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The winds that so quickly wisked me away to Blacksburg Friday evening also tore me away from comfort earlier this afternoon. Needless to say, I had a blast.

My simple plans worked out just as I hoped: talking with people; walking and talking with people; walking and talking and drinking coffee with people; sitting and talking with people; and more. Conversation is a definitive revealer of each person, the quality of which suggests much about their individual characteristics. Apart from chatting, I checked out the iPod shuffle and Mac mini at the bookstore (both very nice and very small), had lots of breads, and was able to walk ::gasp!:: to everywhere I needed to go. Seriously, if I don’t end up living in a city where I can walk anywhere necessary, my brain will boil in my head. BOIL!

To add a touch of luck to the weekend, I hadn’t charged my iPod after Friday’s trip (which nearly drained it). When I turned it on today, it rebooted and showed no battery power available; however, it still played. In fact, it played for the full length of the return trip, actually showing the smallest fraction of battery life for the whole trip. You could say it recharged itself. I just thought it was perfectly convenient.

::sigh:: This weekend was all too brief.

What is weeks seems like years and what is hours seems like days. I am now in Blacksburg. My last time here was the fall semester; that seems like an eternity ago. I arrived here, once again, yesterday evening; and my adjustment to this atmosphere has been so sudden, so instantaneous, that I feel like I’ve never left. Let this be my Ode on a Blacksburg Town.

So what do I have planned for this weekend? Certainly walking around Blacksburg and the campus with people. Also some Bollo’s and Gillie’s in necessary for my vitals. My plans may sound boring to some, but there are many small pleasures I’d like to revel in while I’m around.

Ok, well, I’m helping with breakfast, so I should appropriately finish now. I am making biscuits. Thank you DoughBoy.

In a mere three weeks, I completed A Short History of Nearly Everything.

Thus far, while on this co-op, I’ve done my best to retain normal study habits in order to review past material that would be disastrous if forgotten. Reading History has helped in ways many untold. Putting all scientific knowledge (well, at least the essentials of everything) into a book so fluent and easy on the eyes (and mind) is a fantastic accomplishment. Someone locked away in a cave for the entirety of their life could pick up this book and be caught up on a few hundred generations of gleaned human knowledge - this is, of course, assuming that the “caved-man” is a self-taught literate capable of critical thinking and fact absorbtion.

But, I simply loved it. I am amazed at how well it is written. Knowing the general consensus of hatred towards textbooks (at least among my age group), it may be hard for me to persuade anyone to pick up this read, but nothing is more worth the time.

Unfortunately, I am now surrounded by book recommendations from friends. I don’t enjoy putting off a read that someone praises highly, but I need to choose. And thank you to everyone who has mentioned something for me; I appreciate it.

This weekend: Virginia Tech.

Seriously, for the first few minutes before ventilation was evident, my car smelled like strawberries. Someone must have shoved a few scoops of ice cream down my air vents (or something) because I was clearly overwhelmed with a wonderfully sugared sensation.

This parking situation was brought on because, of all places, the Daily Grind was closed tonight. After a call this afternoon, Ez and I decided to rendevous there for some catching up, having not seen each other in many moons. Sadly, I must take back my endorsement for the Daily Grind; their hours now being reduced to 7am-2pm Mon.-Sat. and they are entirely closed on Sundays as well. Two in the afternoon?! Why not just close before they open? This new hour schema is foolish, at best, confusing in every way (they certainly dominated the youth consumer crowd every evening).

Ah, but luckily, the Wyndhurst area is a thriving stretch of coffeehouses (as I discovered tonight). Ez and I grabbed lattes at the European Cafe as it was entertaining guests with a tsunami benefit concert by a local jazz guitarist (jazz trio, actually). Despite the music encompassing all levels of talent, we retreated outside to chat (thank you, global warming).

Another wonderful time of conversation followed. Certainly, many things to talk about and discuss. We did return briefly to the Cafe to listen to a few pieces of jazz before we departed for another time.

I do wish that Lynchburg would more vocally advertise such events. Rather, I wish there were effective ways to advertise in Lynchburg. Radio?.. too much to coordinate. Local tv?.. few watch it compared to national broadcasts. Newspaper?.. why consider putting out the money to promote something to such a diminutive reader base? Airplane smoke trail ads?.. people are too depressed around here to look skyward for inviting messages (well, my opinion, at least). Oh well, looks like word-of-mouth wins again.

It took a typical drive to work and a rising sun with the intensity and glaring angle of Phoebus’ glorious approach for me to suddenly have another odd moment when everything finds its distinct place. I assume the lingering jovial spirits from the Super Bowl party may have been present, but I just sensed a wonderful order behind life. As soon as a group of cars rounded a corner, with the onslaught of a commandeering sun, each driver put his/her sunvisor down into position; the same response from every single individual, thousands of possible reactions, but only one outcome. However, waiting at a stoplight, individualism was taken with a liberal attitude. Some sang to their choice music (me included) while others sat and pondered, perhaps even dozed; from the trafficking of minds to a workplace come both supreme order and control to expressions of apparent solitude.

There are several background factors that brought these thoughts to my attention, or rather created an overwhelming attentiveness to the world around me. None of which I have the time to divulge in at the moment, but all of which will one day be revealed, I suppose.

On a more cynical note… Is it any wonder that I just, as in yesterday, realized that if I press play twice while on my iPod’s uppermost menu that it begins to use the famous “Shuffle” feature present as its own button on the newer generations of iPods? I’ve owned my iPod for well, well-well-well over a year and just found this out. Now, Shuffle is all I use (it’s been all I use in iTunes, more or less). I must be a complete moron; or, in the least, attentive to odd aspects of life while being blithely ignorant to what’s in front of my nose.

Retaining sanity is one of my first priorities in life, and this weekend I made sure to maximize my time for this ultimate cause. So, Charlottesville there I went and browsing around the area with Courtney commenced. The weather (oh! the weather) was fabulous and allowed us to walk around the downtown area for much of the day without a terrible need for warmth.

I must comment that I am jealous of downtown Charlottesville. Jealous in the manner of wishing that Blacksburg had that many bookstores as I witnessed this weekend. There must have been at least a half dozen bookstores just downtown. Blacksburg has… Barnes & Noble; not exactly a selection, and certainly a total absence of used books. However, I still prefer the Tech campus over UVA due to the universal architecture that carries from academic hall to academic hall and from dormitory to dormitory (plus, a few other factosr influence my favor). HokieStone for life, for me.

Apart from the downtown ambling, we also checked out the BR/GAP/Old Navy conglomerate. Not much to speak of there, but it was nice to walk around with the Ney and chat about random topics. Dinner was at Starr Hill; ‘twas good, I say, ‘twas very good, indeed. I had the most wonderful tofu vegetable pot pie that I can remember; Ney had some amazing tuna with carefully-prepared smashed potatoes. We parted with the sounds of Jamiroquai bouncing through our heads and the visual images of Napoleon getting his 15 minutes of fame.

Once I returned home, I met up with Rianna for a salad bar and talk. Then we searched, without success, for Selena, Rianna’s preference for a late-night film.

Just a great weekend; lots of driving, lots of conversation, and good people.

A note of interest: Sam from VTMUG is in the latest edition of Mac Directory. The article is about System X, but Sam has a close-up mug in the article compared to the rest of the shots featuring Xserves and mounting devices; a man among machines.

Also, I have two more iTunes Music Sampler Volume 1 cards that anyone can have if they desire. Volume I is alternative music, very good alternative music at that. So if you have a passing fancy for free tunes, the first two people who let me know will receive a code for a dozen or so songs.