Things have been progessing at a pretty good clip lately, as you may have discerned from the five-day lapse since my last update. I think I've figured out how much work I have (not too much) and what it need to do to get it done (stop procrastinating!) while still reserving time for fun. Well, "fun" is an inexact term. What I actually mean is the pursuit of happiness—not the material definition that Jefferson used in the Declaration of Independence, but the glowing radiance of personal satisfaction.

Let me state here my conception of happiness. Personal and social happiness are two different ideas. While they may be interdependent, or at least have indirect bearing upon each other, they are essentially different terms. I'm personally very happy right now. While I was having lunch with Suzie the other day, she asked me what I've been up to. My answer: "observing, learning, processing." She made fun of me for sounding like an automaton—I would have, too, but that's really what I've been doing here. Everything's a learning experience, from insane campus-wide revelry to hikes around the dish to the spiderwebs that will inevitably manifest themselves in between my desk lamp and the wall if I leave the screen-less window open overnight. Some are to be repeated, some are not.

Social happiness is a lot less easily attainable. Sets of inside jokes and jibes don't develop overnight; Make-Fun-of-Wan month (or is it year, now?) was years in the making. Meanwhile, I'm indeed having fun and gradually getting to know people better. Last night, I stumbled into an epic debate over whether the term "Washington apple" refers to a genetically distinct type of apple, or simply any apple grown in Washington state.

My final paper for writing is really fascinating me at the moment. I think I'm going to research how language systems, whether naturally evolved (i.e. the scores of different words for "rice" in Hindi) or artificially constructed (Orwell's 1984, Rand's Anthem, USSR, even the United States), define and/or restrict how we think. How so? That, when and if ever puzzled out, will be my (very satisfying to me, at least) thesis.