Been a while, I miss writing to you guys

Hey all.

Well, I'm in a smaller cast now, and have use of my elbow again. Hooray! I still cant use my thumb, but hopefully January 14th (when I get this one off, and hopefully replaced with a brace) will be that day I've been waiting for.

New stuff with me: recently read "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury (EXCELLENT book!), currently reading "Guerrilla Warfare" by Ché Guevara. For my 19th birthday, I received "Fahrenheit 451", "A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess, and "Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger. I'll have some great leisure reading over break! Yesssssss). Incidentally, dont klnow if I posted this before, but I'm going to apply for a research assistant's grant for next academic year. I've found a faculty sponsor, a man who happens to be an international authority on Human Rights. I'm going to be helping him update a chapter of my choosing in his book, "Human Rights in International Relations." So I'll be reading that over break too. Whew I have more coursework over break than I do for the semester!

Grades were spectacularly mediocre this semester. That 3.666 will be dropping, surely, but I'm not too worriedabout it. I was for a while, coming down very heavily on myself, but I have lots of time to bring it back up, something I will certainly do (I promise myself). So, MIT lookout.

Every time I have an idea I want to develop more, I want to write to this journal and to you readers, but it's such a chore. Sorry... hopefully soon enough this burdensome cast will be off my arm and I'll be back in action.... completely.

Also, dont forget, next semester I'll be writing for my school paper semi-weekly. Columns will also be published online at www.dailynebraskan.com. So be sure to check them out (I've been sort of unofficially designated one opf the "political" columnists. Perfectly fine by me)

Alright, more studying to do. 2 finals tomorrow and I'm DONE. To those of you in the Northeast, I'll be there Friday. Prepare!

Whatever you celebrate, do so well, and enjoy it!

--Collin
"Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!"--Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, 1836