How interesting that being apart from the people you love can make you love them more. I KNOW that it's a common belief, and everyone's read that somewhere, but I still don't think it's totally logical. But it's true.

Also, I find it fascinating when people anonymously leave comments on blogs. I had a long conversation recently about anonymity on the internet, and what that means for human relationships. Also cell phones. Cell phones are killing human conversation. It's so acceptable to be talking deeply with someone, and suddenly dig into your pocket and answer a call, while the other person twiddles their thumbs.

Have people out there seen Jeeves and Wooster? The P.G.Wodehouse books are hilarious, but the TV series they inspired is also very very good. British comedy - YAY!

I just recently saw Magnolia. Although I thought it was a little long (on that note, I just heard that the extended version of LOTR:The Two Towers is around 4 hours long - I have mixed feelings about it), I thought it had some of the most superb acting I have ever seen. Also the most striking use of frogs in cinema, I'd say. Now I am being a good person and watching Gattaca, since I apparently can't be a part of society without watching it.

It has been a day of petty misfortune. Nothing that you can validly complain about, yet highly annoying. I dropped my phone on the sidewalk, and then did not notice for another half an hour. When I did notice, I became crazed and proceeded to retrace my steps, muttering audibly and scowling at the sidewalk. I am sure I scared several people. After about 45 minutes I found a friend who called my phone and someone answered! What a close call. I am going to spend the rest of my afternoon (now that I have retrieved my phone) memorizing key numbers, since I realized that I don't actually know any of the numbers stored on my phone. Also, the bus that I was taking broke down on a bridge and all the passengers had to get out and walk. Highly discomfitting. In any case, another friend just called and said that her car got stolen.

My dad insists that the world is suffering en masse, due to the proximity of Mars. Some of the suffering is terrible pain and violence, and the rest of it is just distributed as nuisance and bother over the maximum number of individuals.

I saw an amazing video the other day. A documentary about Tihar Jail in India. It's one of the biggest jails in the world, and like most jails, full of corruption and vice and frustration. Kiran Bedi became the head of Tihar Jail and decided to implement practices to make the inmates feel more at peace with themselves and the world. A prison guard suggested Vipassana, a Buddhist meditation method, to her. And she went with the flow and organized Vipassana courses for the guards and more than a thousand prisoners. The event resulted in such a change in the prison - they showed prisoners weeping and hugging after the ten-day course. Of course, then you have to keep up the practice. But at least some of the prisoners seemed to find great joy in meditation. The documentary is called "Doing Time, Doing Vipassana".

If you fight with someone in a dream, why does it always feel like it actually happened when you wake up? Anyway, I'm awake because of this phenomenon now. So, I thought I'd come tell everyone that I just got back from Cape Cod. Some of the most beautiful beach I've seen. It's very New England, with dark, bracingly cold water. When the tide was low, we walked on the newly uncovered ground and marvelled at the tiny crabs. I have always loved the rocky-shore-with-hermit-lighthouse-and-rageful-waves kind of beaches more than the excessively-sunny-with-tan-models-lounging-about kind of beaches. It was actually very sunny on the Cape, and I have become very tan. Which, as someone pointed out, is ironic, since my trip to India did not cause me to become tan.

I just read that Calcutta's water has been ruled undrinkable due to excessive fecal contamination. So I guess I was right to go with the pesticide-filled cola. Much safer bet.