NASA Develops System To Computerize Silent, ‘Subvocal Speech’. Good stuff. Go NASA. That’s right up there with Sedna, which just blew my mind when I read about it last Wednesday (Usenet’s sci.space.news, anyone?). Actually, higher, probably, since it can help people directly. This weekend has been all kinds of fun. It’s been Mom’s Weekend (essentially), and I had the joy of meeting Bridget’s mother. That’s not sarcasm. She’s very nice, and I see a lot of Bridget’s mannerisms and thought processes in her. I can’t help but wonder what she thinks of me, given the undoubtedly conditional opinion Bridget has of me; I’ve challenged Bridget on a lot of things…

No, no, no, Bridget. Not quite. My Gender Issues class, which is essentially human sexuality, is giving me plenty of reading. Not only are we working through Y: The Descent of Man by Steve Jones, which is slow going for me simply because non-fiction takes a lot longer to read, but every class, the prof has at least one journal article for us to read. The good thing is, these are frequently hot-off-the-presses articles that were just published that day, week, or month. The bad (sorta) things is, we can’t just skim through these biology- or psychology-loaded articles; Dr. B likes to randomly ask people what these really long words…

I got up at 04:15 on Saturday to head off for Indianapolis with Bridget. Actually, it wasn’t Indy, but rather Carmel, a ritzy town/city just north of Indy. Really ritzy. We were late, of course, because I hadn’t realized I would need to scrape ice off my damn car, and because breakfast took a bit longer than I anticipated. But we survived the hour, thirty-minute drive, despite my poor vision and pounding headache. After dropping off Bridget at the place hosting the hot air ballooning seminar, I filled up on gas, and worked on my car a bit (odd, I know), putting in oil and washer fluid, and fretting over…

The Thorn is bad for my health. We finished up the paper just before 04:00 this morning and Luke, Bob, and I went our separate ways. I then had the pleasure of standing outside for ten minutes in twenty-degree weather (with no jacket; grr) waiting for the security officer to mosey on towards my residence hall on his rounds, because there was no monitor in the lobby and they lock the doors at 02:00. A meatsicle, I ran upstairs, disrobed, and climbed into bed. No such luck on just going to sleep, though. I was so cold, and shaking so hard, it was about 05:30 before I finally dozed off,…

Wow. Four years seems like forever when you’re only nineteen. Thanks for the reminder, Dulin. It’s amazing how all it takes is a couple of quotes to bring back the memories of lunch periods that were both too short and that lasted an eternity… And, yes, a ridiculously embarrassing game of strip poker. I still can’t play poker any better than I did back then. No poker face to speak of, no ability to mentally judge odds in a numerical way. Should four years really seem like a lifetime? That’s kind of disturbing.