The God of Research

These past few days I have been in such a studying groove that I haven't even had time to look at lucky and unlucky days, or the Duke of Zhou's dream interpretation, even. Though since I've already photographed the picture, and I have little else to put up here, I might as well. Are these amusing for you all to look at and hear about or am I the only one who likes them?

The Duke of Zhou says if you dream of a road stretching smoothly out ahead of you, a large shipment will get through. Ha ha, a large shipment of texts got through into my head, thank you very much. Now there is no room to even make dreams or roads or anything else… Apparently it was a lucky day for getting married and for throwing stuff away, but an unlucky day for funerals or breaking ground.

There is some deeply-engrained academic rhythm in me, which tells me that mid-January is my most productive time. All distractions are removed, but unlike summer there is a fast-approaching deadline--the semester will start again in February. So it's a time to revel in research and get some real stuff done! I'm not just saying this either.

Monday I put in a seven hour day at the library, and I don't mean just downloading stuff--I was really doing work, non-stop, all day. I made several good discoveries. My classical Chinese reading got faster and faster. I had a Chinese burrito for lunch, also a chicken leg, and mala tang for dinner. A highly satisfactory day, especially after my weekend listlessness.

The Duke of Zhou says if you dream of water gushing out from a small spring, it means that a good thing is on its way. Unless, that is, the water is yellow, in which case it means you should wake up and go use the bathroom. Okay, the Duke of Zhou didn't say that. It's my own addition. It was a bad day for hunting and weaving, but a good day for sacrificial rites and for capturing things. How capturing things differs from hunting, I'm not entirely sure, but I think I'll be staying away from both…

Indeed, I hardly had time for anything but books. Yesterday, I was in the library working for ten hours, from 10 AM to 8 PM. (A ten o'clock scholar's time-frame, I know, but whatever gets the job done.) I had a quick lunch at the café (I had forgotten my meal-card) and a quickish dinner of iron-plate tofu at a campus restaurant, reading all the time.

Here is a picture of my walk home. It is not a very good picture, but somehow it captures the feeling I had, walking home in the dark after such a long day. I'm sorry I don't have anything more interesting to say, but when the fickle god of research sweeps you up in his cold white hand, it's best to be grateful and roll with it. It's the first real extended research groove I've been in since I've been here. I will add that I feel totally worn out, and have been taking huge doses of vitamin C and drinking lots of hot water so as to try to avoid getting sick.