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Day’s Verse:
“I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute.”
Luke 21:15
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Spending a quiet day wondering what the intercepts of y = .5x and y^2 = 8 – x are, and which line is on top, and what the graph looks like. No calculators allowed. Yesterday our tricky professor warned us of a quiz, threw us all into a panic, and then announced in class it would count for nothing. He seems to think he’s doing us a favor, too.
Ian is off to the doctor’s office again because his cough lingers and doesn’t seem to get any better. I keep worrying, although it’s about as effective as solving algebra by chewing bubble gum, and why chew bubble gum when a piece of cardboard soaked in sunscreen makes for long-lasting taste satisfaction?
Not to sound panicky, but in looking forward to Christmas I’ve managed to overlook the hurdles directly in front of me, namely, final exams. With two Calculus tests and a significant portion of my grade still in the balance for both classes, the next three weeks will prove crucial in the grade-earning department. Today 
Finally, finally, finally – and again I say, FINALLY some of our friends are going to be joining us in the happy state of Matrimony! 
I counted 31 live squirrels (and two dead ones) on my way to pick up developed pictures at L.B. Wheaton’s today. Earlier Ian and I had noticed, but failed to count, the vast number of squirrels out on the WPI campus and in Elm Park. We estimated that we saw at least 25 large-tailed rodents foraging, but now I have to revise that to at a minimum of 40. They seem to appear in pairs or triplets and scatter in opposite directions when you walk near them. Where do they come from? Where do they go? What are they doing in the leaf-litter? What would you do with one if you caught it? These questions will remain with the human race for as long as people and squirrels coexist.
I like this picture. It captures a childish innocence that we lose so easily growing up, finding that there are always More Important Things To Do than throw pinecones into a pond, build and destroy Lego creations, draw doodles on a page, read a picture book, hit things with sticks, go on a walk to look at the crawly bugs in the grass. Not that there’s anything wrong with such adult pursuits as reading a novel, watching a serious movie, gardening to keep plants alive (as opposed to digging up everything in sight), and so forth. This picture reminds that even the most stolid adult has some childlike attributes lurking within, and that perhaps even letting that silly innocence out occasionally might do the soul some good.
Yeah, that’s right! I got my word-count validated today, and I’m feeling very pleased with myself. Yes, I neglected my classes, friendships, responsibilities and exercise needs to write 50,000 words in less than 25 days, but now I have a webpage sticker to prove I did it – and, of course, a very classy certificate “signed” by NaNoWriMo founder Chris Baty. I also took a 
WPI is empty. Everybody has gone home to the warm fuzzy feeling that comes from eating too much with a group of close relatives, followed by falling asleep in front of a TV displaying heavily muscled men bashing into each other over a little ball. What could be a more all-American holiday than one constructed entirely around gorging oneself? Although of course Fourth of July runs a close second, in which we sit around lighting things on fire, then oooohhh and aaaaahhhhh over the (expensively) beautiful results.