Missing You.

Well, I guess I'm awake. I couldn't sleep last night, or more accurately, I didn't want to sleep last night. I knew that when I woke up today, azrhey would be gone. Close and good friends are rare in this world, and at any one time I only have a handful of them. Way back when I was writing about love in the wake of Deniz' death, I made a locked post to and about the six people in the world who mean the most to me, who I count as my closest friends, only one of whom isn't on LJ.

Things happen. Deniz, of course, is gone and the non-LJer has gotten a life and has drifted out of mine so although I still care for her deeply, I never see or talk to her any more. Since then, first thebabynancy and now azrhey have moved away. Of that list of six, there are now only 2 who I have any chance of seeing on a regular basis.

I will still keep in touch by phone, email, LJ, what-have-you, but I find that friendship is a high bandwidth thing. You can't linger over coffee on a terrace with someone by email. You can't hug someone by text message. And LJ is no substitute for long and deep conversations over a meal and a bottle (or two) of wine.

As a result I'm feeling lonely and abandoned and I KNOW its a terribly selfish way of looking at things, but I feel as if much of my support network has vanished, during the period in my life when I've needed it the most. I want nothing but the best for my friends, I just wish they could have found it closer to home.

Plate Fu

There are, in China, a number of buffet restaurants that advertise a fixed price for 'a plate full' of food. Since these tend to be American style places, with American style prices, it has become somewhat of an artform to see just how much food one can pile onto a single plate or bowl without spilling any.

( Click to see a grand prize winner! )

Above stolen from dashing, as usual.

Mentos and Diet coke.

By combining 523 Mentos and 101 2-Liter bottles of diet coke, one can make an impressive display of fountains-to-music.

Watch this and see.

Programmable Tattoos.

At least that's what the article title says. Its more like skin-implantable display technologies, but its still fairly nifty. (And it showed up in cyberpunk literature LONG before any of the mentioned sources.)