Master Calligraphy and Blade

One of Musashi's teachings is that a samurai should be as deft with a sword as he is with the ink. Calligraphy tames and cools the mind, while swordplay heats it up, it's kind of like tempering a sword in that you must heat it, then cool it and continue until it becomes strong. Or at least that's my interpretation of his teaching. On that note I plan on writing a bit during the month of November due to it being some novel writing month. I figure that will be a nice relaxing de-stresser from the encroaching finals.

This morning at around 6:00 then again at 9:00 I took walks into local North Adams and it was really peaceful for a city. I can't explain it but it put my mind at rest (at least until a car came by). When i got back I checked Deviant Art and found that my friend Mr. Kosslick had created many new pieces of art on Correl painter. I find his work relaxing and inspiring, therefore I'm going to include some of his images in short stories I write this month. I will likely post them here so stay tuned.

Tomorrow I am dreading, I need to be ready to write a paper on on the Kennedy Tapes Concise Edition edited by Ernest R. May and Philip D. Zelikov. That book gave me a deep insight into the whole Cuban Missile Crisis which i appreciated, however the way they conveyed it (I know it is taped and 'unedited' etc.) just seemed like needless repetition. Every day they talked about the same thing, which I can appreciate, it just made for a slow read... and when you're already a slow reader it doesn't help. Though the discussions we have in that class make it worth it. I can fully understand the reading I've done and all the events that transpire, such as why the Cuban missile crisis was such a hot debate, and why we couldn't simply accept Kruschev's offer of trading Turkish missiles for Cuban ones. I think I've learned more from the discussion then from the book. Dr. Montgomery is an interesting old man indeed. To top that off, I have a Zoology exam on Phylums: Platyhelminthes, Nematoda, Annelida, Arthropoda, Mollusk, Echinodermata, and Chordata. It's a lot of material, I just need to look over Chordates since we only had one day to go over them. Immunology is also tomorrow and if I remember right we have a test in that class on Wednesday also. Boy it'll be a long morning.

I regret not spending this weekend as efficiently as I could have, if I had worked really hard, I could maybe have today off to write and work on my research proposal for next semester. I'm really exited to work with Noctiluca scintillans and learn all about it's bioluminescent properties under different conditions. Once I discover that I plan on expanding it to see when it bioluminesces, if that produces more toxins that affect red tide, and once that happens, I hope to discover if there's a correlation between high amounts of luminosity and high toxin levels. Being able to work on research/ writing would be a great relaxer, and if I had succeeded, I could break the college cycle of "Sunday slam-cram day," but I failed this weekend. Though I can, without a doubt finish all my work during the day, I just wish I could relax. Ah well, there's always next weekend... oh... wait, SKYRIM. Never mind.

Anyways, that's all for now, I'm hoping to write something later today if I finish my studies, so keep doing what you're doing.