i was going to write an update about my last few days, but then i re-read a private entry i wrote last friday about about much of what has been on my mind recently, and i kind of just want to post that instead.

it's hard to concentrate on work today. it's hard to imagine that as i was walking the three miles to work this morning, taking my time, ( Read more... )

in 2005 i encountered a lot of people whose behavior appalled and disgusted me. i tried to keep an open mind when it came to meeting different kinds of people and hearing their stories, but it seems like more often than not, i let the negativity overwhelm me and push me into self-induced isolation, which i haven't been fully able to come out of. ( Read more... )

my head is spinning from the articles, photos, and footage of tsunami memorials that have taken over the media during these last few days. i'm remembering too much: the days following the disaster, when the phone calls and e-mails poured in, when my students made jokes and laughed at any mention of words like 'tsunami' and 'phuket,' when teachers ( Read more... )

my lj updates have been going nowhere. i'm trying to focus on the positive in my life: watching fireworks explode over the eagles game, singing 'tiny dancer' karaoke with my friends, reading e-mails from friends in chile, argentina, shanghai, laos, england, drinking beer and listening to sonic youth. trying focus on the present for once, trying to ( Read more... )

my mom's godson is a journalist for the guardian. missing in iraq. feared kidnapped.


Where danger for journalists is omnipresent

"You're taking enormous risks. You must know that there are spies in every hotel, tipping off the kidnappers ( Read more... )

some days it hits you that your heroes are your best friends.

everyone is writing about how quickly autumn has struck, and i guess i am no exception. i've been waiting for this since last november. i eat my sandwiches and do crossword puzzles in rittenhouse square or stare at the now empty fountain in logan circle on my lunchbreaks. i pedal as fast as i can across the city at night just to spend an hour on a ( Read more... )

i spent yesterday afternoon unironically tailgating a jimmy buffet concert down in the sports complex parking lots. i've never seen so much free food/beer in my life, or so many middle-aged drunk people in hideous clothes. i had a sudden vision of myself at 53, wearing a hawaiian shirt and lei, with a cheeseburger hat and a parrothead license plate ( Read more... )

i made it home in one piece, though it took me about 45 hours ( Read more... )

today i climbed the great wall of china, and at the top they were selling popsicles! what a perfect treat after such a long and arduous journey. how they managed to get a popsicle stand up there, however, is still a mystery to me; just one of the many mysteries of asia's tourist industry. happy 4th of july! tomorrow i fly back to dirty hot bangkok.