magicbeans. nothing if not awkward.

i've been meaning to get this pic [pic removed, link added] up for a bit. looks like a table aboard an alien ship. i found it compelling. what does that say about me?

speaking of spaceships, the same day that i photoshopped that pic, i was working on the fantasy and science fiction mag site and htmlified this article. it's about the process of creating the plaque that was attached to the cassini probe that was sent to saturn and beyond a while back. i saw cassini last summer at jpl. the last of the really big deep-space probes. the article's pretty cool. i did some poking around to see if i could find a copy of the pic that was included on the plaque. i couldn't. if yr more intrepid than i am, and dig up a copy of the pic, send me some email, i'll mention you on my untrafficked site here. what a prize!

and more space news, it's just two and a half days until this summer's cross-country trek. i brought the van in today to be serviced, i'm going to transfer the registration on thursday. tomorrow george and i are going shopping for all the necessary supplies. and then austin to see the land that we're building this little space colony of ours on. and then denver for the fmf conclave.

and then on the way back i get to see sonali. yay!

lessee, is that it for space? i think so. so on to more earthly matters...

i've got this rolling mail to erin that never seems to get up to date. it's been about a week since i started it, in which time i've seen her twice and she's written to me 2 or 3 times. i should've written back right away after last night's email from her. it was about 500 words, no spaces. once i got into it, i actually started being able to read it. and it really just pulls you along through it (kinda like one of paul bowles's stories that has no punctuation or capitalization, "tangieres 1975" i think). and it's really an emotional way to write. like:

ishouldspendmoretimestaringateverything thatiloveasiftopreparemyselfforblindness

i found myself getting teary-eyed reading it. i should have responded right away. but here i am still putting it off, talking about it here. well, so. so this is for erin, everyone else close yr eyes or something: you'd never be wasting my time. but i guess you kinda know that. i don't really have any time before i leave on friday, but as soon as i get back (august 7th) we are going to hang out. even if it's to do something that is really more of nothing.

okay. everyone else can open their eyes now. of course i don't have anything else to say.