In the dust be equal made
Dec. 31st, 2006 12:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hawkwing_lbI have plans for 2007.
2007, I am determined, will be a good year. I am due a good year. I haven't had a really good year since - well, since the stretch between September 2002 and June 2003. That was a good stretch.
Resolutions:
1. Be a well, healthy, moderately happy person.
I tend to forget, you know, how much proper eating and proper exercise improves one's quality of life. Also proper sleeping. So a few gym visits a week, some karate, some not-pushing-myself-too-hard-too-soon, that might help.
2. Be a well, healthy, reasonably successful student.
See item 1 above. Since my goal this year is a First or a 2.I, some studying will be required. I don't plan to go overboard: lectures are twenty-some hours a week; a dozen hours of study ought to be a bare enough minimum to maintain a decent standard.
3. Achieve Job! and stop being such a parasite for the parent.
I need a weekend job. A student cannot live on learning alone, alas.
Included in this heading is the needfulness of not buying books every other week. (What part of I can't afford to do I not understand?) I'll have to cut down to one a month, or less. (Ouch.) (Use the library.)
4. Write a few short stories and possibly one of those novels swimming around in the back of my head.
There are 365 days in a year. If I can write 300 words for each of them, I'll have a respectable number of words. 109,500, to be precise.
Of course, the odds are bad for me writing 300 words every day. I have other things to do - college, for example. Earning money, for another. Exercise, for a third. (Health. Wellness is the first requirement.) Still, it's a goal.
5. Be a better person.
Morally, ecologically, personally. I always make this resolution. Usually I fail miserably. Holding oneself to one's own high standards is hard. Still, that doesn't excuse me not trying.
Consider this a meme, if you wish. Or not.
---
I'm glad for the internet. It brought me two things today: legally free rock music and one of my older favourite poems,
James Shirley
(1596-1666)
Death the Leveller
The glories of our blood and state
Are shadows, not substantial things;
There is no armour against Fate;
Death lays his icy hand on kings:
Sceptre and crown
Must tumble down,
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor, crooked scythe and spade.
Some men with swords may reap the field,
And plant fresh laurels where they kill:
But their strong nerves at last must yield;
They tame but one another still:
Early or late
They stoop to fate,
And must give up their murmuring breath
When they, pale captives, creep to death.
The garlands wither on your brow:
Then boast no more your mighty deeds;
Upon Death's purple altar now
See where the victor-victim bleeds.
Your heads must come
To the cold tomb:
Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet, and blossom in the dust.
2007, I am determined, will be a good year. I am due a good year. I haven't had a really good year since - well, since the stretch between September 2002 and June 2003. That was a good stretch.
Resolutions:
1. Be a well, healthy, moderately happy person.
I tend to forget, you know, how much proper eating and proper exercise improves one's quality of life. Also proper sleeping. So a few gym visits a week, some karate, some not-pushing-myself-too-hard-too-soon, that might help.
2. Be a well, healthy, reasonably successful student.
See item 1 above. Since my goal this year is a First or a 2.I, some studying will be required. I don't plan to go overboard: lectures are twenty-some hours a week; a dozen hours of study ought to be a bare enough minimum to maintain a decent standard.
3. Achieve Job! and stop being such a parasite for the parent.
I need a weekend job. A student cannot live on learning alone, alas.
Included in this heading is the needfulness of not buying books every other week. (What part of I can't afford to do I not understand?) I'll have to cut down to one a month, or less. (Ouch.) (Use the library.)
4. Write a few short stories and possibly one of those novels swimming around in the back of my head.
There are 365 days in a year. If I can write 300 words for each of them, I'll have a respectable number of words. 109,500, to be precise.
Of course, the odds are bad for me writing 300 words every day. I have other things to do - college, for example. Earning money, for another. Exercise, for a third. (Health. Wellness is the first requirement.) Still, it's a goal.
5. Be a better person.
Morally, ecologically, personally. I always make this resolution. Usually I fail miserably. Holding oneself to one's own high standards is hard. Still, that doesn't excuse me not trying.
Consider this a meme, if you wish. Or not.
---
I'm glad for the internet. It brought me two things today: legally free rock music and one of my older favourite poems,
James Shirley
(1596-1666)
Death the Leveller
The glories of our blood and state
Are shadows, not substantial things;
There is no armour against Fate;
Death lays his icy hand on kings:
Sceptre and crown
Must tumble down,
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor, crooked scythe and spade.
Some men with swords may reap the field,
And plant fresh laurels where they kill:
But their strong nerves at last must yield;
They tame but one another still:
Early or late
They stoop to fate,
And must give up their murmuring breath
When they, pale captives, creep to death.
The garlands wither on your brow:
Then boast no more your mighty deeds;
Upon Death's purple altar now
See where the victor-victim bleeds.
Your heads must come
To the cold tomb:
Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet, and blossom in the dust.