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.

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?"

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...

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.

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.

Good advisors aren't bound by their narrow discipline.

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

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

Thinking about whether I should bet the farm...

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

I was listening to a radio interview of Jose Gonzales (musician). The interviewer asked him, "when was the last time you cried?" He responded, "about 2 months ago..." At that point I thought, gee this guy must be as sensitive as his music seems. But then he ended his sentence with, "... I hit my toe really hard."

What would Mersault (from "The Outsider") say or do if he were in my circumstance?

Who wants to play Blackjack with Jack Black?

"Practice doesn't lead to perfection. Perfect practice does."
- my first martial arts instructor

Details are what separate the okay from the best. I'm another link in the chain, passing this along.

"You're looking hot like vindaloo, like 50 green chilies burning you"
- song lyric

Having 50 green chilies rubbed on one's skin is torture. It might sting your eyes just to look at this person.

It's so hot my post-its are falling off the wall.

Who wants fast food when you can eat at the Ritz?

Would you eat something made by chef Gordon Ramsey (of Hell's Kitchen)? He seems to be a very angry, bossy person. I think his food (or that made by his trainees) would somehow carry that negativity. More pain than necessary was endured to prepare that food... I think there's something wrong with that.

The smartians are coming?

International security problems? Send in Jackie Chan.