7.31.2006

The tumult in the heart
keeps asking questions.
And then it stops and undertakes
to answer
in the same tone of voice.
No one could tell the difference.

Uninnocent, these conversations start,
and then engage the senses,
only half-meaning to.
And then there is no choice,
and then there is no sense;
until a name
and all its connotation
are the same.

- from The Conversation, by Elizabeth Bishop

I saw this in the subway. It's poignant in an ambiguous, secretive way. We tend to see ourselves in art, and I did get the feeling that this poem encapsulates what's going on in my life right now. But egocentrism aside, I do have a story.

7.27.2006

You can tell you're with a group of people that work in finance when they ask someone celebrating their 25th birthday, "Did the Q1 results meet analyst expectations? What is the outlook for the share price?"

7.24.2006

I plan to go to a Russian bath house with some friends sometime in the near future. I've never been to any sort of bath house before, let alone a Russian one. I look forward to having a big guy (probably called Sergei or Vladimir) whack me with birch tree branches. That's supposed to be part of the experience. It's supposedly relaxing, but I suspect I may start laughing...

7.20.2006

Charles Foster Kane: You know, Mr. Bernstein, if I hadn't been very rich, I might have been a really great man.
Thatcher: Don't you think you are?
Charles Foster Kane: I think I did pretty well under the circumstances.
Thatcher: What would you like to have been?
Charles Foster Kane: Everything you hate.

7.17.2006

Since I was a child I've had dreams where I'm Spiderman and I'm chasing after or being chased by villains. Spiderman isn't even my favorite superhero, I don't know why it happens. It happens almost as often as dreams involving my martial arts.

In last night's episode, Juggernaut and some other villain were overpowering me in a subway car. I "gave up" and told them that they were just too strong for me, trying to trick them. They thought I was finished, and muttered to each other that they should go to their headquarters. They left the train on 72nd Street, while I remained looking in a daze or knocked out. When the train started moving and left the station, I pulled open the doors and leapt out, clinging to the wall beside the train. I then crawled up to the ceiling and started moving back to the station. I tried to follow them based on the tracer I had left on Juggernaut's clothing, hoping to learn where their headquarters were. I was a bit confused... it didn't look like I was in New York.

In any case, I woke up because some construction work began outside my window. I wanted to call the police... I think they've been starting too early.

7.14.2006

Good advisors aren't bound by their narrow discipline.

7.11.2006

The people that cooperate the most are the people that have nothing.
The people that cooperate the least are those that have everything.

7.08.2006

I received the real-life equivalent of Monopoly's "Bank error in your favor, collect $200". It was for $219.42.

7.05.2006

Thinking about whether I should bet the farm...

7.02.2006

Did Seth Green really coin the term "cha-ching"? He supposedly did it in a 1992 Wendy's commercial. No one used it before?