of your etcetera

sigh

2004-11-20T18:30:00.000-08:00

And it's all back to the shitter.

But that's okay. Escape is looming just ahead.

The visit to Martin went quite well. We got kidnapped by a friend there, and ended up skipping the official tour. She (the friend) and a professor, who seemed quiet intelligent and interesting, treated us to coffee. We checked out the dorms and the campus in general, and then ate in the "dining area." Gabe felt out of his league, which is strange for him. He's 26, and a bit nervous about going to a 4-yr university after all this time. And, though he's the most intelligent person I know, he seemed to feel inadequate. The dinner loosened him up a bit, though.

I started thinking about how trapped I feel at this point in my life. How run-down, how hopeless. How I'm ready to give up. There is no place for me in this town.. no place for me to call home anymore. The days go by so slowly, and I knew if I had to wait until next August or September to get out of here, I'd go mad. Therefore, Gabe and I discussed it, and we plan to transfer to Martin in the spring.

59 days until classes start. I'm counting down. Can I last 59 days? Two months. With the days dragging on as they do now, it seems like forever. I'll do what I can, though.

The strange thing is that I won't be living with Gabe. I won't listen to him snore every night, and stick my cold feet on him. I won't wake up and make sure he's covered up enough. We only have visitation at the dorms Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It's going to be strange adjusting to that.

Gabe and I are both worried about what to major in, but we know that we don't have to know now. It'd be nice to have an idea, though. My thoughts run like this: English? Communications with a concentration in Journalism? Psychology? Natural Resource Management? His go something like this: History? Philosophy? minor in Religious Studies?

When I was 16, I thought that by now, I'd be in my sophomore year at a 4-yr school. I thought I'd be making great grades; have a great boyfriend; have a lot of friends, a lot of books. Most of all, I thought my parents would be proud of me. Well, I'm a freshman at a community college, though about to transfer. I make B's because I don't apply myself as I should. I never study, skip classes occasionally. I hope I can do better at Martin. I have a great boyfriend, though not the one I envisioned myself with.. but that's a good thing. I have a couple of good friends. I'll never have enough books.
But the thing that is so much different from what I expected is my parents. They love me, but they couldn't begin to be proud of me. I can see why. I mean, I don't drink, do drugs, or have promiscuous sex, but I'm not exactly Marsha Brady. They're giving up on me. They think I'll never find the right path again. I'll never be anything. I quit my job when I was assistant manager. I didn't go to school right away. I went to beauty school (what was I thinking) and dropped out. I finally got into a community college and changed my major from veterinary technology (because I wanted a bachelor's degree instead, because I wanted to work mostly with my mind, not my hands, because I wanted to experience college life). Because I changed my major, I had to drop the majority of my classes. It looks as though I have no discipline, as though I know nothing of diligence and therefore shall never prosper. My philosophy is different than theirs, and it has its flaws, I admit. Maybe I'm naive. I should be farther than I am. If you ask me if I regret the 'mistakes' I've made, I might at first say yes. But then, I would really think about it. I would realize that doing just one thing different could have changed everything. And there has been at least one very good thing come out of my life, and I wouldn't give it up to have everything else be right.

No, I obviously don't know what I'm doing.

finally.. well, sort of

2004-11-15T12:02:00.000-08:00

I'm finally out of my little rough patch, sort of. Some things are looking up, some down. I've been busy with work (Krispy Kreme), school (somewhat), and sleep (too much). Everyone seems to moan and groan because they never get enough sleep. I get entirely too much and I can't break the habit. It's really cutting into my time. The problem is dreams. I dream so often, so vividly, and I love it so much that I cannot force myself to get out of bed unless I'm going to be late for something. My dream world is like an escape, but it's unsatisfying when I actually get out of bed.

I really need some Steph time. Like, renting a hotel room and just being alone for awhile, without my cell phone, without anyone knowing what room I'm in. Just me. That won't happen for awhile though.

On the upside, Wednesday I'm taking a tour of the UT Martin campus, where I'm hoping to transfer in the fall. On Wednesday Gabe and I have been together for 1 year. I don't know what else we'll do to celebrate.

In other news, I'm hoping to get the camera that I want sometime this week, maybe today. I'd really like to get into photography. I'm taking a photography class next semester, and will take another at Martin (*crosses fingers*). So yeah, wish me luck.

Cate, Andi, and any lurkers

2004-11-01T12:04:00.000-08:00

No, I actually haven't given up blogging. I actually don't have a personal computer at the moment, and have been using the one at school. I haven't been online lately, and therefore haven't been able to blog or answer e-mails.

Also, I'm having a sort-of rough time. Hopefully, that will diminish within a couple of weeks, so stick with me.

On the bright side, um.. I can't think of a bright side. Oh, the Gilmore Girls comes on today and I'll be able to catch that. And um, I just finished an extremely good novel. So extremely good that it is on my top 5 list, though it looks a bit out of place.

So, now, my new top 5, in the order that I discovered them.

1. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
2. The Master and Margarita, by Mickhail Bulgakov
3. Satan: His Psychotherapy and Cure by the Unfortunate Dr. Kassler J.S.P.S. by Jeremy Leven
4. (this is the new one) The Last Report on the Miracle At Little No Horse, by Louise Erdrich
5. Okay, this spot is available. Any recommendations?

My Humanities instructor loaned me the book. I'm thinking of reading it once more before I return it, and I've already acquired another book by the same author. I was really skeptical. I was sure I'd find it boring and tedious.

From amazon.com, because I don't feel capable of describing it:
"The report in question comes from Father Damien Modeste, who has served the Ojibwe through a century of famine, epidemics, murders, and feuds. But the good priest is not what he appears. The prologue ends with the curiously beautiful image of the old man slowly removing heavy robes, undergarments, and, at last, a bandage wound tightly around women's breasts: "small, withered, modest as folded flowers."

How--and why--could such a deception last so long? That's the first mystery. The second begins when Father Jude Miller (a name familiar to readers of The Beet Queen) arrives to investigate the life of Sister Leopolda (or Pauline Puyat, another familiar name). Was Leopolda a saint? Or its opposite, whatever that is? Miracles, after all, are a part of the reservation's everyday life; for every nun's stigmata there's a secular wonder like the death of Nanapush. Indeed, the chapter detailing this old trickster's demise is the kind of earthy, tragicomic fable Erdrich does to perfection, including as it does an extended trial by moose, death by flatulence, and not one but two lustful resurrections. "

I strongly urge you to read it. No, I demand that you do.

And because I'm feeling too lazy to comment on this, check out this news report from nature.com. It's about the discovery of tiny men, nicknamed "hobbits", that lived 18,000 yrs ago.

Let's see, what else have I been up to? I've been looking through a book "The Literature Lover's Companion" which is a thick book of author biographies from all over the world and from all time periods. I'm looking to read more from authors from different countries. From the A's, can anyone recommend any of these authors? I'm familiar with some of them, but I've not read works by any of them. No, I didn't exclude Americans.

Kobo Abe - Japanese
Chinua Achebe - Nigerian
Douglas Adams - English
Aeschylus - Greek
Robert Aickman - English
Conrad Aiken - American
Vasily Aksenov - Russian
Paula Gunn Allen - American
Kingsley Amis - English
Martin Amis - English
Ivo Andric - Bosnian
Jean Anonilh - French
Lucius Apuleius - Roman
Ludovico Ariosto - Italian
Alan Ayckbourn - English

Okay, that's all for today, folks. More tomorrow or Wednesday.

Ramblings

2004-10-22T07:53:00.000-07:00

The last couple of days have been lazy days. I've been watching too much tv, eating too much subway, and sleeping waaaay too much. No particular reason, either. Hmm. Around age 11 or 12, I stopped watching tv completely - cold turkey. I noticed that it interfered with my other activities, particularly reading. Now, with the recent discovery of Will and Grace (which I don't really like but somehow can't quit watching) and The Gilmore Girls (!!), and the rediscovery of Full House (*dork*) and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (*double dork*) and The Nanny (*won't even go there*), I somehow enjoy it again. However, even though I've just started a really good book, I've been watching so much tv that I haven't actually been reading it. So now I've got to control myself, again. I'm going to try to limit myself to watching The Gilmore Girls (shut up, shut up) and maybe 1 episode of something else per day. Of course, then I've got to figure out a way to keep the X-Box turned off.

I've had three pairs of glasses in my lifetime. 1st time was fourth grade. Rose pink rims. Hideous things. I wore them for a couple of weeks. I could see better, but I despised wearing them. Then, about 3 years ago, I got another pair. Brown rims. I like brown - they were okay. I wore them a for a couple of months; then they got really crooked and I just stopped. A couple of weeks ago, I got a new pair because I was having headaches every day from squinting. They have navy blue rims - almost black. Do I love them? No. But it's amazing to see, and I feel lost without them. I wake up in the middle of the night and feel like my eyes are missing. I can feel this kind of ghost presence on my face, instead. Is that strange?

I've been reading Washington Post's Book World, and found a quote that I identified with in a review by Carolyn See.
"The never-fail test of any novel is whether it seriously disrupts your daily schedule: If you let the kids wait an extra 10 minutes at school so you can get to the end of a chapter, if you pick up the book at lunch even if there are friends at the table, if you stay up late reading the damn thing when you have to get up early the next morning. A novel may have flaws -- and this one certainly does -- but you can't argue with it. You can't stop to argue. You've got to go on reading. "

Someone inspire me to read Gabriel Garcia Marquez before he dies, please. (I am not morbid; just realistic.) "García Márquez has suffered from lymph cancer in recent years and makes few public appearances.
"It's a song to life. I think we all know what García Márquez has gone through in the past few years," Mr Peralta said.
"We are all worried for his health."

lazy day

2004-10-19T15:02:00.000-07:00

Question: Can anyone recommend a good book on Norse Mythology?

I'm feeling lazy today; excuse the lack of a proper post.

Allegory With Venus and Cupid

2004-10-19T14:21:00.000-07:00

This is Agnolo Bronzino's An Allegory With Venus and Cupid, originally known as Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time. Many see it as a disturbing view of incest. Venus and Cupid are seen nude, kissing. Behind them is Father Time. Around them we see Fraud and Folly. The howling man at the left is debatable. Some say he is despair. Some say jealousy. Some, however, say he represents the effects of syphilis, as he shows the clinical symptoms of the disease. It's up to interpretation, really. What do you think?

art

2004-10-18T18:52:00.000-07:00

I just finished writing an essay over Eugene Delacroix for my Humanities class. I can't say that his art did much for me. On the bright side, though, in conducting research for the essay, I borrowed a book (The Story of Painting, by Sister Wendy Beckett) which turned out to be fairly interesting. Look at this marvelous painting by Hieronymus Bosch, Death and the Miser.

This painting has so much going on that it would be hard to catch everything in a brief glance. It is "a warning to anyone so obsessed with grabbing at life's pleasures that they have lost all sense of retribution." In short, it is telling us not to be obsessed with money. The miser appears twice in the painting. In the foreground, he is greedily stowing away his money. He is also shown on the bed, near his final hour. On the left is Death, who has already entered his bedchamber. Look at the demon offering a bag of gold to the miser on his deathbed, hoping to secure his soul. A final temptation, one the miser still reaches out to. His guardian angel is trying to point out the crucifix in the upper left hand corner, but the miser obviously doesn't see this. The outcome, though not shown, looks bleak.

I may post more from this book later. Maybe a painting of the day type thing until I return the book. Maybe not. At the moment, though, I'm sick of looking at this computer screen due to the essay. Until tomorrow, farewell.

feed your inner child

2004-10-17T12:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I went over to Amazon to do some more research on the books I listed yesterday. Turns out, none of them seemed too terribly interesting. But I did find some other note-worthy stuff. I must be in a silly mood, cause these are children's books.

The Neil Gaiman Audio Collection CD - Apparently it's an audio collection of 4 of his children's stories, including The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish, The Wolves in the Walls, and two others. I've got the book The Wolves in the Walls, and I highly recommend that too. This CD is released in 4 days! I'm excited, but I'm also broke and won't be able to get it. If you get it, feel free to rub it in.

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon: A Pop-Up Book, by Stephen King. Stephen King is one of my guilty pleasures. Some of his stuff really blows; some of it is mind-blowing. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was in-between. But this is a pop-up book, people! I look forward to getting it (when I get some money, after I get the Neil Gaiman thing).

Everything I Know About Pirates, by Tom Lichtenheld. If you click on the link, and the top of the page is screwy, hit the end button and PgUp from that. Sometimes it's screwed up, sometimes it isn't. Anyway, I love pirates. I love silly children's books. I'm about to quote from a review: "This encyclopedia of spectacularly unscientific, unfounded facts about those nasty brigands of the sea will thoroughly satisfy the curiosity of landlubbin' vermin and pirate wannabes alike. Complete with name charts (pick one word from each of three columns to come up with a name like Blind Tooth Willy or One Boot Kidd), diagrams of swashbuckler fashion, and cutaway views of pirate ships, this volume is chock full of unforgettable and indispensable details of the buccaneering life. Did you know, for example, that pirates are very clumsy--why else would they always end up with eye patches and hooks? And the skull and crossbones was not discovered inside the desk of a seventh-grader in De Kalb, Illinois, as is commonly believed. It was Leonardo 'Peg Leg' da Vinci who invented the design." Apparently the kiddies and parents alike dig it.

Everything I Know About Monsters, by Tom Lichtenheld. Same guy, same idea, different theme. Quoting again: "Presented as a field guide of sorts, the instructive book begins with a diagram of a typical monster, with the usual characteristics from hopelessly bad hair to weird feet. The guide, which delves into monster psychology (very simple) as well as monster hygiene (very minimal), is divided up by type of monster such as: "Under-the-Bed Monsters" (lazy, eat dirty socks, scared by smiley-face night-lights), "Basement Monsters" (Sock Suckers, Ankle Fiends, Tool Ghouls), "Attic Monsters" ("sit around all day reading old National Geographic magazines that your parents are saving for no apparent reason"), and "Outside Monsters" (such as Big Foot "a Boy Scout gone bad" and Swamp Thang). A handy Monster Avoidance Chart may help kids get a good night's sleep." Come on, it sounds incredibly cute.

Your inner child is pitching a fit for these. At least put them on your wishlist ;) (They'll come back to haunt you)

I wasn't going to post anymore tonight...

2004-10-17T00:19:00.000-07:00

...but this just got me.

It seems nothing is impossible. Paralysed man sends e-mail by thought.

"An pill-sized brain chip has allowed a quadriplegic man to check e-mail and play computer games using his thoughts. The device can tap into a hundred neurons at a time, and is the most sophisticated such implant tested in humans so far.

Many paralysed people control computers with their eyes or tongue. But muscle function limits these techniques, and they require a lot of training. For over a decade researchers have been trying to find a way to tap directly into thoughts.

In June 2004, surgeons implanted a device containing 100 electrodes into the motor cortex of a 24-year-old quadriplegic. The device, called the BrainGate, was developed by the company Cyberkinetics, based in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Each electrode taps into a neuron in the patient's brain.

The BrainGate allowed the patient to control a computer or television using his mind, even when doing other things at the same time. Researchers report for example that he could control his television while talking and moving his head.

The team now plans to implant devices into four more patients."

My question: When do I get one?

Overall, I'm really impressed with nature.com. I'll probably check it out for news more often.

In other news..

2004-10-16T20:04:00.000-07:00

"Doctors would scan patients like cans of soup at a grocery store." We're talking about impantable medical ID's.

"The tiny electronic capsule, the first such device to receive Food and Drug Administration approval, transmits a unique code to a scanner that allows doctors to confirm a patient's identity and obtain detailed medical information from an accompanying database. "

"The approval was immediately denounced by privacy advocates, who fear it could endanger patient privacy and mark a dangerous step toward a Big Brother future in which people will be tracked by the implants or required to have them inserted for surveillance, identification and other purposes. "

"The company is investigating other applications, including using the chips as "electronic dog tags" for soldiers, creating "smart guns" with built-in scanners that ensure they can be fired only by someone with a corresponding implant, and enabling stores to verify a customer's identity before accepting a credit card. "

"Spurred by South Americans seeking ways to trace kidnap victims, the company has also developed a device that allows satellites to pinpoint a chip's location, but it has no immediate plans to market that gadget. "

Some of the proposed uses sound handy, but yeah, this will get out of hand.

A new biography of ee cummings has been published. Written by Christopher Sawyer-Laucanno. No amazon reviews of it yet, but you can read the review by Jonathan Yardley in The Washington Post.I've added it to my wishlist.

And, from another Yardley article (The Fall Preview, a look at 100 or so books to be released this fall), I have chosen a few that seem interesting to me:

My Life with Pablo Neruda, by Matilde Urrutia (Stanford, Oct.). The poet's lover, muse, wife and widow tells it from her perspective.

Bound to Please, by Michael Dirda (Norton, Nov.). Our man on page 15.

A Reading Diary, by Alberto Manguel (FSG, Oct.). Favorites of a discriminating reader.

Author, Author, by David Lodge (Viking, Oct.). A great literary critic turns tables and novelizes a great novelist: Henry James.

The Egyptologist, by Arthur Phillips (Random House, Sept.). An archaeologist stakes his reputation on a scrap of Egyptian pornography; by the author of Prague.

The Inner Circle, by T.C. Boyle (Viking, Sept.). A virginal young man takes a job with Dr. Kinsey, the infamous sex researcher; by the author of Drop City.

Villages, by John Updike (Knopf, Oct.). A coming-of-age story in which women -- many, many of them -- are a young man's defining teachers.

With the exception of Dirda, I've never read any of these authors. Comments? Speaking of Dirda for a sec, I love him because he reviews newer stuff (T.C. Boyle's The Inner Circle for example) but he also reviews classics (such as Madame Bovary). And sometimes he just rants and raves. Regardless of what he's talking about though, he's usually interesting. He also hosts a live, online chat every Wednesday at 2p.m. ET. Yes, I know the page says Thursdays, but it lies. He's apparently changed the day, but no one has changed the webpage.

Anyhow, this post has gotten much too long, and I haven't said a thing. I'm lazy; it's much easier to copy and paste and through in a few quotation marks. I may look at the books I mentioned from Yardley's article more in depth (yes, on amazon.com) and post about that later. I also want to do a post on other blogs that I recommend soon. Now, though, I'll just leave you with a picture of my tattoo (I found my cell phone):

Hmm..

2004-10-16T19:18:00.000-07:00

The observer reports that:

"Scientists are seeking permission to carry out experiments that would result in children being born with three biological parents. UK medical authorities say they will almost certainly approve the application in the next few weeks."

and

"The technology - which is being developed by a team at Newcastle University - will involve the implanting of the nucleus of an embryo from an affected mother into an egg taken from a donor that has been stripped of its nucleus."

"But campaigners say it could lead to significant increases in elderly women having children. They also claim it represents an unacceptable step towards the creation of designer babies."

How do I feel about this? Okay, for starters, whose child is it, exactly? The woman who carried the child and gave birth to the child, or the woman whom the nucleus was taken from? I'd say the former, technically, but when you carry and give birth to a child, I imagine you grow kind of.. attached to it. So I see potential drama. Maybe "you get the child kid half the year and you get 'er the other half." I see potential traumatized children.

On a different note, this reminds me of the book Creator by Jeremy Leven:

"Dr. Harry Wolper, an aging Noble Prize-winning biologist, is attempting to create life-specifically, to re-create his adored late wife by implanting her clone in a loving but reluctant 19-year-old nymphomaniac, and do it before his conventional son can have him committed to an asylum.

Creator is a love story, a comedy, a zany account of science running amok, and a moving and tragic account of our biological and imaginative limitations and the struggle we wage against them. Creator was turned into a feature film starring Peter O'Toole and Mariel Hemingway."

Thanks to Amazon.com.

Yes, that was partially an excuse to bring up one of my favorite novels. I love the way Jeremy Leven writes. You know those novels where so much is happening with so many different characters that you have to take notes or you get lost? This is like that, except... somehow you just remember it, and you don't have to take notes. It's fascinating. It's a literary soap-opera.

Okay, so you really want it now, don't you? It's *coughoutofprintcoughhack*. That's why I did this handy bookfinder search for you. There are 128 copies available. What are you waiting for? Why are you still here? Go buy the book!

know what I hate?

2004-10-16T18:23:00.000-07:00

I hate that my fingers get smaller in the winter. I had a ring that, in the summer, was perfect. Not too loose, not too tight. Now, it's dangerously close to falling off at any given moment, and the weight of the stones turns it upside down at all times. Grr.

Arg, and my cell phone is missing. I was going to post a picture of my dog, or my mice, or my tattoo (a paw print), or my fiancee, or his son.. or.. well, I just felt like posting a picture.

Let's see, I'm boring today. My mother went out of town and needed someone to stay and watch the kids overnight (14 and 11ish), so guess who gets that fun job. Whoo hoo. That should prove interesting. Kids are Richard, 14,my half-bro. He's very moody, and sometimes tells me he loves me and sometimes just tells me to get out of his way. Erm, Luc, my step-bro, 11ish. Has a habit of exaggerating everything and thinks that he happens to be the smartest person on Earth, and doesn't mind telling you so. He talks a lot. That makes for annoying visits. Luckily, he's playing Diablo II now (I despise that game), so all is well.

Must go put frozen pizzas in over. I am a master chef.

2004-10-15T11:45:00.000-07:00

Last post today, I promise. I just want to ramble for a sec.

a) I'm seriously procrastinating. I've been online for two hours. I'm supposed to be researching 2 artists for my Arts and Humanities class, and I've not even googled them yet. I have, however, googled Dave McKean, read random quotes for half an hour, uploaded photos, blogged, read other blogs, and checked my e-mail thrice.

b) midterm week - meep! I had two midterms. One in Personal Health, which I winged but I imagine I did good on. Another, in Animal Sciences. I studied for, oh... 20 minutes. I bombed it! My first failing grade of the semester (maybe since elementary school?). Go me.

c) I poured my heart out to my dog last night. She slept through most of it, I think. On the bright side, she didn't interrupt, give bad advice, immediately start rambling about her own problems, lecture me about how I've screwed my life up, or be sickeningly sympathetic. And I didn't feel like I was crazy for talking to myself. I think I'll talk to my dog more often.

d) Do you ever have thoughts that you don't quite catch because your brain pushes them away before they hurt you, but you're left with an ache in the pit of your stomach anyway? Memories that would be severely depressing, if you knew what they were, but make you feel a little lousy anyhow. And then you feel silly for being upset over something you can't really remember. And then you're pissed at your brain for pushing the thoughts away and making you feel silly. So, because of one thought that flashed through your mind for a tiny instant, you are left feeling lousy, silly, pissed, and with an ache in the pit of your stomach? Damn, I hate those thoughts.

e) Someone please tell me how to pronounce Anais Nin.

f) Random quotes:

"The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself." - Sir Richard Francis Burton

"Man is the Only Animal that Blushes. Or needs to." - Mark Twain

g) My Arts and Humanities instructor has a slideshow of her trip to France online. It's 300 photos, but for anyone interested she has some really great ones of Claude Monet's garden, starting at photo #54, some photos of famous sculptures and paintings, and (ooh! ooh!) photos of Chateau D'If (you know, from The Count of Monte Cristo.) Check it out.

blog title

2004-10-15T11:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'll give. I'll tell you what poem the title of this blog came from. It's ee cummings.

my sweet old etcetera
aunt lucy during the recent

war could and what
is more did tell you just
what everybody was fighting

for,
my sister

isabel created hundreds
(and
hundreds) of socks not to
mention shirts fleaproof earwarmers

etcetera wristers etcetera, my

mother hoped that

i would die etcetera
bravely of course my father used
to become hoarse talking about how it was
a privilege and if only he
could meanwhile my

self etcetera lay quietly
in the deep mud et

cetera
(dreaming,
et
cetera, of
Your smile
eyes knees and of your Etcetera)

art

2004-10-15T11:26:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of Dave Mckean's art. Here's an enlarged version of the pic in my profile, which is his work.

I claim no expertise in art, the schools of art, creating art, etc. To me, though, McKean is the modern Picasso. And if someone who knows about art gets physically ill at my ignorance in that statement, I apologize.

In my Animal Sciences class Wednesday, I looked to my left where I had placed my books, purse, etc, and saw beauty. Truly. I am no photographer, either, and my view of beauty might be a bit off, but I took a picture of it with my phone nevertheless.

Go ahead, laugh. The books, for the curious (Andi), are Selected Poems of D.H. Lawrence, Two-Headed Poems by Margaret Atwood, and a Horror Classics graphic novel.

philip roth goodness!

2004-10-13T21:27:00.000-07:00

Check out nerve.com's interview with Philip Roth.

"I think that talking about books has absolutely disappeared. I remember back in the '50s and '60s among my friends that if you were in a group of people and if someone brought up a book, you could be sure that maybe half the people had read it. Now, I find that no one ever does that. If they talk about a book it’s a comment and then that’s the end of that. Movies, people can talk about endlessly. And they can bank on the fact that people have seen the movie. "

This makes me wish I had lived in the 50's and 60's. Luckily, I'm fairly selective about my friends, and most of them can carry on a decent literary conversation. Unfortunately, most of them just read fantasy and sci-fi, and I can't carry on a decent literary conversation about that. This is why I love yahoogroups, and will be exceedingly pissed if they start charging for the service. (You guys did hear that they're considering it, right?)

Back to the orignal subject - the only Roth novel that I've read is Portnoy's Complaint. This interview makes me want to read more, though maybe not the book the interview is promoting. So, any suggestions about which Roth book I should read next? I own a few - The Human Stain; Goodbye, Columbus; The Professor of Desire; The Ghost Writer; My Life as a Man. Yes, I need to seek therapy for my book buying habits. No, I don't intend to.

(Anyone read Roth's The Breast? The brief mention in the interview sounded interesting.)

Thanks to Bookslut for the link to the interview.

another thing I almost forgot

2004-10-13T21:10:00.000-07:00

The title of the blog is, if you didn't notice, 'of your etcetera.' I rushed back here to explain the reference to a poem, but I'm cruel and I've changed my mind. Instead, I'm offering a prize (a virtual pat on the back) to anyone who can identify the poem and poet from whom I've borrowed the phrase. I'll give you a hint and tell you that he is an American poet.

[insert clever introductory title here]

2004-10-13T20:38:00.000-07:00

So I'm bad with titles. We all have our flaws. Ahem.

A brief introductory note is in order, I suppose. Let's start with the discussing this 'blog' - the actual physical blog. I chose this template, over the black version that I really like, because I got new glasses today. The frames are blue. I'm wearing a blue jeans, blue socks, and a blue Padre Island shirt with blue dolphins (and glitter!). Hey, I like things to match. Note that it will probably change to black soon, because that's the color I normally wear. And hey, I like things to match.

I suppose I should talk about the content of the blog. I don't really know. It'll probably be a bitch-session about college life, raves and rants about literature, me marveling about ignorance and stupidity, and the occasional animal rights link. Sounds fun, eh? I'm warning you ahead of time that I will probably post my rant about why you should adopt pets from animal shelters instead of breeders, the benefits of spaying and neutering, and why Memphis Animal Shelter is horrid. However, I am not going to go over the top and bitch at you because you're not vegan. Hey, I tried it for 3 weeks. I starved the entire time. If you can eat that crap, go vegan; I'm all for it. If you can't, I relate. It's all good.

Oh, I forgot to mention: this blog was inspired by Andi over at http://epicblue.blogspot.com - check her out.