out of the blue

So I've been looking at old chat logs. Found this conversation between me and… myself. It's a bit odd.

Session Start (AIM – insanityisall:enthupaul): Sun Jan 04 23:24:00 2004
enthupaul: Hey.
*** Auto-response sent to enthupaul: Calculus excercises the brain and I'm working up a mental sweat.
insanityisall: Hello.
insanityisall: I see you've gotten a different text color.
enthupaul: Well, yes.
insanityisall: It's still blue, but not nearly as nice a color.
enthupaul: Ah.
enthupaul: I was somewhat disturbed by having everything in common with you.
enthupaul: It's as if it were meant to be.
enthupaul: But that's impossible.
enthupaul: Coincidences just bring back bad memories that I'd rather foget.
enthupaul: Sorry, forget.
insanityisall: I can understand that.
insanityisall: If I'd gone through a similar situation, I might have turned out very similar.
insanityisall: But I must be going to bed now.
insanityisall: Because I'm bloody tired.
enthupaul: Okay.
enthupaul: Well, talk to you later.
enthupaul: I only came online to see if you were there…
enthupaul: I'm afraid I wasn't very interesting when I talked to you last.
insanityisall: That is partially my fault.
enthupaul: I don't blame you.
insanityisall: Well, nor do I blame you.
insanityisall: So, we're even.
enthupaul: Hehe.
enthupaul: Goodnight.
insanityisall: See you.
Session Close (enthupaul): Sun Jan 04 23:27:34 2004

New best article title: "For Frog-Licking Scientist, the Tongue Says It All".

"[But] I don't recommend this," the biologist cautioned, "because if you lick the wrong frog it can be very bad."

…

By 1990 Valerie was entering her hand-raised frogs into local jumping races. When a photo of her blowing on her favorite frog—to encourage jumping—landed in the Baltimore Sun, it was both exciting and worrisome: She had skipped school for the contest. Luckily, the school principal "thought it was downright hilarious," she said.

…

Today Valerie, six feet tall (about two meters tall) with long copper hair, "is still kissing frogs in search of the one that will turn into her prince," [Valerie's mother] said.

Courtesy of National Geographic Magazine.

To celebrate the Leap Day today, I finished a book and read three more. But for you, I will share something I read on Steven Brust's online journal:

Leap Day has a tradition going far, far back in time. In ancient Sumeria, it was considered a day for taking chances–for doing things normally considered too risky, such as entering a hitherto unexplored cave, descending a steep cliff, or making wisecracks to airport security. The Aztecs celebrated leap day with drunken revelry and corset piercings. To the Hunnish tribes, it was a day for telling long jokes that always ended, “That’s what the horse said.” The ancient Celts saw it a time when the barriers to faerie were thin, so they would engage in religious rites at stone circles in which they would ask the gods to please give them a better calender. The magyars saw it as a day for eating fine food and having wild, abandoned sex–in other words, they didn’t take particular note of it.

Today, our celebrations are more sedate, and we usually use it as an opportunity to make fun of a certain class of neo-pagan and for making things up out of whole cloth.

A note for Cami, Paul, and possibly Aaron: You should apply your grains of salt right about now.

I'd appreciate comments on this poem I wrote for my class today.

Nectarines

I said I preferred peaches,
but you wanted a nectarine.
So we brought it back
and you portioned it out
and I found it wasn't better —
only different. You went back
to your city, and I held the taste
in my mouth for days.

Curl the knife around the pit;
gently twist the halves apart.
Admire the honey-golden forms
and the rich-veined flesh.

So what did I buy at the grocer's
on St. Benedict's Street? Not
peaches, but smooth nectarines.
It is different in this country,
where pleasures have become
necessities.
These days I cannot taste
except in memory.

Norwich just had an earthquake. As soon as I felt it, I poked my head out the door and found Tom and Remy doing the same. There was a chorus of "sweet!" and related terms, and we went back inside. I estimate between three and four on the Richter scale (3.6, to be precise). My night is over, really. There's not much that can top an earthquake.

That makes three or four I've felt that I can bring to mind at the moment. The biggest, of course, was the one in Portland when I was in late elementary school. The most ironic was in 9th grade when someone walked into the classroom and shouted "earthquake!" and then it happened halfway through that class.

This makes me happy.

I just went to London again. And I'm re-reading Neverwhere with a few friends. It's so cool that I now have first-hand experience of where some of those locations are. My hotel was very close to Oxford street, and became one of the big landmarks for getting back there from other parts of the city. So when Gaiman writes,

It was late afternoon in Central London, and, with autumn drawing on, it was getting dark. Richard had taken the Tube to Tottenham Court Road, and was now walking west down Oxford Street, holding the piece of paper. Oxford Street was the retail hub of London, and even now the pavements were packed with shoppers and tourists.

I know where it is. That's the major street corner closest to my hotel. Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street. Actually, at that corner Tottenham Court Road (North) changes to Charing Cross Road (South) and Oxford Street (West) changes to New Oxford Street (East). When I go back into London with Sarah, I'm going to take Neverwhere and explore some of its locations. See if I can't find the alleyway where Richard Mayhew meets the Marquis de Carabas.

I pulled a poetry all-nighter last night, getting my poetry portfolio done for class, and submitting some random stuff to Reflection. I'm really tired now, for some reason. Tomorrow I bus to London for the weekend. Hopefully I will come back with pictures. Hopefully I will make it back. If I do, I'll keep you posted.

Because I've been too lazy to post hardly anything about my travels so far, I'm going to give you three photosets. Some of you may have seen them on Flickr already, but many of you probably haven't. There are a lot of pictures up there.

Peterborough

This is the town in which we had our family stay. It has a nice cathedral, and not too much else. Although that's an overly quick judgment.

Norwich III

This actually encompasses two trips into Norwich. I hope you'll forgive me.

Norwich IV

A trip to the grocery store yields some nice pictures.

Norwich with Nathan

Nathan came to visit me, and we walked all over Norwich, eating delicious meals on the way. Thirty miles in one weekend. It was great to see him.

For some reason I find it comforting that modern-day adventurers can still disappear without a trace.

Nathan came on Friday to visit me. I hadn't seen him since he visited Spokane in October, so I was very happy to have him come. I got to see the Project Peach animatic. I have to say, it's coming along well. Makes a lot more sense than The Elephant's Dream. I can't wait to see the finished version!

Since I have no money and also no compulsions against being a mooch, he took me out to eat a number of times. We went to a place called The Waffle House, which serves (suprise) waffles, but waffles of a baffling variety of flavors. He had the Spiced Fruit Waffle: "a selection of mixed vine fruit, coated with sweet spices and baked into the waffle." I had their Hummus   Avocado waffle: "fresh hummus, layered with wild rocket, sun-dried tomato and olives set upon a poppy seed waffle, drizzled with sweet chili dressing and topped with an avocado fan." Needless to say, it was delicious. We also went to Bengal Spice (a lovely Indian restaurant), and ate sandwiches at a lovely tea shop.

For some reason, there were a number of appealing places around campus that I hadn't yet explored, so we did a bit of that on Sunday. But mostly we walked around Norwich in places with which I was familiar, and I think I proved a good guide. Nathan certainly seemed to love the town.

We ended up walking about thirty miles over the course of Nathan's visit: 12 to and from from the airport on Sunday, 12 back and forth from the city (over the course of two trips), and easily six miles within the city and around campus. It was quite satisfying, and my feet aren't in the least bit tired.

We also, of course, spent a good time on the computer, listening to music and playing around with Python and C++. But you don't want to hear about that.

I am quite happy now.