under new management

I wonder how many times I will be under different management? How many times have I already? How many more times will I be? Is someone keeping track? At what point do I call off the bets? When is it time to close shop and open up a restaurant?

sore truth

I no longer write,
out of spite.

I have learned to understand,
that mistake we had in hand.

Just another something over night,
we escape, sore truth.

(11-21-1998; revised 7-13-1999)

negotiations

Ideally one flies for base-price or better yet, some fraction below it; but it turns out that one can also fly for some fraction above it!

Case in point: I managed to 'negotiate' a ticket, booked via Orbitz, for what turned out to be nearly double the base-price...ugh!!! It makes me wonder if someone else could have negotiated better? If so, how and why?

Note to self: Orbitz sucks at customer service - I spent a total of 2 hours on the phone with them to ultimately get no help after missing my flight. The airline carrier turned out to be much easier to deal with and more accommodating. DO NOT book airline tickets through Orbitz again. And, don't miss flights either.

love is blind...

MexicoCity 126
Originally uploaded by warxal.

perhaps this is what we really mean when we say that love is blind?

damn new rage

"As Breuer stood and reached for his coat, Nietzsche added, "One final comment. You've talked a great deal about the second item on our list: 'besieged by alien thoughts.' Perhaps we have today exhausted that category, for I now have an appreciation of how these unworthy thoughts invade and possess your mind. Yet they are nonetheless your thoughts, and it is your mind. I wonder what benefit there is to you in permitting this to occur - or, to put it more strongly - in making it occur."

Breuer, who had one arm in his coat sleeve, froze. "Making it occur? I don't know. All I can say is that, from the inside, it doesn't feel that way. It feels like it happens to me. Your claim that I make it happen has - how shall I say? - no emotional meaning for me."

"We must find a way to give it meaning." And Nietzsche rose and walked to the door with Breuer. "Let us try a thought experiment. For tomorrow's discussion, please consider this question: If you were not thinking these alien thoughts, what would you be thinking?"

--excerpt from When Nietzsche Wept: A Novel of Obsession by Irvin D. Yalom.