Moving

Yeah, I have decided to create a new blog. Go to: trindesiecle.wordpress.com to keep updated!

Summer Reading Part II.1 – Naked Lunch

Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs is another one of the many novels that I have started and stopped reading over the last few years. I liked to tell myself that this was due to my heavy reading load from classes. Which was mostly true. It was also a fact that I enjoyed reading [most] historical documents or early English literature more than Naked Lunch, so it never seemed like too terrible of a sacrifice I had to make for my education. However, being out of school I find myself unable to excuse myself from Burroughs’ work because I have “more pressing matters to attend to” and am having to face up to the fact I just don’t like the novel.

I don’t think it’s the style, though I could understand how a lot of people would probably tire of trying to make their way through Burrough’s convoluted “drug induced” writing fits. In fact, another favored novel of mine, Glory Goes and Gets Some, is written in much the same style (and also about heroine addiction, interestingly enough). I am trying to withhold judgement until I get further into the work. As of right now it’s not bad, but it’s not good either. I could take it or leave it.

What perplexes me more is that I feel less inclined to read now that I am out of school. I do have more free time, I think. At least, I feel like I have less responsibility and thus should be spending more time catching up with my books. I work 15 hours a week, maintain the house, and care for the dogs. This is no easy task, mind you, because four dogs require a lot of attention. But it doesn’t feel as overwhelming as a deadline for a thesis.

I have such high hopes for things to accomplish this summer, but I feel like I still don’t have the time I need to get everything I want done. And come August I’ll be working back at the tutoring center (so I will work an accumulative full-time schedule), so if I can’t manage to enjoy myself now when will I?

Oh well. Every day as it comes, I guess. When I get back from my trip to Indiana, I am going to be crossing off “Scone baking” from my list of things to do. That I know for sure.

Summer Reading: Part I

I finally completed Orwell’s 1984, which, considering I have started/stopped reading this novel multiple times over the past 5 years, gives me a great sense of accomplishment. I think having had taken Dr. F’s class on British Socialism during the Fin de Siecle gave me a greater appreciation for the theme of the novel. Of course, I still encountered portions of the text that were terribly droll. However, I persevered through them and am moving onto Naked Lunch> as my next summer novel.

We got the house I wanted in Arlington!

It doesn’t seem like much now, but the owner is going to gut it before we move in. He’s going to rip up the carpet and put in new hardwood floors, I get to pick out the paint for the rooms, and he’ll reimburse me for money that I spend planting a gardens.

So, while I had initially prophesied May as being a craptabulous month, I now find that my Jedi powers have failed me.

To re-cap:
Last week of school.
Got the library job.
Got the Arlington house.
Family coming for the weekend.
New puppies arrive Thursday night.

Now, if I could just crank out these last two pages. Jeezus…

i got the job.

Did I mention I went to the doctor’s (Urgent Care, actually) this past Saturday and had my leg examined. Apparently I am ultra hardcore, because I had let my leg go to the point of developing a staph infection. In fact, the only reason I went and saw the doctor was due to the fact that certain wounds were turning black and reopening. Thankfully one of my concerned friends possessed more common sense than I and was enthusiastic about driving me to the clinic at 9 am on a Saturday. I feel terrible mooching rides off people, and was trying to avoid it if I could [clearly, I could not...]

I had an interview for a library job yesterday. Unfortunately my lack of data entry skills may prove my downfall. I honestly am ambivalent to whether I get hired or not at this point. I was terribly anxious before I went in, a combination of nervous excitement, and just brimming with anticipation about how fantastic working there would be. Sadly, the tour did not live up to my expectations I am was left feeling very deflated by how anticlimactic the whole experience ended up being.

This has led to me reevaluate all the positions I have held during my working-life, and I have come to the conclusion that I have never been happy. Nor can I envision myself happy in any work environment. I am so uninspired when it comes to careers, which is terribly frustrating. I’ve had my closest brushes with excitement as an English/Comp tutor. I have started to consider applying for positions at tutoring centers for the next year, along with library positions, to give me a better feeling of what it would be like in a ‘teaching role.’

I would make more money if I went back to working at the salon, but I don’t think I will gain any perspective about my future needs if I do that. Thankfully I’ve spoken to Matt about all this, and he has offered to pay a substantially larger portion of the rent so that my job selection doesn’t have to be based on money, but on the experience I could gain.

Ideally, I’d like to take a year off and focus on what I want to do, versus what I need to do for classes. I am a very serious student, and often sacrifice my own recreation for the greater good of my grades.

Speaking of which, I have one last 20+ page paper to go on Fabian Socialism. I am thinking of discussing the evolution of the role of the middle class from Paine, to Marx, then finally to Webb. Of course, as far as Paine was concerned there was no working class and the emphasis was more on the educated members of society (which, for a moment, was the middle class). Any suggestions about this idea would be appreciated. I was originally going to write about the British’s emphasis on happiness, a striking distinction between the Fabians and Marx, but I dont think I have enough material to really develop a substantial work from. And I have a little over a week, so I don’t plan on reading that many new sources.

the last two days i was stuck in bed. my legs were covered in infected sores. it was fairly awful.

allergic reactions can be a bitch:

guess who got a bath this morning?

i really want to finish up old scrap books and begin new ones. i guess i will add that to my “To Be Accomplished” list for this summer.

last weekend i picked up a blender with the Best Buy giftcard i had received from Christmas (took my long enough). i was hard pressed to decide between the blender and coffee maker or a vacuum, but since i had recently picked up a bevy of fresh fruit from the grocery store (and since it is summer-ish) i went with the blender. yesterday morning i broke it in and make myself a blended fruit breakfast. it was pretty good.

the ingredients included:
Vanilla Protein drink
1 banana
1 handful of blackberries
3 jumbo strawberries

it was decent, but in the future i will refrain from the blackberries as they almost made the drink too tart (the protein base was sweet, so it saved the day). i am thinking of adding more strawberries and a little mango next time.

summer reading.

I have compiled a “must read” list of literature to tackle over the summer. I stole the ideas from a much larger list and cut it down to 10 novels, thinking I probably wont be able to finish 50 books over three months (especially if I end up taking a summer class).

This was all inspired by the copy of Frankenstein that I picked up while at a bookstore in Utah. It was only $4 as the bookstore was going out of business, so I decided it was a sign from the Great God of Literature that I needed it. And who am I to ignore his messages?

The List:
1984 by George Orwell
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Naked Lunch by William Burroughs
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie