unwanted ...

... unneeded

... unattractive

.... unappealing

... uninteresting

... undesirable

... unbecoming

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so it's not just us Americans ...

OTTAWA (Reuters) -- Most Canadians know so little about their own country that they would flunk the basic test that new immigrants are required to take before becoming citizens, according to a poll released on Friday.

The Ipsos-Reid survey showed that 60 percent of Canadians would fail the test. A similar poll done in 1997 showed a failure rate of 45 percent.

"Canadians appear to be losing knowledge when it comes to the most basic questions about Canadian history, politics, culture and geography ... (they) performed abysmally on some questions," the firm said in a statement.

Only 4 percent knew the three requirements a citizen had to meet to be able to vote while only a third could correctly identify the number of provinces and territories. Just 8 percent knew that Queen Elizabeth II is the head of state.

The survey was carried out for the Dominion Institute, which aims to boost knowledge of Canadian history and values. It said all high school students should have to pass a special citizenship exam before they can graduate.

"It is frankly disheartening to see the lack of progress made by our group and the countless other organizations working to improve civic literary of Canadians over the last 10 years," said institute co-founder Rudyard Griffiths.

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and so ...

... the funk seems to have struck again.

what am I doing? why am I doing it? why am I not doing anything to change it? should I? should I just ride it out?

does it really matter -- to me or anyone else -- in the long run? or the short run, for that matter?

guess I'm just wondering ... well, about everything. but the "what ifs" and "why nots" and "if onlys" don't generate any coherent thought; in fact, they only serve to make things more jumbled, complicated, meaningless. they only serve to make me more disaffected, morose, befuddled, furious. but not thinking about that does pretty much the same thing.

i envy those who have a much better grasp on things ... what they want to do for a living or career ... who they want to be with or are with ... that actually like where they're at ... even those who know for sure that they don't like where they're at and plan to do something about it.

obviously, there's no real coherent point to this rambling, self-pitying, mopey post. and yet, nonetheless, here it is ...

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