> Something I occasionally contemplate -- never for longer than eight or nine seconds at a time -- is the fact that nearly every single man-made object I see, every day, everywhere, has a schematic drawing of it filed away somewhere.

I am so glad to hear I'm not the only person who thinks this from time to time. :^) I don't know how this occurred to you, but in my case I was reading one of my art books a few years ago, and the author (the mega-ruling Mark Kistler) was saying that people have asked him to give a good reason why learning to draw is important, and he tells them that every invention EVER has to be drawn correctly before it can be patented and such. Shoes, CD cases, peanut butter jars, etc. I distinctly remember that this paragraph did much to impress my young artist brain.

Qua "I just realized I haven't seen you in ages. Hi!" rtz