That opening sentence was intended as my way of noting that I've finally gotten back on time with these postings. The idea was that my virtual clock was once again in sync with the date at the top of these columns. But then a different problem presented itself - since when are university deadlines anything other than virtual?
I've been a university student (at TAU) for three full years now. Some of my papers and projects were turned in to my professors on or before the date given at the beginning of the semester. With these I have no way of knowing whether missing the deadline would have resulted in anything other than virtual demerits. But with a number of other projects I've learned that, when it comes to deadlines, the university seems to have been in the forefront of virtual reality well before the term became popular.
Be that as it may, there's a certain undeniable satisfaction in knowing that the date given at the head of this column isn't a bluff.