The pain in Spain

Embassies are bureaucratic stinkholes. Designed to serve the people my ass.

In other news, I've been very social this week. I went out to Quincy yesterday to visit Aileen, Yuriy, Amy, and Franklin(e). We watched this amazing movie called OldBoy, a Korean production. It's a vengeance flick, but although the initial premise of the blood feud between the two characters is a tad thin, the movie amplifies the conflict with a powerful effect. The film resolves itself in a convincing, although morally ambiguous, finale.

On the way back, I was propositioned by my third beggar of the week. The homeless of Boston aren't frightening, because a.) I don't go to any areas where they would be and b.) They mostly cluster around the T, and the Boston T is the safest subway system in the U.S. Its just a bit unsettling, awkward, and I always vacillate pity and calloussness. Either way, its just not a comfortable experience. Strike one for the suburbs. Like almost everything else in life it seems, living in an urban environment has its plusses and minuses.

Tonight is chess night again, and I get to whoop some butt on Eli and Greg. Still figuring out where its to take place (my vote is Hynes Convention Center, Eli wants to do it here in Waltham.) We'll see.

That's all that's going on in my world. The sun has finally taken a vacation here in Boston, and I might just be beginning to believe that summer actually exists in this corner of the world.