Causality

Sometimes I wonder how I could possibly get in the positions I am in. Right now, I'm sitting at my laptop in an internet cafe late at night, halfway around the world from where I normally call home. I'm sitting a few terminals down from a couple male Europeans who laugh like girls very loudly, and frequently. And to think, it is because I came to Japan for a contest, qualified since Travis rocked at regionals (and consequently convinced me to stay extra days), but only because I was interested in programming, which traces back to middle school when my dad decided to teach me Visual Basic on our 486 running Windows 3.11. There are lots of steps before and in between, but here in the moment, nothing exists but me, the computer, and some annoying Europeans.

And to think, if I were at this very spot on August 6, 1945 I would probably be vaporized. Paying 300 yen for an hour of access to cyberspace seems utterly insignificant, yet so much more immediate. Odd how that works.