I’m (politely, not actually) sorry that I haven’t been posting lately; numerous activities and travel preparations have been effective, though not un-enjoyably so, at filling my time. I’ve even had some good entries ready to publish barring my stringent editorial process, but like leftovers from someone you don’t really trust, they lost their appeal and never made it to the plate.

Here’s an interesting fact: From the first flight of Wilbur and Orville Wright, it was only 66 years before we landed on the moon. Another interesting fact: You now have to pay for peanuts on Northwest flights. Seems that within the aviation industry, technological prowess has somewhat outstripped the advancement of business acumen. Snap!

Alright, that bit of cynicism isn’t really indicative of my mood, it was just the first acceptable thing that came to mind. How about this: Look at your ring and your pointer fingers. If you are male, chances are your ring finger is just a bit longer (measuring from the last crease before your palm) than your pointer, vice versa if you’re a shorty. Scientists think this has something to do with the amount of testosterone produced by either gender during gestation. The ratio of ring to pointer length (also called the 2D:4D ratio) has been linked, softly, to a variety of personal characteristics. For instance, males with longer ring fingers seem to be a bit better at math. On the other hand (Ha!) females with shorter ring fingers seem to have higher verbal skills (see here for the article). Keep in mind there’s a great deal of overlap between males and females, both with respect to this ratio and the mentioned skills, so the effect is small, but it’s still there. Crazy, no? Yes.

I’m going to be leaving for Europe in about week, which hasn’t really sunk in. There are, if I’m counting correctly, 657 items that need to be checked off before I leave, of which I’ve checked 7.5. Here’s an excerpt: 2nd stuff sack, language books, rescind citizenship, pleasure reading(??),T-shirts, copies of documents, place to safely keep those documents, prescriptions(!),…paint, avoid copperheads, pack(?!). You get the idea.

I’ve stumbled across a new form of meditation, which is to remove all objects from your room and sleep on two cushy sleeping bags. Wise man say: When at nothing there is to look, only yourself do you see. Maybe that was Yoda.
Peace out.
-Lee