O Best Beloved, o you my people who have made my time in the unmatched country of Diaryland, ruled over by the good Shah Andrew (Allah watch over him and protect him!), an unparallelled experience of self-examination and also communication:

I must go forth from these walls, which have so lovingly sheltered me, even as the great palace hath sheltered the beautiful and most clever Queen Shahrazad while she told to the King one thousand and one stories in the days of old Araby. For a sevenday, I shall journey by boat to the faraway land of black riches and low temperatures known as Alaska. The circumstances under which I shall travel are these:

That I shall be accompanied by my mother and father who raised me, Allah shield them from harm, and also by my sister, who hath never in past times failed to prove a jolly and insightful companion on travels abroad. We shall not be riding in a helicopter, however we shall be riding upon horses and in kayaks, among glacial waters of which to this date I have only heard rumors and seen tiny pictures of unspecified grandeur.

O, that I shall brave the dangers of very large mosquitos and unsteady waters lashing at the sides of our cruise ship! O, that I must dress myself in layer upon layer of water- and wind-proof clothing, such to which I am unused in the Californian summer!

My friends, I embark stoutly, happily, and faithfully upon this journey, that I may capture for myself, and for you, the companions of my native land, some rare gem of beauty, of insight, of being, or possibly of such unusual rarity that there is not yet an adjective to describe it.

I fear that for this sevenday I shall be unable to update my online communications. Allah grant that my inbox not get overfull, yet contain loving epistles from those I hold dear, and that my laptop survive the trip with all its files and pieces intact. I ask for little more, save that you hold me in your hearts until my safe arrival on the seventeenth of August allows that I shall speak with thee once more.

2:12 a.m. 2003-08-06�