When sorrows come...

It hardly seems reasonable to lump the single spies that have shown themselves this week into battalions, and probably it's an insult to somebody, but I am, after all, the center of my own tragedy.

My friend J. died on Friday night. Not sure exactly how. He was discovered electrocuted on the third rail of the El early Saturday morning, so accident, suicide, and murder are all options, I suppose. He was 24, had an infectious laugh, and loved him some Coltrane. Such an odd way to go that the usual perusal of mortality is on hold, at least for now. I'm not good at grief. The funeral's Thursday.

It throws my other stupid frets into perspective, at least. My computer dying for the second time in as many weeks while I'm trying to finish my dissertation (t-minus 35 days) hardly seems to matter at the moment.

I made me do it!

I've been getting addicted to online personality quizzes of late. I'm not sure how my parents would respond to this one...


You are the Devil card. The Devil is based on the
figure Pan, Lord of the Dance. The earthy
physicality of the devil breeds lust. The
devil's call to return to primal instincts
often creates conflict in a society in which
many of these instincts must be kept under
control. Challenges posed by our physical
bodies can be overcome by strength in the
mental, emotional, and spiritual realms. Pan is
also a symbol of enjoyment and rules our
material creativity. The devil knows physical
pleasure and how to manipulate the physical
world. Material creativity finds its output in
such things as dance, pottery, gardening, and
sex. The self-actualized person is able to
accept the sensuality and usefulness of the
devil's gifts while remaining in control of any
darker urges. Image from The Stone Tarot deck.
http://hometown.aol.com/newtarotdeck/


Which Tarot Card Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Pathetic Phallus, See?

"I'm the commander - see, I don't need to explain - I don't need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the President. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation."

- George W. Bush, Washington Post, 11-19-02

Thanks to my lovely and talented chum bibliogal for sending me to this lovely collection of conservative absurdity.

Pathetic Fallacy

Why is it that whenever I get a haircut, the environment punishes me by dropping the temperature fifteen degrees?

More time wastage

Hooray. Some idiot told me I could set up a blog for free, and lord knows I need more things to waste my time on to take away from my dissertating.

I have a defense date and everything now. May 25. Yikes! I'm trying to stay calm. I'll be depositing in August and teaching at the new job the same day.

My recently ex-girlfriend has just gotten a fellowship to do research at the Huntington library in LA this summer. I'm very pleased for her. And I'm pleased that she managed to e-mail me about it.

My shrink-enforced period of celibacy is still in its first month. No great rumblings of discontent so far. Thank goodness I have a dissertation (and now a blog) to take my mind off it.

And also Bikram yoga, which feels great, though it makes my eyes get boogery for some reason.