Excerpts from journal entries while in the Sahara:

2-19-04 (large tent of nomad family) 4:21pm
...Currently I'm excited by the sand storm raging outside. It built up slowly at first and then all at once it kicked off. I keep having to wipe sand off these pages. I'm in a nice, large, camel fur tent. It keeps the wind out but the not sand. Too much sand, write later.

2-20-04 (large tent in nomad house) 8:41am
...The sand storm was "very strong" according to Ahmed. The wind was hard and fast by any standard I know. Sand coated everything. It was in our food, our clothes and the crevices of our skin. When I woke up I had to wipe a layer off my eyes and face. I had many dreams through the night.

[...]

I think the dreams may have been brought on by the surreal experience of going into the storm at night. The tent was pitch black inside. I lifted up the wall to go outside and it was another world. The wind was screaming past my ears and tearing at my clothes. The sand stung my skin. All I could see was greyness with blurry black spots where the nearby nomad buildings were. It was like I was floating because there was no ground and no sky. Nothing was near and nothing was far. I walked into the desert to go pee. Even though I walked about 30 feet it still felt like someone could pull me right back into the tent. I'd lost a great deal of my ability to judge distance by sight. All I knew was how many steps I'd taken. It was an unforgettable moment.

I've been reminiscing and wanting to feel like that again. I think it's time to plan the next desert trip. I had been thinking about the Gobi in August but a 30 hour plane trip sounds like my idea of Hell. I think I'll do the Gobi and Siberia at the same time after 2005. I'm looking at September 2005 then for the Atacama desert in Chile, the driest desert in the world. The 7-10 hour flight into Santiago and bus ride to San Pedro is a lot more appealing.

I wonder if anyone else would go?

As my guide, Ahmed, and I trekked through the Sahara along the Algerian border I was really taken in by the beauty. I love the clean, mathematical lines that trail into noise where animals have tread on them. The wind, rain and gravity effect the sand in very specific ways. The math behind them is so enormous that we have problems modeling their behavior with supercomputers, and yet you can see that mathematical precision in the sand. No matter how elegant those macro forces are the animals come plodding through leaving a noisy wake in the sand.

Buy Blue and save the world. Buyblue.org keeps track of where corporate money goes in politics. I never would have guessed 92% of Yahoo goes to Red politicos. [via Leia]

Your father made fetuses with flesh-licking ladies while you and your mother were a- sleep in the trailer park thunderous sparks from the dark of the stadium the music and medicine you needed for comfort

Neutral Milk Hotel welcome to the Plastic Classic Album hall of fame.

So things with DF reached a point some months ago where I realized that I'm just never going to have the relationship with her that I wanted and it was an impediment to building other relationships.

It had been pushed in different directions. At times close and intimate, and at other times light friendly contact. None of them worked out quite right despite some amazing peaks. This is something that involved years of investigation. Tired of the anger, and heartache I said "That's it. No more communication." DF was not pleased. Neither was I but I saw no other way.

I stuck to it. Over the next few months I received a few emails from DF but just read and filed them. Each time I wanted to respond and answer the questions but I stuck to my guns. Then I broke and answered DF last night. DF responded today.

Remember this my friend, this feeling right now. This shitty, kicked in the chest, cold sweat, trembling, shallow breathing, nothing will ever be right about that relationship feeling. That's what happens when you fuck with the rules you've setup.

Moved into the new place and took pictures.

A pretty good list of essential OS X apps.

Apple writes about World of Warcraft and includes tips for my new addiction.

Metafilter uncovers links on the major and minor real life folks that make up the HBO series Deadwood.

Step 1. Get a job Step 2. Find a temporary place to live.

Todo Step 3. Buy a house

Amanda left today to move to Baltimore. Dallas is going to be a lot lonelier without her. I miss her. I've never really come clean with how much I count on her to connect me to the world because I'm all aloof and shit. The past two days I've been very angry and irritable. I had a lot of stuff welling up inside but no idea how to say it. This has been a very rough setback to my ten year plan to live in Dallas.