I'm not much of a mountain goat.

Today a trip to Dinosaur Park proved that nothing really ever changes much at all. Less than five minutes into the water, and after having been thoroughly mocked by my dear friends who remember (all too well) my prior spills, I passed off my camera (it's too dangerous for me to hold it), slid on the slime, and flew face-first onto a nice big rock. Cue the uproarious laughter. For you see, my dear, dear friends had just been deciding whether to place bets on just how thoroughly I would fall--waist deep (not a chance), neck deep, head deep--and the one with money on head deep would have made a whole lot of money, except that odds were less than 1:1.1, so hey, a lot of money would have had to have been riding on it.

The maddening thing is that I always fall. Always. ALWAYS. My record is perfect. You would think that I would learn a tiny bit of balance, but no, the ground is a supermagnet and I'm a chunk of iron.

The reward for falling? Chopped brisket BBQ in Glen Rose. YUM. And suddenly it's all worth it, and I'm ready to go flop face-down in the creek again. Hooray for Texas!

Rex Kwan Do in German

I love to surf blogs. But please imagine with me just a moment as I describe my shock at just how small the world really is. I'm clicking along on the "next blog" button, and suddenly a scene from Napoleon Dynamite is staring at me and the words all around are in German. There is no way that should happen. Napoleon Dynamite was filmed in and around Preston, Idaho, where my dad grew up. No place on earth could be so insignificant and remote. No film on earth could be more of an insider's joke about Preston, and yet it's funny, and it resonates, and somebody in a real city in Germany found a picture of it to put on his blog (click the title of this post for the link).

Preston has been living it up since Napoleon came out. People actually come to see the stage he danced on at the high school, and my dad said that there was some kind of gathering there sanctioned by the city a few weeks ago. I don't know why anyone would want to set foot in Preston unless they were going to visit their grandmother. It's just not a place to go.

The Idaho legislature even passed a resolution commending the makers of the film. Here's the link: http://www3.state.id.us/oasis/HCR029.html If I didn't have even less respect for the way our national legislature wastes time in Washington, I might think that Idaho legislators had nothing to do. I would really, really laugh, except that the film really gave people from Idaho something to rally around -- something more recognizable than spudnuts and more germaine to the state than nuclear power.

And do you see the orange pillow sitting behind Napoleon in the picture? I swear that that pillow belonged to my grandma at one point. It used to sit on her couch. I have a theory about how it migrated from her couch through a series of yard sales and secondhand stores until it landed in Napoleon's room. You don't have to believe it (my dad doesn't), but I tell you, it's hers.

A portent of things to come...

Here I am with an open book collapsed on my head a long long time ago. If I had a dollar for every time this has happened...

Thanks to mom for scanning the pic.

Hooray for summer vacation!!!

Summer Books

My schoolwork is suffering because I haven't been able to tear myself away from some good reads this summer. After all, in my eyes reading is the main purpose for summer. Why go outside to brave scorching heat and stifling humidity when the air conditioner is on inside and there are books on the shelf that I haven't gotten to yet? Why pick up a required book that I have to write a paper on when there is a novel on the shelf that I haven't gotten to yet? And why take classes, if not to fill the shelves with books to be read that colleagues recommend? The latest such book arrived today: Dreams of My Russian Summers by Andreï Makine. The postman stuffed it into my tiny mailbox along with the usual smattering of credit card offers. That stressed me out a bit because I envisioned a crumpled, bent book as I tore the envelope off, but happily it survived and it is sitting here tempting me greatly.

Yesterday I got no work done becuase I had to finish Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake. I had started it on the recumbent bike Monday--the only way I'll exercise is with interesting reading material in hand--and had managed to limit myself to a chapter a day until yesterday, Wednesday, when it gripped me and declared that I should do no more work until I had consumed it. I did this gladly. Today I read my assigned reading on the bike. Not as much fun, but there are acts for which one must perform rites of cleansing and retribution. I've got about 18 more pages of it, and then I get to write a paper and a journal on it (yippee--ha!) The class ends Saturday, though, and then I can devote myself more fully to my reading.

I've been thinking, though, that I'm in a pickle: I don't know what I'll take with me to read on vacation. I will be gone a very long time, and I don't want to carry that many books with me. I thought about taking the Chronicles of Narnia, which I bought in a one-book edition at the beginning of the summer, but I've already read two of the books this summer so that would mean hauling around two books I have no intention of reading. I will probably take The Name of the Rose with me, although that will cause me to be the butt of more than one joke from my dad and my sister, because I've been reading it for three summers now (in Italian.) Two months ago, Amilynne thought she would read it (in English), but she found it poorly written and boring and refused to continue. I was appalled that she would find it boring becuase I have been fascinated by it, even if I've been reading it very slowly. We argued until one of us decided to blame the translator. Anything to keep the peace.

Well, the assigned book calls, not as loudly as the unassigned ones do, but since the paper is due Saturday I must face priorities.

And by the way,

I didn't go read book 5 before digging into Harry Potter 6. And I'm having an awful time getting back into my homework now. I really just want to spend the rest of the summer reading novels. (Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake is calling...) Much more fun than trying to report on whether or not it's ethical to have schools.

Mosquito in the House

Several days ago I let a mosquito in the house while watering the plants. (The plants, by the way, are gorgeous. I have a red rose blooming right now, which is a relief because for a while there, I thought I had over-pruned the bushes.) At any rate, the mosquito is driving me insane. It just bit my finger, and it has already knawed up my arms. One would think it would be dead by now, but I have special ever-live blood that mosquitos love and thrive upon. Which is ironic because I don't have blood, I have dark chocolate running through my veins. Maybe the mosquitos love the flavonoids. Or something. Time to get out of the house.

Yes, the Big Geek in the corner is me.

Well, Harry Potter released tonight. Party across the nation! Except that I decided to stay home because I am having way too much fun writing a paper for my ethics class. The fun is trying to articulate ideas that I can barely get my mind around, especially since the paper is about using linguistics as a narrative that justifies school. It's based on The End of Education by Neil Postman, which was a fantastic read. At any rate, Harry Potter will have to wait until after class tomorrow.

The conundrum is this: do I go back and re-read book 5 before starting the new one? I honestly don't think I've read it since it came out, although there is the possibility that I have (the last one came out so long ago). If I do, I will end up toting gigantic book 6 with me on vacation, and really, lugging big books around the airport isn't that fun. But do I remember enough of book 5? Maybe if I just read the ending I can finish book 6 before flying out....

Dang it ALL!!!!

I am such an idiot! I spent this weekend suffering through a book on educational theory for my ethics class. The book is all about how we should completely revamp education and make the primary goal be to create caring, decent people. AAAAACK!!! The author is a pretty severe feminist who obviously feels that it is society's job to raise the children. She wants the schools to teach all aspects of human life, from fixing toasters to spirituality. I would literally have to put the book down and make loud noises to drown out her self-assured posturing. I have to say that if I were a parent, the LAST thing I would want would be for schools to teach my child a caring-based curriculum! Certainly schools need to be staffed with caring professionals, but parents have a responsibility to raise caring and moral children, and I certainly don't think that the schools have the right to mess with the spirituality practices I would teach my children.

Anyway. I read all that, and then looked at the syllabus so I could start working on the paper associated with it. Oops. I didn't have to read the whole book, only chapters 1-5 and 11-12. And (hooray) no paper.

I guess I should consult the syllabus from now on before I start working. I used to have a pretty good mind for this stuff, but maybe not so much anymore.

Poetry

Hee heee heeeee. I found the perfect personality quiz for me. What kind of poetry are you? And yes, although I wouldn't have dared predict, here I am: I'm terza rima, and I talk and smile. Where others lock their rhymes and thoughts away I let mine out, and chatter all the while. I'm rarely on my own - a wasted day Is any day that's spent without a friend, With nothing much to do or hear or say. I like to be with people, and depend On company for being entertained; Which seems a good solution, in the end. What Poetry Form Are You? How fantastic--Dante has seeped into my subconscious. On a scarier note, I think I just heard what I would describe as a gunshot. I consider my computer room the safest in the house because it has no windows and there is brick between me and the outside, so I'll just stay here a moment until I feel like moving about again. This time of year, I guess you never know if it's fireworks or what, but this was really loud and considering where I live I think the gunshot is a real possibility. Or maybe it was just a celebratory "hooray for freedom" gunshot like you imagine in a rowdy party in Mexico. But I doubt it. Anyway, poetry is a happier topic. Amilynne went to see Billy Collins do a reading and ever since, she has been calling me to read Billy Collins poetry to me. Some Billy Collins poetry can be found by clicking on the title of this posting. One of my favorites is called "Consolation" and it makes me very happy to be spending my summer taking two graduate courses. Also, Amilynne and I spend a lot of time fighting over "Litany" and who gets to be the moon in the trees. I do hope the hotlinks work. I am experimenting, as HTML editing is not something I'm particularly skilled with.