Quotations in my Cubicle

When things are not to crazy, I read at work. (When I am caught up of course). When I am reading at work and stumble upon an interesting or memorable line, I jot it on a post-it and hang it in my cubicle. Here are the quotations I have compiled in this way in the past 6 months. I love every one of them.

“The man who is contented to be only himself, and therefore less a self, is in prison. My own eyes are not enough for me, I will see through those of others. I will see what others have invented. Even the eyes of all humanity are not enough. I regret that brutes cannot write books. In reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet I remain myself… I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do.” – CS Lewis

“The terror of the unforeseen is what the study of history hides. It turns disaster into epic” – Philip Roth The Plot Against America

“Normal humans run away from monsters… I never claimed to be normal, just human” – Stephenie Meyer, Eclipse

“The ocean is tolerant, except a couple of times a day it gives up in disgust and goes off by itself and hides, And that my dear accounts for the tides” – Ogden Nash

“Lost, there, struggling against death, it was hard to accept the presence of another, even more insidious enemy: men like you” – Alessandro Baricco Ocean Sea

“Near and Far, near and far, I’m happy where you are” - Ogden Nash

“A conscious, rational animal proceeding syllogistically from the known to the unknown” – James Joyce, Ulysses

"There is a man sleeping in the grass. And over him is gathering the greatest storm of all his days. Such lightning and thunder will come there has never been seen before, bringing death and destruction. People hurry home past him, to places safe from danger. And whether they do not see him there in the grass, or whether they fear to halt even a moment, but they do not wake him, they let him be” – Alan Paton Cry, the Beloved Country

“Catastrophic cataclysms which make terror the basis of human mentality” – James Joyce Ulysses

“A clattered milk can, a postman’s double knock, a paper read, reread while lathering, re-lathering the same spot, a shock, a shoot, with thought of aught he sought thought fraught with naught. Might cause a faster rate of shaving and a nick” – James Joyce Ulysses

“In every space there is a hint of more” – Gertrude Stein

“The enemy was within her, not before her, and all of her strength was as nothing against an enemy like that. U have seen many lives wrecked in that absurd way. But a ship, never” – Alessandro Baricco Ocean Sea

"Show the choice and make no more mistakes than yesterday" - Gertrude Stein

Good Books but Bad Moods

I really need to choose my Audiobooks better. Its not that what I have "read" via audiobook lately has been bad, the problem is that it is becoming more and more clear that the audiobook in my car significantly impacts my mood. Before we bought the Chrysler 300C, when I was driving my old POS Mercury Tracer, I listed to Harry Potter on audio tape all of the time, and getting in the car was a treat that would generally raise my mood. Now, with no tape player my tapes are useless and I have been "expanding my horizons" so to speak and getting a variety of books on CD from the library - pretty much anything that is on my reading list that is readily available in audiobook. Since we got the Chrysler I have listened to Blindness by Jose Saramongo, The Fairy-Tale Detectives, and am currently listening to The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. Blindness is an incredibly depressing book and this was reflected in my mood frequently in the two weeks I listened to it. The Fairy-Tale Detectives was sort of neutral - it was a children's book, and not to serious, but it did nothing to cheer me either. This morning is a textbook example of why I need to be more careful though. The Plot Against America is an alternative history. That means the author changes something about a key point in history and writes a book about what could have happened (fictional, clearly). In The Plot Against America, instead of Roosevelt winning a third term in the run-up to WWII, Charles Lindbergh (yes, the pilot), who was a known isolationist and anti-semite, runs and wins the presidency. The book follows a Jewish family from NJ. In the section I listened to on the way to work this morning they were visiting Washington DC and were victims of multiple acts of anti-semitism. When I left the house I was in a decent mood, ready to face the day, thinking about not much and looking forward to Trivia tonight. After ten minutes with the book, I arrived at work angry and stressed, pissed at the world, and brooding over how people are so rotten to each other.

I think its time to switch audiobooks and finish reading The Plot Against America in book form. Actually a reading a book also affects my mood, but not nearly as much as the audiobooks, I think mainly because they are not interwoven through my day as much. The next audiobook I have is The Lightning Thief, which, as it is constantly compared to Harry Potter, seems like a safe bet.

Burning Out

This past weekend our former roomate Ben visited and brought his girlfriend A to meet us. It was a quiet weekend. We spent the vast majority of it on the couches - playing video games or watching movies that A had somehow managed to not see (Down Periscope, Snatch). We watched the soccer games. Saturday's game was highly enjoyable, Germany beating Uruguay and high scoring game. Sunday's game, the World Cup Final, was probably the least enjoyable game I saw in the entire tournament. Depending on your point of view, either there was horrible diving and a ref who bought every scam sold to him, or a crazy violent game with loads of deserved penalties and yellow cards, smashing the previous record for such things. I tend to side with the first. Either way, the game was painfully slow without much good continuous play. Spain ended up winning 1-0. We also all went to see Eclipse (A wanted to go and taking Ben with us would make it more fun for DH to go). I enjoyed it again, but Ben, DH, and A all thought it was hilariously bad. Oh well.

I have been feeling very drained the last few days, burnt out, but I am not entirely sure "of what". I have a feeling its just the whole work-life balance thing. I feel like I am not doing anything well at the moment (except perhaps work). I am not a good housekeeper, I am not eating well, not training my dog well, not seeing my friends enough, not seeing DH enough, not doing any of the projects I want to do. I don't feel like its going to get better anytime soon. I think the feeling this weekend was accentuated by our dog's bad behavior. River still has some behavioral issues that seem to flare big time when we have house guests. The biggest problem is her desire to dominate Grim whenever other people are around. We need to get back to some sort of training routine, as we were seeing improvements when we had her in the obedience class. The problem is its hard to get into a training routine when we don't really have any sort of routine in our lives. OK. I know thats not entirely true. We get up, DH walks the dogs in the morning, I walk the dogs in the evening. Thats the extent of our routing. I have been gone so much and there is more craziness to come for another few weeks. I say another few weeks but really I am not sure there is an end. I almost just want to take a month off of activities outside the house. You know? Slow it down big time, establish some sort of routine, and then add stuff back in. The problem with that idea is I am pretty sure that it would end up driving us batty. Who knows. I don't think this is a problem that just gets fixed, its probably just a part of life.

In the News

Gay Marriage gets a Boost -- Glad to see someone in the federal government is finally recognizing what is obviously a case of government discrimination. I really hope this holds up in appeal.

Squirrels are Smart Cookies -- who knew how creative these guys could get? PS: I have some great squirrel photos that I will post ASAP. Yesterday was too hot even for the Squirrels.

Rich Default on Mortgages Most -- so stop blaming the little people for the mortgage crisis

Wandering's of an Observant Mind

The big news here in Columbus, and extending out to the east coast, is the heat. Joy of joys, my least favorite part of being in Ohio. Not that northern Minnesota isn't also suffering a heatwave at the moment, but their version of a heatwave is slightly more tolerable and does not involve air quality warnings.

Air quality warnings. Another reason to move to Duluth. We are racking up a lot of those recently. I should make a list.

As I have mentioned, on breaks I walk around the building a bit. Its a loop, so it works out well. Today I managed to walk past a certain spot 4 times without noticing a change, only to have a coworker come back to the unit after her break pointing out they sort of put a new wall up. I walked by a new wall at least four times without noticing it. Call me Ms. Observant.

Not much else going on here. Tonight, Trivia. Tomorrow, guests arrive in town. I went shopping last night to outfit myself for our upcoming adventure to New Jersey. We are going to pretend to be on Jersey Shore for a weekend (for those of you with some remaining morals and brain cells, that is a reality show about crazy Italians who reinforce every possible stereotype about the beach life). I have actually never seen the show, but I know the people who are on it from other media. We actually are going to NJ's shore to see friends from blind camp and generally hang out. That is still 2 weeks away, but with our packed schedule I thought I better get the gear now or I would be heading out on a boat in my work close and looking like a complete loser. I have not owned shorts I liked in quite awhile, but found three good pairs yesterday, a bikini/tankini (one bottom, two tops), a pretty cover-up, and the requisite flip flops. I am all set.

Illinois Getaway

Good times in Illinois for the fourth of July this weekend. Got there at dinner time on Friday, grabbed some BBQ then played games and watched Sports Night (anyone remember this Sports- TV themed dramedy that played briefly?) - not as good as I remembered it being, but it was a pleasant evening. We played trivial pursuit, and while I did not win, I did beat DH, which is a big accomplishment for me, being trivia-challenged.

Saturday morning we watched Germany beat up on Argentina in world cup soccer, then headed out to see the library (and get some movies), and grab lunch. For dessert we went to this really cool Frozen yogurt place by University of Illinois. Its called Coco Mero, and was delicious. It is self serve - you go in with a bowl and mix and match frozen yogurt flavors and toppings as desired, and then it is weighed and you pay by the ounce. I had Tart and Rasberry yogurt (tart tastes like an Indian Lassi, if you have had one of those), and then put blueberries, kiwi, mango, and walnuts on top. It was delicious. We spent the afternoon watching more soccer, then went and through a football around for awhile. As tradition dictated this concluded with me throwing the ball for a game of 500 between B and DH. Back when we were in undergrads this always would end up being the activity. It was usually me and 2-4 guys playing catch, and I had no desire to wrestle them for the ball, so I would be the thrower. Not to mention my general inaccuracy makes it hard for me to "cheat" and favor someone. Saturday evening we grilled steak and had a real sit down dinner, very nice. The evening was filled with Zombieland, which is hilarious and if you have not seen it, and you like that sort of thing, should definitely try it!! (By that sort of thing I mean zombie comedy, like Shaun of the Dead). Remember -- Limber Up.

Sunday morning we went rollerblading -- three miles! It was great, but very hot and sweaty. We grabbed some mexican for lunch (I know, mexican on the fouth of july? But hey, hispanics are largest growing US population and most of them are American's too, so its fitting perhaps). We wiled away the afternoon on Scrabble (ALL TIME CHAMPION!!), a funny kids movie that I subjected them to (the hobbit), and napping. I didn't nap, but the boys did. I read half of Into the Wild, which is interesting but somewhat disturbing. After leftovers for dinner we headed out to claim our spot for the Champaign Fireworks. We got a good seat and enjoyed waiting by playing Beggar Thy Neighbor (also called Egyption War or Egyption Rat Screw). Eventually the fireworks came, and they were quite good. We sat closer than I have ever sat and it was really cool. After the fireworks we hung out a while to wait for some traffic to disipate. DH and I passed the time by throwing around an imaginary football, imitating nearby children that were rolling down a small hill, and generally harrassing B. We made it out of there after not to long and headed to bed.

This morning we got up nice and early and headed to Springfield to visit the Lincoln Library and Museum. It was pretty interesting. They had some cool videos and some cool artifacts. We also had a chance to drive by the Illinois state capital, which was pretty cool. I would rank it second only to the Minnesota State Capital, but I may be bias. It certainly is way cooler than the Ohio one!! After that we drove back to Urbana/Champaign, grabbed lunch, and headed out.

It was a great weekend. Very relaxing. It was also interspersed with Skype conversations and updates from R, B's wife who is currently doing pre-PhD research in Germany. Fun to hear her adventures as well. Very worthwhile trip. Hope everyone else had a good fourth as well!

The Promised Review, and other randomness

I have not been blogging as much as I would like to lately. I feel like my recreational computer time just keeps decreasing. Of course, some of the reasons are good - because I have been going out so much, because I have started walking at my breaks to get a little extra exertion into my day, and other similar thinga. When I am home, I just don't want to be on a computer all that much. So, I apologize if my blog has grown somewhat tedious, but since its my blog, I won't apologize too much.

My review of Eclipse? (the third Twilight Movie), pretty much loved it. I think it is the strongest of the three movies, and really captures why the books are so addictive, captures the emotion of the books better than the others. I enjoyed it immensely and expect to see it at least one more time in first run (have to take DH!). Also, I think its a more complete movie, more entertaining to those non-addicts who are dragged to it. I am hoping DH actually even likes it instead of just tolerates it!

Other things going on? Time for me to slow down a bit! As previous posts have suggested, I have been go go go non stop. In the 30 days of June, there were 7 days that I did not have some sort of activity going on. Thats just too much. Granted, my July weeknights are already pretty much booked, but I can do something about the weeknights!

Did you ever notice how weeknights could be wee knights? Ah, little people running around with swords and armor. Is that offensive? If so, I apologize. To me it is amusing.

Tonight we leave for Illinois to celebrate the 4th of July (and moreso, the long weeked), with our friend B from undergraduate. Should be good times. If I am a good girl, I will report back to you on how it goes. Otherwise, until my next random thoughts....