(no subject)

icky long day. I went to bed around 2am and woke up around 7:30, and was completely unable to go back to sleep. Then when I got to class I realised that I had forgotten the notes I had written while reading the assignment, and I *know* there were half a dozen points I wanted to make that I forgot to because I didn't have my notes.

In addition, the subject of my American Romanticism class today was Emerson's essay "Experience", by far the most gloomy of the lot. Emerson appears to have taken his wonderful philosophy to its furthest logical conclusion and does not like what he finds. The whole essay has the feeling of being written by a man who is depressed to the point of numbness and utterly lost and terrifed by the uncertainty of the world around him, aware that it is his own philosophy that has stripped the protective veil of ignorance from his eyes. This, of course, had the effect of making me think too hard on subjects better left for another time.

mmirabilis, I'm sorry I didn't see you at the library, but harkalark called and we had tea before he had to go to his meeting and I to work.

I am also behind in the reading schedule I set for myself, although not by much. I had planned to get at least some of Hawthorne done last night, but I didn't. I will finish it here at work, I'm sure. That leaves me with a 1-page reaction paper to write and about 60 pages of Spenser. I'll probably try to do the paper tonight after work, since it's on Emerson/Hawthorne. I'm a little frustrated because I'm not exactly sure what she wants in these things -- she seems to expect more than can be adequately expounded in one page but is insistent on the limitation.

Tomorrow I need to ride the bike into campus and figure out the best route to take, as well as timing the trip so I know what to expect when I actually ride in for classes. And I will also have to read Spenser. Plus, it'd be *really* nice if I got to spend some time with my girlfriend . . .

The semester has barely started and already this schedule is wearing on me. I've got to come up with a more efficient way of doing this stuff.

Definitions

I started doing this last semester and it was helpful, not to mention some people here got a kick out of some of them.

So here is the first in a series of definitions of words that I came across in my readings that were either unfamiliar, or that I had an incomplete understanding of what they meant.

conchology: (n) The science or study of shells and shell-fish.

vaticination: (n) 1. A prediction of an oracular or inspired nature; a prognostication or prophecy, a prophetic utterance or forecast.
2. The action or fact of vaticinating; the utterance of predictions or prophecies; also the power or gift of this.
3. (obs) Divine or inspired apprehension or knowledge; intuition, insight.

valetudinarian: (n) A person in weak health, esp. one who is constantly concerned with his own ailments; an invalid

ferule: (n) (also ferula) 1. A genus of plants; the giant fennel.
2. A cane, rod, or other instrument of punishment, esp. a flat piece of wood (from the use of the fennel-stalk in Roman times)
3. (fig) school discipline

copestone: (n) The top or head stone of a building, usually used figuratively: the crown, completion, or finishing touch.

firkin: (n) A small cask for liquids, fish, butter, etc., originally containing a quarter of a 'barrel' or half a 'kilderkin'.