This blog is dead, and you killed it. You know who you are.

I stole this from A Train who apparently stole from someone who stole it from someone. You have to love the internet. Anyway,I thought it was interesting, and I am kind of dry on posts right now so here you are.

List some of your favourite words: Hootice, distraught, fuck (basic as a sledgehammer but always effective and versatile), shite, however, whilst, cool (I think cool might be my second favorite word)

What’s your favourite maxim or proverb? "Discretion is the better part of valor." I know that this means that avoiding a dangerous or unpleasant situation is sometimes the most sensible thing to do, but it also means the quality of being discreet when discussing problematic or dangerous situations. To me, it means keep your fucking mouth shut when talking about touchy situations.

What’s your favourite quotation? "The average man who does not know what to do with his life wants another one which will last forever." -- Anatole France. Enough said.

What’s your favourite first line of a novel? Favorite: In a town in the village of La Mancha, whose name I do not care to recall..." I really like Don Quixote but I have to be honest: that is the only first line I can recite without looking up, and I don't have my books handy. My favorite first line is actually from Blood Meridian and is something like "See the kid, thin and pale"

Give an example of a piece of description that’s really pleased you in your reading lately: ""Nobody has to read anyone anymore. There's more to the canon than is dreamt of in your philosophy, bub. These days, you find the people you want to study from each period. You work up some questions in advance. Get them approved. Then you write answers on your preparation."

"Wait. You what? There's no List? The Comps are no longer comprehensive?"

"A lot more comprehensive than your white-guy, Good Housekeeping thing."

"You mean to tell me that you can get a Ph.D. in literature without every having read the great works?"

... "My God, I'm dealing with a complete throwback. You're not even reactionary! Whose definition of great? Hopkins ain't gonna cut it anymore. You're buying into the exact aestheticism that privilege and power want to sell you." -- Galatea 2.2 by Richard Powers (139?).

"Wait. You what? There's no List? The Comps are no longer comprehensive?" I love that line, and I think it is because I am a Doctorial Student. That is such a good book!

Which five writers do you particularly admire for their use of language? Richard Powers, Phlip Roth, Cormac McCarthy ( I absolutely adore his style because I think it plays into the Stayerite in me!) Bernard Malamud, and William Shakespeare.

And are there writers whose style you really dislike? Faulkner. I know he is the great American master and I am supposed to blow my lode and all when his name is mentioned but I do not find two page long sentences appealing, and he is often overwrought with bad word choice, and rambling structure.

Well I made it to scenic West Lafayette, IN. I am now officially a PhD student in Rhetoric and Composition at Purdue University. That picture is of Hovde Hall here on campus. I think it is the administration building. All I know is, that is where I go when I have trouble with my difference check, not financial aid mind you, with the all important difference check.

The campus really is as pretty as it looks. I think I will upload some pictures here next week of the towns of West Lafayette, and Lafayette that the fiancee and I took whilst out and about. The town is beautiful. It has a great river running through it called the Wabash, however, it is so polluted that they have signs that says do not touch the water. The signs literally say do not wade, swim, or touch the river, and a kid died about twenty miles down the river after bridge jumping. The jump did not kill him, but the sepsis did. YEAH...

Things seem much different now. I always said during my masters that I was going to get a PhD and become a professor, but now it is all really real. I am now locked in, and thinking about publishing, teaching, etc that will help me prepare for my career. It no longer seems like a diversion but a serious career choice. All this adultness is really depressing at times, and really uplifting at times. I feel like I have a career and direction in my life, but I also fill boxed in at times. I guess it is all part of growing up but I really could do without the growing pains.

I think I am going to start updating the blog again about two times a week. Trying to post something everyday is far too time consuming right now, and it burns me out on blogging. I think I will be a more productive blogger if I try to pace myself.

MySpace Countdowns and MySpace Layouts from MakeYourSpace.com

Less than two months until no mas tejas for T. WOO HOO! I am really starting to get anxious. To say I am ready to relocate is an understatement. In addition, I added this for those of you who cannot wait for me to leave, either. I know I have some lurkers who read this blog, but do not comment. Now we can count the days until my departure together! YEE HAW!

Also, I read Blue Angel by Francine Prose. I have to say it was a resounding EH. I really liked the beginning of this book, and it was very engrossing, and easy to read. However, the book fell apart around the half way point, and I have to say I was very disappointed because the first half was so engrossing. It was as if Prose could not decide whether she wanted to write a page turner, or serious literary fiction. One can make the argument that she need not choose. She could simply be writing whatever, and that is how it turned out, but I still think she was striving for something better and missed the mark. The odd thing about the book was how the professor kept going gaga over Angela Argo's writing, and it was SHITE. I was like "how can the book within a book that is going to destroy this dude's career be so bad?"

A friend said she thought it was intentional because it was meant to allude to the fact that Ted Swenson was obviously a douche bag, or at the very least losing his grip on reality. EH. I don't buy it. The whole affair seemed implausible, and the ending was a let down. Why go through all that to not say a single word? Prose gave a typical literary response in the author's Q&A in the back of the book that he was obviously self destructive and wanted to see it happen. Hmm...I wish she was as good a writer as Sternberg is a director.

Two things I did really like about the book. First, the cover illustration was an astounding choice for this book. So often the cover art for a novel is overlooked, and much to the detriment of the work. This cover art, however, seemed to encapsulate some of the themes that Prose was seemingly striving for very well.

Secondly, I loved the dinner scene with the English faculty. That was one of the more interesting parts of the book. It was a pretty good send up of what goes on at these types of academic parties. However, it was just that: a send up or satire. Another friend stated he thought it was pretty acurate but I think it was a bit over the top if not out and out stereotypical.

I am finishing reading Galatea 2.2 this week (for the second time) and then I think I am going to start either on The Gold Bug Variations by Powers, or attempt to tackle Gravity's Rainbow (Pynchon) or UnderWorld (Delillo). However, I don't think I have the stamina for either of those. The break my 300 page limit rule. Any suggestions for summer reading. A quick caveat, however, no sci fi or fantasy. I am not in the mood for trekkie/jedi/Potter crap right now. Trekkies...Sheesh. Fucking space communists.

Just a Little Update

I just began reading this book. I am like 175 pages into the 326 pages. This book is amazing. If you remember I loved the other Richard Powers book I reviewed for this blog, Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance, and I like this one even more. Powers is amazing at weaving several different stories together so fluidly. He and Paul Auster are the most interesting authors writing today. They are both very good and taking several stories and arranging them so that they intersect.

In this work, Powers is investigating the nature of memory. This book is seemingly autobiographical with the protagonist being a fictional "Richard Powers." However, it is less than straight forward, and at one point he even mentions that in Three Farmers (I am paraphrasing here because I don't have the copy of the book at hand) that "it was important for a reader to separate the "real story" from the simulated stories."

In this work the fictional powers and a researcher at U., a fictional university that the fictional Powers attended (I would guess the University of Illinois at Urbana because that is where he attended college in real life but we all know the dangers of making assumptions about works of fiction based on the author's "Real" life) are trying to replicate memory in a computer system. Actually they are trying to teach it "the canon" so it could pass the same master's comprehensive exam that Powers passed years ago. However, interwoven throughout the story are Powers own memories, and through these memories Powers investigates the nature of memory, and how memory helps shape who we are.

I cannot adequately put into words how much I like this book. I have been dragging my feet and rereading pages because it is so interesting and well done. To be honest I don't want to finish reading it because it is so good. I truly think this book is one of the most interesting and best written books I have ever read, and that Richard Powers is one of the best young novelists America has produced in a long time.

Still Bored...

Since I am quickly approaching "gamer's thumb" from playing so much Mecenaries: Playground of Destruction, I am taking a moment to make a request to the readers of this blog.

Please post your ideas for a book I should read over the break in my free time.

Difficulty: I should be able to find said book at Half Price.

Even More Difficulty: NO Sci Fi, Fantasy, or Children's Literature (Goose and Brendan I am looking directly at you two on this one).

Most Difficulty: Preferreably nothing over 300 pages.

I will consider any book seriously ventured. Note, I said seriously ventured.

Also, I really like this band. You should check them out. They are called "The Cold War Kids." They are pretty good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK-0WcWpiUY

PS: I am rapidly tiring of Blogger/Blogspot. The fucking HTML is kicking my ass. Everytime I post something it has a fucking HTML error, and I don't know how to fix it. I never had these problems with the old version of Blogger, or even with MySpace. That's why I blogger/blogspot because I am a fucking HTML idiot and I don't want to deal with the shit. I want the freaking computer to do it for me. BRING BACK THE OLD BLOGGER BECAUSE THE NEW BETA IS SHITE!!!

A Lazy Wednesday...

Well it has been all of two days off of work and it's official: I am bored as shit. Not that I want to teaching/taking classes again so soon but I always would rather be doing something productive as opposed to sitting around hanging out all day playing video games. What makes Fort Worth so fucking hard to take is that all my friends are like 100 miles away, and I don't really hang out/like/deal with my hometown friends. All my hometown buddies are married with kids, or hooked on drugs and each comes complete with its own baggage/bull shit I don't want to even begin to try to deal with.

I will say this, though. I have lost ten pounds on C-Dog and T's patented "drink yourself to death" diet. I think it was all brain wieght though so I am not sure how much good it really did to lose that ten pounds because I definitely do not believe it came off my waist. This is a list of Things to do in the next few days to alleviate boredom:

• Play with Lilly Bloom. She is my minature daschund puppy. She is by far the cutest and best dog ever. Please do not post with an argument about how cute/cool/better your dog is. I am really not interested in a discussion because honestly: Your Dog Sucks. It is no contest. I mean it is always a contest with me, but really, it is never really a contest.
• Look for a bookshelf. Difficulty: I am broke. Even More Difficulty: Like $20 to my name broke. However, I really really need a book shelf to take with me to Indiana so I have find one, and the cheaper the better. I really do not want to have to resort to the "bricks and particle board" book case. I will, and I am not hating on the "bricks and particle board" book case, but I do not want to have to resort to this. It will be hard enough convincing Indiana intellectuals that I am not white trash without the particle board bookshelf.
• Go see Goose's show tomorrow with J Rod. If you have not heard of
• Read another book. I am not sure what yet, but I am going to read something. I think I am finally going to start Gravity's Rainbow. BBBBAAAAHHHH! JUST KIDDING!!! That book breaks my patented "I don't read shit over 250 pages rule." This is a recent "grad school commandment" brought on by burn out but I have become a firm believer that every novel should be less than 250 pages. If you don't agree go ahead and submit a book you think should be allowed to subvert the 250 pages rule, and if I have read the book I will tell you a section that is shite, and why, and where they should have cut it down. Those of you in American Renaissance may remember this as the "Let's kick every author/book in the nuts this semester and see how that goes" game I played most of the semester. I think I actually turned my mentor against me with this game. It was fun, though. Especially when he looked at me like, "You are Dead to Me," when I said American fiction sucks before Frank Norris, and he responded to that by saying, "What about Mark Twain?" and I responded by saying, "I stand by my statement." Classic.
• All kidding aside I think I am going to either read "McTeague" again, or try to finish Second Hand Smoke for the upteenth million time. I wish I had remember to bring Dave Egger's What is the What or A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius home with me. That would make this whole reading dilemma much easier.

Anyway, that is it from here. If you have any ideas for summer fun stuff to kill boredom remember to send those ideas along. Remember that I am broke so it has to be "free fun." PS: Don't send me any of those "Begin working on your novel" ideas. I am on top of that. It needs not be stated.