Odds and Ends: A Ridiculously Long Post

Greetings, post-Christmas compatriots!

“I should write a blog post when I get home from Christmas break,” said I to myself; “I can perhaps write one per week, about all sorts of things,” said I to myself; “I definitely won’t forget, because I’ll have so much time,” said I to myself. Yet here we are; I go back to Moscow in two days; I am already grossly overusing the marvelous invention that is the semicolon; and I have not yet published anything! Funny how that always seems to happen.

But regardless, here we are! As usual this is going to be a rambling little post as I jot down all the updates I have about what’s been going on. (I’m sure one day, this blog will evolve into something productive and edifying. But I created it to keep “the folks at home” updated on my doings, so updates on my doings it shall remain for the time being.)

First of all: I am trying to add a subscription box to the homepage of this website and at the end of each post so that those who wish can get email notifications when I post. As it turns out, this is remarkably difficult (for me) to do in WordPress, so there might be a trial-and-error period. I seem to have finally found an add-on that is both free AND works well, so I will be testing it with this post using my own email. Hopefully it actually does do what I want it to.

Thankfully, my flights home from Moscow were completely uneventful. In fact, I think it might have been one of the smoothest trips I ever had: nothing was delayed, not even a little. All the employees I interacted with were in exceptionally good moods. I got my checked bag back in less than ten minutes (a truly spectacular record). Flying around the holidays, as the McCallisters have taught us well, is always likely to be fraught with all sorts of chaos: spectacular management failures, unplanned exercise in public places, and the ever-present possibility of ending up in New York where it becomes your Christian duty to prevent bad guys from robbing a toy store belonging to a nice man who’s superstitious about pretty little white birds (and, while you’re at it, spending 967 dollars on room service at the most expensive hotel in the state because you know your dad can pay for it later). But, thankfully, even though all those things are known to happen to innocent Americans, I escaped completely unscathed. I am truly glad that my travel experience did not contain any running, famous national landmarks, or criminals. I arrived safely at my destination, and a rather pretty destination it is indeed. Behold.

Overall, I would classify this Christmas break as “rather productive, what ho!” which is saying something! Usually Christmas break is spent laying around Doing Nothing™️, watching movies, playing card games, and staying in pajamas. And while this break contained those first three things in copious amounts, what it also had was enough Latin to satisfy even the most language-loving language lover who loves language lovingly. In the trek to move up to honors, I completed 9* chapters of Latin–enough to make it effundit e auribus mei. As it turns out, that was actually an excellent way to keep from atrophying over break, and I’m ready to jump in again! I also decided that it was high time I read up on some Baptist covenant theology, since I’m “up there among all them Presbyterians” but still solidly credobaptist. So I have been doing that as well, with books acquired from my erudite pater; first, Covenant and God’s Purpose for the World by Thomas Schreiner. An excellent read, highly reccomend. And currently I’m almost done with a PDF by Stephen Wellum, the name of which escapes me. I’ve printed out two of my syllabi, have started working on learning the solfège for my new choir pieces, and am contemplating what I shall write my next Lordship paper on. So: so far, so good.

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*Diligent readers will be saying to themselves: Aha! You said it was 12 chapters of Latin! You liar! Ah. So I did, so I did. This is because I hadn’t actually counted them before telling people the quantity, but instead relied upon the estimations of the honors students (who all told me either 10 or 12) instead of verifying for myself. It was indeed only 9, thought it certainly felt like 12.

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And, since it is in fact January, I ought to mention the topic of New Years’ Resolutions: a topic always fraught with half-truths, half-lies, half-baked ideas, and half-fulfilled plans. My NYR is simple: “Just do better.” If that phrase rings a bell, you probably know Mr. Esmond. He says it quite frequently. But after pondering these wise words so often directed at the soprano section of Chorale (if not the entire choir), I have come to a deep understanding of this truth: if you try hard to do well in all things, working for the Lord and not for man, then guess what happens? You just…do better! I have empirically tested this theory, in fact. Last term, I decided to make my motto “just do better”. I set myself goals: move up to honors Latin; receive an A on my Lordship term paper; make it into tier 1 of Rhetoric; learn how to sing well. Overall, I think it was a success: I am in fact moving up to honors Latin, and I have in fact learnt to sing well. I am still waiting to hear about my Rhetoric placement, so that could swing in either direction. Unfortunately, I did not make an A on my Lordship paper (in fact, my grade went down from term 1, which is very unfortunate!). However, it’s term 3, and lo and behold, another term paper is coming up. So, this time, I’ll strive to Just Do Better™️!

Well, I believe that about does it for my updates. But I’m not quite done yet, and you probably know what’s coming: some recommendations! They’re going to be a little bipolar today. I’m still in my classical music era and I’ve been listening repeatedly to my all-time favorite symphony–the New World Symphony by Dvorák (D’-vor-szhak). So, here is that. I also think it’s imperative that I share with you this Weird Al Yankovic song, Lasagna. My brother knows it by heart and can sing it rather impressively, Italian accent and all, which amuses us all family greatly.

https://open.spotify.com/album/6FMu88LoghMcmme2aDkK3S

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And, last but not least, a book recommendation: Laughing Gas by P. G. Wodehouse. This is my family’s newest Wodehouse acquirement, and it is hilarious. I read it over a few days and got many funny quotes from it; unfortunately, my commonplace book is downstairs, and I am upstairs. So, I’m sure you all understand on a soul level why I can’t share any of those lovely quotes with you at the moment.

Alrighty. Let’s see if I can get this subscribe box to work. I’d say “till next week” or something like that, except, I have no idea when I’ll make another post! It could be tomorrow. It could be next year. We never know.

Adios amigos!