open seas and old acquaintances
18:18 02/04/2004
Dear Reader,
forgive my silence of recent weeks, but it should be taken as a good sign. I held my course and then one weekend, I noticed the fog rising. The limbo I spoke of before is left far behind and it has been a fair wind and an open sea since. My home harbour beckons me, it is still many weeks away, but my spirit is strengthened, my mind focused and my body willing and ready for the challenge.
For several weeks now, there has been only one thing which I have spent my days working on, my final year project. I believe the pressure finally kicked in and I started to do what needed to be done. Minus the weekends and occasional holiday, I have worked long and hard on it every day, frequently surpassing the twelve hour mark which for me is truly a rarity in any circumstance. Indeed I am quite happy with the progress I have made and four days ago I presented a demonstration of what I had done to my project supervisor and second reader. I think it went quite well. They seemed reasonably impressed and at the very least found it interesting, one even went so far as to describe it as “quite ambitious.” That done with, my attention is now turned to the report, much still to be done. Although, I did find time to throw together some sort of website, and if you wish to see the result, you can click here. It has finally been made.
If my letter so far has you doubting the sender, fear not, for I have found some time for recreation. I continue to work on catching up with my video collection and have reacquainted myself with it quite well at this stage. I find that listening to good films in the background is very conducive in keeping me working. The Paper in particular is a current favourite for such a purpose. Only two visits made to the local cinema in the last number of weeks. Two nights ago I went to see The Passion of the Christ, a well made and moving film, not as violent as I had feared, but then again I am probably desensitized. The other time was last week when I went to see the very good Open Range. Westerns may not be to everybody’s liking, but I enjoy them and I enjoyed this one very much. It is good to see Kevin Costner back on form and returning to his natural realm. Robert Duvall was fantastic as I always find he is in a western.
As far as reading goes, I have returned to Dickens after an extended duration away. It has been many years since I read a Dickens that was not A Christmas Carol. At this point I am about three fifths of the way through the adventures of Pip in Great Expectations. It is so far a most enjoyable read, full of those wonderful characters that Dickens was a master of creating. My personal favourite in this book being Wemmick.
After this, I have several titles in mind, all classics. I foresee my summer filled with the words of Verne, Wilde, Stevenson, Haggard and in all likelihood Tolkien, having just received a hardback illustrated volume of The Lord of the Rings and also his letters for my 21st birthday. More on the subject of letters another time. The more astute of you may notice a connection between the four former writers and I had intended on discussing it, but my pen runs dry and the paper nears its end. This will have to do for now.
Yours truly,
The Writer.