Who says a sense of self is meaningless when faced with eternal and utter void? The hamster, (who was called Cathedral and was a recently converted Zen Paganist, although he was yet to learn what this meant) had been practising his insouciant wiggle for some time. The rearrangement of matter can be a very interesting/occupying/validating thing for some people, and they should do it more,if it means they don't go 7 out of 11 mad! NEVER THINK MORE THAN SEVEN AND EVERYTHING WILL BE OK / put down the diazepams.