May 22
I woke up in a kinda bittersweet mood, 'cause it was sad that Aric would be leaving soon, but we'd had a lot of fun yesterday. I knew in my heart that this was probably our last full weekend together, since finals were coming up in a few weeks and then he'd have to pack his stuff and go to Indiana.
I decided that I wouldn't go flying. My body would miss the exercise, but my heart would be happy. So I just stayed next to him and dozed off and on until he woke up.
Sometimes we can't get what we want, though, because when he left to use the toilet I was thinking about the classwork that was piling up and the books I wasn't reading, and I knew that he had things he was supposed to do, as well, like his theatre project.
But we didn't have to do them right away, so I lured him back into bed (it wasn't difficult).
He was out of food, so after he'd gotten dressed we went to Nina's and ate breakfast, then at the end of it we both agreed that we should do homework even though it wasn't fun.
Aric went to the theatre building where they have special drawing tables, and after he'd gotten himself set up, I kissed him and then went back to my room and started working on the essay for Anthropology.
The topic had seemed like such a good idea when Christine first helped me think of it, but it was hard to organize my notes. I tore all the pages out of my notebook and arranged them on the floor, moving them this way and that to try and see what order felt best. That was a trick I'd learned in Equestria; sometimes it made more sense in one order rather than another.
Peggy came back from lunch and asked me what I was doing, so I told her how I was trying to organize my essay and she laughed and said I had a strange way of doing it. But then she said that everyone has strange ways of doing homework and that she liked to write her English term papers in her lounging clothes.
I said math was easier naked, but that wasn't working for my report so maybe I should go and see if Ruth would let me borrow her lounging pants. I bet she would.
Peggy didn't think that wearing pajamas would help, even though she said it would be adorable. She told me I ought to go wherever I do my best thinking.
Well, I was sure that I did my best thinking when I was in the sky, but it was really hard to fly and write, and there weren't any clouds to perch on, so that wasn't an option. But I had to do something; I was just flying in circles and getting nowhere.
It always seems easier to write stuff than it actually is.
So I decided that as long as my mind was flying in circles, my body might as well be, so I put on my flight gear and headed outside.
At first all I could think of was how I was wasting time when I should be at my desk, but then those thoughts sort of faded and then for a while I just sort of looked down at the city below me, and the distant horizon in front of me.
I'd flown over a golf course—the same one that I got chased off of before—and I flew around watching the players hit the balls, and then it occurred to me that I could just list stuff off in order, and maybe at the end of it wrap it up in some sort of a neat conclusion.
That meant that the first thing I ought to do is pick what traditions were the most interesting and I could do that by rearranging my notes one more time.
It would probably be kind of rough at first, but I could work on that. I still had a couple of weeks.
When I got back to the dorm I didn't want to forget what I'd thought of, so I started sorting through my notes again. I liked the gift-giving traditions; that was important. And I wanted to do a little bit more research on the clothes people wore, because I'd learned that that was a combination of a personal choice and a traditional choice.
The wedding party was pretty important, too, so I made sure to move those notes up to the top. One of the books said that the groomsmen traditionally used swords to protect the bride and groom.
I thought that was a good starting point. So I wrote numbers on my papers so that I could keep them in order and then sat at my desk and started to write.
Peggy came back with a basket full of clean laundry while I was working on the middle section. She noticed that I was still wearing my flight vest, because I'd gotten distracted and forgotten to take it off, which she thought was really funny. She said I was making sure that no one ran into me while I was working at my desk.
I'd kind of forgotten I was wearing it, so I got undressed and then sat back down and worked until it was almost time to go to dinner, then I took a quick shower. There wasn't any competition for the shower at five in the evening.
After dinner I looked over what I'd gotten done and decided that I ought to finish writing the section on the bridal party. Then when that was done, I wrote short letters to Comcast and Discover and put them in the envelopes, and started one to my sister. I wanted to include some of the pictures that Aric had took, but they were still in his pocket telephone and I hadn't thought to ask him to get them out. I'd ask him after Durach.
When I'd finished the letter to my sister, I started reading the Bible, and then I thought that maybe I could read it over at Meghan's. When I knocked on her door, though, she wasn't there, so I went back downstairs and sat in the lounge to wait for her.
Elisha had started doing mostly good things and what God told him to, and I hoped he'd be smart enough to keep following God's rules. But it was kind of frustrating that just like in the last book, verses about a particular king's reign would be summed up by saying it was in another book. I guess the Bible was already thick enough that they didn't want to include that stuff.
I was just starting to read how God told Jehu to be king when Meghan came in. Well, I didn't see her but she noticed me and sat down next to me and petted my back then ran her fingers through my mane and asked me how my weekend had been.
I told her about the Air Zoo and driving around at night, and she told me about her weekend. She had just gotten back from a study group, and she said that she was going up her room for the night and wanted to know if I'd come along. I said I would.
She still had a little more homework to do, so I sat on the bed and read a little bit more but once I read how the eunuchs had tossed Jezebel out a window and her blood had splattered on the horses I decided I didn't want to read anymore 'cause I might have nightmares. So I closed up the book and just relaxed, watching Meghan do her homework.
She had a habit of brushing her hair back over her ear, even though it would fall forward again while she was working, and then she wouldn't notice it for a while, but whenever she leaned back she'd push it back out of the way. That was really cute.
And she liked clicking her pen like I did.
I don't know how long it was before she finished, but she finally did, and she closed up her book and came over to the bed and petted me a little and said she was sorry she was boring. I said that she wasn't boring, but right then I yawned, which made her laugh.
Since Amy wasn't back yet, Meghan changed into her sleeping clothes in the bedroom and then got into bed and we snuggled up for the night. I stretched out my hoof on her chest and she took it in her hand and held it gently and I knew I wasn't going to have any nightmares tonight.
Boy howdy, you ain't kiddin'.
I find writing in motion to be easiest.
Silver needs to embrace the time honored English Major tradition of bullshittery en masse
Essays, the bane of my scholarly career.
Diabetes warning.
7411375 i think i've bullshitted every english essay I've done for the past several years.
That's what I like about engineering reports. They tend to be based off of work you've done not pure research.
7411790 even when I wasn't bullshitting I was bullshitting
I'm bullshitting now
it is the circle of life
HOLDING HANDS?
L-lewd.
Writing is also easier without distractions, which is the sole reason Sil- uhh, Biscuit doesn't write these chapters at Aric's house.
Also, I'm now trying to imagine what kind of writing would require the use of a safety vest and blinky light.
7411986 hahahaha nice one anon
wow i guess Silver won't make it far into the WW1 book ...
As a security guard I'd think it'd be easy to write an essay. Just stick to who what where when why and how. But then again I always did prefer getting my hands dirty. Studied to be a machinist in Job Corp.
7412252
Well, unlike reports, essays darn near require you to be speculative. The facts are only a starting point.
Don't procrastinate Silver! It only gets worse.
Oh, those poor horses!
7412868
ehh, even on weekends it's not really worth it, i'd rather put all my effort into a nice dinner.
Essay always come relatively easily to me, when the theme is not imposed anyway.
7411375 Isn't it a world-wide spread tradition?
I thought i was missing something with Arrow 18,
View From A Small Pony.
Ive been trying to write a short story about The Great White Bird for coming up for 5 years now, but every time I even think about it, I keep thinking of the chance I might have known someone who was o that last flight and the PTSD kicks in. Even though its been 30 years since I stayed at a hotel for a week on holiday in the town.
But thats the thing about college.
No Country For Old Men.
Thats teh trouble with being so short sighted. In order to see the future, I have to live it, but in doing so I have to take the road less traveled, and then I quietly wait for everyone to catch up. But being short sighted, I dont see them passing by.
So there I am, waiting, watching the young pass by. Trying to remember.
Terry Pratchett, Bromeliad Trilogy, Wings. Illustration by Josh Kirby.
May their souls soar as our hearts.
s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/bb/dc/7b/bbdc7b6b3bed21a38183dc65578c482b.jpg
Book Of Nomes:
Concord:It looked like it was going too fast, even when it was standing still.
Sorry bout that. I get enthusiastic sometimes.
7411855
Bobby Fisher was originally portrayed as a national hero because he beat Boris Spassky in the late 60s, and by extension beat the Soviets at their own game. Bobby went borderline insane in the early 1980s while refining chess until his death around 2008.. I didn't know that he was an antisemite, though.
7412252
If you want to write fiction, then do so. After all, that's how Spider Robinson got his start; he wrote his first story while working as a night watchman at a construction site in NYC in the late 60s ("The Guy With The Eyes", the first of his Callahan's Crosstime Bar And Saloon stories...)
7412508 I bow to your greater knowledge.
7412955
Well, there's clatter, and then there's clatter. I like how the 6.2 sounds well enough, though the 2 stroke detroits sound way better to me.
IH/Navistar motors, though, especially late models...
Sound like a tumble dryer full of rocks.
Oh, and, the 7.3 was not the last IH/Navistar. The 6.0 and 6.4 that followed it were both Navistars, the 6.0 had lots of issues, the 6.4 fixed many of them, aaand Ford moved on. The 6.7 is awesome though, and yeah, real quiet
eunuchs
7411320
7411355
I tried that for Lyra and Bon Bon Drive to Trotcon. Turns out it's hard to write while you're driving.
7411375
That's harder to get away with in a class like Anthropology that it would be in say, my high school AP English class. I wonder if I still have a copy of the essay that I BSed my way through?
7411574
I was always pretty good at them. I could BS my way through an English essay pretty easily. (And I improved my monologue for my Theatre final exam.)
7411729
Can't confirm math, but writing is.
7411790
I know I mostly did. I remember one time at college when we were talking about homework, and I mentioned that I had an English essay due in an hour, and that I probably ought to get started on it. One of my friends joked that I had a 'Homeric pad' button on my keyboard, since I could churn out a pretty good three or four page essay in an hour.
7411800
Although to be fair, engineering reports are probably more fact-based, whereas essays are often more speculative. Well, going off all the NTSB reports I've read anyway.
7411986
Purely platonic.
7412243
Very true.
Making political or religious statements on the internet.
7412250
It's going to be an issue for her. Especially if she reads about calvary charges against gatling guns.
7412252
That's the basic concept; where people run into trouble is answering the question 'what does it mean?'
7412508
Exactly. Then again, in English, there isn't necessarily a 'wrong' answer (depends on the essay) . . . but there might not be a 'right' answer, either.
7412596
It does. I know all about procrastination.
7412774
They're just minding their own business, and all of a sudden Jezebel gets tossed out a window at their hooves.
7412906
I like getting started with a good breakfast on the weekends anyway. Well, really it's more lunch by the time I get around to it.
7413199
Man, that would be a great title for a fanfic.
I had a bad day when I heard on the news that Virgin Galactic lost their spaceship . . . my brother was working for them in flight testing, and it was a few hours before I found out he wasn't on that flight.
Yes, it did. Would have been nice to get a chance to fly on one of them.
7413954
You're right; for some reason I thought that the 6.0 was the first one Ford built by themselves. Probably because before that the Navistars were reliable, and the 6.0 really wasn't. Lots of people out here are keeping their old 7.3 trucks on the road because that engine just won't quit.
I've always been partial to inline engines, 'cause those things will pull the nuts off a rhino. Won't impress anyone with their 0-60 times, though.
7415302
Correction made, thank you!
7417489 Your thinking about the wrong war, cavalery charge against gattling gun would be the american civil war or the France-Prussia war of 1869.
By the time of world war 1 cavalery was largely abandonned and gattling were oudated by far more efficient machine guns, like the Maxim.
7417489
Or if Conrad's class covers Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade.
Edit: Did I accidentally italicize the whole page somehow? I don't know how that happened.
7417945 horses were still a huge part of wartime logistics in WWI, and cavalry charges were used in the Eastern front and the African and Middle Eastern theatres. Even in France and Germany, if it had rained automobiles were useless in the mud and horses pulled cannons and such.
Of them bloody horses.
7417473
It's also nice to sit outside in the sun and write.
Can't combine those two, unfortunately.
Aw, now she's okay with her hoof being held. That's adorable.
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