confusion never stops, closing walls and ticking clocks

Things/People I miss:

Having a car, which also means having the freedom to do what I want, when I want
Blue Bell Ice Cream
Dollar burrito night at La Popular
Singing in Chapel and at Highland (harmony, anyone?)
Texas accents, even those sometimes annoying West Texas ones
My own bed
My dramatically decorated room in my apartment
Sonic
I admit it - The Optimist
West Texas sunsets
The parents
San Antonio
Our dog, Rusty (I really want a dog)
Daniel
Mrs. Baird's bread products
H-E-B
Taco Cabana
People who know what the Church of Christ is so I don't have to explain it, which is hard
People who like movies as much as I do (OK, that's pretty much Daniel)
Late-night Taco Bueno runs (I have a lot of food on here...)
Writing columns that make people mad
The music I downloaded off iTunes, which is stuck on my computer in A Town
Being on campus
Friends


It's about that time...

recent discovery: i like guacamole

So, I started reading The Da Vinci Code out of sheer boredom and because it was in front of me. My uncle thinks it's great, but he also thinks anything Bruce Willis does is great, like Hostage. I'm only a few really short chapters into it, but already the bad writing is beginning to grate on me. Filling the manuscript with excessive metaphors and similes will not improve the plot and/or your writing, Dan Brown. Examples:

 

"His usually sharp blue eyes looked hazy and drawn tonight. A dark stubble was shrouding his strong jaw and dimpled chin. Around his temples, the gray highlights were advancing, making their way deeper into his thicket of coarse black hair. Although his female colleagues insisted the gray only accentuated his bookish appeal, Langdon new better." (what sort of man writes sentences like that?)

 

"Langdon stared at the picture, his horror now laced with fear. The image was gruesome and profoundly strange, bringing with it an unsettling sense of deja vu."

 

"As they entered the deserted park, the agent reached under the dash and turned off the blaring siren. Langdon exhaled, savoring the sudden quiet. Outside the car, the pale wash of halogen headlights skimmed over the crushed gravel parkway, the rugged whir of the tires intoning a hypnotic rhythm."

 

New game: Count the adjectives! Wee!

 

Unfortunately, Brown has felt it necessary to present information up front, setting up stories so we might know all the background. He feels in necessary to describe the characters, mention what they've done, their backgrounds. He gives us their resume without letting the story tell it to us.

 

I was reading this on the bus and train this morning, but felt self conscious. I took the jacket cover off the book, but didn't like the idea of people seeing the title on the tops of the inside pages. I don't want people to see me reading it and judge me. Is this vain/presumptuous? Hmm.

 

i just don't know what to do with myself

I finished my weekend marathon of remaining in my PJ's and reading Harry Potter. Malinda called me last night - we hadn't talked about Harry Potter in months, but she knew I'd be reading it - and asked me to call her when I had finished because she couldn't take it. Lori e-mailed and said she had to talk about it. Last night, I couldn't sleep because I kept thinking about it. Fiction really shouldn't have this effect on people, and children's fiction at that. But I am at a loss for words and don't know where to turn. Book Six can be seen as a bridge book, linking 5 and 7 by setting the stage for what Harry has to face at the end. This book is darker and in my opinion, the content will go over most of the younger reader's heads, not to mention scare them. If I'm 21 and I had my hand over my mouth in shock, how is a 3rd grader going to react? Well, maybe I'm not giving them enough credit, but this book will be sure to disturb most who read it. There is no stability left and no real promise of what will happen in Book Seven. But, I can tell you one thing, if Rowling kills Harry, I'm camping outside her house and going on a hunger strike until she rewrites the ending.

 

Reactions to this series should not be this dramatic by any means, but like I said, I just don't know what to do with myself now. If you've read it and have any words of encouragement/theories, feel free to pass them along.

i can see clearly now

Current reading: We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda, by Philip Gourevitch (to be interrupted this weekend by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Yes, I will transition from reading about genocide to reading about wizards. Somehow, this isn't surprising to me.)

 

A great quote from the beginning of the book:

 

"The best reason I have come up with for looking closely into Rwanda's stories is that ignoring them makes me even more uncomfortable about existence and my place in it. The horror, as horror, interests me only insofar as a precise memory of the offense is necessary to understand its legacy."

 

Being one of the 29 million Americans who commutes to work every day using public transportation, I was slightly concerned to be living near the District when the bombs went off in London. At first I thought the French had finally gone overboard in losing housing the Olympics to London, but as the news rolled in and one of our investigators told us to be careful on the Metro, I knew we were dealing with something truly terrifying. Fortunately, living in Virginia and working in Arlington I didn't see any armed guards patrolling the rails or anything, and of course, everything was fine. It almost seems like old news now, which is unfortunate. I guess things like that will always seem distant as long as they don't happen on our doorstep.

 

This week I've realized that working here has been great and definitely a learning experience, but it is reminding me that I really do love journalism. I've been following the Judith Miller case, I want to read Bob Woodward's new book and definitely kept the front pages of the Post from when Deep Throat was revealed. I'm writing much more PR style and trying to get a certain message across, which is fine and understandable for an organization. I have also had my fare share of complaining about deadlines in the Optimist office, but now that I don't have many, it's annoying. I'm always asking my supervisors for deadlines and more work. I like the immediacy of it all, and how every day is a new day with something else to be done. Who knows what I'll end up doing, but I don't think I can give up on news writing just yet. (Because of my background in journalism, I am definitely the one all the other interns turn to for editing advice. They're surprised at what I catch and how quickly I catch it. You never realize how prepared you are for something until you're actually out doing it. I'm always surprised at how much my department at school has taught me.)

 

Things that freak me out: People who don't wash their hands in public restrooms; creepy guys on the Metro bus; anything I learned from just watching Fahrenheit 9/11, so basically anything related to Saudi Arabia; the fact that I'm technically an adult; the fact that I'm graduating in about 10 months.

 

I'm thinking of cutting my hair. It's half-way down my back now, and I've been toying with the idea of cutting it to a little above my shoulders. Any comments? I'm too indecisive and attached.

 

I've added new pictures to my www.shutterfly.com account. User name is my school e-mail and password is my screename. If you don't know this, e-mail me. If you don't know my e-mail, well, then we aren't really friends, and you shouldn't be looking at my pictures anyways.