...oops.

Keep a blog, they said.

It'll make you a better writer, they said.

Good for discipline, they said.

In defiance of everything 'they' have said, I appear to be just as undisciplined as ever. Which is fine with me! Except when I saw the little 'tropes and trilobites' bookmark in my browser every time I snuck some time on tumblr between exams last quarter, and then I felt guilty.

See, dear reader? I had pangs of conscience over this! I'm not entirely irresponsible in writing.

And to be honest, the irresponsibility here was a direct result of trying not to be irresponsible  elsewhere. I refer, of course, to my research. I applied for a grant (lots of tears involved), and got it, and had to make a poster (even more tears, never use Photoshop for ANYTHING important ever, got it?) and managed to display it and it all was very shiny and scientific and there were a lot of pictures like this:

And then there were a lot of other pictures of dissections of sharks and so on, because I finally sat down and took one of the labs offered by one of the most difficult professors at the college, and it completely ate my life. My housemates grew used to me pacing up and down the hall of our apartment muttering in Latin under my breath as I tried to memorize the nerves and circulatory system of a singularly odiferous dogfish.

After ten weeks of wailing and gnashing of pens, winter break started. To say that the beginning of it was less than peaceful would be like saying I was slightly vexed last quarter when the fire alarm went off the night before my eight am final while I was in the shower.

Unlike my inpromptu bathrobe fashion show, however, the beginning of winter break was productive. I finally got to go see the HMS Surprise.

Best Christmas present ever. I spent hours squeeing over her. We spent more time on her than in our hotel room. I was a happy puppy.

And then Les Miserables came out and I was an even happier puppy. Go see it if you haven't seen it already...

After that, this break has been one long blur of glorious sloth. I woke up at about 11 this morning, and realized exactly how useless I had been, and my conscience smote me. So I had to face the blog once more.