It's a magical world

History tells us (principally in the person of Samuel Pepys) that before electric lighting people slept awhile, awoke in the middle of the night for two hours, and then slept some more. If their nightmares and dreams were anything like mine, that must have been absolute crap. Sunday morning around 5 am I dreamed I was on a shinkansen with some friends and fellow students, including KTP and hisui_ryoshi, as well as some members of the armed services in the next compartment--though the shinkansen was tricked out like a Kintetsu viewing car--and we all agreed that it was great that the train attendants were too busy to tell us to talk quietly. And then we stopped for passport control in some eastern European former Soviet bloc country in the middle of nowhere (yes, the shinkansen goes to Europe now) and because we had to get out and physically walk through a facility, and the person I was talking to only spoke French, and I only speak "un peu" (this, by the way, is directly out of matociquala's Hugo-nominated "Shoggoths in Bloom", which I read and enjoyed heartily on Saturday), I was going to miss my train, which had my belongings and my friends. And that seemed too much to deal with, so I woke myself up. Blech.

Opening arguments were heard today in the case of the death (because, innocent until proven guilty) of Katherine Anne Olson. I knew her only glancingly, in that smile-at-everyone-you-pass Midwestern way, but even at a great remove I could see that she was a great light, and in any case she deserved better than what she got, which was bleeding to death in her own car trunk after being shot in the back. The defense attorney is doing his job, but just as in drama, when a gun is introduced in real life it's generally with the intention, or at least the willingness, to use it. I hope for justice.

ETA: You know, in Katherine's honor, I'm going to take the time to post about several worthy causes that are percolating on LiveJournal. In no particular order:

• accessiblehouse  is a community in which various goodies are being auctioned off in order to benefit jbru and his partner--the house is being foreclosed on, which is a severe problem because it has been extensively renovated in order to accomodate his partner's disabilities. I've been thinking about the lack of universal access in houses thanks to my mother's condition, and I can attest that having an accessible house can make a world of difference.
• con_or_bust also is auctioning various items to bring fans of color/non-white fans to WisCon. (I want to go too! I'm hoping for 2011 at this point.)
• Last but not least, saveours00j is selling a strictly limited edition book, Ravens in the Library, to help defray s00j's medical bills--like many artists, she doesn't have health insurance. Yeah, I can certainly sympathize. The book has stories by lots of cool people, and you can still save on combined s&h.