for eleven days, i've abandoned the blog. i can't say that my neglect was intentional and deliberate. i've thrown myself so completely into handling my life here--in a productive and unstressed way--that i've been completely immersed. but to what effect? what now for my blog? ester once told me that attention spans on the net are paper-thin. then:
for eleven days, i've abandoned any readers i once had. for eleven days i walked off stage, and eventually people stopped waiting for an encore. for eleven days, in psuedoKurtzian fashion, i've kicked my blog loose of the earth. for eleven days my blog has journeyed, eventually settling on a distant and deserted planet.
on this distant and deserted planet i will meditate in solitude, throw my words out into the cosmos, allow their echoes to diffuse into oblivion. in the face of this diffusion i will strive to keep my visits steady and constant, to continually supply the atmosphere of words that sustains me on this distant planet.
occassionally, perhaps, i will entertain a visitor, a wayward wanderer of outer solar systems, a tireless explorer adventuring out or a lost soul flailing in the dark.
i will welcome them but i will not anticipate their arrival. i sit and meditate alone. my thoughts will be my gravity and my words will be my atmosphere.

OH BLOG. I'VE NEGLECTED THEE.

But I'm back. oh mylanta! I am back in full force. It is good to see people. I've of course beenflungmyself into everything quite quickly, and I thank my lucky charms that everything has been happy to see me and has not flung me back. Have of course been working too hard, but stressing less, comforted by vague feelings that things are coming together. At a potent piece of pizza at my new neighbor antonio's (it's a pizza and burrito place that knows their cheeses and toppings...mmm...

last night in chevy chase. the month flew. i did not change my pace--no break. i think that's all right by me for now. we'll see how quickly i burn out at school. can't really complain. while the year has been uncompromisingly intense, I have been continually surrounded by good people, learning important things, and I really couldn't want it any other way. in the words of leonard cohen, "first we take Manhattan, then we take Providence!""

how different would my life be if I never new the world through glasses or contacts, and accepted the sights of my unaided eyes?
lines, edges, appear to lose their consistency at about 1.5 feet. beyond that, colors scatter and melt into a landscape that i'd like to think is not so dissimilar from the view bestowed by an impressionist painter's absinthe-malted eyes.
to look someone in the eye--not toward their eye, or in the general direction of it, but right ini the eye--we must practically be touching.
the clear and crisp of my world would only be close at hand.

how different would my life be if I never new the world through glasses or contacts, and accepted the sights of my unaided eyes?
lines, edges, appear to lose their consistency at about 1.5 feet. beyond that, colors scatter and melt into a landscape that i'd like to think is not so dissimilar from the view bestowed by an impressionist painter's absinthe-malted eyes.
to look someone in the eye--not toward their eye, or in the general direction of it, but right ini the eye--we must practically be touching.
the clear and crisp of my world would only be close at hand.

tonight to the neighbor of n&m g-l, eventually with max and johns and sunny, to hear harold and omar (i don't feel like i should be on a first-name basis with them, but that is the only way they referred to themselves). They talked about the tyranny of the Palestinean Authority, and the support it gets from Israel and the US that is detrimental to the cause of democracy and peace. Explored some interesting issuesa about the reasonswhy the US prefers to support authoritarian regimes. Discussion briefly descended into vain attempts to quantify or compare the extent or prevelance of hatred and suffering among Israelis and Palestineans. Overall, those involved in discussion came in with remarkably open ears and receptive minds. Well worth some four hours in a stranger's living room in potomac heartland.

at times like this, i become so happy with my life that plots to achieve immortality consume my mind. i am currently soliciting suggestions and schemes (please sign my guestbook).

i never feel like i'm getting older until i arrive home.

i spend most of my time around people who are college age: either college-student-age or college-professor-age. It is often oh so easy to forget that there are people below the age of 18, or between the ages of 22 and 45. I forget home, where people are born and grow up and get married and have families and die, I imagine a world of immortal teachers and students. I think this is why I think I want to stay in school: the mad blended tidal force of denial and illusions, idealism and fear.

neuroscience, and indeed all of science, is best used as an agent of delivering awe of our ignorance rather than arrogance of our knowledge

a strange dance of an evening. not sure i had the rhythm for it. Jackie has promised to help me with my rhythm. glorious cooking with ben bregman and jackie at ben's house. so much falafel that it began to ooze through our pores by meal-end, and enough stuffed grapeleaves as would be worthy of sitting on Sareet's shabbat dinner table. thoroughly sated, out to brett's and then ilana's. much of the evening i felt like getting a running strart and crashing full force into people, as part of some ludicrous attempt to reverse in a physical sense the untouchable distance that seems to have been induced by college. so many people i desire to reconnect with, a task whose complexity is far beyond what goes into a dive-tackle. last night remained mainly non-contact, but it made me happy just to see people i love again. hope to make the best of a few weeks at home. avi and dan should bust back into town any second.