'Idle thoughts of an idle fellow'

What better way to end the day than listen to Dmitri Hvorostovsky belt out Rodrigo's death arias from Don Carlo?  (All right, that was possibly the geekiest sentence I ever wrote.  But it's so very true.)  I am obsessed with that video.  The first two lines of "Per me giunto..." (skip to 1:13) are so epically epic you just have to hear the whole thing, even if for the umpteenth time.  I'm such a sucker for the orchestral accompaniment, too. (The epicness of Mr Hvorostovsky's voice is a given.)

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I registered for fall classes today.  As it turns out, I will be taking a programming class and two history classes (believe it or not, I did not plan that out--those were the only suitable morning classes).  Anyhow, that is the idea so far.  I can only take the one programming class this fall (it's the basics of the basics)--so hopefully this will help me transition to the new subject and new school. 

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I've also been working on the cover for my poetry book.  It is so, so easy to criticize book covers until you try making one yourself, especially for something as abstract as poetry. And fonts...don't get me started on fonts!  Thankfully, some philanthropic artists have created Open Font License (OFL) fonts, which are free to use.  Starting with my first version of GIMP that we got--oh, probably five or six years ago--I've become more and more grateful to people who contribute to open source programs/projects (that's something I'd like to do in the future).

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Just got The Brothers Karamazov from the library!

I'm almost finally done with Shackleton's South; I did finish his part of the narrative and started looking through the book of complete photographs from his journey--which are incredible for 1914-17 and a survival experience at that.  There are even some color photos!  Shackleton's leadership and his group's persistence are amazing, and it is really moving to read of all the miracles that added up to their escaping Antarctica.  I dare anyone to read the book and to still think they survived by their perseverance alone, that the 'coincidences' that saved their lives over and over again were just that, coincidences.  It couldn't have been.  Even the very end, where Shackleton frantically comes back two or three times, and finally at just the right moment the ice pack opens up so he can rescue the rest of the crew, only a few days before their rations run out--even that's just too perfect to be good luck!  Truth more unbelievable than fiction...