I’m back in the punishment cell (SHIZO, a disciplinary isolation cell). In programming, this is called an “infinite loop.” - They put me in SHIZO for 3 days because of an unbuttoned button. - They’re escorting me down the corridor to SHIZO: “Hands behind your back!” “Uh-huh,” I say, and put my hands behind my back. But for those three seconds, I was walking normally. Without my hands behind my back. What a crime! - Then they summon me before the commission: “Prisoner Navalny, you violated the escort rules on the way to SHIZO. The video shows it lasted three seconds, but since you are negatively characterized and have already been placed in SHIZO before, we have decided that you must be placed in SHIZO.” 5 days. Funny. At this rate, I might as well move in here. The order clearly came from Moscow. Even by Russian prison standards, SHIZO for 3 seconds without your hands behind your back is too much. So here I am again, sitting in my little hellish closet with a mug and a book. It’s a bit boring, of course. I’m thinking maybe I should learn to meditate. So far it’s not working out—it turns out that thinking about nothing is incredibly hard. Instead of simply following my breath, I keep thinking that, in essence, my SHIZO is vipassana. It’s a kind of spiritual practice for wealthy people going through a midlife crisis. They pay to be locked in some room where they spend two weeks in silence, eating sparingly and cut off from the world. Nothing to do but meditate and reflect. And I get it for free. Be jealous 😉