Commence

I.
My first thought was, he lied in every word,
That hoary cripple, with malicious eye
Askance to watch the workings of his lie
On mine, and mouth scarce able to afford
Suppression of the glee, that pursed and scored
Its edge, at one more victim gained thereby.

IV.
For, what with my whole world-wide wandering,
What with my search drawn out thro' years, my hope
Dwindled into a ghost not fit to cope
With that obstreperous joy success would bring,
I hardly tried now to rebuke the spring
My heart made, finding failure in its scope.

VII.
Thus, I had so long suffered in this quest,
Heard failure prophesied so oft, been writ
So many times among "The Band'' - to wit,
The knights who to the Dark Tower's search addressed
Their steps - that just to fail as they, seemed best,
And all the doubt was now - should I be fit?

XV.
I shut my eyes and turned them on my heart.
As a man calls for wine before he fights,
I asked one draught of earlier, happier sights,
Ere fitly I could hope to play my part.
Think first, fight afterwards - the soldier's art:
One taste of the old time sets all to rights.

XXXII.
Not see? Because of night perhaps? - Why, day
Came back again for that! Before it left,
The dying sunset kindled through a cleft:
The hills, like giants at a hunting, lay,
Chin upon hand, to see the game at bay, -
"Now stab and end the creature - to the heft!"

XXXIII.
Not hear? When noise was everywhere! It tolled
Increasing like a bell. Names in my ears
Of all the lost adventurers my peers, -
How such a one was strong, and such was bold,
And such was fortunate, yet, each of old
Lost, lost! one moment knelled the woe of years.

XXXIV.
There they stood, ranged along the hill-sides, met
To view the last of me, a living frame
For one more picture! in a sheet of flame
I saw them and I knew them all. And yet
Dauntless the slug-horn to my lips I set,
And blew. "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came."

Priorities

Yes, it's true that I took one of my last finals yesterday morning, the course for which contained some of the most useful concepts I have picked up in my last "four" years in school. It's also true that tomorrow morning I have an exam testing my knowledge of all the music theory and harmony that I've been learning all year; a 15-minute exam promises to be extremely stressful and compact. Finally, it's also true that my last college final ever is the day after tomorrow. More importantly, however, is the following: I finally tried Alice's suggestion (from Amy Xu) to peel an orange in one of those bags from fly-by tonight, and boy, did it work!



In other extremely important news-

1) I'm finally going to re-tie myself to the stability ball tomorrow and get in at least one more pilates session for old times' sake. I sure hope Christina is there, but it's really more about how I feel after a good workout than anything else. Right...

2) I took some shots over the course of a day to show the blooming of one of the lily buds. I definitely wasn't expecting it to be so quick, though:


3) I'M GONNA GRADUATE!!!

137 pages is nothin'

Heroic Computer Dies to Save World From Master's Thesis
Some things were never meant to be seen by the world. Sometimes, they aren't, thanks to the courageous efforts of a special few. Other times, they get prefaced with a picture from a Stephen King book and get seen way too many times. Incidentally, I've noticed that I passed the 1000-view marker. Thank you to all my readers (and ctrl-R)!

In the attempt to "unfold" some mysteries last week, I briefly sojourned into the world of origami and paper folding, only to realize that there was a good reason I never really caught on to the pastime (clumsy fingers, lack of skill or patience). But some of the structures that people manage to come up with win my admiration nonetheless, including this one made by folding and scoring with a ballpoint pen. I'll stick to paper airplanes (which I still have yet to master, anyway).




Finals have officially begun. Good luck, everyone.

Es ist genug

There's simply no other way to describe it - the weather is ... glorious today. After weeks of diluvian floods, seeing the sun come through this morning is like waking up in an entirely different world. One where it doesn't rain every freaking day. Even if the rain comes back later, this is a striking symbol of how all the metaphorical clouds have either begun breaking or will soon part. The papers are done, the composition was written (and performed; thanks to Tom, Frank, Savi, and Alex for being my ringers), the tests will soon be over, and then before I know it friends will be getting married, coming back into the country, and graduating along with me.


From the ashes a fire shall be woken
A light from the shadows shall spring
Renewed shall be blade that was broken
The crownless again shall be king.

(I can't believe this actually happened - it was too bad that for all the time I spent on it I didn't come up with a huge amount of material, but it was nice to know that what I did produce sounded decent enough to elicit some compliments from a few sufficiently pleased people. Next time, though, I better be slightly more prepared before I step into unfamiliar territory like this. It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door...)




Last night, as I had the privilege of attending a truly impressive recital, I missed the second screening of my Quasar slideshow and their end-of-year banquet. It was probably better for me to have missed the movie screening (what was I thinking?? I totally deserve that award ;p), but I can't believe how indebted I am to the frisbee gods for this entire year. I wonder if I have another poem in me...

There's so much to look forward to; for now, though, the sun is out, so you know what that means:

Dizzy Izzy

After a three-hour season finale, the writers of Grey's Anatomy succesfully achieved their goal of making me lose interest in the show. I can understand their desire to inject tension and excitement into the script, but I think they could have recognized the danger of making the plot so climactic as to become anticlimactic. It wasn't that much fun to walk in on the first hour of the finale and see Izzy screaming like she'd completely lost her mind, which she had. Then again, it kind of was fun to realize that there's no possible way these people would want to stay on the show with scripts like these, which might explain why they have to die or quit in the finale. In short, the comedic sections were a little lethargic, and the dramatic sections were so forced as to be hilarious, so I guess a good time was had by all. I never see her filling the role of doctor, but watching sassy Dr. Bailey always makes it worthwhile.

This saturday we had a mini-K'03 reunion for those of us who were graduating. Morgan and Bill provided a nice little supplies for us and were really great all weekend. If Gabronkus asks, you can tell him that Ben, Rex's, and my decision to wait until '06 to graduate was all so that this could take place at one time. What's under here? (*crash*)

Hemlock woolly aldegid

Congratulations to Caitlin for a pimped up thesis. With massive supporters and a captivating presentation, she kept the multitude of questioners enthralled on Thursday with nothing but the power of the Pemi.


I'm glad that the all-elusive Mystery of the Two Flowers is all but solved. The birthday gifts are going through some interesting transformations in the meantime:



So many layers to this mystery...

The elephant in the room

After the delirium of the weekend and the slew of unexpected gifts that I received (when am I going to find out who they were from? I only have one clue so far, and it's not enough), I had the unexpected pleasure of going to the Fete. After getting one last surprise in the mail, I headed over the Eliot last night, where ice sculptures and chocolate fountains awaited.

This box contains an overflow of girl- and man-crushes. It might be a little too much, actually.

Awww... I know it's not her, but still - cute, no?


Thanks so much to Jen for an awesome time!

The band was actually quite good, and it was a shame when the cops came in to bust up our swinging-dixieland-jazzfest which was apparently out of control. Hopefully all that great music was enough to fuel me for the next few days, during which I better live, eat, and breathe Music 51 if I want to get out of here.

Was it awesome?

Forgot to mention a nice dinner a Kaya in Porter Square with HTKD. I wasn't at all expecting the generosity that they showed me, and I'm both grateful for the way they accepted me this semester and proud of what I've accomplished in so little time. I hope hope hope that I can keep it up wherever I am next year!


I think the most amazing thing about this weekend simply the fact that at 6:15 this morning, I actually woke up (on the futon, in someone else's common room, curled up with a big elephant, wearing the suit from last night), got out on the river, and rowed in a race. Despite the crabs I kept catching, and the vague feeling of nausea, I think it was all worthwhile.





...yes, yes it was.

Something strange...

flowers
Originally uploaded by tcha.

This year, I thought I would try to surprise
A few special people with anonymous gifts
But someone (someones?) has taken my guise
And decided to show me how awesome it is

To have such good friends
Who make birthdays great.
(And as this one ends,
with luck, they await!)

We're gonna have a good time

Maybe it's because the sunlight woke me up early today, and 8AM on a Sunday is making me a little groggy; maybe it's because there are a few obvious connections that somehow don't fit as well as they should; but for the first time all semester, I'm completely baffled. Whose work is this? Now I understand the handwriting surveys and "Thank you...?" emails that I've gotten in the last few months (but in case you wondered, it doesn't match up with anything I have, although it's vaguely familiar. And how did you get into the U? And what time was it, anyway?)


Oh well.

You're awesome!

Ready all, row!

Scattered through what was probably the most stressful academic week I've experienced this semester were little shining pieces of kabbalistic sparks that I've gathered together in order to repair the cosmic order. I guess you had to be there.

The previous weekend served as a nice gathering of salt that would later be poured on the wound of the work week to come, giving me a huge hangover and putting off until tomorrow (today, actually) what I should have done today (last weekend). My first tkd party had a slow start until I had the audacity to take on the first mission. I guess I thought they would be funny-embarrassing, not embarrassing-embarrassing.


Funny-embarrassing came later that weekend, with the annual donning of fat suits, eating of pretzel dogs, and listening of Ben Folds in Harvard Yard.


As the person I empathize with most on the show, I'm glad George is finally getting some pouncing and can spend the day with a smile on his face. But what's all this tension with Izzie? That's not supposed to be there. And anyway, she's got her own problems.

Many things came to an end this week: my last Psychology of Leadership coaching group meeting, my last lecture ever, last Leverett crew race (maybe) ever, and the last day in the life of LL. It's all been an absurd amount of fun, enough so that I'm glad I lived the way I did this semester in spite of whatever I might have given up. I mean, come on: how can I not be this content when people will celebrate my birthday three days in advance?