, “Oh, if only I were at Princeton. . . Then I would really do some research! Then I would really live the life of the intellect! But in this dinky little place, none of that is possible.” The dinky little place where none of that is possible is, of course, one’s own inner life. 

Catholicism: you are in deep shit because you were bad.

Protestantism: you are in deep shit because you didn’t work hard enough.

Russian Orthodox Church: you are in deep shit but so what?

Judaism: if you think you are in deep shit, hear out our story.

Freud: you are in deep shit because of your childhood.

Jung: you are in deep shit because of your great-grandmother.

Windows 8: yes, this is shit but we don’t care.