" I think part of the difficulty is that there isn't yet a good theory of quantum gravity." -Craig Wiegert

vir·tu·al ( P ) Pronunciation Key (vûrch-l)
adj.
Existing or resulting in essence or effect though not in actual fact, form, or name: the virtual extinction of the buffalo.
Existing in the mind, especially as a product of the imagination. Used in literary criticism of a text.
Computer Science. Created, simulated, or carried on by means of a computer or computer network: virtual conversations in a chatroom.

One week down. I think that this will be and excellent adventure. Not this blog, but this school year. I have some big decisions to make (some foreseen and some otherwise). We'll just have to wait and see how that all goes (keep your fingers crossed ladys and germs). Should prove... fun? entertaining? exhilerating? entrancing? enticing? extremely rockin'? One can only hope.

I feel like I have been an uninformed participant in a frighteningly well orchestrated magic trick. It is like I have not really moved from where I was two weeks ago, but someone snatched the 'table cloth of time' from right beneith my feet and I only now am just feeling the resulting tremor that the dishes must feel. It is fairly unsettling, how fast I did not really notice time going past, and here I am, facing the return to school tomorrow already. Well, not actuall class, but to the dorm in any case. I do not start class until Tuesday, but I will be doing 'riviting' RA work on the days in between I wager. I look forward to it (with breathless anticipation) though, because really, what else can I do that would best prepare me for what is coming?

Margaret Cho is quite an entertaining lady.

The other day at work I played a modified version of hide-and-seek with two rambunctious youngsters. I made no effort to muffle my giggles, fore it had been so long since the last time I had laughed like that. I wanted to remember what it sounded like, and to reassure myself that it was real, because these two girls could hardly have chosen a more opportune time to play, it was just all too perfect and I hate to admit that I was suspicious. I should have thanked them, but I think that might have confused them a bit and also maybe would have provided a dark foreshadowing of what the "real world" can be. Regardless, those two beautiful girls made my day.

On Tuesday I went downtown and worked out with my dad. When I was showering, I heard this curious deep rumbling sound (probably just some ROUSes who had been trying to expand their undergound empire) and I was thinking, "Someone always has to be caught in the shower when something like a tornado, a bomb, or a herd of rhinos strike. It is virtually inevitable. And this time that someone would be me." Before I could really think about that much more, the noise ceased.

I would like to be swept away by a pirate (with my consent, preferably, but I either way I would make the best of it). A swashbuckling one at that. We would sail all seven seas and he would teach me swordplay and the ways of seafaring folk. When the end would come to our travels on the 'wide blue yonder', I would be forever smelling of freedom.

I do not want any more answers. I want a question.

so this is what I am reduced to. I need a change, and school can only start none too soon.

LXXI.

No longer mourn for me when I am dead
Then you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world, with vilest worms to dwell:
Nay, if you read this line, remember not
The hand that writ it; for I love you so
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot
If thinking on me then should make you woe.
O, if, I say, you look upon this verse
When I perhaps compounded am with clay,
Do not so much as my poor name rehearse.
But let your love even with my life decay,
Lest the wise world should look into your moan
And mock you with me after I am gone.
-William Shakespeare

I am afraid that the only explaination that I can give for posting this sonnet is that something in it clicked with something in me.

Surprise surprise, I survived the BWCAW. There and almost back but gone again. I think that I have been away from home for about three weeks, or at least that is what it will be when I finally return tomorrow, and I do not know if I have ever been more ready for it. I only have thirteen days (a week and then almost a week) before I go back to school, and I find it challenging to not utterly dispare at all I have left in disarray that I was to straighten during my 'summer break'. However, having only recently fininshed 'Ender's Game' (I know, it should be underlined and not in quotes, you'll just use your imagination) I figure that if that kiddo could keep himself together long enough to save the world, then I should be able to hang on for a few more weeks while I get my life all sorted out and hung out to dry in the August sun.

So much to do,
to trudge (sludge) through,
that sometimes I wish
I could just eat grass and say, "Moo."

Did you know that William was Clark (as in "Lewis and Clark")'s first name? Because I had, but then it completely settled into the silt that lines the bottem of my memory.

There was something else that I was trying to remember, but I seem to have forgotten. It will not have been the first.

Happy second day of August to you all! Two of my roses are blooming and the college search is becoming more frantic (in other words, I started looking for more of them yesterday, do you know how few colleges in the midwest have decent astrophysics, astronomy/physics programs?...because I would sure like to, it would make my part of this whole business easier...), so I especially hate to leave, but it is on a worthy quest I go, because pacts made on soccer fields after trying to fly a kite are the best kind and must be upheld. So off again I go, and I bid you all a very fond farewell. All of my love and such.

Right-o then, I just recently arrived home from my South Dakota travels with only (hardly) enough time to do a bit of typing (seen here) and unpacking to be followed by repacking and bay bread cooking, fore tomorrow I am off to do more repacking (with Lisa and Claire) before we leave for our little excursion to the boundry waters on Sunday. I am looking forward to putting off more things until my return (on friday), and I almost wish I would not have to ever actually face them (the things, that is) but that would be rude, and I need to practice my confrontation skills anyway so hardly a better time than... about a week. Who knows, by then I may not actually have to do anything at all, but that is certainly not the way things like this have worked thus far in my life (or in other words 'in all of the movies I have seen'), and I am sure that maybe some small corner of my mind that probably never slept to begin with anyway will possibly rest a smidgeon easier once I have these 'things' settled. Oh man, I suppose I should regard it as a gift, but there are most certainly times that I wish I could just flick the 'thinking-a-bijillion-thoughts-every-second' switch to 'off' and actually draw some conclusions without having to wait for the road to catch up with my feet.
Other than that, it will be great to be back and I eagerly await the time when I can share the stories of my (mis)adventures with you and hear all about your lives and how they have been (particularly in the recent weeks, but for some of you a more generous time span will be most welcome). Now I am off to talke a nap because I have been awake (for the most part) since four this morning. So goodafternoon.

This one goes out to John Hanson, a crazycool cat who undoubtedly knows where it's at.

A Pretty Good Beginning

Bright Hopes Come True
As We Walk Downtown
Smiling And Laughing Happily
Friendship And Exhaustion Collide
We Celebrate The Day
A Two Year Wait
A Distant Dream Is Born
We Eat And Drink Til We’re Full
And Pay For Ourselves
With Everything We Have For The Day
We Sit Down Excited
Listen To Ourselves Play In Rhythm To The Music
No One Seems To Listen
This Is Completely Different
We Lived In Another World
Where We Were Never Invisible
A Few Days Later
We Speak Again
But The Sound Wasn’t Good
We Were All In Agreement
In Agreement About Most Things
We’ll Do Better Next Time
This Is A Pretty Good Beginning

-Sigur-Ros