geostationary banana over texas

Maybe one of the weirdest things I have ever heard of?

http://www.geostationarybananaovertexas.com/en.html

i <3 books

I had a delightful day today. No reason even really, since I had classes from 11 am - 6 pm, but I was just in a good mood. Maybe because I read all day yesterday....anyhow, perhaps this not talking to Daniel thing is working (or...I'm just having a good day). Either way, life!

ps. I'm giving up desserts for two weeks. Not for Lent. The fact that Lent started today was entirely coincidental, believe it or not. But yes. Desserts does not include candy and plain chocolate, but it does include cake, ice cream, pie, and other dessert-like items. I will still get my chocolate though! Without that I would die!

norwegian wood

I didn't realize when I started reading this book that it was a love story. In fact I didn't realize it until I was almost done. All I knew about Haruki Murakami was that his books were supposed to be kind of weird. But it's a lovely and beautiful book. I started it this morning and just now finished it. I didn't do any work all day, but it was worth it...just read...enjoy...ignore problem sets. Reading it made me sink into this story-like stupor and I noticed myself taking on the emotions of the characters--not specific emotions, just the mood of the book in general. Kind of nostalgic. Fitting with my real mood anyway, I suppose, although of a slightly different timbre than mine had been.

disconnect

I've been experiencing an odd disconnect between mind and body lately.

Last night I was laying in bed at 2 am trying to fall asleep (it failed). I could feel that my body was uncomfortable, that I was underneath my comforter, that my hand was by my head and that my hair was tickling my face constantly. But it didn't seem like it was me. My mind didn't really process it all like it belonged to me...bodily sensations were all very vague and far away. What was me was this person trying to sleep; what was not me was this body preventing me from doing so. I couldn't tell if I was alert or not. But I couldn't fall asleep until past 3.

The same thing happened at the gym today. I was stretching on the mats and I could feel my muscles stretching, but they felt very strangely foreign. I always know what it feels like when I stretch, and this didn't feel like I was stretching. The stretching feeling was disconnected, as if I were observing from above.

If I was still in 5th grade, these types of feelings would perhaps suggest that I was an alien or an especially well-designed robot that was starting to wear down. I think at this age, I'm relatively convinced I'm a human. But it still reminds me that I'm just a mass of cells and that perhaps it is my "normal" sense--that my mind and body interact in a way that makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts--that's strange.