Last night when I heard that Jay Farrar lyric while doing sit-ups, I just stared at the ceiling awhile and wondered what the hell it meant and how he came up with it. Maybe it’s a metaphor for dancing…

So it’s 2006. At this early point in the year, I try to assess my financial position and consider my “asset allocation” in retirement funds and other investments. Two stocks I own have been showing signs of life lately, Avanir Pharmaceuticals and Cortex Pharmaceuticals Inc. Avanir markets a cold sore medication called “Abreva,” and has a drug in clinical trials. They also are working on a cholesterol reversing molecule and own a technology platform that develops human antibodies for infectious diseases like um, anthrax. Cortex develops “Ampakine” (cognitive amplifiers) drugs for the treatment of neurological diseases like alzheimer’s, mild cognitive impairment, hyperactivity disorder, autism, and fragile X, among others. They caught my eye a few years ago with an article in Slate. It cited a test of an ampakine compound on some Swedish med students. “After taking the drug, the students improved their performance on tests requiring them to identify smells, navigate mazes, and make visual associations.” I remember thinking how this could really help change lives. Note: I am not recommending you buy these stocks. As early-stage biotech companies, they are very high-risk.

Finally, my own cognitive freak show gave me a head shake this past weekend. As I was flipping channels on the new plasma and being amazed at the quality of movies in HD, I thought, “Contact” would be really cool in HD. Two channel flips later, there it was. It’s not as good as the Carl Sagan book, but it has its moments. In one scene, an alien describes human existence to Jodie Foster’s character, “You’re an interesting species, an interesting mix. You’re capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you’re not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we’ve found that makes the emptiness bearable is each other.” So call an old friend… or make a new one.