Stepping Backwards

Got a response already to that form I sent in the day before. Let's see if I can untangle this. The form was a request for a leave of absence from university this semester finishing. I filed it because I was told that, not having taken any units this semester, I would otherwise be considered to have abandoned my course and my enrolments for next semester would not go through. The reason I was not enrolled in any units this semester was because there were none on offer useful to my degree, or at least none I had not already taken. When I was told I had to put the leave of absence form in, though, the person who told me it was necessary neglected to tell me it was also necessary to travel back in time and submit it during March. So today I was told it was too late and, basically I would have to reapply through the UAC if I want to continue study and I would probably have to find an 'equivalent' degree probably somewhere else  since the one I was doing is being retired and has not been accepting new students for a few years now. Which is a shame, since I only needed about two more units to finish, one of which would normally have been running the semester just gone but is instead running in Spring this last year it is offered.

I know this is at least partly my fault because if I had known previously about all this I could have just put the form in when I needed to. Doesn't make me any less pissed off though.

On the Good News Front...

At least I managed some work on Sparkle today. 180 new words, almost a third of the total - yeah, I'm racing along. My favourite typo was 'gine', can anyone guess what I was trying to write? That's right, fingers. Now if I can just double that and start doing it every day I might be satisfied. Or if I start getting something done every day. Some of it was good, I think, but started getting flimsy to the end. New scene for the next day!

Egan Quote of the Day

"The gene is going to try to take everything. All it cares about is reproducing. Everything that matters to us: love, honesty, intelligence, reflection - they're all just accidents. A few freak waves swept them up on to the beach. Now the tide's coming in, to wash them away again."
From Teranesia

Even though I was crying by the time I finished this one I still maintain that Egan's work is utterly unromantic. I don't know of any other writer who could manage to draw a warm smile from the phrase 'Life is meaningless'. And of course he just had to give the lie to what I said before - although the lead character is gay the story does not rely on that at all.

This really is the last quote for a while, I've read all his books now and it's back to the relatively unnourishing fare of Clarke's Collected Stories for me.

Portrait

    Two girls stepping on stones across a stream. Ahead is a narrow earth path pressed close with tall thick grass and the sun on the horizon, soaking them with gold light. Behind, the path disappears quickly out of the canvas. There are flowers in the grass, little yellow stars, and lilies in the water.

Winter Solstice

The solstice was yesterday, the shortest day of the year and I completely forgot to do anything about it. Oh well I'm wearing white, I'll just say it is to symbolise snow and winter. And I've been cold. That's kind of a celebration of winter, right?