Evening enormously more valuable than revising
Happy Birthday Chris YungMany thanks to Leonora and Lucy for inviting me over for a very enjoyable dinner party. It included excellent vegetarian pasta, wine, and the kind of superb company one hopes to encounter at Oxford. The gathering was the sort of Kitsilano basement suite event that was becoming standard among my more sophisticated friends during my last year at UBC. The contrast with an evening in a smoky pub is considerable, and the differences much appreciated. The other contrast - with a day spent orbiting between reading venues and guiltily checking email - likewise put me in a mood to especially appreciate the party. Meeting some more of Lucy and Leonora's friends was one of the nicest things I've done in Oxford for a long time. Hopefully, it shall not prove a lone occurrence.
For some reason, cycling home through a cold and recently inundated Oxford - after such an event - felt like a quintessentially graduate school experience.
Tomorrow will be my last day living in Wadham. That means I need to pack all the things that I use almost constantly. I also need to finish revising for my practice QT. In truth, I am nowhere near ready for the history segment. There is a huge amount to know about international history from 1900 to 1950, and it isn't anywhere so fresh in my mind as the theory from last term was. That said, if I write two theory papers and one on history, I should do well enough to not embarass myself too badly in front of my supervisor. It will also allow him to give me useful direction for the real exam on the 20th.
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Oh, and regarding the two disputed statements of fact from the party:
1) The line: "As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods.
They kill us for their sport." is from King Lear, as I thought. (IV, i) It's part of a discussion between Gloucester, Edgar, and an Old Man.
2) Regarding the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, I found this on Wikipedia:
"The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, codenamed Operation SATANIC, was a special operation by the "action" branch of the French foreign intelligence services, the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE), carried out on July 10, 1985. It aimed at disabling the flagship of Greenpeace, the Rainbow Warrior, in the port of Auckland, New Zealand, to prevent her from interfering in a nuclear test in Mururoa.
Fernando Pereira, a photographer, drowned on the sinking ship."
My belief that more than one person died was therefore mistaken.
The Wikipedia article on the sinking
Quite the international debacle, all told.
Neal sent this New Yorker article to me, and it's absolutely terrifying.
One certainly hopes that the United States is not planning to attack Iran. Furthermore, one hopes that if the administration is insane enough to be doing so, Congress will put a stop to it. Furthermore, one hopes that if Congress fails to do so, massive public pressure will. To me, it doesn't seem like this administration has the credibility to start another war.
Expect to read more about this soon. I need to get to sleep.
The high ISO graininess of this shot detracts less than it otherwise might, perhaps because the composition is so dark overall. A decent example of an essentially documentary photo with tolerable aesthetic appeal.
'For some reason, cycling home through a cold and recently inundated Oxford - after such an event - felt like a quintessentially graduate school experience.'
I so agree! As an Oxonian, I identify with many aspects of your writing. I got here via some random Oxford blog I cant seem to recall at the momemt.
Sean
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