I've spent the past two days fully immersed in studying for ecology and now that the exam has been written I feel bleached and drained--everything that was important to me twenty-four hours ago is of no importance now.

FULL OF BEES WHO DIED AT SEA

I'd kill for a back rub.

...You come to believe in the reliability of your hands and feet and head.

--Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild

AA NYLON SPANDEX MICRO-MESH BODYSUIT, HERE I COME

I will be taking ballet in the fall.

A UFO TRIED TO KILL ME, SO I SHOT IT

Ms. Kasrin cooks me dinner and sews my buttons back on and assures me that I am not, in fact, dumb and actually CAN do this if I concentrate, which is exactly what I need to hear.

Then Ruth Boglebizer humors me when I beg him to drop his studying to sprint and shout around the courtyard with me and suddenly the world seems like a much friendlier, easy-to-conquer place.

The fingernails on my left hand are starting to look like my dad's.

DOES IT BREAK MY HEART, OF COURSE, EVERY MOMENT OF EVERY DAY, INTO MORE PIECES THAN MY HEART WAS MADE OF, I NEVER THOUGHT OF MYSELF AS QUIET, MUCH LESS SILENT, I NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT THINGS AT ALL, EVERYTHING CHANGED, THE DISTANCE THAT WEDGED ITSELF BETWEEN ME AND MY HAPPINESS WASN'T THE WORLD, IT WASN'T THE BOMBS AND BURNING BUILDINGS, IT WAS ME, MY THINKING, THE CANCER OF NEVER LETTING GO, IS IGNORANCE BLISS, I DON'T KNOW, BUT IT'S SO PAINFUL TO THINK, AND TELL ME, WHAT DID THINKING EVER DO FOR ME, TO WHAT GREAT PLACE DID THINKING EVER BRING ME? I THINK AND THINK AND THINK, I'VE THOUGHT MYSELF OUT OF HAPPINESS ONE MILLION TIMES, BUT NEVER ONCE INTO IT.

--Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

The six tracks on Jasper TX & Anduin's album "The Bending of Light" take their names from Carl Sagan's description of the formation of a black hole:

1. A Beam of Light Bends Back Upon Itself
2. ...Producing Great Jets of Radiation
3. Everything Disappears in a Tunnel of Light
4. ...Where a Star Once Was
5. Like the Footprints of an Invisible Man
6. ...Walking in Snow

[via Bolacha Gratis]