Am I incorrigible, encouragable, or simply uncorrugated?

I finished Master and Commander (Patrick O'Brian) and Angels and Demons (Dan Brown) this weekend and last night. I enjoyed the former a good deal more. I didn't understand most of the nautical terms -- this despite the fact that many pages are spent in explanations of those exact same terms to the ship's doctor.

I re-discovered today that I cannot maintain adequate attention through 3.5 hours of lecture without some break. Today was the first meeting of an interesting, if hastily-organized, course on numerical optimization. Alas, it came on the heels of an hour and a half of fluid mechanics. The first lecture of the optimization course could be entitled a two hour review of elementary analysis: in which we briefly review definitions related to topology, sequences, continuity, and compactness, focusing predominantly on the real line. At least, it could be so entitled if the title conventions of former centuries remained in vogue. Fortunately, times change, and so the first lecture would more likely be entitled lecture 1. Regardless of the title -- and of the familiarity of the material -- I could feel my eyes crossing by six.

I think I will stick to fluid mechanics and the matrix computations seminar for this semester's formal offerings.

• Currently drinking: Hot water with lime and honey