The other night, I was using Senioritis and Timezoneitis as my excuses to spend an extraordinarily wasteful amount of time on Facebook. Sitting quietly at my computer, listening to Holly's fabulous "spring mix" cd, I decided to have a little snack. Most of my food was eaten before break, so the pickings were slim, but I found the end of a bag of organic corn chips. Delicious, right?
As I reach my hand into the small chips that always live towards the bottom, I felt a little tickle on my left arm. I looked down and saw that a smallish-but-still-frightening spider had descended from the ceiling with my left arm as his destination. [writing this makes it sound frighteningly civil. i assure you, the real-time happenings were anarchical at best]
I squeaked, made extensive brushing-off and shaking motions with all appendages, and tossed a barrage of corn chips into the air.
I now have two problems: I still don't know what happened to the spider, and my floor is covered in corn chip crumbs. Doesn't the Red Cross usually intervene in post-trauma clean up?
[update: as of 2:35am eastern time (i was on ra duty) last night, the spider and i reconciled our differences. now it is dead. commence victory march through the city]
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
the way we see it...
This was on a large number of Starbucks cups [acquired with shocking regularity. thanks for taking the fall for all of that, shmol. i was always in, but you led the way like a truly addicted champion] in the San Diego area. It is quite possibly my all time favorite Way I See It quote:
#289 - So called "global warming" is just a secret ploy by wacko tree-huggers to make American energy independent, clean our air and water, improve the fuel efficiency of our vehicles, kick-start 21st-century industries, and make our cities safer and more livable. Don't let them get away with it!" - Chip Giller
#289 - So called "global warming" is just a secret ploy by wacko tree-huggers to make American energy independent, clean our air and water, improve the fuel efficiency of our vehicles, kick-start 21st-century industries, and make our cities safer and more livable. Don't let them get away with it!" - Chip Giller
Thursday, March 27, 2008
breaking news...
This is a picture taken out my window moments ago. I can't even decide which snarky comment to use. Maybe I will use all of them:
-Apparently spring didn't get the memo.
-And you wonder why Michigan is depressing.
-I need to go back to Coronado. NOW.
-Seriously, WHAT the heck?
-I got this tan for nothing!
-So much for all those new summer clothes I bought last week!
I think I'm going to just close my blinds and keep looking at Spring Break photos. And do tons of homework to distract myself. Send cocoa.
Or maybe something stronger, if you have it.
-Apparently spring didn't get the memo.-And you wonder why Michigan is depressing.
-I need to go back to Coronado. NOW.
-Seriously, WHAT the heck?
-I got this tan for nothing!
-So much for all those new summer clothes I bought last week!
I think I'm going to just close my blinds and keep looking at Spring Break photos. And do tons of homework to distract myself. Send cocoa.
Or maybe something stronger, if you have it.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Thursday, March 06, 2008
a stay against confusion...
I'm barely into Ron Hansen's A Stay Against Confusion: Essays on Faith and Fiction, [title taken from robert frost, my favorite poet] but already it's a must-own. For writers and readers, it's up there with Mystery and Manners.
I love reading about people who are passionate and thoughtful about the interaction of faith and art. Hansen's prose is brilliant. I get to meet him next week, as he's our visiting writer this semester.
A few highlights so far:
"Writing not only gives form and meaning to our sometimes disorderly existence, but gives the author the chance for self-disclosure and communion with others, while giving readers a privileged share in another's inner life that, perhaps imperceptibly, questions and illuminates their own. Reading attentively, connecting our lives with those of fictional characters, choosing ethically and emotionally just as they do or in contradistinction to them, we enter the realm of the spirit where we simultaneously discover our likeness to others and our difference, our uniqueness. Questioning ourselves and our world, finding in it, for all its coincidence, accidents, and contingencies a mysterious coherence, we may become aware of a horizon beyond which abides the One who is the creator and context of our existence." [this is why i want to teach, learn, and love: to help those around me understand something beyond ourselves through simple words on plain pages.]
"...I knew the books I liked best were not those that seemed tailored to contemporary tastes but those that were unfashionable, refractory, in subordinate, that seemed the products not of a market analysis but of a writer's private obsession." [can i work for this type of publishing company, please? i'll even sort paper clips if necessary]
I'm sure I'll keep adding to this. But get yourself some Hansen, mkay?
[sorry this isn't pictures, schmol. we'll take a bunch together soon!]
I love reading about people who are passionate and thoughtful about the interaction of faith and art. Hansen's prose is brilliant. I get to meet him next week, as he's our visiting writer this semester.
A few highlights so far:
"Writing not only gives form and meaning to our sometimes disorderly existence, but gives the author the chance for self-disclosure and communion with others, while giving readers a privileged share in another's inner life that, perhaps imperceptibly, questions and illuminates their own. Reading attentively, connecting our lives with those of fictional characters, choosing ethically and emotionally just as they do or in contradistinction to them, we enter the realm of the spirit where we simultaneously discover our likeness to others and our difference, our uniqueness. Questioning ourselves and our world, finding in it, for all its coincidence, accidents, and contingencies a mysterious coherence, we may become aware of a horizon beyond which abides the One who is the creator and context of our existence." [this is why i want to teach, learn, and love: to help those around me understand something beyond ourselves through simple words on plain pages.]
"...I knew the books I liked best were not those that seemed tailored to contemporary tastes but those that were unfashionable, refractory, in subordinate, that seemed the products not of a market analysis but of a writer's private obsession." [can i work for this type of publishing company, please? i'll even sort paper clips if necessary]
I'm sure I'll keep adding to this. But get yourself some Hansen, mkay?
[sorry this isn't pictures, schmol. we'll take a bunch together soon!]
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
grammar confession...
I have this horrible feeling that the other night, when responding to far too many e-mails without sufficient brain power, I mixed up 'its' and 'it's' and frequently used the wrong one in an e-mail.
I can't even explain it. I just got this horrible feeling in the middle of my Lewis class today, but I'm too afraid to even look back at that e-mail to check. I might be imagining my folly. But what if I'm right ...and I actually was wrong?
Perhaps this [deleted] snow storm is the vengance of some minor grammar god? I shall spend the rest of the evening shouting apologies to the heavens. And Dictionaries.
Oh, San Diego, I hope you are sunny and warmish when I come visit you!
I can't even explain it. I just got this horrible feeling in the middle of my Lewis class today, but I'm too afraid to even look back at that e-mail to check. I might be imagining my folly. But what if I'm right ...and I actually was wrong?
Perhaps this [deleted] snow storm is the vengance of some minor grammar god? I shall spend the rest of the evening shouting apologies to the heavens. And Dictionaries.
Oh, San Diego, I hope you are sunny and warmish when I come visit you!
Saturday, March 01, 2008
trivia...
I'm almost done with the L chapter in The Know It All [one man's humble quest to become the smartest person in the world]. I halfway bought the book for the cover design and halfway paid-full-price-at-powell's because this is totally something I wish I would have the guts to do. Jacobs' book is a memoir of a collection of facts, rabbit trails, and personal reflection. I like rabbit trails - through them, the entire universe is connected.
Since I'm not likely to add the Encyclopedia to my reading list any time soon, I have to stick with vicarious learning. Some of my favorite quotes so far include Jacobs' interview with Alex Trebech, where he records my latest [in a long line of] motto[s]: "I'm curious about everything - even things that don't interest me." [i get it from my dad]
Also among the bounty of laugh-out-loud and wish-i-had-someone-to-share-this-with moments [gosh, i'm really into those phrases-as-words lately] is this paragraph, under the heading Loyd Webber, Sir Andrew:
"That's the feeling I want to get back. I want the world's hidden meanings to leap out at me like a Chinese jumping mouse. I want to see the grand arcs and the big picture. I want to shock people with the incisiveness of my analysis. On the other hand, I don't really want to see any more musicals about trains."
Me too, AJ. Me, too.
I think this is definitely going to be one of those books added to my giant Book Sharing Gift Giving Adventure [where i use other people as my excuse to buy books guilt-free. you're invited to reciprocate], but I'm at a complete loss as who to send it to. Maybe I'll just write a completely random address on it and drop it in a mailbox. "Dear Friend, I hope you love this book as much as I love learning random trivia. Yours, E"
Since I'm not likely to add the Encyclopedia to my reading list any time soon, I have to stick with vicarious learning. Some of my favorite quotes so far include Jacobs' interview with Alex Trebech, where he records my latest [in a long line of] motto[s]: "I'm curious about everything - even things that don't interest me." [i get it from my dad]
Also among the bounty of laugh-out-loud and wish-i-had-someone-to-share-this-with moments [gosh, i'm really into those phrases-as-words lately] is this paragraph, under the heading Loyd Webber, Sir Andrew:
"That's the feeling I want to get back. I want the world's hidden meanings to leap out at me like a Chinese jumping mouse. I want to see the grand arcs and the big picture. I want to shock people with the incisiveness of my analysis. On the other hand, I don't really want to see any more musicals about trains."
Me too, AJ. Me, too.
I think this is definitely going to be one of those books added to my giant Book Sharing Gift Giving Adventure [where i use other people as my excuse to buy books guilt-free. you're invited to reciprocate], but I'm at a complete loss as who to send it to. Maybe I'll just write a completely random address on it and drop it in a mailbox. "Dear Friend, I hope you love this book as much as I love learning random trivia. Yours, E"
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