Samsara

Whoa. It's been over a month since my last post. Let me try to summarize:

• My family moved back to Europe on June 10th, as planned.
• My friend and I are watching all of of Babylon 5. We just finished the first season and have started Season 2. Our friendship went through some complications during June but, in the interests of skirting emotional pruriency, I will avoid the melodramatic details. Right now the friendship is pulsating with a healthy heart, and that is joy enough.
• I'm continuing to work my way through every episode of the original The Twilight Zone. I've now seen 55 episodes out of 156. To help satisfy my curiosity about certain details, I've enlisted the help of Marc Zicree's excellent The Twilight Zone Companion.
• During June I read The Joy of Living by Yongmey Mingyur Rinpoche. It's a fascinating placing of recent scientific studies in neuroscience in the context of Tibetan Buddhist meditative practices and philosophy. This book contains a number of thoughts and ideas which resonate deeply with me and it has opened my mind in more than one way. It has also led me to start meditation.
• I've completed my first month in my new job. The challenges are many but the work environment is fun and learning new things every day helps keep it interesting.
• I've created a list of movies (is anyone who knows me in the slightest surprised by this?). The list, currently in-the-making, attempts to include every movie I've ever watched, and alongside it my rating on a scale of 1 thru 10, the rating according to RottenTomatoes and the year it was released. It's a fun way to fill in idle moments and I expect it'll be several months before it's finished.
• I've started a new short story which I plan on submitting to Apex Digest.
• I've started going to the beach on the weekends. The sunshine, fresh air and water are a perfect restorative tonic for my seven months living with a reversed schedule. Also, since one of my co-workers expressed significant incredulity at my ability to tan, I am setting out to prove the opposite and be fully tanned by the end of July.
• A friend who hadn't actively been a part of my life has now returned. She has ended her second marriage. We have been hanging out about once a week watching movies and it's great, uncomplicated fun.
• I reconnected with one of my best friends (we've known each other since highschool). She's finishing her PhD and I have volunteered to help proof-reading her doctorate paper, due in September.

More, in greater detail, soon to follow.