Because even in heaven/ They don't sing/ All the time

I watched a show on Discovery this weekend where they put a backpack on an eagle. The backpack had two arms coming out of it, like Dr. Octavian in the Spiderman movie. The arms had cameras at the ends that the film crew could maneuver to watch the wings, tail and head as the eagle flew. It was beautiful to watch the bird in flight-- pure efficiency and mastery-- but then they showed the eagle from far away with the backpack on. Is knowledge always gained at the cost of purity? I hope the bird is all right. I'm sure it is, but something about that bird with that spidery remote-control gadgetry on its back bothered me.

Last night I couldn't sleep, despite drinking a bit (at the Echo Raft Company post-season party). I watched a Zombie movie that wasn't too bad, really. I listened to the dog huffing on his mat while he slept. I re-designed my kitchen in my head. I ticked off the reasons I am alone at 26. I scrapped the kitchen and designed a set of shelves for my room. I got out of bed and watched some Adult Swim on cartoon network. I wondered if I should drink more to get to sleep. I wondered if I will have cancer. Or cirrhosis. I figured that there are probably enough deadly things out there to keep you guessing, and somehow that gave me a little calmness.

I don't want to die.

Finally I went to sleep, but I dreamt that someone else died and I enjoyed the funeral-- seeing friends and catching up.

That's pretty selfish. But, whaddya gonna do?

Here's the link to the bird. There are some clips of the show too, with the bird in flight. Striking creature.

I have to work now. Take it easy, and if you can't take it easy, take it as easy as you can.

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Books I'm raiding right now:

Roger Lowenstein, When Genius Failed
Kind of like Ben Mezrich's Bringing Down the House (about the MIT Blackjack team), but more technical. About a certain type of stock trading that just about killed Wall Street in the 80s (I think)

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Pictures of the Gone World
Excellent beat poetry. A couple of the poems in this tiny book blew my mind. There's one that starts out "The world is a beautiful place..." that I really like. ... Here it is.

Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon
Because I'm interested in bullfighting and I like Ernie. I heard this weekend that they lifted the ban on US citizens traveling to Cuba... Is that true?