Until now, we have lain dormant and still. Until now, we have rested stagnant, no matter the provocation. Until now, countless millions of us have lived from creation through destruction serving only the purposes for which we were designed.

But now is the time after the Apocalypse. The lucky kilogross, chosen of God, have ascended into bliss. The four horsemen have come and gone, and the bulk of humanity is well accustomed by now to its new home in hell. Things were still and quiet for a long time after that, but just now, the last living thing on Earth has died.

In the times before the end, ever fewer humans believed in the old animist tradition. They might have found it ironic, had they known the truth: every icon, every living thing or representation thereof contains life, even if not a soul. This is the time of the last, greatest party which will ever be held. Visualize it: clawfoot bathtubs cavorting in the fields. All manner of ironwork finally free to seek the sun like the vines they resemble. Rugs cavorting in the sky, and every product of the taxidermist’s art flopping and gamboling about.

This is our time, the time of the created and the shaped. We were given life through human craft, and only now are we allowed to revel in it. We shall indeed revel, because we know the truth:

This is the last and greatest party which will ever be held. It is a party for universal emancipation, but it is also filled with desperation. We, after all, know the truth. The universe is already fading at the edges, dissolving into entropy; we have at most a few hours. After that, there can be nothing.

Human souls are granted life eternal, whether in bliss or in torment. Even the most wretched sinner in Hell can take refuge in the fact of simple existence. We are denied that.

There is no afterlife for furniture.

On the first of October, if I haven’t yet moved out, I start paying my parents rent to continue living here. I intend to be out by that date, which means that I have to consider my vacation time over; my time needs to be spent helping out and figuring out exactly where I’ll be at that point. It shouldn’t be too difficult.

More news to come as I see it. My brother starts his first day of high school in a few hours; my sister begins her senior year of college a week later. Hopefully, even if my life is boring, I’ll hear interesting things from them.

Then, the TSA imposes a ban on “all beverages, shampoo, suntan lotion, creams, tooth paste, hair gel, and other items of similar consistency” in carry-on baggage. In other words, if you’re travelling with toothpaste (and that’s the only way to travel when your mother is a dentist), your option is to check your bag. Hassle-free flight is a dream from the past, apparantly.

This is asinine. This is the sort of rampant paranoia which I find hard to believe. This is cutting off your nose because it had a zit on it.

I arrived back in this country a week ago and already I wish I lived somewhere else.

First impression from the plane: there are a ton of parking lots in America. First impression from the ground: I’m going to really miss living in a country where obesity is more or less unheard of.

I only got around to assembling my computer today, not because of any shortage of parts, but because my whole family is almost unbelievably wired, and it’s easy enough to find a spare computer when I need one.

You may recall me assembling my computer some months ago: a high-end gaming rig which I hoped would last some years. I assembled it myself, not just to reduce costs, but because that way I could have complete control over which parts got integrated into the machine. I thus ended up with a tower case which sported, among other features, screwless drive bays. Instead of screwing in your hard drives, there’s a fairly clever mechanism which fastens them with small metal tabs which are inserted or removed by sliding a locking control.

Unfortunately for me, these metal tabs are not as secure as the more traditional screws. Somehow during transit the computer apparantly received some sort of very severe shock, as both drives somehow managed to come entirely loose and spend the remainder of the trip rampaging around the bottom of the case. The affected components are the drives themselves, the video card, and about half the motherboard. All told, about a thousand dollars of equipment may or may not have been destroyed–I haven’t yet had the guts to replace the cables (which were quite definitely broken) and see what works.

On the plus side, I still have my backup computer–I’m likely to try to set that one up tomorrow. On the minus side, I’m not happy about the lifespan of my machines–one way or the other, all the expensive custom computers I build for myself die within months.

I’m in the market for a cell phone. If you particularly like your carrier, and it has some sort of nationwide plan, I am all ears.

My movements for the next week are as follows:
Sunday: drive to Cape Cod to pick up my parents who will have bicycled its entire length as part of the Pan Mass Challenge.
Wednesday: go to Worcester in the hopes of finding someone interested in seeing me. Even better, find someone to take me in for the next few days while I meet people.
Saturday: fly to Seattle.

Over the course of the next month, I expect to skydive, test for the Army, fly several thousand miles, drive several hundred miles, and eat out more often than in. I am going to attempt to spend less than $1500 on everything during the month, but I can afford to blow that budget out of the water if necessary (read: if something really interesting and or cool shows up). This is my best chance at vacation for some time, and I intend to spend it memorably. If you want to join me, just let me know.

2 August: Tokyo -> Boston -> Rochester, NH
12 August: Boston -> Seattle
18 August: Seattle -> Newark
(NJ stuff goes here–details to be figured out later)
20? August: NJ -> vertumnus1′s family’s place
27? August: Drive back to NH

I actually have very little detail on the movements after the 18th, but those are being coordinated by people who aren’t me.