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“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”

– T.H. White, The Once and Future King

Me, I’m learning Quark.

I’m trying, so far with limited success, to (finally) put most of my writings in one place online. It’s a sometimes tedious process not only of conversion, but also of trying to figure out what goes where. With any luck, I’ll have this finished by the end of the week. In the meantime, if you’re interested, I do have some of the material already uploaded, including a collection of college term papers, several essays and articles, and more sketch comedy than it’s probably healthy to write if you’re not getting paid for it.

(Incidentally, Jon Kilgannon was kind enough to describe the last sketch I shared here as “Monty Python on acid.” At least, I think that was a compliment…)

What if they held a rally and nobody came? Well, almost nobody. I haven’t seen any estimates — and I’m much to tired to go in search of them now — but, from the photographs, attendance seems pitifully low when compared with all the anti-war protests nationwide last month. Maybe they feel that war is such a foregone conclusion that there’s little reason to march in support of it. I fear that might be the case. I live in hope, however, that Bush’s decision to turn his back on overwhelming public opinion, calls for diplomacy from our allies at home and abroad, and basic common sense will lose him the next election. (I worry about the lackluster Democrats vying for the party’s 2004 nomination, but that’s another story.)

The time has come, I think, to put central Pennsylvania behind me and look for somewhere else to live. I know that I say something to this effect almost every winter, but this time I think I mean it. Lately, it feels like the only thing keeping me here is the memory of the things that used to keep me here. I’m not fond of the weather, my job isn’t going to lead me anywhere I want to go, and all but one or two friends have moved away. Even with the Monty Python Society, my one real outlet and group of friends, I find myself retelling the same old stories more and more. I enjoy the meetings and what we’re doing this semester, but I know it’s not the same. I’ve become the guy who hangs around after graduation because he doesn’t know where else to go. There’s nowhere else I really want to go — no one place I’ve looked at and thought, wow, I sure wish I could live there — but I think it would be better for me if I didn’t stay. Any suggestions?

March suddenly feels awfully late to be deciding this.