cold quantum comfort

sometimes the idea of other realities comforts me, realities where history has taken different turns than it has here and where things are different.

perhaps those other realities can't easily be reached from this one; but i still believe they're there, like unread books on a library shelf.

physics & math say that every quantum reality *can* exist -- if you can imagine it, there's probably a alternate quantum universe like it somewhere there in the multiverse.

and it's why i like fiction so much; it takes me most of the way to a variety of realities.

time to check the Lost & Found

i bicycled home from my late class last night; it was cold, so i was all bundled up. when i got home i shed my sweaty clothes, used the bathroom, and then realized that my rings were gone. aack!

frantically, i dug through my backpack, the pockets of my jeans (which i'd changed out of at school) and jacket and gloves. nothing. normally i was very careful with my rings, never taking them off or setting them down except at home. but not this time.

one is a sterling silver ring that a dear friend gave me (an irreplaceable token of our bond). the other is a 14-karat gold graduation ring (that i'd painstakingly modified to add a 1/2 to the 92). both gone.

maybe i'd left them in the school bathroom where i changed out of my jeans; maybe i'd left them in the classroom when i gathered my stuff to bicycle home; maybe i'd left them outside when i put on my gloves before riding off.

i remember seeing them on my hand while i was sitting in the cafe, so i knew i'd really been wearing them. damn.

i searched through everything i'd had with me again, one last time. i'd finally given up and was willing to let the silver ring pass back into the chaos of the world in which my friend originally found it. and my graduation ring? my wedding ring to academia (as i thought of it)? my donation to oblivion. despair had set in.

those parts of my life were over and done. good-bye and fare well. and then i walked into the bathroom to take a shower. there, on the metal lid of the wastebasket by the toilet, where i'd set them when i first came home, were my rings. salvation.

around the clock -- AWFUL

i just heard a police officer (from a town which i shall not name) say on a tv interview:

"We're working the case literally around the clock..." and they still haven't solved it yet.

perhaps if they were working on it only *figuratively* around the clock, they'd have better success -- that is, unless new evidence in the case happens to be found in close proximity to that particular clock.

that officer has the honor to be the newest member of AWFUL, Americans Who Figuratively Use 'Literally'. congratulations. :-D

'Apocalypto' now

watched 'Apocalypto' last night (Mel Gibson directed, 2006). lots of fun after 'Passion Of The Christ', with jungle, wild boar, jaguar, Mayan language soundtrack, native hijinks, and archetypal everything!

jumping off cliffs, graphic violence, and blood & gore galore. a little final redemption. "To seek a new beginning."

somewhat disliked it while i was watching, but liked it more once it was over.

snow adventure and excitement

woke up this morning and shoveled snow for an hour, just for something to do. then i called the special bus service that was supposed to give me a ride to a doctor's appointment in the afternoon.

but they're closed, due to snow. rats. then the doctor's office calls -- am i coming in?

i bet that i can figure something out and say "Sure!". then i check the other bus company's web site and discover that they are actually open and can at least get me vaguely in the vicinity. yay!

i've never been to this office before, so i go to Google maps and ask for directions. it takes a long time to load up, and finally i figure out why -- it has me going from Marlborough, MA to somewhere in Nevada with the same street name. smart assumption.

then i get it to keep me within Massachusetts, and i think i know where i'm going from the map. hah. i take the bus and get off on what i'm pretty sure is the right corner; but i still wander around for half an hour on an unplanned walking tour of downtown, mostly because the signs are covered in snow and i have to guess.

but then i finally find it, and i was still on time. (some part of my brain had gotten me to take an early bus.) coming home was easier, and i even found a Starbuck's after the appointment and recharged my batteries somewhat.

home again, home again.

women can control the world

i hope women all over the US (and around the world) are waking up and realizing that they can control -- by their sheer numbers -- the outcomes of free and fair elections.

women outnumber men. and they can outvote them, too. they just have to get out there and do it.

surcease of sorrow

"...
Eagerly I wished the morrow -- vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow -- sorrow for the lost Lenore --
..."
[Edgar Allen Poe, 'The Raven']
---
successfully *i* have have sought to borrow it, however; my books are pretty much the only thing getting me through.

(and videos, too, when i'm disinclined to read.)

Lenore? she's better reduced to a memory.

so not for Lenore; for nothing.

where men are from?

if men are really from Mars, they'd better bring their sandals when they go home again. (and maybe a beach umbrella and volleyball net.)

here's a piece of the latest mosaic from Spirit, a Mars Exploration Rover. now on to Venus! (and then maybe a date somewhere in between, like Earth maybe.)

and no bitching about politics today, i swear. (well, at least on my blog. ;-)

Iowa caucuses == crap

in the US presidential primaries, the Iowa caucuses make about as much sense as the electoral college does in the presidential election -- it's a load of crap!

same with the early New Hampshire primary -- why should any state get a special privilege?

i say, go to a one-person-one-vote system. have all the primaries on the same day to nominate the party candidates. and then eliminate the electoral college entirely and have whoever gets the most votes on election day wins, regardless of what state they live in.

i mean, duh.

it's not too late

my motto for the new year? it's not too late to make up for things not done in the past (or done only poorly); it's not too late.

time to get to work, then. yay!

what are *you* up to?

you said; i said.

[heh. ;-) ]
---
you said we watched the episodes (on tape) of the tv show before we watched the movie. and i said we never did.

instead (i said), you summarized a few things from the tv show episodes and how some of the actors were different. and then we dove right into the movie. i didn't mind at all.

but you still insisted that we had watched the episodes together. maybe you were thinking of somebody else. i don't really mind that either.
---
[happy Twenty-Oh-Eight, everybody.]