(I am still here, I am still alive, I am back in Durham where the internet has yet to grace our house with its presence. Nice to start with, but increasingly annoying when everything in the university relies on it. In the words of Christopher Robin, BISY BACKSON.)
Archive for the 'Quotes' Category
I should know better than to listen to songs that I know make me cry :’)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K_FMvktMpI
x
Lyrics:
One of the offerings from Father Christmas this year (or Mother Christmas, to be more precise) was a novel – Rose Tremain’s ‘Music and Silence’. I read it in Shropshire, and I have to say that it was wonderfully written and I enjoyed it a lot (go read! go read!).
But what I really wanted to post was a rather lovely, and apt, couple of lines:
“For what is truly verifiable in life, I ask you? Only mathematics!
Two plus two will always and for evermore equal four,
but how is this going to resolve what boils in my brain?”
I don’t hate my degree, far from it, but sometimes it just doesn’t seem that important in life and that’s all there is to it.
Today, incidentally, is an OK day :-)
“Once you write something, it’s not your own anymore and it bears different meanings to everyone who reads it”
I read this today on one of the blogs that I read. It felt terribly appropriate, somehow.
Us Two by A.A. Milne
Wherever I am, there’s always Pooh,
There’s always Pooh and Me.
Whatever I do, he wants to do,
“Where are you going today?” says Pooh:
“Well, that’s very odd ‘cos I was too.
Let’s go together,” says Pooh, says he.
“Let’s go together,” says Pooh.
“What’s twice eleven?” I said to Pooh,
(“Twice what?” said Pooh to Me.)
“I think it ought to be twenty-two.”
“Just what I think myself,” said Pooh.
“It wasn’t an easy sum to do,
But that’s what it is,” said Pooh, said he.
“That’s what it is,” said Pooh.
“Let’s look for dragons,” I said to Pooh.
“Yes, let’s,” said Pooh to Me.
We crossed the river and found a few -
“Yes, those are dragons all right,” said Pooh.
“As soon as I saw their beaks I knew.
That’s what they are,” said Pooh, said he.
“That’s what they are,” said Pooh.
“Let’s frighten the dragons,” I said to Pooh.
“That’s right,” said Pooh to Me.
“I’m not afraid,” I said to Pooh,
And I held his paw and I shouted, “Shoo!
Silly old dragons!” – and off they flew.
“I wasn’t afraid,” said Pooh, said he,
“I’m never afraid with you.”
So wherever I am, there’s always Pooh,
There’s always Pooh and Me.
“What would I do?” I said to Pooh,
“If it wasn’t for you,” and Pooh said: “True,
It isn’t much fun for One, but Two
Can stick together,” says Pooh, says he.
“That’s how it is,” says Pooh.
xkcd never does fail to cheer me up!
On the lines of today’s comic, have any of you read ‘Possession’ by A.S. Byatt? If not, I’m recommending it now. It is a clever, touching, fascinating story, and does a wonderful take-off of literary academia. It’s quite hard-going in places stylistically, and probably not one for people who can’t stand poetry in any shape or form… but for people who like literature, who like history, who like a good ol’ love story with a twist, it’s a beautiful novel. To quote an Amazon reviewer, “it does need patience, which is hardly a modern virtue, but the rewards are worth it”.
(In fact I read it last summer on a campsite in France. But I was reminded of it by xkcd, and it seemed as good a time as any to refer you all on :-) )
‘ “What is it? My dear?”
“Ah, how can we bear it?”
“Bear what?”
“This. For so short a time. How can we sleep this time away?”
“We can be quiet together, and pretend – since it is only the beginning – that we have all the time in the world.” ‘
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