Belated Happy New Year and all that Jazz....

Currently in Earphones: American and British Folk Songs sung by the Westminster Choir


So winter break is drawing to a close, and what a break it was! The events in no particular order...

- I started to gather supplies to create a few bookshelves for my room in the Bay, and I'm currently waiting for the weather to dry out before I actually put them together.

- My lovely girlfriend came up to visit and we spent a number of days sightseeing.

- Christmas saw a good amount of loot. Damn I got a lot of CD's!

- I went and saw Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience. My inner six year old was rejuvenated.

- My last grandparent died and my dad flew across the country to be with my aunt. The small glimmer of fun was that I helped him pick out a traveling laptop. That's life for you, I guess.

- I got a lovely pile of new books to read for pleasure, and more are on the way. This will come in handy because...

- I learn that the power is out in Davis due to these crazy storms we've been having. I'm actually somewhat titillated at the thought of using candles, but I bet it'll get old quick. At least it'll only be for a few days.

- I have gotten crazy hooked on The Wire. BEST DAMN SHOW EVER.


Yeah, that about covers it. Back to Davis and dear Academia soon.


Enough, More Later.
- James

Cruzin' right along (100th post!)

Currently in Earphones: "O Cecita de misero mortale" Oratorio by Luigi Rossi

The new beta version of Blogger is nifty in that it tells you upfront how many posts you have, and this one will be the 100th. Happy number...reaching...thing, then.

Christmas was a good haul, I now have a FRIKIN' HUGE external hard drive (500 gb) to store all of my musical goodness and then some. Also got recordings of the above mentioned (and hard to find) Oratorio and the Levin Completion of Mozart's Requiem. Some good books as well, the informative (but dry) "Latin Sexual Vocabulary" and two of Ian Fleming's 007 novels (Casino Royale and Thunderball).

Hope to hang out with some more old friends before I leave. I'm a little saddened that a few of my friends haven't returned my calls, and hope that I'll at least be able to catch up over the phone while I'm still in the bay.

I haven't touched my Story of Swords for a while; I seemed to have lost the drive after drafting the initial duel for the final chapter. Rest assured, my creative juices will flow again, but I'm caught between wanting to finish a first draft and wanting to fill all the holes in what I have. Plus, I've got a mess of presents to play with/listen to/read, so my mind probably won't be on the story for a few days yet. I'll see if I can't flesh out the next chapter in the next few days, but don't be surprised if I don't have it up until the end of the break.

In terms of my own emotional well being, I find that merely having opportunities is enough to lift me from my foolish stupor. It's good to know there are still those who are interested in you, or at least are willing to talk with you after extended periods of no communication. Suffice to say, I've equalized a bit since my last post, but I'm still unsure where all of this will lead.

As a final thought, I've realized how much of a double-edged sword being cryptic is. On one hand, one disguises their words in order to not be blunt, and to not communicate to hidden eyes and ears that which you don't want spread around. On the other hand, in ensuring that your message is obscure enough to be discarded by the masses, you run the risk of it being misinterpreted, confused or discarded by the party you intend it to be for.

In the end, however, it is usually as Virgil says, "Audentes Fortuna iuvat" - Fortune favors the brave.

Enough, More Later.
- James