I feel tempered

I can't help but wonder if this is how tempered chocolate feels: warmth and flow are spread thin and made small (albeit gently and even-handedly), mitigated by cool marble that absorbs heat...all in the name of a stronger and more stable end result, sure, but structures are still changed. And it's something like a growing pain - unsettling, dull and achy, and not quite of myself.

X-wing Kenobi Chewbacca Dantooine

Something for those of us prone to quote Star Wars films to be mindful of:

Excessive Quotation, xkcd

Incidentally, xkcd's occasional references to Star Wars make me happy.

Matt

According to the News Gazette, another piece of legislation relating to Matt's accident was passed today. This one will require that all driver's ed courses include the topic of distracted driving, effective immediately.

silly tests about reading habits

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Book Snob
Literate Good Citizen
Non-Reader
Fad Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

Also, don't forget to see how you perform on the Lit-Geek Purity Test! I was only 39.4% lit-geek corrupted. Sadness!

I still love hats...

In an addendum to the "I love hats" post from earlier, a look at a very nice type of hat: the Panama, which hails from Ecuador, of course.

Click here right now to see the Panama hat at rest. (Thanks to ReeD for taking such great pics...navigate around ReeD's pics and you might find some more images of the Panama hat at play.)

and a slightly younger version of me in my crusher:

Roller Coaster...woo hoo hoo hoo

Is everyone else as surprised as I am to find "The Whizzer" (the Wizz-AH!) categorized as a "Max Thrill" on the Six Flags Great America site?

Anyway, yesterday marked my very first inverted outside-looping coaster experience (on Batman The Ride). Scary great. Judging by how mentally clean I felt after that ride, I think I must really have needed that - to take a deep breath and scream a sustained scream for nearly the entire ride. Physically, I was not so great, as I was a bit wobbly afterwards since there are some funny g-forces going on (including heartline-spin-induced zero-g). That was definitely the most intimidating coaster I've ever been on and I'm frankly surprised that I was a willing participant. I'm really happy that I went with the group I went with - I wasn't made to feel badly for not wanting to do certain rides, but I was encouraged (rather than egged on or threatened) to do some rides that normally I would surely have talked myself out of.

I take the fact that I was able to step up to some biggies and enjoy them (if not relaxedly) is evidence that I apparently am my father's daughter in the aspect of roller-coasterness after all. Oddly enough though, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have gone on at least one of the big scary rides yesterday if I'd been with Dad instead of the group of friends I was with. Dad probably would have indulged my pre-ride terror a little more, and the terror would have been a bit greater if I could still have had the parent-child dynamic there.

I had other things, good things, on my mind yesterday and was plenty involved in the goings-on of the day, but in the back of my mind I was so reminded of Dad since he was such a fan of coasters. He would have loved to see me taking on rides like Raging Bull (at night too!) or the craziness that was Batman and the fact that I managed to stitch together a ragged but pleased smile afterwards. A friend mentioned the rather cute hypothesis that the coasters that were running without visible passengers (empty cars used to test the track) were actually full of ghost passengers, and how nice it was that Six Flags was being considerate of its other-worldly clientele. I know the hypothesis was lobbed out there in gentle jest, I have no way of knowing if it was mentioned pointedly or just randomly, and in any case I know it's not real. But it really brought thoughts of my dad to the forefront, and I still felt a little pang, wishing quite childishly that the hypothesis could be true. If it were possible, I knew Dad would have been one of the participant shades, arms raised high, grinning his warm and happy smile down on those of us who remain on the ground. And that image made me sad, mainly because I wish I could see him exactly like that again, but it did make me a little happy too.

piano

As my fingers nimbly scale up and down the computer keyboard, as I listen to piano music over inadequate speakers, I am struck by a pang that I interpret as a wish that I had continued to take piano lessons instead of stopping after 8th grade. I cannot complain too bitterly: issues of time management and attending school out of town legitimately crowded piano out of my schedule since I prioritized ballet and volleyball and I do not regret sticking with those activities. I also wish that my piano instructor would have started to give me weighty pieces instead of crap infantile arrangements, a situation that left me frustrated and insulted, especially later on.
In the end, there's no way I'm going to buy a piano so I'm stuck this way - fantasizing while rapidly clacking on the keyboard and lamely executing whatever would be the piano equivalent of air guitar while waiting at stoplights in the car.