imagine you're weightless in the middle of the ocean surrounded by tiny little seahorses

The monsoon is wreaking havoc on the city. Looking out over the barren fields beneath my window, I now see vast pools of water, and the overwhelming cacaphony of frogs reminds me of the deafening din near Lake Lagunita during the California rainy season. I did not go out today because I had work to do and was feeling too lazy to go shopping, but scouts report that many roads in the city are flooded.

I fulfilled my desire to sleep eleven hours last night, and it's a feat that I would like to repeat again tonight. I sat around most of the afternoon and did nothing. I did some work tonight while watching 'Napoleon Dynamite' and 'I Heart Huckabees'--there's nothing like watching a double feature alone while working on Saturday night to make one feel like a total loser. However, my time in India is moving rapidly; it's only a month until I go to Europe, then three weeks until my parents visit, and then five weeks until I go home! Shocking, eh?

I think that I am working too hard. If I was meant to come to India so that I could work myself to death in the pixel mines, as Shedletsky calls them, then I am fulfilling my destiny; but, if I was meant to have an experience that would change the course of my life, I cannot yet see what change has been wrought.

I watched the Tour de France tonight; it's so refreshing to be able to see it live from 4-9pm, rather than early in the morning in California. The photo finish today was quite exciting, and I'm looking forward to the major mountain stages. This is a much different experience from my previous two Tours; in previous years, I watched with Walter, and his excitement was so palpable that it made me more excited just watching him. The summer after I graduated, we watched the tour in the boys' attic in Los Altos Hills, and last summer we watched it in our dingy but charming apartment across from the mariachi car repair dudes in Mountain View. This year, I am watching it in the cool marble splendour of my apartment in Hyderabad, and Ranjit joins me when he is not cooking. It is quite ironic that I traded Walter (who has a prodigious vocabulary but does not like to talk) for Ranjit (who has no vocabulary but loves to talk). If I could combine them, they would embody human perfection. However, this could easily backfire, since the wrong genetic mutation would lead to someone with no vocabulary, no desire to talk, and no ability to cook. If I ended up with that, I might as well just live with a lifesize cut-out figure of David Hasselhof.

Please do not ask me why I came up with the idea of living with a lifesize cut-out figure of David Hasselhof, because I could not explain even if I knew why this image leapt into my brain. I think that I have been sitting in my room for too long. And with that, it's time for bed!