State of the Union
Greetings from Corpus Christi, Texas, where I am visiting the folks. There is a Whataburger every five miles. The sky here is big and blue, and we've run across small snakes in our subdivision, as well as a host of sandlings and various seabirds in Padre Island.
Things have been good. Have they been good for you? I hope so.
So: I am one semester away from getting my MA. I taught my first ENC1101 class. It went well. And after various peripatetic dating adventures -- all far too common to merit the telling -- I find myself w/ a wonderful, absolutely ravishing girlfriend. She's a theatre major. And smart. She is way taller than me. Also way more cute. I could go on and on about her but at some point or another you would say, enough already.
But yes: things have been about as good as they can be. There is always that bit from Boethius about life being as inconstant as the wheel, and to remember that all is in flux, and that, pace Marcus Aurelius, one never bathes in the same river twice.
But life is good for now. Knock on wood. Cheers.
Greetings from Corpus Christi, Texas, where I am visiting the folks. There is a Whataburger every five miles. The sky here is big and blue, and we've run across small snakes in our subdivision, as well as a host of sandlings and various seabirds in Padre Island.
Things have been good. Have they been good for you? I hope so.
So: I am one semester away from getting my MA. I taught my first ENC1101 class. It went well. And after various peripatetic dating adventures -- all far too common to merit the telling -- I find myself w/ a wonderful, absolutely ravishing girlfriend. She's a theatre major. And smart. She is way taller than me. Also way more cute. I could go on and on about her but at some point or another you would say, enough already.
But yes: things have been about as good as they can be. There is always that bit from Boethius about life being as inconstant as the wheel, and to remember that all is in flux, and that, pace Marcus Aurelius, one never bathes in the same river twice.
But life is good for now. Knock on wood. Cheers.
"An Important Message from Mephistopheles, Servant of the Prince of the Devils, From his Condo in Boca Raton"
A short piece by me in today's McSweeney's (inspired, in large part, by the sudden realization that there were far more adaptations of Dr. Faust than seemed absolutely necessary, although the one that triggered the insight, Randy Newman's, does not appear -- nor does the other Dolen work, Damn Yankees, make an appeareance. B/c I sometimes forget things).
A short piece by me in today's McSweeney's (inspired, in large part, by the sudden realization that there were far more adaptations of Dr. Faust than seemed absolutely necessary, although the one that triggered the insight, Randy Newman's, does not appear -- nor does the other Dolen work, Damn Yankees, make an appeareance. B/c I sometimes forget things).
There is at least one NaboPop entry, one Nabokovilian entry that need to be added to the site, but when that'll be is anybody's guess.
For now, I'm looking forward to seeing the Decemberists come to town, discovering Orlando's Stardust video store, and doing as much work as possible on the thesis.
I think I'm using Kill Bill as the template: Lots of dessert and only a smidgen of anything else.
Also:
For now, I'm looking forward to seeing the Decemberists come to town, discovering Orlando's Stardust video store, and doing as much work as possible on the thesis.
I think I'm using Kill Bill as the template: Lots of dessert and only a smidgen of anything else.
Also:
A Cup of Tea She would Admit to No One
Massive updates to the Nabokov site. Nothing new on this front: a bit of work, a bit of fun, nothing terribly extraordinary -- working on the thesis, which progresses well, which is to say it's progressing. I may, upon completing the degree in Spring 2004, move to Chicago. Since I get a year to work after each degree, and since this option goes away the moment one goes back to school, I'm going to postpone the MFA for a bit.
I've been writing up a storm. And submitting. I'd put a hold on submitting a few months back, but no more.
Massive updates to the Nabokov site. Nothing new on this front: a bit of work, a bit of fun, nothing terribly extraordinary -- working on the thesis, which progresses well, which is to say it's progressing. I may, upon completing the degree in Spring 2004, move to Chicago. Since I get a year to work after each degree, and since this option goes away the moment one goes back to school, I'm going to postpone the MFA for a bit.
I've been writing up a storm. And submitting. I'd put a hold on submitting a few months back, but no more.
I'm teaching English Composition I this semester at UCF. While I feel it isn't appropriate to make any comments on the class in this kind of public forum -- they'd all be positive anyway, but never mind -- I don't mind letting interested parties in on the class website.
Herein is an outstanding review of Freddy v. Jason, which suggests that while the movie will likely be awful (the critic disagrees, but his praise is too centered on elements to be drawn out of the movie, not the movie itself), it may be worth watching. Ronny Yu did a fantastic job w/ Bride with the Red Veil and made what should have been a terrible movie (Bride of Chucky) a rather watchable one. Who knows? Maybe it'll work. The problem with movies this summer is that if Pirates of the Caribbean worked, and it did, it kind of makes every bad idea seem like it may actually fly.
From my Shack to Yours
I counted calories during my first year of getting in shape, nigh four years ago. It wasn't a big part of the big change, but it was significant -- mostly it was doing an hour of cardio every day (moderate walking on a treadmill), but I made sure that I stuck to less than 1,800 cals per day. Lots of those terrible Healthy Choice dinners.
Anyway, it's late at night, and I'm perusing (and kind of admiring) Ted Kaczynski's lost library list, and there it is, Count Your Calories.
So there's also a lot of Conrad and some Hardy, and there is more history than would suit my taste, and there's also that unfortunate violent streak, and a propensity for unreadable manifestos, but I do believe that readers, insane or not, politically akin or not, do share a kind of inescapable link -- we may not agree with our fellow readers, or even like them, but the bond is there. There's no escaping it.
Good night.
I counted calories during my first year of getting in shape, nigh four years ago. It wasn't a big part of the big change, but it was significant -- mostly it was doing an hour of cardio every day (moderate walking on a treadmill), but I made sure that I stuck to less than 1,800 cals per day. Lots of those terrible Healthy Choice dinners.
Anyway, it's late at night, and I'm perusing (and kind of admiring) Ted Kaczynski's lost library list, and there it is, Count Your Calories.
So there's also a lot of Conrad and some Hardy, and there is more history than would suit my taste, and there's also that unfortunate violent streak, and a propensity for unreadable manifestos, but I do believe that readers, insane or not, politically akin or not, do share a kind of inescapable link -- we may not agree with our fellow readers, or even like them, but the bond is there. There's no escaping it.
Good night.
The Telltale Teeth: Psychodontia to Sociodontia
These days I learn more slowly than expected and, since it's summer, do have a harder time waking. But I do learn. And I do wake.
Sunday: Woke up from vivid, disturbing dreams for the second night in a row. Went back to bed for bit, fussed, woke up, wrote a bit towards a story that seems to be going nowhere, made coffee, watched the CBS Sunday newsshow, designed for sixty-year-olds and hence totally suited for the prematurely senile: it ended with five minutes of hummingbirds feeding on cacti accompanied by ambient noise. Thought briefly of that Pixies song about the cactus and the dress, then tried to remember what album it came from... Surfer Rosa? Every Pixies song ever comes from Surfer Rosa.
What have I learned? I forget. I need more coffee. Oh, yes: 28 is a hell of an age, the best age so far, who the hell knows why, and people are on the whole wonderful, and good to have around.
Apropos of nothing: I've been really enjoying this thread in the Nabokov forum.
These days I learn more slowly than expected and, since it's summer, do have a harder time waking. But I do learn. And I do wake.
Sunday: Woke up from vivid, disturbing dreams for the second night in a row. Went back to bed for bit, fussed, woke up, wrote a bit towards a story that seems to be going nowhere, made coffee, watched the CBS Sunday newsshow, designed for sixty-year-olds and hence totally suited for the prematurely senile: it ended with five minutes of hummingbirds feeding on cacti accompanied by ambient noise. Thought briefly of that Pixies song about the cactus and the dress, then tried to remember what album it came from... Surfer Rosa? Every Pixies song ever comes from Surfer Rosa.
What have I learned? I forget. I need more coffee. Oh, yes: 28 is a hell of an age, the best age so far, who the hell knows why, and people are on the whole wonderful, and good to have around.
Apropos of nothing: I've been really enjoying this thread in the Nabokov forum.
Deathsentences of the Polished and Structurally Weak
I've long been a Negativland fan, but this project seems by far the most interesting thing they've done. The idea itself is not new -- FM has done it, as has RJ. I am not, at any rate, fond of cars, so anything that proves their fundamental eeriness is fine by me. Get it. You will be hightly disturbed and like it.
*
In other news, a friend is flying off soon & in saying goodbye the word "closure" was tossed around, which used to give me hives & now does not. I've been wary of certain words, because they seem to tie things up too neatly -- "self-actualization" was big on that list, too: these words seem to take what is the messy, unformed stuff of life and turn it into all-too-tidy narratives. But closure applied. And "self-actualization" is okay too. I'm beginning to think that there are lessons to be learned, chapters to be closed, steady lines from point A to point B -- maybe the world is not all unformed, uninformed & inchoate. Anyway, she'll be off soon -- a devastatingly cute, sharp, flinty-hearted, funny girl: Orlando's loss.
I've long been a Negativland fan, but this project seems by far the most interesting thing they've done. The idea itself is not new -- FM has done it, as has RJ. I am not, at any rate, fond of cars, so anything that proves their fundamental eeriness is fine by me. Get it. You will be hightly disturbed and like it.
In other news, a friend is flying off soon & in saying goodbye the word "closure" was tossed around, which used to give me hives & now does not. I've been wary of certain words, because they seem to tie things up too neatly -- "self-actualization" was big on that list, too: these words seem to take what is the messy, unformed stuff of life and turn it into all-too-tidy narratives. But closure applied. And "self-actualization" is okay too. I'm beginning to think that there are lessons to be learned, chapters to be closed, steady lines from point A to point B -- maybe the world is not all unformed, uninformed & inchoate. Anyway, she'll be off soon -- a devastatingly cute, sharp, flinty-hearted, funny girl: Orlando's loss.
Referral Link Goodness
The odds of stumbling across an incredible band by having them link you are not, I don't think, all that high. But these Decemberists are people everyone should be listening to. So go yonder, and enjoy:
Some MP3s available here.
The Decemberists. Official, oficially snazzy-looking site.
Buy their CD!
The odds of stumbling across an incredible band by having them link you are not, I don't think, all that high. But these Decemberists are people everyone should be listening to. So go yonder, and enjoy:
Some MP3s available here.
The Decemberists. Official, oficially snazzy-looking site.
Buy their CD!
SEVIS
So the first thing you should do is not get angry, or get angry but be very calm & smooth & reassuring & deep-voiced w/ the person on the phone -- this is assuming you are an international student who turned in everything that needed to be turned in for the new SEVIS I-20, w/o which the government assumes that you, the i.s., are a terrorist and will be kicked out of the country. You turned everything in four months ago. And two days ago you get a letter saying nothing's been turned in, and that you've got a day to turn everything in else you are s.o.l.
Stay calm. One thing you, mr. i.s., know, as a former worker-bee at a computer lab, is that angry people, even people who are righteously angry, specially people who are righteously angry, will not get help. Or not as much help as they could if they are calm & collected.
So yes: Stopped in, they were happy to see me even though they were closed, promised me that the new, hey-you're-not-a-terrorist I-20 would be waiting for me by Tuesday, all while the secretary said, "Hey, he doesn't have to do any of this. He did it like four months ago."
Which we all got a good laugh out of. Which, by the way, the thing to remember too is that the people you are dealing w/, when something is fucked, are not usually the people who fucked it up -- they are co-workers of whoever's responsible for the fuck-up. But even if they are, they don't think of themselves as the assholes who fucked it up, because few of us do -- no one's an asshole 100% of the time, it takes too much energy, and so they are right, in a way, to not think of themselves that way, because here they are helping you, the i.s., who had he not been cool and collected would have been thrown out of the country in the next few days. Which would have kind of sucked.
So the first thing you should do is not get angry, or get angry but be very calm & smooth & reassuring & deep-voiced w/ the person on the phone -- this is assuming you are an international student who turned in everything that needed to be turned in for the new SEVIS I-20, w/o which the government assumes that you, the i.s., are a terrorist and will be kicked out of the country. You turned everything in four months ago. And two days ago you get a letter saying nothing's been turned in, and that you've got a day to turn everything in else you are s.o.l.
Stay calm. One thing you, mr. i.s., know, as a former worker-bee at a computer lab, is that angry people, even people who are righteously angry, specially people who are righteously angry, will not get help. Or not as much help as they could if they are calm & collected.
So yes: Stopped in, they were happy to see me even though they were closed, promised me that the new, hey-you're-not-a-terrorist I-20 would be waiting for me by Tuesday, all while the secretary said, "Hey, he doesn't have to do any of this. He did it like four months ago."
Which we all got a good laugh out of. Which, by the way, the thing to remember too is that the people you are dealing w/, when something is fucked, are not usually the people who fucked it up -- they are co-workers of whoever's responsible for the fuck-up. But even if they are, they don't think of themselves as the assholes who fucked it up, because few of us do -- no one's an asshole 100% of the time, it takes too much energy, and so they are right, in a way, to not think of themselves that way, because here they are helping you, the i.s., who had he not been cool and collected would have been thrown out of the country in the next few days. Which would have kind of sucked.
Saturday Night's all right for Sharks
I spent the bulk of today cleaning the apartment. It isn't clean, but it is less dirty than before. Now I am watching a movie about sharks attacking people: Shark Attack 3. I have not seen 2 or 1. I may never get to them. I may never actually get to finish 3, for that matter, since there is also a rerun of South Park. But I did get to see the part about someone wanting to close the beach and someone else saying, No, you can' close it. Which I imagine is said in every movie involving sharks eating people on beaches.
There is a part of me that is determined to bore the living daylights out of the rest of me. I think that the part set on boring the other half is responsible for the shark movie. I do find myself so fascinated by this thing -- which is not only not good but not really awful either, so it's not exactly enjoyable on that level either. I suppose part of the fascination is knowing that all sorts of people are throwing money at a project involving sharks, not only once but three times. And this is probably because there is someone out there renting a movie, and his only criteria is whether or not there is a shark on the cover, or on the title, or every fifteen minutes on the screen. Not that I have been timing it.
There's the shark again.
Good night.
I spent the bulk of today cleaning the apartment. It isn't clean, but it is less dirty than before. Now I am watching a movie about sharks attacking people: Shark Attack 3. I have not seen 2 or 1. I may never get to them. I may never actually get to finish 3, for that matter, since there is also a rerun of South Park. But I did get to see the part about someone wanting to close the beach and someone else saying, No, you can' close it. Which I imagine is said in every movie involving sharks eating people on beaches.
There is a part of me that is determined to bore the living daylights out of the rest of me. I think that the part set on boring the other half is responsible for the shark movie. I do find myself so fascinated by this thing -- which is not only not good but not really awful either, so it's not exactly enjoyable on that level either. I suppose part of the fascination is knowing that all sorts of people are throwing money at a project involving sharks, not only once but three times. And this is probably because there is someone out there renting a movie, and his only criteria is whether or not there is a shark on the cover, or on the title, or every fifteen minutes on the screen. Not that I have been timing it.
There's the shark again.
Good night.
Memo
Nothing memorable has happenend this Memorial Day: I've been watching Sesame Street, reading some terrific comic books (I have been recently introduced to Milligan's X-Force and Lapham's Stray Bullets), drinking coffee, making toast... There is, in fact, some required reading that needs attending to -- it's for a class on teaching. I'll be teaching a composition course in the fall as part of the assistantship.
I don't get summer, although I like it. Here's the thing: I have quite a bit of free time (reduced work- and courseload), but have managed to do nothing w/ it: it's not as though it's time spent in front of the TV or anything. It's more like I've slowed down all essential activities, inserting pockets of inactivity in-between, so that I'll do a set of push-ups, say, and stare into space for ten minutes immediately afterwards, or write a paragraph, step away from the computer, and pour coffee into the mug, step away from the mug, stare into space, return a few minutes later to add milk & aspartame. Another example: I'm usually out of the gym by nine at the latest. I'm probably firing this off and going to work out immediately (or "immediately" in summer terms) afterwards, but I haven't really prepared much of a breakfast.
This lassitude is not exactly unwelcome. I'm happy it's here at the time it is. Better now than when stuff needs doing. But it's frustrating, because I have a stack of books I mean to get to and have not even touched. And the plans for my domination of the 18-35 demographic across all markets have been put on hold. And the kitchen is a mess. And my bedroom is tidy if you ignore the various piles of papers and bound media scattered all over my desk and the bookshelves. At least the floor is uncluttered.
Nothing memorable has happenend this Memorial Day: I've been watching Sesame Street, reading some terrific comic books (I have been recently introduced to Milligan's X-Force and Lapham's Stray Bullets), drinking coffee, making toast... There is, in fact, some required reading that needs attending to -- it's for a class on teaching. I'll be teaching a composition course in the fall as part of the assistantship.
I don't get summer, although I like it. Here's the thing: I have quite a bit of free time (reduced work- and courseload), but have managed to do nothing w/ it: it's not as though it's time spent in front of the TV or anything. It's more like I've slowed down all essential activities, inserting pockets of inactivity in-between, so that I'll do a set of push-ups, say, and stare into space for ten minutes immediately afterwards, or write a paragraph, step away from the computer, and pour coffee into the mug, step away from the mug, stare into space, return a few minutes later to add milk & aspartame. Another example: I'm usually out of the gym by nine at the latest. I'm probably firing this off and going to work out immediately (or "immediately" in summer terms) afterwards, but I haven't really prepared much of a breakfast.
This lassitude is not exactly unwelcome. I'm happy it's here at the time it is. Better now than when stuff needs doing. But it's frustrating, because I have a stack of books I mean to get to and have not even touched. And the plans for my domination of the 18-35 demographic across all markets have been put on hold. And the kitchen is a mess. And my bedroom is tidy if you ignore the various piles of papers and bound media scattered all over my desk and the bookshelves. At least the floor is uncluttered.
U.S. troops opened fire on anti-American demonstrators for the second time this week as Iraqis marched Wednesday to protest the previous shooting.There is a kind of nightmare logic operating policy these days. It will only get more nightmarish and less logical. Or, put another way, po-tweet.
At the student awards luncheon
I'm the one in black, holding the contraband coffee. I was supposed to read something, so I read my little Nabokov festshrift thingie, whose chief virtue was that it was short -- they announced lunch right before I headed to the podium, and everyone seemed self-conscious about stepping out and loading up while I read, so I told them to go ahead and do it, go eat, which resulted in no one moving, which sucked because it meant that I couldn't go eat after I was done reading, because there were other readers.
The other people on the table? An exceptional bunch of people, and fun to hang out with -- the person to my immediate right (with the gray shirt and the blocked face) is a frequent tennis partner and a cook of formidable qualities and a good friend. Also: 67% of the table is involved in waching more Buffy than anyone would think humanly possible, but is.
The actual path to the photos is through here, by going to "English Photo Gallery" and clicking on "English Events," then "2003 Awards Luncheon."
Also: here is the main page for the VN celebration -- the other contributions are fantastic: there are chess problems, poems, other prose pieces, and a wonderful gift from Dmitri Nabokov, Vladimir Nabokov's son.
I'm the one in black, holding the contraband coffee. I was supposed to read something, so I read my little Nabokov festshrift thingie, whose chief virtue was that it was short -- they announced lunch right before I headed to the podium, and everyone seemed self-conscious about stepping out and loading up while I read, so I told them to go ahead and do it, go eat, which resulted in no one moving, which sucked because it meant that I couldn't go eat after I was done reading, because there were other readers.
The other people on the table? An exceptional bunch of people, and fun to hang out with -- the person to my immediate right (with the gray shirt and the blocked face) is a frequent tennis partner and a cook of formidable qualities and a good friend. Also: 67% of the table is involved in waching more Buffy than anyone would think humanly possible, but is.
The actual path to the photos is through here, by going to "English Photo Gallery" and clicking on "English Events," then "2003 Awards Luncheon."
Also: here is the main page for the VN celebration -- the other contributions are fantastic: there are chess problems, poems, other prose pieces, and a wonderful gift from Dmitri Nabokov, Vladimir Nabokov's son.
"You spend half your life trying to turn the other half around."
You do. I do, at at any rate, and learn slowly what needs turning around and what doesn't. I'm amazed, right now, by how little turning is required. If there was any wood to knock I'd knock it.
So: Holes is a remarkable movie, and a strange one, and nothing like what the ad campaigns and the trailer suggest it will be. The roommate and I saw it yesterday, and dad called today to talk and as it turned out he saw it too, in Texas. We were all surprised and charmed and caught up in detangling the causality of the universe: how it's not just Stanley's last name (Yelnats) that works as a mirror image, but the girls (Mary, Mary Lou, Myrah -- I think... I should really check) themselves, plus the similarity of these M-names to the word "mirror," plus everything else: the world falls apart if you try to explain it, but it flies on charm and on its own internal logic while you're watching, and suggests that the universe and fate are bored and need to set up elaborate schemes to keep themselves amused, much like death in Final Destination, which this movie is much better than.
Here's the thing: I hadn't even heard of Holes till one of the remarkable people mentioned on 4/12/03 showed me the trailer, and asked if it didn't look awful (it did: it looked like any number of generic Disney movies about kids doing shit), and said that the book was obviously being horribly adapted. And then she said that she didn't think that the book was that great, but that it was still a shame to make a generic adaptation of an okay book regardless. Which I understood: Print must be defended. (Although, while waiting for the movie to start, I walked to the children's section of the Barnes & Noble to look at LM Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, and lo, there were a whole bunch of kids reading. So print was in good hands. I'm actually not all that fond of children in the abstract (loud, cutesy) but they are okay and cheer me up when I see them around: they're short and not all that bright so we have a lot in common.)
You do. I do, at at any rate, and learn slowly what needs turning around and what doesn't. I'm amazed, right now, by how little turning is required. If there was any wood to knock I'd knock it.
So: Holes is a remarkable movie, and a strange one, and nothing like what the ad campaigns and the trailer suggest it will be. The roommate and I saw it yesterday, and dad called today to talk and as it turned out he saw it too, in Texas. We were all surprised and charmed and caught up in detangling the causality of the universe: how it's not just Stanley's last name (Yelnats) that works as a mirror image, but the girls (Mary, Mary Lou, Myrah -- I think... I should really check) themselves, plus the similarity of these M-names to the word "mirror," plus everything else: the world falls apart if you try to explain it, but it flies on charm and on its own internal logic while you're watching, and suggests that the universe and fate are bored and need to set up elaborate schemes to keep themselves amused, much like death in Final Destination, which this movie is much better than.
Here's the thing: I hadn't even heard of Holes till one of the remarkable people mentioned on 4/12/03 showed me the trailer, and asked if it didn't look awful (it did: it looked like any number of generic Disney movies about kids doing shit), and said that the book was obviously being horribly adapted. And then she said that she didn't think that the book was that great, but that it was still a shame to make a generic adaptation of an okay book regardless. Which I understood: Print must be defended. (Although, while waiting for the movie to start, I walked to the children's section of the Barnes & Noble to look at LM Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, and lo, there were a whole bunch of kids reading. So print was in good hands. I'm actually not all that fond of children in the abstract (loud, cutesy) but they are okay and cheer me up when I see them around: they're short and not all that bright so we have a lot in common.)
Biological Warfare & the Buffy Paradigm
See pp 4-5 if all you're really interested in is the latter.
Also, Teller talks about Enoch Soames. (Via CH.)
The semester is for all intents and purposes is over. Two portfolios to turn in. One revision still in the air. Not nearly enough sleep. The usual frustrations over the quality and quantity of the work have begun to seep in. Rushed from place to place yesterday, so missed out on treadmill time, and will make up later today after the stint here at the labs.
See pp 4-5 if all you're really interested in is the latter.
Also, Teller talks about Enoch Soames. (Via CH.)
The semester is for all intents and purposes is over. Two portfolios to turn in. One revision still in the air. Not nearly enough sleep. The usual frustrations over the quality and quantity of the work have begun to seep in. Rushed from place to place yesterday, so missed out on treadmill time, and will make up later today after the stint here at the labs.