[ i've been driving / a mid-sized car... ]

Note the low, low price of regular-grade gas of $2.839 a gallon. I have just finished filling up my FUCKING HONDA ACCORD. The gods-among-men who engineered the '94 wagon would be devastated to know that it had ever cost $40 to fill it up.

To be fair, they'd be pretty displeased about my letting it run so empty it needed all 15 gallons of gas its tank could hold, but that's far more preventable, and far less-widespread in its geopolitical ramifications. Note that I'm amply visible in the reflection of the gas meter, and probably earned myself a few snide stares from other Sunoco patrons in misinterpretation of my particular brand of tomfoolery.

While my recourse is limited, it's not without its satisfaction: The featured picture is from a post-it affixed to the gas-door of a Ford Excursion, the most obese of Ford's SUV line.

I've seen these fuckers get bigger and dumber since the whole SUV trend began in earnest around 1998 or so; I was fuming all the while, mentally preparing myself for the sort of doomsday economic conditions we face at present. If it didn't involve an oil baron or twelve getting rich as sin, a nation's population growing insular and jingoist, and kids my age fucking dying in a goddamned war, I'd find myself pretty vindicated at the sight of some asshole kid reeling from an $80 or $90 gas station purchase. As it is, I can do little more than walk everywhere I need to go, stick post-it notes on offensive cars, and yell at them from the sidewalk like a streetcorner schizophrenic.

Music: Explosions In The Sky - Have You Passed Through This Night? Arguably, the low point on the album comes during the extended, monologue dramatique at the start of this song, much like the terribly-overwrought voice-acting in M83's "Car Crash Terror!" Almost unlistenable.