We're Back!

If you haven't read the Bhagavad-Gita, read it now. I read it again over break, and it was even better than the first time. I will probably mention it repeatedly here, but for now let me just say how amazing it is that this millenia-old piece can still be striking and powerful to the modern reader. It is more relevant, incisive, and applicable to my life than almost any other book I've read. But read it discerningly; some stuff is obviously outdated and meaningless outside the context of ancient India, such as caste and cosmology. And read the war in the book as an internal struggle. Aldous Huxley (Brave New World is another great book) wrote an excellent foreword to the book, if you can find it.

I honestly believe I have the faintest touch of precognition. It's not like I know if something's going to happen, or when, or how... I just get feelings, and they generally tend to be right. This may just be great subconscious rational analysis, and not ESP at all, but whatever it is, it's useful, and a little weird. At or just before the beginning of every semester I've been at college, I've gotten a sense of what the semester was going to be like. I told my roommate, Jesse, in the summer of 06, that I felt that the fall was going to be horrible, even though there was nothing at the time to indicate that. And it was. And just before the spring of 08 I knew I was going to have a good semester, even though fall was horrible and there was no reason to expect any better for the spring. And it was better. There are many examples, but regardless of what these feelings are, whether they're accurate or even real, today I am happy, because I have a strong sense that this my last semester will be a great one. If it is, then it'll probably be all your fault.

It was so great seeing my friends from abroad last night and today. You don't realize how much you've really missed someone until you see them and talk to them again. Alec, Lauren, you've made my week, so thank you! I can't wait to see everyone else I haven't seen in so long. Let me just say, thank God for visa expiration, mish heik?

My first hurdle this semester: TSA at Dulles International Airport. They held me for over 30 minutes, searched me and my bags 3 times over... Do they expect to catch me with all those magic grenade launchers in my jacket after the first time? Anyway, they made me get to my flight only 12 minutes before departure. Usually, this is not a problem, as check-in only closes at 10 minutes before. But when I got there there was no one, and the plane was taxiing. I asked this lady who works at the airport... Know what she said? She said that I was the only person not on the plane, and when the pilot looked for my name to call on the announcement system, he figured it was a problem with TSA that was keeping me, didn't bother, and left, because he figured I probably wouldn't get out of there for at least another hour!
Three cheers for prejudice!

I made it here, thankfully, intact. Then came the attack of the ravenous mice! I've caught 2 already, but it's like they have a clone factory somewhere behind the walls. Maybe I should get a pet owl. Name it Hedwig. I hear they're good luck.