My fortune cookie

I bought the ticket to the Philippines today. Now I better pass the A-exam, which I also (tentatively) scheduled today for December 20th. Hjálp!!

On human nature

My friend Stína's recent post made me think of all these different conditions that can afflict one and how they are not clear-cut but rather melt and fuse into one another. Much like crystals if you ask me, the geologist. Mineralogists have come up with the most beautiful diagrams to describe the ways in which crystals morph into one another depending on their ingredients and conditions of formation, and isn't that what ultimately also dictates how and who we become? It is strangely comforting to me to see how close we humans are to the basic rules of the universe.

All complaints banished

Ok, Væla, I'll stop complaining :)

Yesterday we had several nanometers of snow and the season's first rime. Today, the nanometers had all sublimated but the rime was still there. Bjútífúl.

Another Thanksgiving is upon us. Shan and I are taking off to Delaware this afternoon to spend the holiday with friends and perhaps family. No blogging for a while (as if that were anything new here on this farm).

Oh, the Prime Minister

What prompted the quiz was this event and the fact that when I told people I was going some would ask "ok, but who's that guy??".

Well, at least I didn't tell any Nobel Prize winner...

Quiz of the month

Do you know, right now (i.e. before googling it), who Shimon Peres is?

And since I'm at it...

I might as well post some more.

Am currently getting psyched about my upcoming trip to the Philippines in January. For those of you not in the know (which includes, I presume, every reader of this blog), I am going there to do fieldwork for my thesis work. It should be quite some adventure...

Fortunately I have some contacts there by now, thanks to my office mate Adam. A professor at the University of the Philippines has been exceptionally helpful, putting me in contact with a lot of people who might be able to assist me in many ways. Among other things, he's secured me the company of one of his grad students for part of my fieldwork. Now that's swell, because there's nothing more conductive to sudden madness than being alone in the field for too long.

So, I'll be goofin' around on Luzón in January and February, visiting ophiolites and volcanoes and maybe, if I'm very dugleg, Palawan. Again, a geologist's life is hard.

Then take a look: This is so cool! It almost makes me feel like a kid again, that a letter from me went to these far away, exotic places.

Other than that... nah, nothing else.

What ?#!%#*&T*^&T)@^?

Holy guacamole, what the bloody hell is going on w. this Blogger thing? Some missing html closing tags and my blog is practically stabbed to death! I protest. I protest all.

Update:

Well, looks like it's back to normal. Maybe I'll entertain the devil and try posting these quiz results again. But *phew*, this was about as much as my little heart can handle.

November 16th

and it's 18°C outside.

18°C!!!

That's it. I'm moving to the Antarctic.

Lost blogger

A severe Lost addiction has afflicted family members as of the beginning of the third season.

We happened to be at friends' house when the first episode of the third season was aired. Inevitably, we left with the entire DVD-collection of the first season, borrowed from the lady of the house. A week later, after watching the second episode of the third season, we borrowed the complete second season from another friend. Five days later, we were up-to date. We should probably go and get a life, but Lost is a perfectly acceptable substitute for one, thank you.

But, now there won't be any new shows until February. That's totally awful. Fortunately I have finals, Christmas break and a trip to the Philippines to keep me busy until my life can resume.