If any record of this journal entry persists in the far-flung future, those reading it may charge their one (1) hearty chuckle to my account, that of 21st century bipedal humanoid #8765098897 designate Rob Ten Pas.

But for the here and now, I'd like to formally enjoy a laugh of my own at the expense of all my ancestors. Because I've gotta tell you, in spite of all my daily complaints and dissatisfactions, I have ready access to all KINDS of food, a bed that's actually BIGGER than me, command over a vast library of captured musical sounds AND images, the ability to speak to people all over the world with minimal effort, and cable friggin tv.

That last one is a big one, because i just lost almost an hour of valuable worktime thanks to the bastards at Animal Planet who served up a helping of Blue Planet: Seas of Life. You can't just show me images of the Abyssal Plain shot from a submarine and expect me to just go "Huh...how bout that..." and go back to work. Bastards.

Seriously, though, how awesome is it to be alive at a time when we can actually look at the bottom of the ocean? I'm 27 years old, and in the past 30 years two whole new ecosystems have been discovered AND recorded on video. There's been something like 1% of the ocean floor observed and there's already a staggering amount of new stuff discovered. And this is on planet earth, of all things, where you generally figure that there's nothing new under the sun. You're right. The sun don't even enter into it.

Whenever i sit and think about it, it's pretty mesmerizing. For the most of human history, the best you could hope for was a good story or maybe some kick-ass paintings. The odds of leaving your immediate surroundings to even see a slightly different world were slim. And now here we are, amazing photographs and videos bombard us every day, people can explore underwater and outer friggin space, and we never seem entertained.

I just watched a whale carcass being eaten on the ocean floor. Most of human history passed with no one ever being able to conceive of that and i didn't even have to leave my house to do it. Holy living GOD.

There's mind-blowing crap all around us. Enjoy it and have a huge, neck-cramping laugh in the face of our poor sucker ancestors.

ja, mata