Mondays are the longest.

I spent today in the office, I worked 12.5 hours. I'm also on my third book since I arrived 16 days ago. I read "Stranger In A Strange Land" by Robert Heinlein my first week, Isaac Asimov's "Nemesis" last week, and I just started Sylvia Plath's "The Bell Jar," which I'm sure will be incredibly depressing. But it seems to be one of those books that is read and praised by many people, although my first impression is that Plath may have been one of those people who speaks because they can't stand silence.

I enjoyed Heinlein's book though. "A week after reading it, my impression is that Heinlein had something to say but maybe didn't understand people enough to really sell it convincingly. It came off at times like a goofy nerd sitting in a room writing a book about what the women he wished he could meet.
Saturday night I went to Brooklyn and met Amanda and Gustavo, two friends from school, and we went to a bar and had a beer. I really enjoyed Brooklyn, particularly Williamsburg, the neighborhood we were walking around. It was hip and young, and I think I could enjoy living there.

I went walking around after work Thursday last. I wanted to see a gallery exhibit off of Bowery, about 15 minutes from my office on foot. I got there about 8:00 and they were having a concert, but I was able to poke my head in and check out a couple of the pieces. The exhibit was of heroin baggies, stamped with different street names. The artists went to areas frequented by heroin addicts and collected the rubber-stamped baggies from the ground. Some of the stamps were quite terrifying, like Last Temptation and Deadly Sin. The most striking piece was the 12 foot tall wall covered in 1800 baggies that represented the amount of heroin an addict will consume in a year.

I then went walking south toward the towers in the distance. It was nearing dusk, and the lighting became dramatic, so I made a few pictures. The most moving part of the evening was seeing the Federal courthouse complex. Its not something I can fully explain, but something about the massiveness, the inhuman nature of its scale, was deeply unsettling. I felt strangely nervous walking in front of it, and I felt a strong urge to cross the street just to put some distance between it and myself.

I will write again tomorrow. I have more pictures to share.