Friday, June 21, 2002

Dead slave plantation owner Andrew Jackson is getting some color.

Large asteroid narrowly misses Earth
The best example of scientific detachment I've ever heard is the last quote of this article: "It's something the public should know about, but shouldn't get nervous about," [scientist Grant Stokes] said. "Civilization has to get used to them on some level."

I’m recalling this conversation I had quite a long time ago. The subject of the conversation is not as important as this one particular expression that came up: “economy of the heart.” It’s one of those moments, like when you listening to music or reading a book, and you come across a turn of phrase that so perfectly embodies everything that you wanted to say. What’s important about “economy of the heart” is not so much what it means but how you use it.

If some Christian cheese schlock tripe book has used “economy of the heart,” I’m really going to get depressed about it. Anyway.

At what cost do you give your heart? Like in my particular life circumstance, is it worth being unemployed for several months to figure out what I want to do with my life? (Yes.) When you meet somebody for the first time, and you find yourself getting interested, you start putting a value on your time together and the emotional investment. The economy of the heart is what helps you do that, to put a value to those things. At what price will you cling to your dreams? When do you know to let go of them and move onto something else? I guess another way of putting it is what will you give your heart to? You only have one, and I feel like you sort of have to be careful about how you hand it out. That doesn’t mean it’s this tremendously fragile thing, but lots of people handle it more recklessly than they maybe should.

I don't know what to say about this. It's just cool.

Wednesday, June 19, 2002

Interesting reading the news today. First you learn that mobile phones cause human cell changes, and then you read about the tooth phone. It's a little scary how much farther ahead moneymaking research is than the safety literature.

Check out the Armed Females of America.

I just finished watching Magnolia, and I am sort of at odds with myself over what I think of it. I think the closest thing I can compare it to is a good joke that takes too long to get to the punchline. Like, it's effective, but you wonder did it really have to take that long. The musical score is terrific, though.

Tuesday, June 18, 2002

GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
Imagine your little high school winning... the national championship. That's what this is. This is big. This is huge.
Holy CRAP
This is why I HATE snakes. Or animals in general, along with the arbitrary crapping.

South Korea is normally pretty smoggy year-round because of the pollution, and there still are lingering effects from a crisis that crippled the economy in 1998. But right now, there is nowhere else I'd rather be, even though we missed a penalty kick early on (UGH), and Italy just buried one off a corner in the 18th minute.

This demographic being what it is, you know the next application for this technology will be getting more Doritos from the lab's kitchen.

This is a game that must have been inspired by the accoutrements at Wrigley or Soldier Field.

Sunday, June 16, 2002

Just a few idle thoughts on a beautiful Sunday.

--You wonder if Tiger Woods gets sick of answering questions like "do you get sick of winning all the time?" There would be some more serious questions raised I think, if he were to get bored of doing what he loves most as a job, being the best at it of all time (at age 26), and having a hot Swedish girlfriend. If it were me, I'd pull a Fight Club-like pistol to the head of that reporter and tell him to start doing what he really wants to do in life, so I don't have to answer stupid questions like that anymore, questions borne out of someone else's failure to be satisfied.

--Set your alarm clocks and support Team USA when they play Mexico early Monday morning. Don't forget South Korea taking on the vaunted Italians on Tuesday morning. Best believe The Gat's givin' out a holla for his boys. Be the Red!

--The Bourne Identity is worth watching. Tip of the cap to director Doug Liman for casting Franka Potente (you need to see Run Lola Run if you haven't yet) in a big budget American film. I'll catch Windtalkers later this week, more out of an opportunity for writing a piece about it and Enigma rather than really wanting to see it. Both stories center around the importance of protecting coded communcations during wartime, and there are some overt and subtle spiritual lessons also.

--Aw. This is a cute picture.