ugh

I am in finals week hell.

I will be out of the woods when I finish the paper I am currently working on (ETA: about 5AM), but it is difficult to concentrate when I feel so racked* with guilt for having neglected my blog for so long.

Until I am able to pull myself out of the literary quagmire I find myself floundering in at the moment, any looking for insight from me will have to satisfy themselves with these videos. I am a huge fan of the Mario Kart series, and I can’t wait for the Wii incarnation to come out. Can’t wait, I tell you! It looks awesome.

-@

[update - 5AM: I need an hour's extension on my self-imposed deadline. Just for the record.]

*Other grammar and usage nerds may balk at the lack of a “w” prepended to this verb; they can click here.

relapse

I guess I felt entitled to a little bit of indulgence, since I had taken a stab at chipping away at my stack of reading. I’ve read less than half a book and skimmed another, though: progress which definitely does not justify my purchase of two more books this afternoon. I was in Barnes & Noble searching for a book the University bookstores didn’t carry that I need for research on a final paper and I succumbed to the temptation of Rushdie and Keillor.

I know.

So, on my way home from the bookstore, books in hand and tail between legs, I came up with a set of goals for spring break, which starts officially in a few weeks and practically Monday afternoon when I finish my last class and move to reading week and finals.

And here they are.

A Set of Goals for Spring Break

• Give my apartment a thorough shakedown. I’ve been so busy lately that my feeble efforts to combat the clutter are failing pretty miserably. I need to clean out my massive mail pile, recycle my collection of old newspapers, do a bunch of laundry, vacuum, mop, the works.
• Read three more books. This entails finishing the book I’ve started and removing three more from my reading list. I can tell you right now, the three I tackle will most likely be this one, this one, and this one.
• Finish Super Mario Galaxy and Super Paper Mario. And get some work done on Zelda. I’m behind the times, I know, I know.
• Cook a lobster loaf. And while I’m at it, write out the history of my logo/emblem/blog name. It’s pretty boring, but it lets me draw stupid pictures, so it’s worth a blog post of its own.

There you have it. I’ll let you know how it goes.

This photo is in honor of the birth of Wanda Sykes, exactly 44 years ago.
It makes sense. Just trust me on this one.

-@

happy national grammar day!

Tuesday, March 4th is more than just Antonio Vivaldi’s 330th birthday and my half-birthday, ladies and gentlemen. It is, apparently, National Grammar Day. From the website:

“We believe language is something to be celebrated. March 4th is the perfect day to do it. It’s not only a date, it’s an imperative. So March forth on March 4th! Celebrate your mother tongue!

Also, there’s already a National Punctuation Day, and it didn’t seem fair to leave clauses and such things by the wayside when the commas that embrace them get such attention.”

The thing that I love about this day that I’ve just discovered, other than having cause to celebrate one of the nerdy things I enjoy on my half birthday, is the name of the organization behind it: SPOGG. The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar. Join here. You’ll be glad you did.

In other news, I wish I had a motorcycle, and that it was warm enough to drive one up and down Lakeshore Drive. That would be perfect. Speaking of which:

My theoretical bike would have to be that shiny.

-@

intervention follow-up

I was inspired by my self-intervention, as we might call it, and so I chose a book from my stack of untackled tomes and got cracking. I picked William T. Vollman’s The Ice-Shirt, mostly because it was on top of the stack, but also a little bit because it belongs to a genre that I always forget that I like: way super-ancient historical fiction/mysticism/mythologies.

I’m only 65 pages in after this morning, but I’m thoroughly enjoying it. Expect a full review to come, hopefully, in a few weeks, but to anyone who can’t wait I highly recommend picking it up. So far it basically is taking names I’m sure we’ve all heard – Erik the Red, for one – and giving them much more stage time than history books usually do. Vollman’s prose successfully imitates the language you might expect to hear from the father of many Vikings on his deathbed, if he spoke English. Add a little creation mythology and give some kings the ability to turn into bears and you have a compelling history that sucks you right in and leaves you wondering why men don’t wear bear-shirts and burn each other at Yule-banquets anymore.

I wish they still did. It would make Presidential primary season so much more interesting.

-@

somebody intervene. please.

My name is Abby, and I have a problem: I’m going broke on books I don’t have time to read.

The main problem is the fact that there are two bookstores and a library between my apartment and my school. If it were just a library, there wouldn’t be a problem – libraries are free, after all, and my library card is perfectly good. The thing is, though, that the library is across the street from three great restaurants, and my walk home from school hovers right around lunchtime every day. So instead of going broke on lunch in restaurants every day, I alter my route and therefore walk by Borders or Barnes & Noble (or both, if I’m blessed/cursed by fate). I have to say it is taking every iota of willpower I can muster to keep me from going in there more than once a week, and I buy books every time.

Here’s the thing. I’d pack myself a bag lunch and just go to the library, but that’s not how I read. I’m a college student. I rarely get all of my required reading done, unless I’m “speed reading” (a mostly-useless endeavor which for me consists of idly turning pages while on the phone), in which case there is little to no comprehension of the material involved. Needless to say, I don’t exactly do a lot of reading for pleasure unless I’m on a break from school, and given my penchant for taking summer classes those times are rare these days.

So if I stopped at the library on my way home, it’d be pretty disastrous. I’d check out book after book, bring them home, set them on my counter and ignore them for weeks. A year or so ago this wouldn’t have been a problem, since I had a convenient family member who could theoretically have made fines disappear (why did I never take advantage of that?!). Fortunately for her and unfortunately for me, she managed to find herself an awesome new job, leaving me high and dry in library-land. So, if I chose that route home, I would be going broke on fillo wrapped brie parcels and library fines, as opposed to just tasty lunchtime treats.