For me, every cup of tea is a gamble, will it be a pleasing taste? A way to wake up? An invitation for the sands to wash over me? For the last few days, I've been reaching out, over the internet, to Columbus, my land of the setting sun... It's 2003 here... is it 1999 where you are? The land may grow every year, but if you beat on the ground with your hands, seeking a banana, perhaps you'll fall through, and see what was there. You know, if you look up while you're down there, you won't see my concerned face looking through the hole. Time hesitatingly decided not to keep me waiting, and so I was allowed to leave my frozen solitude. I have an appointment with a tired Titan at the edge of the world to keep. It's all about professional courtesy that I'm a Wizard here. I wish I could take you with me, but that's the difference between courtesy and authority.

The horse waited at the edge of the lake, watching tiny arcs of electricity sizzling through the thick fog, feeling the wandering fingers bridge the air and occasionally provide a light touch. A wandering phrase... "You know it's now or never, to say hello to forever".. and it slowly walks forward, into the water, the electricity embracing it, as it began to twitch.

I've been doing well in school, I think -- I got back my psych midterm, and was pleased to see my grade on it. I guess I can still produce good stuff when I'm barely clinging to awakeness (talking about the take-home part). I hope the other stuff works out similarly.

I bumped into an old friend online today, who reminded me of Watershed, a really good band in Columbus I went to a concert of, and got one of their CDs. I suggested Firewater to him, he suggested a few other bands I might like. I'm going to get this friday off at work, swapping it for another time, so I'll have time to visit more people in Columbus without them all colliding with each other. I just hope I can find diplomatic ways to keep the people I want to visit individually from being bugged that I want to spend time visiting alone with others, in groups or individuals. There are simply some conversations and visitings that work best alone. Speaking of which, there are some people I don't have phone numbers for. In case you read this, John, Aug, Dubin, Lorie, Gaelynn, and, of course, my sisters, I have your phone numbers, and hope to bump into you. JoeH and Amanda, I'll hopefully see you in Athens. Dawon, Tim, Adam, Tom, and anyone else I've forgotten, I'll try to track you down, but for many of you I lack contact information.

Some interesting commentary on trying to understand things one dislikes. I've experienced the same thing in many different forms, going against the public desire to simplify things that are to be opposed as inexplicable and insane.

A friend pointed me at this. It immediately reminded me of the stuff that is jwz -- flamboyant whining. It also reminds me of the programmer's phrase... For every engineering problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong. There are (at least) three problems with just tacking another wheel on the front of a segway, immediately obvious to a geeky type who's actually had the joy of riding one..

1) It will fall over, when going up or down hills 2) Even if it doesn't, you'll fall off 3) It can't turn

The segway, although it's not obvious to people who haven't been on one, can handle hills. It has just 2 wheels, and so is a lot like feet. Any sufficiently smooth surface, it can scale, just using the appropriate part of the wheel, and its sophisticated control over the motors. When you add a third wheel, using it for support, the system isn't balancing anymore, it's suspended over the three wheels, and because of its small footprint and suddenly static center of balance, it can't do hills. Remember how easy it is to tumble a tricycle? Even if it could do hills, through some engineering miracle, the part you stand on would tilt with the hill, instead of, as it currently does, keeping flat. You'd likely fall off. Finally, and this is the biggest issue, turning on a tricycle segway would be a pain in the butt. The picture provided stupidly doesn't allow the front wheel to turn at all in the needed way, meaning that only the slight turn possible in its housing will be possible, meaning the turning radius will be huge. So, let's imagine that it's allowed to turn. Well, it still has a turning radius, and suddenly we need a way to control that turn, and need to wait for it to straighten out before we can go forward when we want to. Sure, a motorized tricycle might be cool, but it's not much like a segway, which, apart from unusual circumstances, is as maneuverable as a person walking.

"I wish I could say she brought out my best But I couldn't stop screwing up When she was around.. took me for granted" " -- Watershed - Anniversary (they do have this song as a free download there, BTW)