Arianna

Thursday, June 10, 2021: successful writers are noted for using the precise words. Example:

From wiki:

A crepuscular animal is one that is active primarily during the twilight period. 

This is distinguished from diurnal and nocturnal behavior, where an animal is active during the hours of daylight and of darkness, respectively. 

Some crepuscular animals may also be active by moonlight or during an overcast day. 

Matutinal animals are active only before sunrise, and vespertine only after sunset. 

The collateral adjective for twilight is crepuscular, which may be used to describe the behavior of animals that are most active during this period.

Helen of Troy, Bettany Hughes, c. 2005, p. 134; nightjars --> crepuscular --> wiki. 

By the way, Bettany Hughes is a master of alliteration without making it look forced. If you want to learn a lot of new words, especially with a Greek root, this is a great book. Highly recommend. 

Wednesday, June 9, 2021: summer research projects; summer abroad; third year study abroad;

Tuesday, June 8, 2021: never quit reading. Try to keep reading great literature. My top shelf books:

• Sexual Personae: Camille Paglia
• Helen of Troy: Bettany Hughes
• The Truth Will Out: Brenda James
• 1421 and 1434: Gavin Menzies, died 2020, aged 82
• Mrs Dalloway: Virginia Woolf

Monday, June 7, 2021: journaling transformed.

Arianna is an excellent writer. She heads off to college this August. I've read a number of incredible books over the years that were clearly written by the author over the period of four or five years, probably the result of a thesis that was written during graduate school. 

Those books were often instrumental in the authors' futures. Exhibit A: Camille Paglia.

Break, break.

Journaling:

• how journaling can help you live your best life;
• why keeping a journal matters: readers weigh in;

Advice to Arianna: pick a thesis and in your spare time in college, research it and work on a thesis with a goal of publishing the thesis by the end of your third year and publishing it as a book by the end of your fourth year.

You might be able to finish your thesis during your junior year, taking the year off -- a sabbatical of sorts, using that year to live and study abroad.

Sunday, June 6, 2021:

Arianna turns eighteen years old in early July. She graduated from high school / two years college (associate degree) in the top 10% of her class. Sixty-eight were in her class, she was number 7 so she made it by a whisker. 

She will be going to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, this fall.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Arianna was on one of the local water polo teams. She practiced two or three nights a week, mostly at an indoor pool, but when the weather was nice at an outdoor pool in some "swanky" neighborhoods. When the pools were unavailable, the coach took the team out to practice in Grapevine Lake. 

Until Arianna got her driver's license (summer of 2020) I did almost all of the water polo driving. When she got her driver's permit, she drove me to the practice sessions.

Every other Sunday or so, the team had a water polo match, often up in Denton, about forty-five minutes north of where we lived in Grapevine, TX. Arianna and I would leave an hour before the rest of her family to arrive in time for warm-up one hour before the first game.

May and Kiri always came, arriving about the time the first game started. Occasionally Josh, Olivia (three years younger than Arianna) and Sophia (eleven years younger than Arianna) would also come.

Arianna had an occasional water polo tournament on the south side of Houston. I took her once, possibly twice; her mom took her at least twice; and her dad took her at least once to the southside Houston tournaments. Kiri loved the trip; I did not. 

But for the most part, other than the Houston trips, it was Ariann and me when it came to water polo.  

It is bittersweet to think about that now. She was engaged in water polo for ten (?) years and it came to an abrupt end wit the pandemic. Arianna loved swimming and I worry that she won't get back into swimming now that she has been away from it so long.

Vanderbilt has a wonderful indoor pool and I will write her often, encouraging her to take advantage of the pool.