doctoral candidate in rhetoric and scientific and technical communication
Archive for May, 2004
Thursday May 27, 2004
0I was thinking about the whole reading thing.
I’ve always been an avid reader. In my life, you’d be hard-pressed to find one day when my bedside table didn’t have a stack of books that I was reading (at least part way into all of them, depending on my mood). In my living room, I always have stacks of magazines (usually Smithsonian, National Geographic, and one or two others). I get the newspaper.
I can’t imagine not reading. My guest room is practically a library. There is barely room for a bed in there. laugh
That being said, I remember the days when the whole day would be taken up with reading a book and I loved that. It didn’t feel like I wasted the day or was non-productive. These days, though, it’s almost as if there isn’t time to do that. There is always something else that needs to be done.
So, this summer, I’ve made a vow to myself that I will take the time to just lounge and read for hours on end…not just before bed or at small interludes. I will give myself HOURS to finiish a book or escape into whatever environment is being created for me.
The book I’m reading right now is While I was Gone by Sue Miller (author of The Good Wife). I’ve also got Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein waiting in the wings. I’ve never read Heinlein but he has been recommended by many people. We’ll see if it meets the level of hoopla it has been given.
cathelin has given me a subscription to Bookmarks Magazine for a housewarming gift. It couldn’t come at a better time. It may help me find good books to read all summer.
If you have recommendations, shoot them my way. Maybe I’ll spend the summer doing book reviews of the things I read. We’ll see if I get that motivated. 
reading
0I was thinking about the whole reading thing.
I’ve always been an avid reader. In my life, you’d be hard-pressed to find one day when my bedside table didn’t have a stack of books that I was reading (at least part way into all of them, depending on my mood). In my living room, I always have stacks of magazines (usually Smithsonian, National Geographic, and one or two others). I get the newspaper.
I can’t imagine not reading. My guest room is practically a library. There is barely room for a bed in there.
That being said, I remember the days when the whole day would be taken up with reading a book and I loved that. It didn’t feel like I wasted the day or was non-productive. These days, though, it’s almost as if there isn’t time to do that. There is always something else that needs to be done.
So, this summer, I’ve made a vow to myself that I will take the time to just lounge and read for hours on end…not just before bed or at small interludes. I will give myself HOURS to finiish a book or escape into whatever environment is being created for me.
The book I’m reading right now is While I was Gone by Sue Miller (author of The Good Wife). I’ve also got Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein waiting in the wings. I’ve never read Heinlein but he has been recommended by many people. We’ll see if it meets the level of hoopla it has been given.
cathelin has given me a subscription to Bookmarks Magazine for a housewarming gift. It couldn’t come at a better time. It may help me find good books to read all summer.
If you have recommendations, shoot them my way. Maybe I’ll spend the summer doing book reviews of the things I read. We’ll see if I get that motivated.
Wednesday May 26, 2004
0I’m at a loss for writing. I have no words in my head. I’m barely speaking. I don’t have anything to say really.
I’m applying for jobs at the university because it would get me out of here and it would help me with tuition.
I’m reading more. This will be a summer of reading everything I’ve wanted to read for a while.
I’m overwhelmed by life right now…with work and the cost of owning a home, I’m overwhelmed.
random
0I’m at a loss for writing. I have no words in my head. I’m barely speaking. I don’t have anything to say really.
I’m applying for jobs at the university because it would get me out of here and it would help me with tuition.
I’m reading more. This will be a summer of reading everything I’ve wanted to read for a while.
I’m overwhelmed by life right now…with work and the cost of owning a home, I’m overwhelmed.
Sunday May 23, 2004
0“Ten years ago there were almost no deaths on the southern Arizona border. What they’ve done is created this gantlet of death. It’s Darwinian — only the strongest survive.”
REV. JOHN FIFE, a Presbyterian minister who works on illegal immigration issues in Arizona.
The area of southern Arizona has been called the Killing Fields of the U.S. During the summer months, there are numerous reports of deaths: People who have no water or who are within walking distance of fresh water and have collapsed. Men, women and children are found dehydrated and having suffered from heat stroke in the vast deserts.
There are stories of “wranglers” who will take a person’s hard earned money to get them into the U.S. and who will then abandon that person in the middle of the desert with no means to survive the searing heat. Worse, are the loads of people loaded into unconditioned box vans (the big trucks like moving vans). The heat, the panic, the lack of water and air have killed many people.
I know, I know…more news about death. I think this is important, though, because no one talks about the atrocities that happen within our own borders. This is an awful way to live and die. There is nothing but suffering in this kind of passing.
killing fields
0“Ten years ago there were almost no deaths on the southern Arizona border. What they’ve done is created this gantlet of death. It’s Darwinian — only the strongest survive.”
REV. JOHN FIFE, a Presbyterian minister who works on illegal immigration issues in Arizona.
The area of southern Arizona has been called the Killing Fields of the U.S. During the summer months, there are numerous reports of deaths: People who have no water or who are within walking distance of fresh water and have collapsed. Men, women and children are found dehydrated and having suffered from heat stroke in the vast deserts.
There are stories of “wranglers” who will take a person’s hard earned money to get them into the U.S. and who will then abandon that person in the middle of the desert with no means to survive the searing heat. Worse, are the loads of people loaded into unconditioned box vans (the big trucks like moving vans). The heat, the panic, the lack of water and air have killed many people.
I know, I know…more news about death. I think this is important, though, because no one talks about the atrocities that happen within our own borders. This is an awful way to live and die. There is nothing but suffering in this kind of passing.
Friday May 21, 2004
0At 8:32 Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted.
I was living in Missoula, Montana on that day. I was 13 years old. I can remember when it happened and how it affected us like it was yesterday.
While we were on the other side of Washington (barely over the state line), we were still covered in a few inches of volcanic ash. We were warned not to go outdoors because the ash was so fine and it could damage our lungs.
We were kids, though, and while our parents were at work, we went outside to play. I can remember playing basketball at a friend’s house in the ash. It would billow up around us with every dribble.
We missed school because the ash caused problems with cars, with transportation, and with general business. We had to go to school on Saturdays that year to make up for the lost days.
Everyone collected the ash. It was a collector’s item. I still have a small container of it, labeled with the date.
It was a huge event in my life. Something I will never forget. I can still remember writing the date in my 13-year-old penmanship in my homemade journal.
May 18, 1980.
I don’t think I’ll ever forget that day.
eruption
08 years ago
At 8:32 Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted.
I was living in Missoula, Montana on that day. I was 13 years old. I can remember when it happened and how it affected us like it was yesterday.
While we were on the other side of Washington (barely over the state line), we were still covered in a few inches of volcanic ash. We were warned not to go outdoors because the ash was so fine and it could damage our lungs.
We were kids, though, and while our parents were at work, we went outside to play. I can remember playing basketball at a friend’s house in the ash. It would billow up around us with every dribble.
We missed school because the ash caused problems with cars, with transportation, and with general business. We had to go to school on Saturdays that year to make up for the lost days.
Everyone collected the ash. It was a collector’s item. I still have a small container of it, labeled with the date.
It was a huge event in my life. Something I will never forget. I can still remember writing the date in my 13-year-old penmanship in my homemade journal.
May 18, 1980.
I don’t think I’ll ever forget that day.
Tuesday May 18, 2004
0“The only thing that’s been wrong with your marriage, if I can put it that way, is that it hasn’t been public.”
ROSARIA E. SALERNO, Boston’s city clerk, as she performed the city’s first same-sex ceremony.
—
I was talking to someone yesterday about the stresses of life and I think that’s what is getting to me.
Work is definitely NOT good. Several people from around here are contacting attorneys to talk to them about several different issues. It is worrisome. My own issues are just that I’ve been reclassified at a lower level while my peers (people who do the exact same job but in different areas) are being kept at their higher levels. I haven’t lost money and I haven’t lost any benefits but it remains that I’m not pretty much voiceless when it comes to our work. There are certain people who definitely look down at anyone who they perceive as “lesser than” them. In fact, one department head told one of my peers that she should be glad she wasn’t me. WTF? Ok…whatever.
In addition, I didn’t realize how expensive owning a house would be. I had counted on the mortgage and my regular bills but propane is astronomical and I have to have water hauled to my house and that is so dang expensive. I understand why people normally have 2 income houses because I couldn’t afford one more expense. I feel like I’m drowning and it’s all I can do to keep my head above water.
The person I was talking to also commented that worldly events will often affect our lives. He said that he and his wife are actually getting testy at little things these days and they normally wouldn’t. He said he knows part of it is everything going on in the world.
I’m sure that’s true.
stresses
08 years ago
“The only thing that’s been wrong with your marriage, if I can put it that way, is that it hasn’t been public.”
Rosaria E. Salerno, Boston’s city clerk, as she performed the city’s first same-sex ceremony
—
I was talking to someone yesterday about the stresses of life and I think that’s what is getting to me.
Work is definitely NOT good. Several people from around here are contacting attorneys to talk to them about several different issues. It is worrisome. My own issues are just that I’ve been reclassified at a lower level while my peers (people who do the exact same job but in different areas) are being kept at their higher levels. I haven’t lost money and I haven’t lost any benefits but it remains that I’m not pretty much voiceless when it comes to our work. There are certain people who definitely look down at anyone who they perceive as “lesser than” them. In fact, one department head told one of my peers that she should be glad she wasn’t me.
WTF? Ok…whatever.
In addition, I didn’t realize how expensive owning a house would be. I had counted on the mortgage and my regular bills but propane is astronomical and I have to have water hauled to my house and that is so dang expensive. I understand why people normally have 2 income houses because I couldn’t afford one more expense. I feel like I’m drowning and it’s all I can do to keep my head above water.
The person I was talking to also commented that worldly events will often affect our lives. He said that he and his wife are actually getting testy at little things these days and they normally wouldn’t. He said he knows part of it is everything going on in the world.
I’m sure that’s true.