I left New York on the 4pm Amtrak Acela bound for Boston. The train, with its automatic sliding glass doors, spacious seats, and quiet speed, feels decidedly definitely more modern than most airplanes. I left from Penn Station in New York and got off the train across the street from my hotel. Very convenient. Of course, I could fly to London for the cost of the ticket…

I’m in Boston (tapping away on the Westin’s complimentary high-speed internet access — how cool is that?) for a software development conference. Learn some more .NET stuff, catch a couple of XML and Java seminars, and scout out the exhibit hall for products we might want for work. Yes, all extremely high on the glamour scale.

After arriving tonight, I caught up with my friend Emily, who I went to high school with. We went out for vietnamese and chatted about work, love, friends, etc.

It’s a good time for me to get out of New York for a few days. A friend I met while living in India unexpectedly passed away a few days ago. He was 23 years old. Really sad. And a reminder of the fragility of life. I’ll write more about him soon. For now, it’s nice to have some time and space away to digest it all.

Two different friends are leaving for trips to Thailand soon. Others are loading up there VW bus with high tech gear for a cross-country bonanza of a voyage. I’m toying around with some travels of my own. Myanmar, Vietnam, New Zealand, and Australia are on the top list. I’d want to fit Singapore in there, of course, to see Aji.

Volleyball never stops. Thankfully. The “Underdogs” are knocked down to second place. The team is going to make a run at retaking first place tomorrow night. I’ll be cheering them on from here. Sand court has been fun despite politics among some personalities in the gym clique. Silly stuff but a part of most groups of people, regardless of whether they’ve gathered to debate or gathered to be in harmony with one another.

It has become clear to me that I’m psychologically addicted to the chemical rush I get playing volleyball. If I go too long without playing I start getting down. And I start feeling good walking down the street to a game, as my body anticipates it.

In the news, the Homeland Security Act passed the Senate without amendment to the stuff I was frustrated with in my last post. I find the current politics of our nation and world to be scary, but also fascinating. Some good reading of late is a NYT Magazine piece on the UN Security Council, the excerpts from Bob Woodward’s new book that the Washington Post is running, and a New Yorker piece I’m still working through about Ayman Zawahiri, an Islamist (New Yorker, September 16, 2002, “The Man Behind Bin Laden”).