Curses! Next Time, I Swear

Hello, all! I've been quite absent from this blog for a while, without much of a good reason. You'd think that I would have put something out over spring break, which was originally the plan, but I have no idea what happened. That seems to happen quite a bit more often than I would like, which would be never. Alas, such are my woes. Curses.

Final's week studying/practice summed up.
I'm not sure if I should be proud or horrified.

Anyways, where have I been? If you could plot the locations I've been over time in the past while, the results would indicate a rather sedentary lifestyle. Starting from the 2nd half of winter quarter, other than class the overwhelming majority of my time was spent either at my desk or in the dorm lounge (studying for midterms/finals). Over spring break, my room was the location of choice (recuperating from midterms/finals). Maybe a chunk of time spent at LAX when a flight was delayed and then delayed again when they found a dent in the cargo bay door.

I swear things won't be that way again this quarter (he types, sitting at his desk after sitting in the lounge doing homework for a few hours after waking up at nearly noon). After all, new quarter, new me, right...? *Nervous laughter can be heard in the background*

Speaking of a new quarter: new classes! This quarter I'm taking all STEM classes (Intro to Thermodynamics, Matlab programming, and the second physics class with the corresponding lab) which might be a good or a bad thing; we'll have to wait and see. So far things have been manageable, for the most part. Most of what's been taught has been review/things that I've seen before, so there isn't much to struggle over just yet. I have the same physics professor with the same schedule again, which means painfully early rising times. My Matlab and Thermo professors are both people I haven't met before. The Matlab guy is really enthusiastic and generally amusing, which is refreshing; he likes to say "Good deal" emphatically when things are going well. It's great. There isn't much to say about Thermo, since that class has been pretty plain and shows no signs of improvement, sadly. And the physics lab doesn't begin until tomorrow.

I read a post by someone recently asking readers to consider the nature of swearing, and I thought it was relatively thought-provoking, so I'll share some thoughts here, I guess. Swearing is interesting, because it's kind of like shorthand for strong emotion. People use it when they feel a certain way, but since the weight of profanity is different for each person, some people end up using it all the time, while you might never hear someone else curse except under the most extreme circumstances. That's why it's always a shock when that happens - because you realize that things have gotten that bad. I guess that's also why some people consciously choose not to swear; they want to show that they still have control, whether they actually do or not.

I'm honestly confused about whether or not swearing should be censored/given the stigma that it has. On one hand, swearing is at this point a form of expression of emotion, which isn't inherently bad. Overly censoring something like that could possibly contribute to the problem of emotional repression we have. But if people were just allowed to curse without understanding its true meaning/value, then profanity would lose its meaning completely. So maybe I think it shouldn't be censored, but people should learn to "swear responsibly?" Of course, I could just be completely overthinking things... Feel free to share your thoughts!

A sign of troubles to come...?
Lol sign puns
Hopefully not an omen for this quarter

I like trees with pretty pink flowers

A pretty sunrise after an all-nighter in the library, not that you can really see the sun here