I've been constantly checking the update sites online about what's happening in the wake of the tsunami here in Southeastern Asia. The number of deaths and disappearances just keep rising. It's hard to believe 60,000 or more people can just be swept away in the blink of an eye. I had the weird experience of trying to read the New York Times online, but the headline, "One Third of the Dead Under the Sea are Children" kept freaking me out but attracting me to keep rereading it, the way horror stories work, simultaneously repulsing and attracting. And I keep thinking about how I was going to go to Thailand for Christmas, but waited too long and the tickets got too expensive, and stayed here in Japan instead.