Where I am at this moment in time.

I am too alone in the world, and not alone enough
to make every minute holy.
I am too tiny in this world, and not tiny enough
just to lie before you like a thing,
shrewd and secretive.
I want my own will,
and I want simply to be with my will,
as it goes toward action,
and in the silent, sometimes hardly moving times
when something is coming near,
I want to be with those who know secret things
or else alone.
I want to be a mirror for your whole body,
and I never want to be blind, or to be too old
to hold up your heavy and swaying picture.
I want to unfold.
I don't want to stay folded anywhere,
because where I am folded, there I am a lie.
And I want my grasp of things
true before you. I want to describe myself
like a painting that I looked at
closely for a long time,
like a saying that I finally understood,
like the pitcher I use every day,
like the face of my mother,
like a ship
that took me safely
through the wildest storm of all.

--Rainer Maria Rilke, as translated by Robert Bly

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For my French film class on Thursday, we had to watch Pépé le Moko, a 1937 early French film noir and one of my personal favorites. Elizabeth, one of the radio/television/film majors in the class, said that one of the themes she picked up on was, "Always beat women."

My contribution? "Women will ultimately cause the demise of all men."

If you haven't seen it, you ought to-- it's tremendously good.

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A quote from Wednesday's edition of The Daily Texan:
"I had a potential ticking time bomb of a health hazard down there."

We really need to find more articulate sources.