First, slightly older links

I should totally be asleep, but instead I'm catching up on LJ-since-6am, which amounts to about 100 entries, plus the ones I loaded but didn't read -at- 6am.

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Via jwz: Paralysed man sends e-mail by thought: Brain chip reads mind by tapping straight into neurons.

Via kitiara: It's a shame when your average store-goer just doesn't understand the finer points of store governance. :)

...oh my. via gwyndyn, The Presidential Horror Show

How bizarre! Via jwz: Facial corsets!

Then, the Llama Song!

Here's a llama
There's a llama
and another little llama
fuzzy llama
funny llama
llama llama
duck!

(llama llama
cheesecake llama
tablet brick potato llama!)
(Via the_alchemist)
:D

Rainy ride north, fraternity/homecoming goodness

So, headed north by way of Leesburg, on my motorcycle, on a rather temperate, dry morning--with rain and cold-weather gear packed due to the forecasts.

Went north on 15 all the way to Harrisburg, PA, where I'd normally skirt the city via 581 and take 81 up to Whitney Point, NY, before taking 79W into Ithaca. However, 81 is boring, so I opted to continue up 15--though it took a couple U-turns, a map-check or two, and some lucky sign-spotting to find 15N's continuation. Along 15, I stopped for lunch, for gas a time or two, just for a break a few times, switched from ventilated to solid leather gloves, and added my jacket liner. (Despite being 55-60ºF, it felt cold at 100% humidity and 65mph.)

Further north in PA, having already been riding on wet roads, it started raining, so I pulled into a parking lot (in Williamsport, PA, I think) to don my rainsuit under the awning of a piano store. While doing so, a guy approached me to chat about Ducatis and then my route north, which was entertaining. :)

I had been planning on 15-14-13, but it turns out they don't quite connect like that; in Liberty, PA, I picked up 414, which would be an awesome road on a dry, sunny day. As it is, this curvy, hilly route through wooded farmland felt a bit treacherous, scattered with wet cut grass and wet leaves. I survived. :)

414E to 14N to Elmira, NY was easy; finding 13N was not. Turns out it's connected via 17, but in a counterintuitive direction, and detoured to boot. Also, by this time, the rain--which had slackened/stopped for most of 414) picked up, and it was getting dark, and I've decided that a steady drizzle is possibly the most annoying weather phenomenon where motorcycle visibility is concerned. See, it's not heavy enough to bead up on the Rain-Xed visor, but it's heavy enough to interfere with vision and require a visor wipe every few seconds, or peering through rain spots. At night, with oncoming headlights, this becomes quite difficult, and I was glad I had a vehicle to follow--though the turbulence it kicked up made visibility worse, a mixed blessing. (And I got at least an hour of such obnoxious visibility!) On the plus side, my Tour Master rain suit worked perfectly. However, the leather gloves finally soaked through, so I swapped -them- for the winter-weight, waterproof gloves. It may have still been 50ºF, but that can be really cold.)

Finally arrived in Ithaca around 1900, used the closed-except-local-traffic Court Street, and found someone to let me into the house. I then ditched my khakis/button-down blue shirt in favor of kilt and tshirt, as most of the attendees were dressed casually. (Present were about half a dozen current brothers, two girlfriends, Ryerson '60, Cardone ('85), and Drew ('51?); toward midnight, Gligor '87 and TJ '85 arrived. Had a delightful time chatting with most of the above, and was quite the story-teller, I was. :D

Morning: Breakfast, chapter meeting.
Afternoon: Well, historically, we'd have a tailgate party before the Homecoming game, but Cornell's gone all Slope Day on those, too. $50 fee to set up, $15 to attend, fenced-in affair, limited arrival window, all alcohol catered by a university designee.. F that. We'll hang out at the house until game time, or something. :P
Evening: Nice dinner. Will also try to make it to the APO reception at WSH.

And sometime this weekend, I'll try to hang out with sylvie and with vampirekat. :)

(Suppose I'll sleep now.)

Wandering about campus

Got up for breakfast with brothers/alumni, then the society meeting, including discussion of the upcoming Centennial Celebration (next October, fraternity will have been around a hundred years) and the Centennial Fund drive (including mention of a few alumni, including one present who did so yesterday, who pledged $10,000.)

Then, it was time to choose between a) the football game, in the cool, rainy weather, b) Team America: World Police with a few brothers, or c) none of the above. I chose (c), left a message for Katia, walked over to Risley to find no Sylvie, then called her cell to find that she was at the mall. I then walked across the middle of campus, walked through the new Duffield Hall--nice building, the atrium connecting it to Upson is awesome--then down into Collegetown, over to West, and back up to North. Then, onto my motorcycle and off to the mall, not to find Sylvie, but to see if Katia was working. No such luck, but I checked out the newest books by Bill Bryson and George Carlin, and listened to most of Shatner's new Ben-Folds-arranged album, Has Been--and indeed, it's very good, but I didn't feel like spending $19 on it.

Got back to the house just in time to beat a 5-minute rainstorm, and it's now sunny again; I suppose I'll head over to Risley to visit Sylvie now--she's back--and maybe hop over to WSH for the APO reception before the cocktail hour here at 1800 and dinner at 1845.

I love this town, I do. :)