elfs | This town is >< small.

A friendly dose of surrealism for your day.

This morning, after a dental visit where I got the bad news ("You're gonna need a crown on 13, and probably 14 too"), I was walking toward the ${DAYJOB}. I stopped at a crosswalk to wait for the light, and next to me stood a man in his mid to late 20's carrying a hardcover copy of Artificial Intelligence for... and I couldn't see the rest.

"What are you reading there?"

He moved his arm and I could read, Artificial Intelligence for Video Game Programmers, a serious textbook, not one of those how-tos you get at Barnes & Noble. "Oh," I said. "Looks hardcore."

He said, "It is."

"Hey, do you know

shaterri?"

"Yeah, I know him," he said. "I'll probably see him sometime today."

"Can you give this to him? I've only been carrying it forever." I handed him a Yuletime card I picked up last Christmas season and bounced when I tried to mail it to Shaterri, twice, with "no such person at the address" marked.

"Yeah, that'll be a long trip, from my office to his."

"Thanks."