So I finally picked up my first reader for my SIP today. Its going to be Gwen McAllister, and I'm strangely happy about that. I'm taking Contemporary Lit with her this semester and I've found her to be very sharp and very willing to discuss controversial themes in the novels we're reading. Two things which I am finding increasingly rare as I progress through the final months of my time at Covenant. I respect a teacher who doesn't shy away from controversy simply because it will make some of his or her students uncomfortable. I wish there were more of them out there...
The other big bit of progress I made today was narrowing my SIP topic itself down quite a bit. I've decided that whatever I do, it will be based primarily on the works of Michael Chabon, specifically The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. I'm re-reading it right now and I'm continually reminded that it is probably one of the best books I've ever read. Chabon represents everything I aspire to be as a writer, and I can't think of a better topic to work on for the next year. So yeah, I'm actually really excited right now. I need to pick up some of his other novels and start reading them. I've read a bunch of his short stories, but not Wonder Boys or The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. He's also got a new "children's" book out now which I've heard is excellent and his newest novel is coming out in November.
Anyways, to finish up this bit of homage, I leave you with the opening quote from Kavalier and Clay...its amazing.
"In later years, holding forth to an interviewer or to an audience of aging fans at a comic book convention, Sam Clay liked to declare, apropos of his and Joe Kavalier's greatest creation, that back when he was a boy, sealed and hog-tied inside the airtight vessel known as Brooklyn, New York, he had been haunted by dreams of Harry Houdini."
Wow. Its like a punch in the gut...
Good night folks.
Our power went out tonight, courtesy of Ivan's final fling before death. We all decided to light candles and play Star Wars Monopoly. Five men, huddled around a small coffee table in a warm house, playing board games by candlelight. It was awesome. Thankfully, just when the air was starting to obtain that locker room feel mixed with a slight aroma of grundle, the power came back again and the A/C started working again...
After the game was over (I finally beat Jared out after a long and drawn out struggle between my hotels on Boardwalk/Park Place and his houses on the greens), me, AJ and Zach went out to the porch for a smoke. We discovered that our street (Tennessee Ave) had turned into a small river. The canal/stream up the road from us had completely overflowed and was blasting water at something over 20mph down the road towards our house. Over by the flood the water was over a foot deep on the road. As a result of this, our back yard is now under a very large amount of water and we have tons and tons of dirt and tree limbs scattered all over the place. It is a mess.
Thankfully, Covenant cancelled morning classes for today so that means I don't have to do any school at all. I think I'll sleep. ;)
Two things:
I'm on the verge of never ever rooting for FSU again. I'm about to foreswear ever acknowledging that they exist.
Also, I don't ever want to see Chris Rix's face again. If I do, I'll probably lose it and turn into some raging alcoholic with extremely violent tendencies. That man has blown his last chance with me, I've tried to be faithful and supportive of him through all his f***ups, but no. I don't care if he wins the Heisman now, he's done.
That is all.
I just don't get it. Every time I promise myself I am going to get to sleep at a reasonable hour I come up with some way to do the exact opposite. For example, I was completely wiped out yesterday. Its been a long week. But, instead of going to bed early last night, I watched Kill Bill volume 2 at 12. Then, I had to do my Shakespeare and SIP homework. I ended up getting to sleep at around 3:30 or so and had to wake up in a couple hours for my 8am Shakespeare.
I hate school....
Today was the Catacombs annual clothing prank. For any of you who don't understand what that is, every year my old dorm hall selects a girl's hall somewhere on campus and completely cleans out all of their clothes. We then run them back to our hall where they stay until everyone wears them to dinner. After alot of dancing and pictures and all that memory stuff, we have a big ceremony and deliver all the clothes back to their owners. Everyone goes home happy. This year's version has already been deemed a success. We got easily upwards of 30 or so bags of clothes. It really sucked running up and down four flights of stairs to get all of them, but hey, sacrifices must be made. I'm going back up to campus around 5-ish to take pictures. I'll post them later.
I think I'll go collapse for a couple hours.
Ok, so the last two weeks have been an absolute whirlwind. I'm seriously suffering from some strange mixture of culture shock, senioritis, and paranoia. Let me explain...
Basically, Katie (my fiancee...woo hoo!) and I left New Hampshire on the 21st of August. We stopped off at her aunt and uncle's very nice lake house in New Jersey and then booked it home on the 22nd. Long drive but breaking it in half really made it a lot easier. We arrived in Chattanooga and I was almost immediately engulfed in a world of chaos. Since the 23rd I have moved into my house in St Elmo w/ Zach, Jared, Spoon and Aaron Johnson, bought a new car, bought most of my books, attended a week of classes, and been job hunting a couple of times.
I've got culture shock because it really is quite a dramatic difference to be back in the south again. Everyone drives slower, but is more polite, the food and everything is much cheaper, and its a hell of alot hotter down here. Senioritis is self-explanatory, though I think I may have been suffering from a preliminary version for the last few years. The paranoia comes from the completely rational fear that I will be in someway molested by Zach or Spoon as I walk through my house each day. Its really quite disturbing.
Anyways, this is a feeble attempt by me to get back into blogging form again. I've slacked off tremendously since last spring. Got to get the habit going again. Yes, I did buy a car, a very nice '99 Honda Civic Ex. I will post pictures as soon as I can gank Spoon's digital camera. I'm also engaged. This is something I keep surprising myself with. Its weird...I love it...
Now I'm off to dig into Rabbit, Run by John Updike. Its for my Contemporary Lit class; I also have to finish Titus Andronicus for Shakespeare and most of Sense and Sensibility for my Special Topics: Austen. At some point I will manage to fit in some Spanish, 3 journals, one game of NCAA 2005, Kill Bill volume 1, and a smoke break or two.
Its only the second week of school and already I'm living from weekend to weekend. Its going to be a long semester...