repetition

For say a foolish thing but oft enough
(And here's the secret of a hundred creeds,
Men get opinions as boys learn to spell,
By re-iteration chiefly,) the same thing
Shall pass at last for absolutly wise

Aurora Leigh (book six, lines 4-8) by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

bundled

Since Winter has us in her strong grasp and seems not to care to let go any time soon (after all, the groundhog did see his shadow), bundling up in sweaters and scarves and hats and mitts and coats and boots and all the other assorted miscellany that comprises our defence with which we arm ourselves in order that we might survive the cold often can be viewed as a tedious necessity.
But why do circumstances have to be considered merely tedious? This picture is a simple example that those tedious items can be as beautiful as they are useful.

hollow honesty

Men who are thoroughly false and hollow, seldom try to hide those vices from themselves; and yet in the very act of avowing them, they lay claim to the virtues they feign most to despise. 'For,' say they 'this is honesty, this is truth. All mankind are like us, but they have not the candor to avow it.' The more they affect to deny the existence of any sincerity in the world, the more they would be thought to possess it in its boldest shape; and this is an unconscious compliment to Truth on the part of these philosophers, which will turn to laugh against them to the Day of Judgement.

excerpt from Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens

hair

While I was home for reading week, I got a haircut. I don't usually bother too much with things like that since my hair is curly and a cut that I've paid for looks the same as one I've given myself once the magic worked into the styling after the cut works off. But a friend of the family has been cutting my mom's and my brother's hair for a while now and I thought I might as well take the opportunity when I had it. I had also been considering the possibility of some sort of bang since my forehead is rather higher than not and any means of covering the face could be seen as an improvement.

So I got a haircut. I really like the result. Not only does it look nice straight but also has a nice shape when curly. Our friend cut a short layer near my face that could act as a bang but also pulled back at times when I don't have time to take care of it.

My mom commented at the time that it makes me look older and in reply a friend commented that it rather made me look more my age. I suppose that could be a good thing but afterwards I have been pondering whether I shall have to start acting my age now that I can't fool people so much. Hmm.

But I really do like pretty much everything about this new haircut and was not even pained by the sight of the many inches of hair that littered the floor when I stepped away from the chair.

Happy Valentine's Day

Morning Glory

The flower that often does not even last the day. Yet it displays such beauty for the short period it has been given.

my major

Music or English Lit?
I spent last evening talking music with a couple music majors and other music lovers and found myself wishing that I had become a music major. On reflection, however, I am happy that I decided to follow English and keep music as a hobby. It is a hard decision what we want to do in life. Who knows, I may have been able to go through for performance and make music my life but I didn't. I love being able to have music always there to go to. It's my retreat when other things just get to be too much. I don't know but that if I had it as my central activity I would not look at it the same way. In the way that I have occasonally found that books I liked previously were occasionally ruined by studying them in class. Now this isn't always the case so perhaps I would find a deeper connection with my music than I have now.
I don't know. All I know is that I didn't chose that path but I am happy that I am able to dabble in music still. On the side is better than not at all.

Colour

Life has presented a rather monochromatic hue the past little while. Many people talk of the winter blahs and give many causes for this effect. One of the main ones for me is the lack of sunlight and colour. Today I went to school wearing my fun yellow hat that always reminds me of the beach along with other light and bright articles of clothing and accessories and it worked: my friends commented that I looked like summer (and no, we know no one by that name). So I have decided to attempt something similar with this blog and dress it in some bright colours reminiscent of summer.



I would like to note in closing that none of the pictures were changed in any way. The smokebush leaves are that colourful on their own (with the late-afternoon sunlight filtering through). It's so beautiful.

On Reading

Or else I sate on in my chamber green,
And lived my life, and thought my thoughts, and prayed
My prayers without the vicar; read my books,
Without considering whether they were fit
To do me good. Mark, there. We get no good
By being ungenerous, even to a book,
And calculating profits, - so much help
By so much reading. It is rather when
We gloriously forget ourselves and plunge
Soul-forward, headlong, into a book's profound,
Impassioned for its beauty and salt of truth -
'Tis then we get the right good from a book.

-Elizabeth Barret Browning: Aurora Leigh 1.698-709

Ferns

Since flikr has decided to throw me off the free ride and disabled my 'pro' account (one unhappy result of which is that one may only see the last 200 pictures--which change is rather worse than a decimation of my 7,000+ pictures) because I had been with them too long without paying, I shall be posting pictures perhaps a little more regularly than I have recently (which isn't really saying much...).

So after that overly-complex sentence, I shall let the picture speak for itself.