30 III 2002 - 14:03 - trivialis34

Whoo. Here are a couple of updates on the calendar entry:

-China accepted the Gregorian calendar in 1949, when the Communists took over. Which means that the Nationalist government (yay Taiwan, R.O.C., oops, there's a huge scandal about foreign ministry expenses) must have adopted the Julian calendar when it was formed in 1911.

-The Orthodox church uses the Julian calendar only to calculate its festivals. Not adopting the Gregorian calendar in other contexts is (I think) punishable by excommunication except for in the Patriarchy of Constanstinople (Istanbul), which is why those monasteries on Mt. Athos in Greece are still allowed to use the Julian calendar in everyday life. So. Orthodox church: uses Gregorian every day, makes its astronomers sit down with the Julian.

I went to Green Apple Books today - bought a Chicago Manual of Style (14th ed. used - happy happy happy) and an HTML book. I also got a geologic history of Middle California (SF Bay region) for two dollars (discounted from fourteen). I narrowly prevented myself from getting Fowler's Modern English Usage, 2nd ed.; Ovid's Metamorphoses, 1971 reprint from 1590ish plates - one of the early English editions; a good Latin dictionary. However. These things are still available! Go and get them now! (And Tiff, they're having a sale on Klimt books. You might want to see that.)

Today: sort of unproductive so far. I fell asleep last night while taking a break from practicing and didn't get up until this morning. I discovered - although not strictly today - that the pesky overarching why-am-I-here-I-don't-deserve-to-be-here guilt is foreign to quite a few people. Suppose I knew that but trying to explain it brought me closer to that. I also sent (hair-raising) some short-short (<400 wds.) trash I'd written and some poems (trash as well) to my English teacher, ask her to read and see if there's anything worth salvaging for the school "literary magazine."

Read more slash, watched more episodes of Buffy, thought vaguely about doing Latin and history homework. Cleared my inbox, too, or if not cleared, got it down to 24 messages - enough so that it all displays on one screen. Felt vaguely irritable and as a result was sort of impatient with my father's inability to understand me. I do speak quickly but I'm so afraid of losing the thought if I don't. Must work on that.

I realize I've written a terrible bunch of fragments in the past few paragraphs, but right now I can't be bothered to care, really. Everything I do is out for Easter and so I feel the absence of my routine like a hole in my gut. I've been writing more and as a result condeming more. I don't like what I write. It might serve if someone could tell me how to write better.

We have some blue sky in the neighborhood - shocking, I know - and the evidence of the Gobi-dust seems largely to have passed. I wonder if the big cloud will make it to the Atlantic - scientists were saying that it had, before, and that this was bigger than those, so I assume it will.

I liked her until she opened her mouth.

You know, as I wrote about sunshine, clouds rolled in. I just can't win, not out here...

Which is generally what I am beginning to feel about my life. (What for such depression? I have it good, I remind myself, except it's not that easy...)

My humors are imbalanced; an excess of black bile is to blame, I think.

take care of yourselves...