"I got so depressed in Vietnam that I decided I didn't want to live anymore. So I swam out into the ocean as far as I could, and I got out there in the middle of all these sharks and barracuda and sea snakes, and I thought, What the f**k am I doing out here? I turned around and swam back as fast as I could. That was one of the most profound moments in my life."
- Craig Venter (molecular biologist)

I am now the proud owner of a guayabera!

I was all excited about Tarantino's new film, "Kill Bill"... but when I saw the trailer I was a bit let down. The action is senseless (although I know in the movie there'll be a reason for it). Also... I don't think Lucy Liu was a good choice - she looks kinda harmless and fake as a villain. Mad props for the Japanese schoolgirl with the ball and chain though!!!

1AD - Here, eat this root.
1000AD - That root is heathen. Here, say this prayer.
1850AD - That prayer is superstition. Here, swallow this potion.
1940AD - That potion is snake oil. Here, swallow this pill.
1985AD - That pill is ineffective. Here, take this antibiotic.
2000AD - That antibiotic is dangerous. Here, eat this root.

Psychoanalysis means saying one thing and meaning your mother.

Some radio program here reported that people in Bangkok spent US$37 million on seeing astrologers this year!!! Everyone is so worried about their future! (The economy in SE-Asia is pretty bad as well these days).

Why is there no opposite for the word "really"... can we say "fakely"? Can someone "fakely" do something?

HERO. One really really beautiful movie. And the action is really good too. Really! There's good stuff in the gallery.

This is an AMAZING ad for Visa. This ad required over 200 crew and 100 vehicles. Pierce Brosnan is caught in traffic in Bangkok, and decides to jump into a "tuk tuk"... if you've ever been in one of these you'll know that they're noisy, it's smelly, there are NO seatbelts, and they don't generally go too fast. Oh, and Zhang Ziyi is in it too.

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found it!) but "That's funny ..."
-- Isaac Asimov

Sometimes I'm an apatheist: the question is no longer interesting, and the answer no longer matters. I find this applies not only to take-home finals and papers that I spend way too long on, but also to the big questions in life.

Kinda lame, but in the spirit of finals week and Christmas...

Twas the night before exam week, and all through dorms, not a student was studying, this was usually the norm.
Kegs in the kitchen, jello shots in the hall -- thanks to the liquor, it was a late night for all.
Passed out all around, the kids all slept tight. When they woke up the next day, they thought, 'Man, whatta night!'
'We're too hung-over to study' they shouted with cheer. So to hell with exams, just bring on the beer!!

So they made a movie about Phil Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment... check out the trailer of "Das Experiment" by clicking here. It's quite a bit over the top... no wonder he wasn't pleased about it. The website is pretty cool. I thought that you were assigned (and were supposed to believe you were assigned) randomly to the particular group?

"The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it."
-- Jean Paul Sartre

http://www.wikipedia.org/
'...a collaborative project to produce a free and complete encyclopedia in every language. We started in January 2001 and are already working on 94579 articles in the English version, with more being added and improved all the time. Anyone, including you, can edit any article right now, without even having to log in.'

My new cousin is named "Hemant" and I get to see him for the first time in a less than 2 weeks. I was just thinking how that name would be kinda confusing for Americans. It sounds nothing like "He-man"... the "Hem" sounds like "hem" of a garment. The "ant" part is not like the insect, but like the British way of pronouncing "aunt"... kinda like saying "until"... I'm told "Hemant" means mountain. I wonder what effect that'll have on him. Does everyone know what "Roshan" means? If you don't, ask me. Maybe that way I'll get an idea of how many people read this blog...

"You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours."
-- an old saying from somewhere which, I've discovered, has some rather profound applications...

"Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity."
-- Einstein

A pretty interesting situation raised in "Solaris" (2002) [if you haven't seen it, this might spoil the movie a bit for you and might not make so much sense]:
Rhea knows that she's created from Chris' memory and that she's not a complete person (i.e. she was missing parts of her own memory). Could you exist being only the pieces that another person remembered? Did they remember you correctly, or as they wished to remember you? How could she deal with her own emotions and feelings? Also, is she the person that he was in love with, or a complete fantasy? Obviously she wasn't the original. But would we be satisfied with a copy? If you carried a lot of regret like Chris did, then probably yes. But otherwise?

Another interesting (but unoriginal) idea brought up: try not to find answers, but choose a path and move forward. There are no answers, only choices. This is very existential.

Senior year sucks because you are reminded regularly that everything around you is temporary. You find yourself in situations out of compulsion - like looking for jobs and doing grad school stuff. Because of the lack of stability it messes with some parts of regular life. It makes it harder for certain things.
But senior year doesn't suck. On the whole it's going great!