31 July 2001

C.J. called me last night! Ceej is one of the hardest people to reach -- I've left messages with his roommate, on his machine, whatever. And I have this Thing, where I won't call people after 10:00 their time. Well, Ceej lives in Minneapolis (that's Central Time Zone, for those of you who think of my home as "the flyover"), and Mark usually gets home around 6:45, so by the time we're done with dinner, I have a limited window of opportunity to remember to try calling.

But last night Ceej called me. Yay! And we're going to see him when we're in Minneapolis, if we can get that worked out. Yay! The only bad thing was, I had to get re-used to the C.J. mindset to talk to him. In person, it's quite clear when Ceej is pondering what you've just said -- he has the "I'm thinking" look on his face, or the "I'm listening" look when he's ready for you to say something else. On the phone, this is not nearly so easy to read, and so there were several times when I felt it was my job to produce the next bit of conversation, when in fact he was just mulling over what to say next.

So we talked about shoes and ships and sailing wax, and how his brother is in China and why the Mall of America is scary. (I'm telling you, it's an itty-bitty unit of social decay from sinister corporate arcology.) And now I miss him even more and have thought of a dozen things I should have mentioned on the phone. That's the way it goes, I guess.

This expresses my views on some subgenres of li-fi rather neatly.

And now for the Morphism Reader of the Week! Yeah, I know, it's only Tuesday. But trust me, this is a good one. Is it someone who brought me into this world (and, she reminds me, can take me out of it)? Nooo. Is it someone who promised to spend his life with me? Nooo. Is it someone who has brightened many of my days lately with new friendship? Nooo. Is it someone who's been there for me through many years? No! Silly readers! It's not any of that!

It's someone who found me a Sami myth book in English!

That's right, Wendy is the Morphism Reader of the Week! Yay for Wendy!

Not only that, but she also found it for me at the Berkeley library. Which means Mark can get it for me on interlibrary loan, we think. Woohoo! Hooray! And there was much rejoicing. Not the kind Zak would think of, of course. But not all of us have that kind of mind.