Fun with Exams

I just took an Intro to Philosophy exam mostly dealing with the problem of evil, and managed to quote Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and John Milton's Paradise Lost in the same essay.

Spring Break pt.3 Final Notes

As with past breaks, I have done a minor portion of the things I could have done. I am going to be positive, and think about what I did do, however.
I partied with friends, and took a few walks outside.
I read Paradise Lost:

And Frankenstein:

I also read an excerpt by Alexis de Tocqueville from Democracy in America and T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land and Burnt Norton:

I baked and cooked a lot, including a really yummy Chicken Pot Pie:
Bread

Bread

 And Pie

I found daffodils while wandering around barefoot behind the college!

I pulled out my inner Tesla and created a simple mechanism for flicking the light switch without getting out of bed:

I saw a lovely bird out of the window:

A Yellow Flicker, I think.

I left out a couple of things to keep from boring anyone.
And, and the time of this writing, I have not been stung by this wasp!

Happy studies!

Fresh Bread

I baked a second loaf today, and tried really really hard to not cut into it until it was cool. I forced myself to finish Book 6 of Paradise Lost before I cut into it, and then the battle was over. No pun intended.*

The salt to flour ratio was better this time, the last one was a bit blah. Maybe measuring things would be a good idea.

Also, I tweaked the blog around a bit, which you might have noticed. It's the general look that I wanted, though I want to change some of the colors around a bit.

*Book 6 contains the recounting of the battle between the rebelling angels and God.

Spring Break pt.2

Monday being a friend's day off work, we decided to have lunch together down the mountain, and then spend the afternoon wandering around the town. Lunch was Five Guys. They certainly know how to make a hamburger. 

 We went over the walking bridge, and stopped to take in the view. The other Chris doesn't like his picture taken.

 Down in Coolidge Park we jumped on to the statues/gargoyles by the carousel. I was on a lion as well.

 Sam likes turtles. 

 The Hunter Museum from across the river. I still think the addition looks like a wart on the original stately mansion.

 I think they should start a boy band if they are going to stand around like that.

 We found this interesting mural across the river. Chris thinks Tesla is the coolest, and wanted his picture with him. Better planning on my part would have been to take a picture with the whole series.

There it is in its entirety. It's basically the history of the Mac or any iGadget. I think it might have been intended to be the history of the computer, but there is an obvious bias toward Apple, no? Notice the almost iconic* halo around Steve Jobs. Chris was explaining information entropy in the picture, in which Claude Shannon had done ground breaking work.

To make up for the lightly awkward picture of Chris, I leave you with this nicer one. We are on our way back across a different bridge.

Before going back, we decided to stop at All Books, a used bookstore that sells a lot more than books. The proprietress is Miss Polly, an old lady who spins and knits at the store. There are a lot of knitted and crocheted hats and things for sale, and the entire space is crammed full of yarn and fabric and wool and books. It has a lot of atmosphere, but not a lot of room.
We wandered around for a bit more, and then traveled back up the mountain.

* A representation of some sacred personage, in painting, bas-relief, or mosaic, itself regarded as sacred, and honoured with a relative worship or adoration.-OED

Frankenstein, String, and Laziness

What do you do when you want to read on a top bunk, but don't want to have to clamber down to turn the night off? I don't know about you, but I made an INVENTION! Cue thunder and lighting. It don't help that I am reading Frankenstein.

I attached some string and sticky tack to the light switch. The sticky tack keeps the string in place, otherwise, 

it would slide off before the switch was done turning.

Then, I ran the string down to a pushpin in the carpet on the wall. Yes, I have carpet on the wall. I'm not sure

why, but the makers apparently thought that a dorm room is just not the same without a lot of carpet.

The string ended at a magnet stuck to the heater right by my bed. 

All I have to do is pull, and the light is out!

Necessity, and a little dose of laziness, is the mother of invention!

Spring Break pt. 1

After a push through the last four days of midterms, I made it to Spring Break! 

Saturday morning, the sun broke over the mountains the mountains. It's hard to grasp the grandeur of a scene like that with a camera.

 The best part was opening the window and seeing the blanket of snow. I had no idea it had happened.

The snow stays on the grass a lot longer than the paths because the ground hasn't frozen yet.

 This tree needs a few ornaments.

 I went for an excursion, and found this little sitting area I had never seen before.

I also found a hollow tree, which is pretty cool.

After running to get groceries, I decided in a fit of passion to make a sourdough starter. It turned out pretty well, I think.

It smells good too. I hope it didn't sour too much. I let it sit over night, and all day. The bowl wouldn't fit in the refrigerator, but I had a ready solution. I haven't turned the heat on yet in the room all break, so I just popped the window a crack and left it to chill in my room while I went to church.