Wow, its amazing how difficult I am finding it to do work, well no, actually its not...but, I feeled glued to the net and CNN..I actually have the International version of the latter as well, and that's LOTS better! How can I focus with that going on? I found it interesting that the local news in LA even noted that the Pacific ocean rose 10 cm in San Diego--from the quake...way over here in the US.

I want to echo the thanks to Dody (and Tom) for keeping us informed about what's happening, it's hard to get a personal sense of what has happened, but it becomes a lot more clear when you read notes like the one from the MCP of Sri Lanka. Absolutely incredible.

As I was watching all the wreckage last evening, it occurred to me that Digs and I had actually made plans to celebrate Christmas and New Years in Southeast Asia, I was really pushing him to return to Phuket (he hates revisiting places), or some other tropical paradise in the area..but, once I got the new job offer in California I told him I wouldn't be able to make it out there, and that he would have to make other plans. That's bizarre to think about, had I still been working in Detroit, I probably would have been out there for the holidays...and then who knows..

I guess it just reinforces the idea that the world certainly is a crazy place, and that when we take comfort in the false security brought about by materialism or live our lives in the future, we're really just living in fantasy worlds...a psuedo-reality created by our society (bloated in the West). Carpe Diem as bro Kirkatuk would say!

Time and time again we see that everything you have can be taken away in an instant, and how fragile life really is. I look forward to the time when I'll be able to take another transfer and my job will reflect and promote a more meaningful and selfless role. Until then, I take refuge in the only thing you really can take comfort in in this world, friends and family.



"Nobody dies wishing they had worked harder or had made more money, they always wish they would have spent more time with family or loved ones, or traveled more..trying to spend more time relating to humankind."--Author unknown, from '1 Giant Leap'

"As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being." - Carl Gustav Jung, 1875 - 1961

"The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other,and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold eachother, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out." - James Arthur Baldwin, 1924 - 1987