Ramblings

1. The Mumbai attacks make it obvious that whoever the "terrorists"
are, we give them more power by labeling them as such. They may have
been thugs with guns before 9/11 but lumped together with Al Qaeda,
they take on a more omnipresent persona, from New York to Bali,
security is nowhere to be found. Why is it that hatred seems to unite
people more uniformly than love does?

2. Free from work yesterday, I had to meet up with one friend to get
tickets to Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut and then deliver them to
another couple. It was quite a bit of run-around, especially since the
couple was coming in from CA via Newark airport. Their flight
supposedly got in around 5pm, while the bus to the casino was at 9pm.
The trip from Newark to Flushing would take 2 hours on a good day, on
the day before a holiday, it took them 3 hours. Luckily the wife of
the couple knew her way around Flushing, so we met up at an busy
intersection and I gave her the tickets shortly before the
casino-bound bus took off. I was puzzled when the husband didn't
appear, chalking it up to lazy, spoiled Taiwanese guys leaving all the
work to their wives, then I realized he must have stayed behind to
look after the luggage at the subway station rather than walking over.