I'm late for brunch.
Just finished reading Black Hawk Down. A truly amazing book, like nothing I've ever read before. It's hard to get my mind around the horrors depicted in it. Even during battle, a prominent description is of soldiers wondering "Is this real?", and even more so for someone like me to read about it. How is it that things like that actually happen in the world. The diversity of human experience is stunning, and then at the same time, there must be some universality for me to even be able to read it and feel anything. Even in the most extremely dangerous circumstances imaginable, these guys were still quoting The Jerk. I would recommend this book to anyone. It's gut-wrenching, but important.
I wound up awake until 5am last night. I was in bed reading at about 4:30, having finally finished screwing around on the computer (for a couple of hours anyway) and watching Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon intermittently. Naturally I thought it wise to start the "Making Of" documentary on the DVD at about 3:45. Anyway, in bed at 4:30 I suddenly realized that I was still awake at the peak time to view the Leonid Meteor Shower, supposed to be extremely active this year. I bundled up and went up on the roof for about 10 minutes, during which I saw at least 25 meteors. And this is in Brooklyn, with so much light pollution I could easily read outside on a moonless night. I can't imagine how spectacular it must have been from a better spot, but it was still a very nice way to end the night; awe-inspiring, humbling, beautiful.
