...In Iraq, outside a detention camp, a man pleads with an Army Ranger to let his son go. His son was ordered to fight by Saddam's regime when all he wanted to do was go to University. The old man's leg still hurts from the beating he got one time when one of his neighbors turned on him and claimed that he had said bad things about Hussein. The neighbor got rewarded with money. The old man was tortured for a week....

...In a meat packing plant in the southwestern US, amongst the smell of blood, vomit and shit, a pretty young hispanic girl goes down on her supervisor in a doorway, in return for getting a better shift, where she is less likely to get her faced sliced open by a cutter's knife....

...Stuck in traffic on Highway 360, Catpewk curses and bitches because he had planned to telecommute today, and his airhead boss scheduled a Monday morning meeting, via email Friday evening.

All problems are relative I guess. I am not worried about where loved ones are, or what will become of them, or me. I am worried about some stupid identity theft that is going to tie up R. and I in red tape for the next few months. I am not worried about missing relatives. I am worried about some loser israeli company hacking my website to send out their junk mail. I am not worried about being cut with knives because I have to work in such horrible, fast paced working conditions in a slaughter house., I am worried because one of my Diaryland buddies has apparently locked up and dropped off the net without saying word.

So how are things in my world today? Depends on what your definition of my world is, I guess...