You fail only if you stop writing.

My name is J-term Derek.
I take my time after workouts. I have walked slowly from one end of campus to the other. I came in third place in a game of Settlers because seven of the ten development cards I drew were Knights. I have found time to go grocery shopping in town. I did no better in a game of Cards Against Humanity later on that same night. I once went to bed at 9:00. Another time, I slept in until 10:00 (I have also woken up at 6:30, though.) I have gone an entire day without doing homework. I play Mario Cart and Return of the King on Gamecube, and NHL on Xbox. I have talked to friends, loved poems, and written short narratives that make my classmates laugh.
You may have heard of me.

A quick refresher on J-term, short for January Term, officially titled Winter Term:
We have a Fall Semester and a Spring Semester, but between the two, we have four weeks, one of which I have just completed, during which we take but one class. In my case, this class is called Writing First Person. Again in my case, I am very much a fan.

My schedule is as follows: I have class from 10:30 to 12:20, Monday through Thursday.
I have practice every weekday at 4:15. In addition to that, I have morning practice at 8:00 on Wednesday and Thursday. If the race is on Saturday, I have Sunday morning practice. If the race is on Sunday, as it is this weekend, I have Saturday morning practice. And between all of this, we have three weight room sessions a week, as has always been the case. Relevant to this, though I won't go into too much detail on this front, I'd like to say that this week has been among the more brutal as far as leg soreness goes in recent memory. And, at the risk of coming off as overly proud of my body of training, I'd furthermore like to point out that that is saying a lot.

My class is awesome. Once or twice every class meeting, the professor (a full-time writer who is a visiting prof just for J-term) picks a seemingly random topic and says, "You have five minutes. Write." Topics thus far have included "I used to think . . .", ""Grandmother's Hands", and "Pancakes". We then go around and read our pieces out loud. Fun stuff.

We've also read a lot of great pieces. I looked for them online and could only find Unprotected, which I think y'all might enjoy. And two pieces are small enough that I can retype them here. They are fourteen-word sonnets by Denver Butson:

months
have
gone
by
without
either
of
us
stabbing
the
other

let's
eat
out

And another:

waking
her
was
always
like
opening
a
violin
case
and
finding
a
machine
gun

As for things I have written myself, well, they're all in pencil so far, and I don't really want to type them out. You may see my notebook in the summer if you so desire, but I doubt you'll remember by then.

I played my friend Mark in (almost) two games of NHL 11 a couple days ago. I beat him 6-2 in the first game, and once I got up 5-0 on him in the second game, he kicked me out of his room. Envy is the price of talent, my friends. And Mark, if you ever read this, yes, my victory over you is important enough to immortalize online.

There's plenty for the both of us; may the best dwarf win.

As I mentioned earlier, I've also been playing LotR: RotK on Gamecube with my friends. It's been going splendidly, except for Pelennor Fields. That level is a bitch. We're getting close to beating the game. We've completed the Path of the King and the Path of the Wizard; now we're just working on the Path of the Hobbits.

As you can tell, J-term affords plenty of free time. In fact, after I publish this post, I'm going to watch a Midd basketball game. [Well, actually before I publish this post. Because I just now got back from it.]

Yes.

And the most important news of all: the NHL is coming back. Hallelujah.
And Scott Niedermayer is joining the Ducks' coaching staff. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

You probably do not remember that, in October, my parents flew out to Middlebury during my Fall Break and watched me race, and then the three of us took a weekend trip to Lake Placid. Well, over Winter Break I came into possession of the pictures my mom took on that trip. So I'll lay a few down, if you don't mind, or if you do. You really don't have a say in the matter.

Lake Champlain Bridge

Fort Crown Point

This is the ice rink upon which the only miracle I believe in occurred.

Ausable River.

Atop Rooster Comb.

And that'll do it for this week. See ya.