Jarvis Cocker, "Don't Let Him Waste Your Time"

what?

I'm not really meaning to make the Internet comment culture into a hobbyhorse, but I have to note the following comment left for a fun little Internet puzzle game called Cubis 2:

Pros: Easy to learn, and fun to play!
Cons: Gets boring
Comments: Really fun to play when bored.

Uh, there are two possible things wrong with this. On the one hand, if the game's only con is that it gets boring, yet is fun the play when bored, then, as the commentator astutely points out, the game must be REALLY fun to play! On the other hand, why would you play a game that, if bored, will cause you to become bored (or even more bored) as a result of playing it?

Tonight's Lost

How great was it that tonight's episode of Lost featured a classic gothic trope, live burial. Here is Eve Sedgwick on live burial:

It is the position of the self to be massively blocked off from something to which it ought normally to have access. This something can be its own past, the details of its family history; it can be the free air, when the self has been literally buried alive; it can be a lover; it can be just all the circumambient life, when the self is pinned in a death-like sleep. (The Coherence of Gothic Conventions)

Thus, this trope seems very appropriate in a show and on an island where "secrets don't stay buried" to quote Mr. John Locke.

Post Script: If there were a way to officially declare war against Internet fandom, I think that I would. The mere thought of people whining on message boards about how a show like Lost has "jumped the shark," makes me ill. How sad would it be if these people's trigger happy vitriol makes the network pull this show. The inability to screen one's thoughts and reflect on one's responses surely is one of the more frightening symptoms of Internet culture, don't you think? Or to quote Mr. T.S. Eliot:

Nothing again nothing.
"Do
"You know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you remember
Nothing"
[...]
"Are you alive or not? Is there nothing in your head?"

foggy day

This picture was taken over the weekend when fog clung to everything.

Golden Compass footage

Bridge to the Stars has just posted a promotional video with pre-vis and pre-rendered CGI mixed with live action footage from the upcoming Golden Compass film. It is very stunning and exciting and...and...

just for fun

got the job!?

Well, my powers of perception must be quite dim. I was sure that I had bombed my interview yesterday. Yet this afternoon I get a call from HR telling me that I got the job. Part of the problem is that I talked myself out of my dejection yesterday by convincing myself that I didn't want the job. Now, I have to unlearn that line of reasoning and substitute the "this is a good thing" line of thought. Of course, I am also completely worried that a better job will suddenly spring up, but that seems a bit too optimistic. Oh, real world!

goodreads

This is fun:

Bad interview

I am probably being overly pessimistic but I had a bad interview today. It was very brief and there was none of the clicking. You know, the clicking. The essence of the interview was very much, "Can you stand on your feet?" and "Can you show up to work on time?" Well, my answers to such questions were a resounding, "Yes!" But having such skills affirmed doesn't really inspire one's passion for a job.

review, recall

I find myself possessing a less than adequate memory these days. I am beginning to do what my mother does, which is repeat myself. So, blogging actually is a nice exercise for someone with the kind of selective amnesia which I seem to have. Looking back through my blog archives I was able to recall moments like when the coffee shop first installed its countertops. Important things like that. March has been a productive blogging month so far. I have more than two posts, which seemed to be my monthly quota for quite some time. Well, that's all, really...

Grades done!

Well, I just sent off my final grades for 210. That means that I am officially done with school. I feel quite stunned, to be honest.

new blog

I set up a new blog on blogger to detail my research into the life of William Estep, a quack doctor. This experiment may not pan out. We'll see. And, of course, there isn't anything to look at yet. I'm still tweaking the template and layout. But I am posting the link in the sidebar anyway. Enjoy (at some later time)!

dna

As per the request of my sweetie:

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

"Give me a moon story"

I have found the Writer's Book of Days to be a helpful writing aide. The prompts are specific enough to provide a direction and focus, but elliptical enough to let one's mind wander into unexpected territory. I sometimes use the book to come up with new plot points in my novel revision. But tonite I opened it, resolving to write something new. I have a little project in mind, the details of which I won't reveal here, but which I hope to see to fruition in the next few months. This will involve writing two new stories. So, I decided to take the prompt for today, "Give me a moon story," and try to fashion a new story for said project. I've also decided to post bits of it, just for the hell of it. So here is the first bit (of what I've typed, not what I've written, as a I like to write in longhand (okay, sorry that link was totally a joke)). I'm trying out Google documents. So follow this link, or the one in the side bar to read it. Enjoy.

job responses

I am finally getting some responses to my job applications. Yesterday, I got a call from the Botanic Gardens for a circulation position in their library. Today, I got an email from Evanston Public for a circ position there. The latter is the one I am post excited about because it will keep me local and won't waste huge amounts of time commuting.

last lecture today

Not to be maudlin, but today I attended my last lecture as a TA/student at Northwestern. Classes have finally wrapped up. Now all that is left is a crazed grading session between Friday and Tuesday and then grading finals. I spent a good portion of the afternoon in the Unicorn Cafe typing up notes on William Estep, the fraudulent quack doctor whom I am a bit obsessed with at the moment. So, now I am just biding my time till Friday, then the race is on.

first job interview

Well, tomorrow I go on my first job interview of my post-PhD life. I am feeling quite jittery, probably needlessly, but jittery nonetheless. The silly thing is that the interview is for a 16 hour/week position in a library that is nearly 25 miles away. The library's building reminds me of the George Reynolds Branch in Boulder. I am a bit worried about working in a such a small library, being used to a (relatively) bustling central branch. I was reading on the library's website that issuing library cards can be quite complex, even to the point of involving a statistical map and tax tables. Well, I'll get to enjoy a nice long train ride if nothing else. Oh, I could, however, get an associates degree and be a "library technical assistant." Did you know such a thing even existed? I did not.

I have been listening to Jarvis Cocker's solo album almost non-stop for four days now. Every chance I get--washing dishes, taking a box downstairs, riding the bus, walking, sitting, standing--I grab my headphones, my zune, and listen to this album. It's funny though because at least since Different Class (I think), Pulp albums encourage you to not read the lyrics whilst listening to the record. This is well advised, or at least some version of it. When I first got the album in the mail (instead of downloading it like a 21st century boy), I read through the liner notes and glanced over the lyrics. I was wondering if the album would contain sublime lyrical gems like those found on the last Pulp album, We Love Life. Lines like: "Yeah the Trees, those useless trees / produce the air that I am breathing / Yeah the trees, those useless trees / they never said that you are leaving" and "I love my life / It's the only reason I'm alive." I love the slighly warped, punning qualities of these lines. They tend to lead you back to where you started but with a slightly different view than when you began. In any case, I was worried I wouldn't like the new solo album based on the lyrics alone. The first main track sounds like a good old fashioned brit pop rocker, reminding me of Morrissey for one. Then things get weird but still poppy in the next track, Black Magic. It has a really vocal loop that reminds me of TRex (well, really Flo and Eddie, the Incredi-Voices). The rest of the songs have taken longer to digest but all contain interesting, thought provoking, and moving moments. I love the moments in Big Julie where forlorn sound of a train seems to whine in the background. The chorus of Disney Time is haunting and scary, and contains the line: "Why do they call them adult movies / When all they show / Is making babies, filmed up close."

final countdown

This will be my last week of TA-ing, and perhaps of teaching, ever. My students have been a bit lackluster this quarter, causing me to end with a whimper and not with a bang. There is still a fair amount of grading left to be done. But in two and a half weeks I will be free!