I once had a teacher in college who told me I had an uncanny talent putting things together that seemed to have no business going together. Seeing patterns when they probably weren’t there (but once you see them, they kind of are. Funny thing, that).

I’ve been doing it a lot lately in my personal life—layering situation on top of situation and trying to make myself see some sort of central theme. The end result is probably just clouded vision, but I can’t tell yet.

On a slightly less vague note, research for work has lead me in some really interesting directions lately. Here’s a particularly cool thing: Bioluminescence in the Gippsland Lakes.

The series of pictures (which I found via NotCot) are truly amazing. It’s a glowing lake of blue fire! Which brings me to the whole weird connections thing: I just finished reading this book, The Gates, which my roommate found lying around in an airport in China but never read. I found it underneath the bookshelf in our living room and decided the cover was cool enough that I should probably read it. It’s really weird, in a sort of post-David Foster Wallace way, only written for young adults (but with footnotes galore). It’s all doomsday and particle physics and other strange things.

Plus, if you read it, it will become obvious why I’m putting it up next to a sea of glowing blue algae.

And apologies for the vague Mirah quote. But she really is the best.