I thought this image would be apropo, as it was the first taken after Hubble was brought back on line in late October:

The two galaxies are oriented so that they appear to mark [a perfect] 10. The left-most galaxy, or the "one" in this image, is relatively undisturbed apart from a smooth ring of starlight. It appears nearly on edge to our line of sight. The right-most galaxy, resembling a zero, exhibits a clumpy, blue ring of intense star formation. The blue ring was most probably formed after the galaxy on the left passed through the galaxy on the right. Just as a pebble thrown into a pond creates an outwardly moving circular wave, a propagating density wave was generated at the point of impact and spread outward. As this density wave collided with material in the target galaxy that was moving inward due to the gravitational pull of the two galaxies, shocks and dense gas were produced, stimulating star formation.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Livio (STScI)

Where the hell have I been? Dude, I don't even know where I am right now. All of the physical coordinates remain the same, but there must be some subatomic particles phasing in and out of my body. I mean, I feel weird.

It's really December?

Many of my online pursuits have fallen by the wayside, and that doesn't just mean MOG. I have hundreds of new tracks to sort through and I'm still behind on checking out my favorite music blogs. I've hardly peeped a word on Multiply. I've mostly hung around Facebook, but that's only cos they make posting various nonsense so darned easy.

No, I've just been a whirlwind of books, papers, photocopies, and piles and piles of copy revisions. So much that has been productive, and very little sense to make of it all. I'm desperately trying to find direction -- to find a practice, if you will -- but just try doing that when your neurons are desperately forcing their way out of your skull.

"Innnput."

I recently attended a three-day "intensive" introduction to Buddhism hosted by our local center.

My church choir is preparing for our Christmas concert and midnight mass. I'm not Catholic. Never was.

My bioethics class wraps up for the semester tonight and I have a paper due in a couple of weeks.

I'll be applying to the Master of Bioethics program.

I registered this morning for Introduction to Experimental Psychology. Someday, I'll get a Psyc.D. and treat patients. I currently have no undergraduate background in psychology.

I bought over $100 in CDs a couple of weeks ago.

I agreed to join my old university choir on a tour of Portugal next May. I have to renew my passport.

My boyfriend and I got a Wii. He's now reached Pro status for bowling.

I need to sell my car. I never use it.

And now I have to run to a meeting. How I wish I had Dungen's new album on my headphones right now. Mmm. Wavy.