days become nights

...Good Bye Lenin! was very good. it's not every film that lets you see the top half of Lenin's torso being flown around by helicopter, reaching out to rapture the faithful to the promised land. i was also intrigued by the idea of apartments in East Berlin having been completely abandoned by people escaping to the West... clothes, furniture, everything just left behind in hopes of finding a better life...

...darkness is coming too early now. it's oppressive sometimes, and feels like everything is compressing to the confines of your own head. but, it'll get better after the winter equinox, right? hmph. it always seems to me that it takes longer in the New Year for it to get lighter than it took to get dark in the fall (ie. if you were to compare sunsets one month before and one month after the equinox, the sunset in January seems earlier). my perception is wrong, though. it's about six weeks from today until the shortest day of the year: sunrise was at 7:02, sunset was at 16:54. January 31, 2005 is about six weeks after the equinox: sunrise and sunset will both be about half an hour later, at 7:34 and 17:22 respectively. better living through astronomy!