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July 29, 2005
A Good Day
The heatwave has broken, but it is still close enough in memory that normal¹ summer weather is appreciated. After a morning expedition to Cub, where I purchased provisions for the upcoming Boundary Waters adventure, I took the Maicoletta to school. After a half hour of "settling in" work, it was time for the Grillin' Thursdays barbecue outside the CLA-OIT offices. This barbecue was especially nice because it featured root beer floats.
Over the remainder of my root-beer float, I looked over the third paper I am to revise for my Masters. The DGS had given me instructions to make only the corrections the instructor asked for. I was happy to see that on this third paper the suggestions were very minor indeed.²
After a few hours of work, it was time for a farewell round of snack bar appetizers, Sprite, and free bowling in the basement of Coffman. It was a little disappointing to see only a few of my peer Fellows there, but the few who showed had an excellent time. I bowled an 85 the first line, placing me 17 pins behind an extremely close battle between two other novices. I nearly doubled my score in the second line to a respectable 166 and left my competition well back. I chose to quit while on top.
After a short nap, I packed a box of tools and then got an itch to start preparing for the trip north. After I shop-vacced the leaves that had long since fallen into Biscuits & Gravy's air-intake at the base of the windshield, I retrieved the Yakima box from the rafters and installed it. Seeing the Canoe Country Outfitters sticker on it made me happy. I inflated the car tires and checked the oil. In between these tasks, I buttoned up various parts of the spare engine in preparation for moving. I will have a busy week when I return, but the excitement of moving on and returning to the West is breathing much-needed fresh air into my lungs.
¹ As a wise town father once commented, "there is no such thing as a normal year: it is always hotter, cooler, wetter, etc. than "normal."
² As Roomie points out, this might prove to be less than fortunate. It will be hard to show that I put much effort into this particular revision.
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July 27, 2005
Interest
One of my many rules of thumb is that if I have a thought, I reckon it is pretty likely that someone else has had the same one earlier. That is what college (and seemingly, especially art school) is for: to show you that all the really good ideas have been taken and made into famous books, movies, or paintings. Lately, I have been noticing that when people I know are living interesting lives, their blog posts become less interesting. So I have been posting less in the hope that someone will be deceived into thinking that, perhaps, that I have been busy doing interesting things. I have not. Except, perhaps, this.
Mostly, I have been working on rewrites of two term papers for my early-exit Master's degree. A third paper has yet to be addressed. One of the papers was fairly decent to begin with; it required either (a) only a little work to make it presentable and decent or (b) a lot more work to really make it something (e.g. conference paper, journal article). In retrospect, had I been able to start out on the path that that paper was taking me, I might have been a much happier camper at the U. Alas, it is behind me now. As I explained recently to a friend, I may yet find myself in another PhD or JD program somewhere, but not now. I am thinking artist. Or writer. Or skydiver. Something that will really strike terror into my parents (it never gets old).
A friend of mine is one of two musically / artistically inclined children. He says that he is keeping his straight job just long enough for his sister to graduate college and begin her "meteoric" rise as an engineer.¹ I think he reckons that one self-sufficient or moderately successful child out of two is a 50% per cent success rate. My parents would be thrilled with 50%: they have been limping along with 25% for some time now.
¹ This commonly-used metaphor means just the opposite of what is intended. In what direction do meteors always travel? And what happens to them?
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July 24, 2005
Purgatory Revisited
Number of hours it takes for the dark circles under my eyes and the pallid, horrified demeanor to return to my face when confronted once more with writing academic work: less than 24.
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July 22, 2005
Busy
Busy. Purging. Myself. Of a paper rewrite.
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July 18, 2005
Perfect
It has been very hot and very humid here recently. Fortunately, a thunderstorm blew through last evening, ushering in much cooler weather. The ride in today was a joy of which I have too seldom enjoyed this season.
The cooler weather has inspired me to chase down a few necessary items for one of the paper revisions I have to finish in the next few weeks.
This is all good news
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