Grendel's Lair: December 2007

Friday, December 28, 2007

finally

I'm done with grad school apps!

(now the silent months of waiting)

FYI, I applied to
University of Missouri-Columbia
Oklahoma State University
Oklahoma University
University of Tennessee-Knoxville
Florida State University
Purdue University (West Lafayette)

Thursday, December 27, 2007

IM

Elphaba1452 (4:59:33 PM): i lost

Elphaba1452 (4:59:34 PM): again

CATapultNate (5:00:36 PM): why did you lose?

Elphaba1452 (5:01:03 PM): i don't knonw

Elphaba1452 (5:01:05 PM): know*

Elphaba1452 (5:01:12 PM): spontaneous loseation?

oh, joanna and my ramblings are now up under the blog under my links called "Philosophy with Joanna". Gadflies welcome.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all you poets, artists, comic-fans, robert-fans, sherwood-fans, Macy's wrappers, gerbil-story writers, Randians, Woolfians, and sesquipedalians. (I think that covers everyone who reads this blog . . .)

I had my first flying dream last night.

Nathan fugit.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Returned

15 hours each way to Colorado
5 days at Pagosa Springs
4 days of skiing
2 days of altitude sickness
1 terrifying nightmare since childhood
& lots of fun

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Christmas Break

I'm going skiing this week. No facebook or gmail for seven days.
Can you human beings conceive of such a thing?
~Beowulfish

Grendel's FoodPoem of the Month

The Wood-Pile

Out walking in the frozen swamp one gray day,
I paused and said, "I will turn back from here.
No, I will go on farther -- and we shall see."
The hard snow held me, save where now and then
One foot went through. The view was all in lines
Straight up and down of tall slim trees
Too much alike to mark or name a place by
So as to say for certain I was here
Or somewhere else: I was just far from home.
A small bird flew before me. He was careful
To put a tree between us when he lighted,
And say no word to tell me who he was
Who was so foolish as to think what he thought.
He thought that I was after him for a feather --
The white one in his tail; like one who takes
Everything said as personal to himself.
One flight out sideways would have undeceived him.
And then there was a pile of wood for which
I forgot him and let his little fear
Carry him off the way I might have gone,
Without so much as wishing him good-night.
He went behind it to make his last stand.
It was a cord of maple, cut and split
And piled -- and measured, four by four by eight.
And not another like it could I see.
No runner tracks in this year's snow looped near it.
And it was older sure than this year's cutting,
Or even last year's or the year's before.
The wood was gray and the bark warping off it
And the pile somewhat sunken. Clematis
Had wound strings round and round it like a bundle.
What held it though on one side was a tree
Still growing, and on one a stake and prop,
These latter about to fall. I thought that only
Someone who lived in turning to fresh tasks
Could so forget his handiwork on which
He spent himself, the labor of his ax,
And leave it there far from a useful fireplace
To warm the frozen swamp as best it could
With the slow smokeless burning of decay.

Robert Frost

Grendel's Lair