Currently listening to:
�Amplified� by Francis Kim
You brought me to your home tonight
Gave me food and wine
But she would not escape my mind
Her words were piercing, petrifying
Under normal circumstances
I would not take such offense
But now my head is exploding
And I'm tongue tied
You're amplified
I don't hear what you have said
Only feedback in my head
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Rockets hit Palestinian police headquarters in Gaza
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip � Israel fired surface-to-surface rockets at Gaza City police headquarters and the offices of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement Thursday in retaliation for a roadside bomb that killed two Romanian workers employed by Israel. Dozens of people were hurt in the shelling, most of them lightly, doctors said. A 3-year-old boy had cuts on his face and ears after being hit by shards of glass.
Young victims fall in Israel
TEKOA, Israel--The discovery of the mutilated bodies of two teenage boys, one an American, in a cave near a West Bank settlement increased outrage over violence here that continues to claim child victims.
Koby Mandell, 13, and Yosef Ishran, 14, had been bound, stabbed and beaten to death with rocks, police said. The walls of the cave in the Judean Desert were covered with the boys� blood, reportedly smeared there by the killers . . .
Thousands of people attended the funerals Wednesday. Classmates hugged each other and wept in the parking lot next to the village store. A handwritten sign called on God to "avenge their blood" and asked settlers to meet at the murder site tonight to light bonfires. "We will not forget or forgive", the sign said.
Shooting was an accident, Florida teen says
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Brazill (13), who has been sent home by a school counselor for tossing water balloons, was trying to persuade Grunow to let him say goodbye to two girls in the teacher�s class. At issue: Whether the shooting was an accident, as the defense maintains, or a premeditated murder. Jurors have seen a school security videotape that captured the shooting in the hallway from a distance. They also have heard from witnesses who saw the one-time honor student aim the gun with both hands, point blank at his teacher�s head. Brazill admits to pointing the gun but says he was only trying to scare the teacher when the weapon suddenly fired.
�I pulled the trigger, but I didn�t intend to do it,� Brazill said. �That was an accident. Mr. Grunow was one of my friends.�
Man found guilty of killing five in shooting spree
PITTSBURGH � A jury convicted a man Wednesday of killing five people in a shooting spree last year in which he drove through the suburbs calmly selecting nonwhite victims.
Richard Baumhammers, a 35-year-old non-practicing immigration attorney, was also convicted of eight counts of ethnic intimidation in the April 28, 2000, rampage that left a sixth victim paralyzed. The jury took three hours to convict him.
Baumhammers, who is white, shot his Jewish neighbor, two men from India, two Asian men and one black man, stopping twice to vandalize synagogues. Prosecutors said he was trying to make a statement against nonwhite immigration.
USA Today, May 10, 2001
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This is why I don�t like reading the news. Sometimes I think I prefer to live in ignorant bliss, otherwise human behavior begins to make less and less sense to me each day. And I like for things to make sense because it helps me feel like life is in order. But ask me when�s the last time the world made any sense to me? Go ahead. Ask me.
September 1996.
In lighter news . . .
I went to Maryland last night to have dinner with my best friend from college. We made a spicy Korean vegetable stew and naturally, I brought dessert--a pint of Edy's Strawberry Sorbet and another pint of Edy's French Silk (they were on sale at the local supermarket for $2. How could I resist?). It�s odd how rare I see my best friend from college these days, although she only lives about 25 minutes away from me. The catch is she lives all the way in Maryland, a completely different state. And it may sound silly and trivial because I live a few minutes away from the Maryland border, but it makes a world of a difference. Going to see a friend who lives 25 minutes away in Virginia isn�t a problem. It�s when you have to cross the beltway and the bridge to get to MD that makes the commute such a hassle.
Okay. I�m not going to try to rationalize it any further, because it will start to sound like total nonsense. And remember, I like for things to make sense.
So what did she and I end up talking about over dinner? The numerous weddings of our dear friends this year. For some reason, Olive likes to discuss the topic of relationships. I prefer lighter topics like the new Skittles apple flavor (yum) or the Edy�s strawberry sorbet I got on sale for two bucks. But as we sat there talking about how all of our close friends are getting married (excluding Olive, Kramer, and myself), Olive mentioned her ideal man. She likes to give me the details of this imaginary near-flawless man, and then let out an exasperating sigh of defeat afterwards. Hopeless. It�s the immediate word that always follows the sigh.
I can�t help but smirk as she�s telling me all this. I guess I figure there�s no point in talking about the ideal man if that�s all it�ll ever be. I think we just expect Mr. Right to magically fall in our laps one day, without any effort on our part. Now that is pretty hopeless. My philosophy: If you want something bad enough, you just have to go for it. So the conversation eventually led to me trying to set her up with a friend of mine. �He�s a great guy. He sounds like he�s everything you want, and I bet you two would hit it off right from the start. You should meet him.�
She glared at me with a look that read: �Don�t you even think about it.�
I set her up before, and let�s just say it didn�t work out like we planned. She says my matchmaking days are over.
I don�t know. Maybe something�s wrong with me, but I don�t see what the fuss over relationships is all about. Yes. I am 24 and single, and I�m loving it. I value my independence, and my freedom to do as I please, when I please. I think I really am just too independent for my own good.
Anyway, enough talk about relationships. I finally steered our discussion to a topic dear to my heart--music. We broke out our guitars, and she taught me a couple new strumming patterns. Now this is exciting stuff to me (yes�my thrills are cheap). I�m hoping to incorporate them into a couple songs I�ve been working on. We�ll have to wait and see how it turns out.
And for the really exciting news: I GET TO SEE KEVIN SO PERFORM TONIGHT! Gosh�the last time I got this excited about a performance, I was speeding along the highway and dodging pedestrians to see FRANCIS KIM perform back in November 2000. These are two amazing artists who write music with conscience and heart. I love it.
Hmm. Sometimes in ignorant bliss when I don't stop to think about the atrocities and problems occurring all over the world, I can almost pass for one very happy girl with simple pleasures in life. Almost.
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