I finally got around to a much needed haircut this morning.

Thesis composition is going slower than expected, though now it's a matter of knowing what needs to be expressed and not knowing how best to put it to paper, rather than having a dearth of ideas. My major obstacles are placement, timing, and order right now -- I know what materials I'll be using for the last four movements.

The problem with composition is that, unlike other fields, you can't step away for a while to resolve a lingering problem. In another field, the time away can subconsciously bring about a result, but in composition you've got to keep plugging away without break or else you'll just distance yourself further away from the solution. The blind alleys and wrong passages you write are necessary to getting the right answer. If only it could be like a brain teaser, where you go away and think about it for a few days, then suddenly come up with the perfect solution.

Triplets fooled Russian prison system