Odds and Ends

well, i had an excellent meeting with my diss chair today. got some questions answered and everything is on track.  woo-hoo.  what makes me even more happy is to hear that my prospectus only has to be 10-15 pages and also that the structure of my dissertation is at the moment up to me.  i love when i get to make my own rules.  i also love that my chair knows i'm a perfectionist and tries to keep me from sabotaging myself and also that he's figured out that i always try to do much and tries to convince me to do much less.  

so i made this very silly goal last saturday to read 7 books in 7 days.  what was i thinking?  well, i know what i was thinking.  i have a crapload of reading to do and i need to be more serious about doing it.  but seriously, a book a day?  i should have known that that wasn't feasible.  i guess the good thing is that i've read 3 books since saturday--the good soldier, to the lighthouse, and dubliners.  i'm about halfway through the heart of the matter and hopefully i can finish that by tomorrow.  it's a lot slower than the quiet american and not nearly half as interesting.  so it's been hard to get through.  seems i'm having that problem with several books because i'm partially through several books right now.  i was just thinking that the day that i'm only in the middle of one book...well, that'll be an unusual day to say the least.  it'll definitely be something to blog about if that day ever comes.

big fun is only 2 weeks away....this time 2 weeks from now i'll be in seattle and then off to chicago for baseball!! i absolutely can't wait.  i haven't been out of pullman (well, i guess i should say eastern washington) since march.  it's definitely time for a change of scenery and for me to get my big city fix.  i'll have to see if there's a half-price books in seattle and also plan to do some shopping.  i so much need some new clothes for teaching this fall.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

it seems fitting that i should be here about to blog my thoughts on the perks of being a wallflower while listening to the new our lady peace CD.  all i need is a glass of wine.  [okay, i have corrected the wine oversight.  the blogging can now continue.] so, now that i'm done with this book, i have to admit that it's absolutely fantastic, though i had no idea what heavy issues it deals with.  but i think my students will still like it and at least i know there will be a ton of stuff to talk about.  and yet one question that really remains unanswered for me...what are the perks of being a wallflower?  i'm hoping that my students will have lots of creative and insightful answers to this question.  i'm actually finding it hard to blog about the book because i feel like i'm going to give everything away to people who haven't read it and that's hardly fair!

It's All OK

here's the thing.  i managed to get out of bed and out of my apartment before 10am this morning. i even have a couple of books with me to read, but i'm not even going to pretend to try to read them.  i have to take my car in to the service shop at 11am, and with only an hour to work and e-mails and tweets to return and read, i knew the moment i sat down that no reading was going to be taking place.  but that's okay.  

whatever funk i was in on monday i think i have gotten out of.  yesterday didn't yield any work or check marks as far as reading for exams goes, but i did get a lot of good work done on my 101 class for the fall.  i've drafted the assignment sheet for the group project/presentation as well as the individual informative reports i'm going to have my students do/write for omnivore's dilemma, and i even know when in the semester the presentations will be happening.  it's going to be great, because for almost two weeks my students will be teaching class, not me.  and it's timed well because during those two weeks i'll be needing to revise the paper i'm going to read at PAMLA.  

and i woke up this morning with renewed determination to get my reading done done done.  i have no idea where all this optimism has come from, but maybe at long last i finally had a good night's worth of sleep last night.  i didn't wake up all exhausted and stressed.  maybe taking a day off from work also helped, though i did read placement exams yesterday morning so it wasn't an all day play day. at any rate, i don't necessarily need to know where all the good vibes have come from, i'll just worry about keeping them and making them work in my favor.

No Title

For the last three and a half minutes, I have been listening to Michael Buble's version of "Try a Little Tenderness", drinking white wine, and alternating my gaze between the stack of books on my bedside table and the blank box waiting for me to fill it with my next blog post.  This is all to say that I have no idea where this blog post will be going and if at the end i still have no idea, well, i suppose that will be okay.

i suppose the first thing i want to blog about is that i just finished reading louise penny's "still life".  i chose this book for my fall english lit class and i'm so glad that i did because there's a lot about this book to like.  it really is well-written and it's well-paced.  the characters are engaging and i must say, i'm glad that the one whodunit wasn't the one person who i really didn't want to be the one whodunit--which just means that i was satisfied with the conclusion of the novel.  or shall i say...the denouement? (perhaps this is one of the literary terms i can discuss!).  i picked up the book because it's the first in a series, so if the students like it and want to read more they can, but also because some of the reviews compared the detective--armand gamache--to hercule poirot, and well i just love poirot. i can see the comparison, especially when they make the distinction of calling gamache a 21st century version of poirot.  but i've read a bunch of poirot novels and i gotta say that gamache's character is much more fully developed than poirot's.  suffice it to say, i totally will be putting the next book in the series into my amazon wish list, and will plan to read it on the plane trip home at thanksgiving.

however, all of this talk of books (or shall i say 'this book'?) is just a convenient distraction.  i haven't been sleeping very well, and the only two things i can really attribute this to are stress and too much caffeine.  but i'm not buying too much caffeine as a plausible explanation.  i really think it's stress.  though, i must say, in comparison to june, i have gotten so much more work done in these 20 days of july than i did in all 30 days of june.  just now after a quick count, i've familiarized myself with all or part of 23 of the 54 items on my 2nd exam list. and i still have 10 days left.  granted, i may not have all 54 covered by the end of july, but i know i'm going to be in a much better place with this list than i was at the end of june with my 1st list.  and well, it's stress, and i'm very used to stress.  thrive on it even.  is that really what is troubling my sleep? because i do sleep--i can just tell i'm not getting good sleep.  even after my second cup of coffee today i was absolutely and utterly exhausted.  perhaps i need to start working out, though i have no idea how i'm going to fit that into my schedule, though i have been trying.  and well, i've gone three whole days without taking a nap.  frankly, i thought it was the naps that was making it difficult to get good sleep, but i'm almost into a routine now.  well, at least i am on the going asleep side.  i've been getting into bed by 1am rather than the 2.30...3.00...3.30...habit i had fallen into during late june/early july after i was finished teaching.  now if i can just consistently get up earlier...but no, i'm still hitting snooze on my alarm until 10am.  at any rate...sleep has been an issue, one that i need to solve quickly, especially since school is just around the corner and i'm going to have to teach at 9.10!

so what is the point of this blog post?  what is the purpose?  i have no idea, though i know that i'm asking this question because i was reading a blog post by someone who said that they excelled at the personal essay and so blogging is just a natural writing outlet for them and i thought to myself, huh, do i excel at the personal essay?  have i even ever written a personal essay, much less a good personal essay?  i suppose my personal statement for grad school applications counts, but i certainly wouldn't affix the descriptor of "good" to any of those.  i'm also asking this question because i know i'm going to ask my 101 students to write a personal narrative for one of their writing assignments.  i know i will give them examples of personal narratives but i'm also thinking to myself could i even write a personal narrative?  and what do i consider to be a good personal narrative?  i dunno.  certainly not this blog post.  

The Quiet American

I do so love being pleasantly surprised.  Though, I shouldn't have been surprised, I suppose, because all of the Graham Greene novels I have read to date have been good.  It just so happens that The Quiet American is fantastic.  I'm sitting here wondering if it's better or as good as A Room with a View.  Would I say that it is also one of my new favorite books?  Yes.  Can I say which I liked more? Not at this moment, but perhaps as the whole story sinks in over the next few days I'll be able to answer that question at some point.

The good thing is that I have not seen the movie version of this book with Michael Caine, though I can totally imagine him playing the role of Fowler.  However, what strikes me most, having finished the book, is how similar Fowler is to Marlow in Heart of Darkness.  And yes, I'm quite sure that I'm not saying anything that much smarter and more astute literary critics have not said before me, but it's all new to me so I'll continue.  Without completing giving away the ending for those who might stumble by and haven't read the book, Fowler betrays his own ideals just as Marlow betrays his own ideals.  Marlow's big thing is that he hates nothing more than a lie, but in the end, he tells a lie.  Fowler's big thing--he refuses to become involved.  He sees himself as a reporter who has no politics, who does not choose sides, who does not believe in God and who only wants to die even while fearing death at the same time.  But in the end, Fowler does become involved, and it is his involvement and the actions it leads him to take that is the point upon which his entire character turns.  

The other thing that I'm sure I'm not the first to see is that The Quiet American is most definitely a metaphor for imperialism.  Pyle represents the idealistic, innocent, rising American imperial power, while Fowler is the jaded, declining, experienced British imperial power, and Phuong is the emerging "childlike" nation that must be conquered, colonized, ruled, and possessed.  Greene's statement upon imperialism is so much different than Conrad's and no doubt that has more than a little do with the fact that Heart of Darkness was written during the height of the British empire and The Quiet American was written during the period of decolonization. 

It's definitely a good read and I will definitely recommend it to people.  I'm sure I'll even rave about it to my diss chair, who happens to be a Greene fan.  Hopefully this time I'll be able to say something more intelligent than "it's just so beautifully written".  Actually, I need to tell him that the next time he teaches his 20th century novel and film class that he needs to do The Quiet American.  

I am now off to take some aspirin.  All this reading is giving me headaches.  I can't wait until September when I can hopefully get a new pair of glasses.  I think that would help with the headaches.

Love Fifteen

one - i really really love watching men's tennis.  most people like football or basketball and yes i'm a fan of baseball.  but seriously, i don't think any other spectator sport makes me nearly so happy as tennis.  it's the reason why i get up early to watch matches and stay up late to watch matches.  i can't really say that i'm that devoted to watching any other sport.  in fact, tennis is probably the only sport i've ever recorded to watch later.  hopefully this puts my tennis love in perspective.

two - roger federer is awe-some.  he's the man.  he's soooo cool.  truly, i don't have enough superlatives to describe the incredibleness that is roger federer.  

three - waking up to watch wimbledon at 6am now that i live on the west coast is hard.  i didn't get up for the french open and i kicked myself b/c it would have been really really nice to watch andre hand federer the trophy.  i wasn't going to get up this morning either because well, it's 6am and everyone knows how much i hate getting up early.  but boy howdy how happy am i that i got my ass out of bed?!  and to see pete back at wimbledon was amazing!  and i can't believe he only held the record for most grand slams for 7 years.  wow.  i remember watching him break that record and go up in the stands and find his dad.  now i'll have this memory too. what i really think is that this makes me old.

four - andy roddick.  wow.  you know, for the first time ever i have to say i was impressed with andy roddick.  usually, i'm not a fan.  actually, i can say i'm more of a fan of rafa nadal than i am of roddick.  i don't know why.  but today (at last?) i finally felt for the guy.  everyone in the tennis world knows that federer owns him.  no one was expecting a five-set thrill fest.  even my brother told me that if i had to choose a final to wake up at 6am for, it should have been the williams' sisters ladies' final yesterday and not the men's final today.  everyone thought fed's 15th would be a cake walk.  but good for andy roddick for showing up to play and not throwing one of his temper tantrums on the court or going completely away after losing the second set (or the third even).  the next time he's in a grand slam final maybe i'll actually find myself rooting for him.

five - johnny mac didn't have the word he wanted to aptly describe fed's 5 set win, 16-14 in the fifth set - but the word he wanted was EPIC - and if that one won't suffice, how about LEGENDARY - b/c seriously, the last three wimbledon men's finals have been exactly that--EPIC and LEGENDARY and all thanks to fed.  being 2/3 in such matches is something i'm sure fed will take.  i hope he feels epic.  that would be grand.

all in all i gotta say that the nike commercial featuring tiger and jordan and serena and mcenroe was pretty cool and i gotta say that i love the "love fifteen" that was at the end of the commercial congratulating fed.  that was pretty outstanding and quite the creative genius by the advertising team.  alas, i must say i wonder how long fed will hold this record, b/c nadal will be nipping his heels for the next few years esp. if fed really does plan to play through at least 2012 when the olympics are in london.  and that andy murray guy has got game.  it's really only a matter of time before he wins wimbledon.  so it won't be easy to keep racking up the slams.  i will be staying glued to the set to see if he can make it 16 at the us open (and i won't, once again, rant about ESPN having the open now over USA--i've already covered that ground and my opinion of it!).  congrats fed - and i'm so happy you're holding the pretty championship trophy once again!