May 12, 2020

I spent today going through the HOPE Center website, fixing broken links, adding links, deleting links, updating pages. Took a 40-minute walk around East Campus in the afternoon. There was a solitary sign pointing people in one direction--the virus is harder to spread if everyone is walking in the same direction.

Studied French and Old English. Listened to 300 or so lines of Beowulf in Old English and followed along in the text. I'm now up to line 900 or so--almost a third of the way through the poem. It's very pleasing to see words that I've learned.

I wrote a post about a Politics & Society article on peasant resistance during the 1959–61 Chinese famine. Speaking of P&S, our board meeting is on Friday. I created a schedule (assigning times to each paper) and sent it to the board.

Read a couple of columns in Le Monde.

I spent the evening with AR. We ordered Chinese food from China Palace and watched two early episodes of Star Trek while we ate. I had an eggplant dish and braised peanuts. We also shared a beef pancake, which resembled a wrap. She goes to the beach tomorrow. I brought her some chili that I made today and a Sudoku book.

Yes, I made chili today. And I have to say it is terrific.

I think I know how the coronavirus will play out. We will take two steps forward, one step backward. The end result will be to prolong the agony.

I stayed up until almost 2 am last night writing in my journal. I was inspired by Emerson's journals, which show his genius mind at work. And now it is already almost midnight.

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