Late Night

The clouds tonight are no more than a thin haze, just enough to blur the nearly-full moon as it settles westward, where the silhouettes of tall pines pierce the glow. I am struck by the thought that this indistinct quality of the night makes it seem almost as though I had walked into a painting; the vision of some 19th century romantic landscape artist in love with night. It reminds me of how easy it is to project feelings onto the surrounding scene. This, in turn, reminds me that what we see as reality is largely a personal interpretation we each make of the things and events around us.

I notice that very few stars are able to cast their light through this veil of cloud, thin though it is. Suddenly, I imagine the earth spinning away from the rest of the universe, out into a starless void, the galaxies receding and growing faint and, at last, vanishing. Was it the brush of that chill late night breeze against my skin that induced this strange fancy? The crickets are chirping in the brush. They have no answer. I go back into the house with night pulled over it like a blanket.

Daylight Deer

A while ago, I saw a deer browsing in the yard across the street. Deer seldom come to this street in the daytime. I think the neighborhood is a bit too busy for them. They prefer to wait for dead of night and surprise me when I go out into the darkness. But this deer was standing there at two o'clock in the afternoon, munching away, and when I came out the door, looked up at me quite calmly. I went back into the house to fetch the camera, but when I returned, the deer was gone. Now, someone down the street is using a leaf blower. I don't think the deer will return today.

I'm sure everyone has seen this by now, but...

Paid users can now gather friend's friends pages in one big page! Even it you don't have a paid account, you can still see the friendsfriends pages of users who do have paid accounts. Try http://www.livejournal.com/users/flying_blind/friendsfriends and see how fast the entries pile up. By the time you go back 25 more entries, you have a goatload of duplicates on the new page. Dizzying! I expect the servers to burst into flame from this feature>

What the...

Can anybody figure out what the deal is with the community journal bv3k_anonymous? Click on the comments links, and go someplace unexpected. Is this just a screw up, or is something dastardly afoot? More LJ weirdness.