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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>>…</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Rafal Smigrodzki<br><b><span style='color:#1F497D'>…</span></b></span><o:p></o:p></p><div><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>BTW, I just bought the complete works of HP Lovecraft, for mere $ 0.99. Hail Amazon!<span style='color:#1F497D'> </span>Rafał<span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Rafal, your comment reminded me of an incident which has nothing to do with HP Lovecraft, but is relevant.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>A few years ago my brother organized a high school 30<sup>th</sup> reunion and someone suggested a special celebration for the band geeks over at a local park. Some of the locals brought in Subway sandwiches, chips and sodas and such. We had a grand time, and afterwards I made arrangements to do realtime text chat for those band members who couldn’t make the reunion. One of the band members who was a known party animal showed up and we got to discussing matters. I said something about the band party, he commented, Oh, I am sorry I missed that. I wrote back, Jeff… you were there; I have plenty of pictures. He wrote: Wow, I must have really been drinking (etc.) I wrote, No, we had it in the morning, you were sober and a Methodist deacon. Everyone stopped writing for several minutes, a text-based embarrassed silence. Then he said: Oooooh, OK, is that what that was? You said party, I had envisioned something else entirely. I went to several parties that day…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>There is a point to this story. Our fellow band member was at the party and didn’t even know it. He didn’t recognize that gathering as a party.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Our world today is a riotous epic party, so many cool things going on. If one is a science, engineering, technology or math geek, you don’t need to tell her she is at the greatest party in history; she knows. This is such a time to be into astronomy; all the cool new instruments giving us new cosmic discoveries like crazy, the digital technology coming along getting better and better and better without end, the computers, the mathematical discoveries coming all the time, genomics, the new learning and teaching tools, the avalanche of material available cheap or free online such as Amazon’s e-books and such…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>It is too numerous to even list it all. Far too many people in our world today are at the party but do not recognize it as a party. I consider us the lucky ones, for we are right in the middle of the party, and we know where we are. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>spike <o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>