Opening lines...

ANTONIO

In sooth, I know not why I am so sad:
It wearies me; you say it wearies you;
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born, I am to learn;
And such a want-wit sadness makes of me,
That I have much ado to know myself.

..from "The Merchant of Venice". I studied it through high school, and know the opening lines almost by heart. As we progressed through the book, we were tested on the entire book up to the point where we had stopped. So, I ended up studying the first act for like 20 tests!

Doesn't it describe how I feel? Not sad but a weird feeling of malaise. See there is no legitimate reason for me to feel so. In the poker game of life, I have been dealt a fairly decent set of cards. Obviously, a sense of entitlement could still make me feel disappointed, but I claim no such title. Quite simply, people are strange.

In the grand tradition of humanity, I shall externalize my feelings. Its the crappy wet snow this weekend. Its the frustration of summer being around the corner, but not being there yet. Its getting up at 7 in the morning during the week, and having to do homework all weekend. Its the uncertainty about the future, not that anyone has been able to successfully divine the future. Its this. Its that. Its this and that.

Oh well

"Signs of exuberance are everywhere. An investor in Shanghai recently bought 54 apartments in a single day; a villa sold for $30 million last year; and in December a consortium of developers paid more than $3.5 billion for a huge tract of land in Guangzhou, one of the highest prices paid for any property, anywhere. In the city of Tianjin, in north China, developers have created a $3 billion "floating city," a series of islands built on a natural reservoir, featuring villas, shopping malls, a water amusement park and what they say will be the world's largest indoor ski resort."

From today's New York Times. If my memory serves me right, the last place that built the world's largest ski ramp was...surprise..surprise...Dubai! The last place that built a "floating world" was...surprise..surprise...Dubai!

The eternal optimism of humanity. I read somewhere that the only ones who perceive odds realistically are the chronically depressed. However, without this optimism we wouldn't have airplanes or computers or space missions. See, we would rather try and fail than fail to try.