Oh, man, it’s been a while.
Yeah, I’m still here.
I’ve been working on school a lot, and work — I’m pretty stressed these days, and my time is at a premium, so I haven’t been writing as often as I want to. I’ll try to remedy that, but this won’t be the post that does 
To all of my assorted friends, book time while you can! 
Well, I had a couple of post ideas over the last couple of days, but with the workload and all, they all kind of fell by the wayside.
Sorry, kids.
If you’re interested, though, I’ll be putting something up about internet censorship later this week.
Expect a slowdown in posting until I can type again.
Sorry, all.
So sorry about having dropped from the face of the earth for a week, folks. I know my readership isn’t huge, but i suspect at least one or two people missed me
So, here’s the scoop: The downtime resulted from Char and I moving, and shaw not moving as fast as we did, due to some wiring issues. I spent tuesday to today with no net access, which meant no mailserver, no webserver, etc. Very crappy. And, as i’m sure you can all imagine, also very jitter-inducing.
So, an update. Leaving aside private events that have kept me off-radar a bit of late, here’s what’s new:
We’re moved! Yay! The new house is coming together nicely, and i’d like to make a very public nod to Char, who has worked tirelessly to make the new place look like the home it’s going to be for the foreseeable future. The house looks nicer every time she puts something in place. Another nod that is not only necessary but huge is to Simon; without his help, there is no way the place would have been done on time. Bro, i owe you more than i can repay for your help, thank you again and again - i don’t know what we would have done without the time, effort, and general awesomeness you displayed getting this together for us.
Also new and notable, i’ve now skydived. I wasn’t really aware of the distinction, but … i sure as hell am now. There’s something very different about stepping out of a plane 3.5 km above the earth, even with two very professional and very kind instructors on my two sides, taking a breath at my own pace, looking out at the horizon, and with total awareness of what i’m doing and how, letting go and starting a free fall for 40 seconds, reaching terminal velocity as i fall. After 3000 feet falling, i had time to just look. And feel. And fly. The little hop we did in the training/first jump just doesn’t count, after that. Why even bother? A memorable t-shirt quote dad forwarded to me: “The meek shall inherit the earth. We own the sky.” This is how i feel. I will do this again, no doubt in my mind at all.
Last but not least, in 3 days, i go back to school. Year 2. Damn, i so look forward to this…
Current events have, as i’m sure all of you know, gotten very interesting on the political and world-issues front. From the scrap over in Iraq, to the shrinking civil liberties in the US, to the intense anti-americanism that penetrates our national government, to my favourite people - anti-war protestors, of course! - there’s no end to the number of interesting things going on in the world around me.
The problem is, i don’t feel like talking about them. At least, not the way i usually do. Why? Because i’m missing my universal foil. Somehow, it’s just not the same to yak about these things with even the more interesting and well-spoken/thought people in my life (To whomever is reading this: If you have ever talked with me about this, you’re on the list).
So, i did something that i do pretty rarely the other day.. It may not have been all that much, but i attempted an apology/reconciliation with Jamie. At least, i tried one insofar as i feel i owe an apology, which only goes so far. (What’s this about? This
Anyway, i sent off an e-mail that consisted, essentially, of “Well, i think you were a prick, but i was an asshole too, so here i am, apologizing for the ways in which i was an asshole”
Naturally, this came with the attendant verbal spew that i’m so good at
Consequent to this, i got a reply that i read as “Well, Chris, until you grovel before me and beg my forgiveness without qualifications, we don’t have anything to talk about”
Imagine my amusement.