Nature walk.
Topic: Nature
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22:32 Saturday, 08 March, 2003
Ithaca, NY


Thundercat is over to hang out again tonight. I picked her up and brought her back to my place, and as I was backing in, I caught furry movement in my review mirror, so had to look closer. Now, I must explain the set-up of my apartment building. It's two storeys, with two larger apartments downstairs, and four upstairs. So every one of the upstairs apartments has a corner-full of windows, and I got lucky enough to get the corner that faces south and west. I need lots of light. The parking lot is almost at the level of the top storey, so to get to the 'ground' floor, one must go down a set of outside stairs. And to get to the top floor, one walks up this mild ramp to the deck which surrounds the whole top storey. Kinda weird. And fun when it's icy. But, anyway, I'm seeing this furry critter running up the ramp behind the car, and, upon further inspection, exclaim to Thundercat that it's an opossum. As we're climbing out, I realize that that ramp is the only way on or off the top deck, and the opossum will be trapped when we go up. So I told Thundercat to go around one way, and I'd go the other, and see what the opossum would do when it was cornered. We were not trying to corner it in a mean way, mind you, just in a curious way. We figured it might try to play dead, which I'm told opossums do when they feel they're in danger. So we went around either side of the building, until the opossum knew that it was stuck between us, and then we just stood still to watch it. I huddled as close to the building as I could, and we watched it peek over the edge several times, intimidated by the ten-foot drop into the dark. Then it watched us for a little while, trying to figure out what we were up to, and it was all very serene and personal. I liked that moment. It was like our little nature walk for the night. Realizing its position, but apparently having decided that we were not dangerous, it hesitantly walked towards and past me on the deck, scurrying rather quickly once it was fully past me, the way you'd expect a nervous person to do when sneaking around somewhere. So we followed it back along the deck, and at the corner it considered climbing down, but decided that was too daunting, so continued around to the next corner. It was now on the last stretch of the deck to get it to the ramp, so if it had only turned the corner, it would have found the way down. But instead it decided it was fully trapped and would only end up going around in circles forever, so may as well try to climb now or never. It climbed over the edge, scratching its nails into the wood for traction, and using that rat-tail very effectively to hold the railing. Unfortunately, there was no post on the corner that reached the ground, so once it had gone down a foot and half, it was forced to turn upside-down onto the ceiling of the lower deck. Despite their resemblance to mice, opossums are not as agile, and this one quickly lost its grip and plopped down into the soggy grass ten feet below, squirmed to get upright, and scrambled into the bushes to hide. No harm done, but funny to watch. And so neat to see an animal that close. :)


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Friendly's with Thundercat.
Topic: Philosophy
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12:29 Friday, 07 March, 2003
Ithaca, NY


Met up with Thundercat after work yesterday for dinner at Friendly's. Actually, it was supposed to be Simeon's, for their free wine-tasting on Thursday nights, but when we called them we found that it ends at 7pm. We could have barely made that if we'd known to go straight there, but the sunset was spectacular out my window, so we decided to hang out and watch the sunset until it disappeared. So we ended up at Friendly's instead, but I certainly have no complaints about that. I *love* Friendly's. It's all about the quesadillas. And this is the first Friendly's I've been to in like five years that knew what I meant when I said I wanted 'combination' quesadillas. We were starving, so got the quesadillas as an appetizer, and then both got burgers. And, my God, those were big burgers. Enormous. Obviously, neither of us finished his burger, and we spent the next three hours complaining about how stuffed our tummies were. But it was worth it.


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Must sleep.
Topic: Personal
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22:41 Wednesday, 05 March, 2003
Ithaca, NY


Must sleep. It will be *such* a long day at work tomorrow....


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Something fun today...
Topic: Personal
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13:11 Wednesday, 05 March, 2003
Ithaca, NY


found something fun today, which I will explain later...




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Book List.
Topic: Books
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23:42 Tuesday, 04 March, 2003
Ithaca, NY


I decided I want to review books on this site when I finish reading them. Friends are always telling me, 'Oh you should read this,' but everyone's taste is different, and I tend not to like the types of books most other people like. So, instead, people can read my mini-reviews of the books I've read, and decide for themselves whether they sound good, and also better recommend books to me, by seeing what my interests are. And all of this thinking about books made me recall in my mind just how many books I am currently in the middle of. I read rather slowly (I'm too thorough), and apparently am also inhibited by easy distractibility. But here's the list I could come up with of books I am currently 'reading,' in order of when I started them:

Good News Bible, American Bible Society -- I decided in 7th or 8th grade to try to read the Bible straight through, and am actually about half-way there. I'm somewhere in Psalms. And I was obsessively thorough about it, even re-reading those stories that are exactly duplicated in Kings and Chronicles, and reading all of the numbers in Numbers. But I haven't tried to continue that formidable task in ages, even though I've finally gotten to some of the more interesting parts.


Death: A History of Man's Obsessions and Fears, by Robert Wilkins -- It's really funny to me what people throughout history have worried about concerning death. You'd be amazed, really. However, it is a very thorough book, and some of the detail bored me, so I haven't picked this one back up in about two years.


God and the Philosophers: The Reconciliation of Faith and Reason, edited by Thomas V. Morris -- This was a gift from Gryphen. He and I would have many, many philosophical discussions, and though he was becoming atheist or agnostic or something at the time, I always, even after frequent re-evaluations, ended up still believing in God and Christ and the promise that represents. He has been very frustrated by the Christian church, as I have, but he takes it to reflect poorly on the Christian faith, rather than on the weakness of the 'Christians' causing these problems. At any rate, to get a book like this from him meant a lot to me, because it shows that, despite his disagreement with it, he still supports my faith, and even will help me strengthen it within my philosophical reasonings. But this one has sat on the shelf untouched for at least a year, too, because it got a little too dry for me.


Of Wolves and Men, by Barry Lopez -- Ah, now we're on to books that I actually plan to finish. This is a wonderful book. I was reading it this summer while visiting a friend in Kantishna, Alaska, because it was the one book in his collection that I also owned, and I therefore could finish without having to steal his. But I haven't yet.


Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson -- I took this book to China with me because I couldn't justify carrying an already-half-finished book around on my back for two months. So I chose a light paperback that I would enjoy starting. And I did. It's a little out of date (you mean DDT is bad for people and animals? Oh my God, who would have thought?), but an important book to the beginning of the environmental movement in the United States.


Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist, by John Piper -- I got this from a wonderful friend this autumn, after a long discussion on what God really wants from us. I'm not sure I'd consider myself a Christian Hedonist, but a lot of what John Piper is saying is making a lot more sense to me than what most other theologians have said to me before.


The Two Towers: The Lord of the Rings Part Two, by J.R.R. Tolkien -- I've read this at least twice before, but, after seeing the recent movie, I had to go through and find all of the discrepancies (and, man, are there a lot of them).


I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away, by Bill Bryson -- Bill Bryson is an exceptionally funny author. I've read and loved A Walk in the Woods and Mother Tongue, and while this is not quite up to par with them, it still keeps me thoroughly entertained. I borrowed this from my friend, Tasman, and want to finish it quickly so I can return it.


So, eight books I'm currently in. Wow. Guess I've got some reading to do.


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