Under the Radar

Or, in the words of big brother: "Sanka, are you dead, mon?"

Nope.

Just took an early Lent and fasted blogging for a month, I guess--though I'm guessing I won't be getting much credit for fasting when it was completely unintentional. Thankfully, grace being a gift and all, you can profit greatly from things for which you are not responsible.

Work in Progress

...It's not just a personal description! I upgraded my Blogger account this weekend, which set the ball rolling for all sorts of innovations--including a subscription to Google Reader, which gives you a constantly updated summary of all your blogs, selected news feeds, Daily Show videos, and, to my great joy: podcasts. It's wonderful. And, as you can see on the left-hand bar, single click republication of the comic, profound, or merely interesting to the blog sidebar. So I don't have to login and publish everytime I want to share something cool with you, my iFriends.

And, work is progressing slowly on my most pressing project, that of paying bills. I reached a landmark 60$ surplus from last paycheck, which led to splurging...Big Al's Pizza! Soon, perhaps, I will be able to afford a new alternator for Sera, and I'll be able to go on ambulance calls without huffing and puffing my way down Centerville road just to watch Houghton 8 go screaming off without me. In the meantime, this blog will just have to be "Notes from the footpath (of doom!)". The quickest route downcampus from Babbit House involves a sketchy footbridge, a slippery slope, and lots and lots of ice and snow. Of course, my morning run to work is always rushed as usually end up snoozing the alarm clock until about 0450 (that's am) for my 0500 shift and end up half-dressed, blitzing out the door into the predawn chill (chill: your face won't move because it's below zero and the wind is busily coating it with snow that feels like sand. from a sand blaster. except really cold.)

I missed Tanzania for a few weeks, but, hey, now I walk with that proud Western-New-York snow-and-wind hunch that says, I'm too sexy for my parka, too sexy for my parka, too sexy by farka... It's good to be here--between the lovely E, experimenting with a hundred variations on rice, potatoes, beans, and other low-budget food made mighty by the currying process, and a few good housemates (here and here) and an eccentric and thoroughly enjoyable neighbor, life is good for Houghton's newest Community Member. I ski on the ski hill, get movies out of the library, take odd jobs lumbermilling and driving, keep things Safe and Secure, and play EMT volunteer-style.

And I screw up my sleep schedule. It's well past my bedtime. I spent four days without sleeping more than four hours in a row at any given time, and then I slept a lot during an afternoon, and I'm still working at five a.m. Except when I'm working at five p.m. Except when I'm working not at all. So, I stay up late and experiment.

For instance, adjacent to my Google Reader share feed (on the left) is a feed from an old blog that I've converted. I post whatever catches my fancy from the wide world of the internet via gmail to the old waybread blog, which should theoretically feed immediately to the sidebar on the new reified-beans blog. And then you can share my stream of (i)consciousness.

In the meantime, revel in this amazing song from a Scottish artist I discovered via NPR's All Song's Considered, 1 February 2007. It's James Yorkston's "Woozy on Cider," and it perfectly fit the mood Saturday at around 620, as I sat in the new superfancy conference room on the new 3rd floor of the Library, watching the sun rise deep and orange and vast across high, mottled clouds on a still campus where not a soul's step broke the newfallen snow...