Humanism, Carpe Diem, and Love for C.S. Lewis

Today was the first day of classes after the summer break; it's excellent to re-enter the world of academia. Both my French class (on contemporary France--current events and the like) and Humanities should be great.
The title of this post concerns this morning's lecture in Humanities, given by Dr. Randy Ingram of the English Department, who gave an introduction to the Renaissance and humanist thought before we began our first reading. He delivered a lecture full of enthusiasm, passion, and genuine enjoyment of the topics (or so it seemed). It is not easy to attain and hold the attention of eighty-odd college students whilst discussing Renaissance thinkers' fascination with antiquity or humanist motivations for study or other historical topics, unless the group of students are all personally interested in those areas of study. Nevertheless, Dr. Ingram managed to not only instruct the class, but he was also entertaining, making references to Chaucer's "The Miller's Tale" and The Colbert Report. I had a personal moment of glee when he quoted C. S. Lewis, but I enjoyed the entire lecture.

Clutter, Messes, and Stuff

I keep stuff. I have notes from French classes in high school, articles from theonering.net that I printed years ago, and enough fabric to clothe an army. My Mac isn't much better--so I have three Word documents for one essay, PDF articles from the Stone Age, and files for programs that I've uninstalled.

Although I can argue that the piles on the floor are "organized," the motto my mother taught me for years comes to mind as I survey the chaos. "A Place for Everything...and Everything in its Place" reverberates in my mind. A little creative clutter is good for some projects, but mentally it's difficult to function in an extremely messy space.

All this points to one thing--a determination to get tidy and stay tidy. It's sort of appalling how much stuff I have accumulated over the years. I read these "get organized" blogs--like Declutter It! and unclutterer, but the fact remains that reading blogs posts does NOT clean my room. It can give me ideas on how to be organized, but will not do my work for me. At the end of the day, I have to keep things tidy...not my computer.

I'll report on my progress (hopefully not lack therof) on the Great Get Organized Project. I'm working on implementing the principles of David Allen's Getting Things Done, so that should help as well.

My Apologies, Paired with news

First of all, I am appalled at myself that I have not posted in so long. I certainly planon improving my writing schedule to prevent this sort of extreme lapse in future.

That said, here are a few updates--

1. Hunter's blanket is 100% finished! I will be giving it to him next weekend (not the one in two days, the one after that) and plan on having a full photo shoot.
2. Sockapalooza 4 is partially wrapped up. I sent Michaela her socks and to my delight, they fit her well and she likes them. What a great ending! I'm still waiting on the socks from my pal, who did send me an entertaining email.
3. I'm soon to start another Harry Potter scarf. This will be my four (!) HP scarf, in Gryffindor colours for my little sister.
4. The manly socks for my younger brother are finished too--they fit him well. I hope to sneak in a photo session soon.


More to come soon...



[edited 13.03.08 to add photo of sock-in-progress. Sorry for the strangulation effect with the yarn twisted like it is -- the socks are in good health, I promise.]