Jesus! i hate sad endings. had i known before, i wouldnt have put meself through the 1,008 pages of misery... or maybe i just might have. who knows. tolkien is by far one of the best story tellers.... i wouldnt say forrest carter is anywhere near tolkien, but the fact that he was able to pull off a stunt like the education of little tree without being suspected... well that earns hims some marks from me. carter misled people for years, before announcing that the book was in fact fiction, and not an auto-biography of a cherokee indian, as was previously believed. and for a very very long tym, it stood as the greatest book i had read. i was pretty young (and naive) when i stumbled across it, and was able to believe in the utopian world carter wove. i learnt a lot of lessons from the book, about living in harmony w/ nature, taking only what was needed, that knowledge and wisdom werent just confined to books, and that everyone had a right to live the way they wanted. most of thys world was destroyed as i grew older, or wiser, as i like to thynk, and the remaining beliefs were destroyed when i learnt my favourite author was a fraud :) having spent around a week in tolkien's world, it's so hard to believe it was fiction -- make believe -- a world locked within a few pages. the characters, their fears, their journey... it all seems so real. and i know it took all my will power to not turn over to the last chapters and see how the tale would end. now me's gonna go get the movies :> well anyways, so while i was going thru the classified section, looking for a trainer for my 9 month old lab, i came across thys: "AUSTRALIAN National 2 Pakistani sisters, highly qualified, beautiful, good height age 26 and 28 seek match from good family educated boys between 30 and 32 doctor, engineer, MBA willing to settle in Australia. Send photograph and photostat of degree and I.D card to ... " photograph, photostat of degree & i.d card... do we care abt personality, character, habits, family???... i dont thynk so! its sort of depressing really, when parents have to advertise their children like thys. what i dont get though, is well... in all your family, friends, acquaintances... you found no one worthy of your daughters. fair enough. what makes you thynk, the guys who are worth them will be looking for brides they can order through mail? wouldn't they have found some on their own, like women in real life? then there was thys one which went like : "39 yrs old assistant professor grade 18 alone seeking unmarried divorcee... " i dunno man, unmarried divorcees ... aren't they a dying breed...pretty hard to come by these days? *sigh* the whole thyng is still pretty depressing. as it happens i havnt been to work in three days :> and am kinda begining to miss it now:) i guess i should prolly pop in tomorrow. or somet. and no my flu isnt any better, thank you for asking :p