we got to go skiing today. We vanned on over to Allegany State Park (take 90 to 219 S until Salamanca and follow the signs) for some much needed exercise of the cross country variety. (e:matthew) and I were still debating whether we were going or not when Mr. Dave Doyle himslef appeared with his magic van and said, "get on in, we're a'goin skiing." So ski did we. It was only (e:matthew)'s 2nd attempt and I felt bad getting pretty darn lost at every other bend. You'd think that at a place with so many trails and people (must have been 20-30 cars in the lot) it would be difficult to lose your way, but somehow we ended backtracking twice. Ended up being a good mix of evertything that makes skiing fun, a little exciting downhill, a couple extended up-hills for warmth, a fast jaunt down a paved road, and the perfect idyllic trail wandering around and above beaver dams. The weather was perfect, no wind and blue skies, I didn't even wear a coat. To me X-country is such a good sport because it worls you out all over real good, and, if you can stop staring at your feet for a moment, when you look up and pause you see the beautiful side of winter shimmering and bedazzling. I love when just a little slice of pool or stream manages to break free of encrusting ice; the contrast between white-white snow and darkly moving water is so perfect and somehow serene.

(e:Matthew) should have some pictures before too long, so check his journal.

I took some pictures of the fish tank. They turned out okay considering how small everything is and how poor my photography skill is.

Here are a couple of shots that I stuck all together in a vague approximation of where they are in the tank. Upper-left and right are some mushroom-anemone things with some feather-duster worms. The middle-top shows the "pinkies" as we call them, they're a type of Gorgonia that slowly creeps along and encrusts the rocks with buds that become new polyps. Bottom left is the brain coral which had it's tentacles out, though you can't really tell in the pic. Middle-bottom is a bubble coral that is slowly regaining it's health after nearly dying. Lastly is a blurry pic of the coral-banded shrimp, he's the big boss of the tank, and menaces everything else with his giant claws.



This is a coral thing too. Some kind of tree coral or something. We forgot to look at the name when we bought it and it kinda looks like a couple different varieties. It shrivels to a little-bitty thing every night and slowly becomes erect as the light increases.

least that's what I think when I read the newest essays about what the universe is. Strings twirling about spawning multidimensional particles which appear as waves. Or is that the other way around? I'm pretty in to how reality can be interpreted through physics. I can understand up to a certain point and then my mind just starts travelling among all these possibilities of what reality is. I try to put strings through what I know. I wind tauruses (tauri?) through reality. I think of cubes within cubes, 10-dimensional cubes?

Just yesterday I was watching Dragonball Z (auf Deutsch) where this guy from the future comes and messes with the present and then comes back later to find that the present (his past) is very different from his experience. Yeah, deep. It made me think of this idea of time as a wheel which keeps spinning, and if you were to backtrack you couldn't do it by reversing, but rather by jumping to the next nearest wheel of possibilities. Thus you could go back in time, but it would never be your time. You could change all you wanted there, but everytime you went back to your own time it would be the same.

I haven't read anything "physical" for awhile so I'll imitate our resident ozone-making genius (e:ajay) and read The Fermi Solution. [inlink]ajay,251[/inlink] I just put in a request to our beleaguered library system and should have it soon. Bis dann leute!

I stopped eating the beef over a year ago after the whole BSE scare. A couple years before in Germany I stopped eating beef because of their Mad-Cow scare. Now, apparently I will have to stop eating goat too. Admitedly I don't eat a whole lot of goat, normally just when I have Carribean/East Indies food at Palm Tree (MAP TO: 69%20ALLEN%20ST) or Steel Drums (MAP TO: 1410%20MAIN%20ST) but it's so tasty when I do eat it.

Perhaps I should just cut all "hooved" animals off the food list. Stick to just birds for the meat. And maybe a little bacon here and there. And sea creatures, no problem there. Should just go veggie, but it would never work with my emaciated roomates: they'd just shrivel up and die.

Goodbye, dear goat.

when I wrote that little rant below. Huh.

Welcome to new user Spinyuwhatsit.... er, Spinalyakist... um, okay sorry (e:Spinuyashagc) I'm only making a little fun cuz you asked us not to. And I have a couple straight girls I could let you hang out with if you promise not to hit on them. [inlink]spinuyashagc,1[/inlink] Just plain hitting them is fine though. (e:lilho) for example, or (e:tina). They like it nice and rough. K, nuff trouble for the morning.

Is this the story of my life?

How I am supposed to do something for you if I don't know what you want?

Why don't you know what I want?

You don't know what you want.

OK, great.

Just clicked the transfer button to finally fully pay-off our car. Feels very nice. Plus an extra $250.00 a month (unfortunately it will just go to other bills). This is the first time I've actually owned a car. Can't say I terribly enjoy it. A big hassle. Car payments, insurance, registration, shoveling/scraping... So annoying. I hope soon to live in a place with a viable public transportation system again. In Jena (Thüringen, Germany) there was an excellent system with buses/trains that ran 24-hours. In the day I never waited for more than 10-15 minutes, at night never more than 30. It was so good and regular that you didn't even have to know schedules, you just went to the nearest stop and knew that a bus/train would come within 10-15 minutes. Plus in the summer it was very bicycle friendly and small enough that you could get just about anywhere in less than 1/2 hour.

we are supposed to have a plow-service with this apartment. If we do have such a thing it has not been very active. The cars had a very difficult time getting out this morning. Where are you bozo?

Don't ever see One Hour Photo with Robin Williams, even if it's free from the library. In fact, maybe it's best to never see anything with Robin Williams...

Happy Day of Birthing to (e:paul)!!!

So obvious?!?

9:13 PM. I met (e:flacidness), but hours ago. He wasn't where expected to be. In the interim I replaced borrowed books and decided to learn a language, another stupid white language. Kennenlernen baby, aber nicht wirklich so. War ebenmals so dissatsifastisch gewroden. But the puppy was cute. Trying to think of now makes me wish for the good old days. Sweeping out the stable, and such.

When you forget to close the door behind you, does your aunt ask you,

"were you born in a barn!?!"

Mine does. I'm trying to resurrect the phenomenon, with heretofore little success.

Only 9:18, plenty of time for fun.

and no, I'm not talking about Condi!

[inlink]paul,[/inlink] The rice-bag was 25 lbs. not 15!!!
And after buying all that Indian convenience food, we ended up actually using the recipe book and making some tasty Balti Chicken and curry vegetables (thanks (e:lilho) for your generous contribution, not to mention the dishes). Today I shoveled the new driveway for the first (last?) time. We've traded very wide for very long, I can't decide which one I prefer. Went skiing in the park today. It was like slogging through sand, and for the first time ever I actually slid backwards down a hill (3x). Hopefully once it sets, and some other enthusiasts get to it, it will be much nicer.