I've even raped and killed a mountain panda in the hills of Shaanxi.

The fog this morning made me want to stand still and let the droplets infuse my clothing. Although that sounds and feels rather unpleasant, because the external cold penetrates your clothing more readily that way, it's so beautiful I welcome it. The diffuse lighting gentle against the autumnal foliage, from Seattle to Issaquah, so very lovely. The soundtrack randomly plays Amp and the Helio Sequence, just in case I didn't get the message. Melancholy bliss. Sublime. Everything is starting to die in the most aesthetically pleasing way.

I am actually on the last tenth of Infinite Jest and honestly I'm a little sad that it's ending. I hate to say that I haven't been so empathetic with characters since beginning The Wheel of Time but that's the only thing I can think of. I am often sympathetic with characters in books - this is why I read books instead of having friends when I was young - but this empathizing thing is fairly fresh. Part of it is probably because my own writings feature young men seemingly dead to the world. So I get where DFW is coming from by making the main character one of these. It's partly a great book and partly a letter from the author. It's a punch in the gut to have my innermost secrets pulled out that way, like having a conversation with a new best friend till 4am. I feel a little troubled that I waited to read this after Mr. Wallace's heartbreaking suicide, but on the other hand would I really feel so close to him if I didn't know how crushingly depressed he was? Or would I have been able to guess it?

Kurt Cobain killed himself in 1994, and Princess Diana was killed in 1997. Between these two events, Oasis released 3 albums, two that were rather good. Little-known bands Blur and Pulp also released some good shit, and some lesser-known British bands made some money when their music was featured on some obscure Scottish indie film known as Trainspotting.

Enough with the understatement. I rented Live Forever last night, it's basically summed up by the above paragraph. It could have had a lot more info in it, but I enjoyed it as a soundtrack to 1995-96. Plus for some reason I always forget how good-looking Damon Albarn was, to the point that when I first saw the video for "Girls and Boys" I thought they were a pop-boy-band. I still like about five Blur songs, although I've never been able to listen to their albums all the way through. And amazingly enough, Liam is still a complete tosser who should never be allowed out in public unless it's to sing. And Noel has the right amount of swagger. And Jarvis still has huge hands.

I still love this song.

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Nothing that needed to be done today got done. I'm feeling a little anxious about that, but only a little. I'm probably going to fall asleep watching TV shortly.

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it leads you here, despite your destination
under the milky way tonight