New Bikes on Campus

North Central College, where I am taking my grad classes, has purchased 20 refurbished classic looking red bikes and given them to students. All students. All the bikes have locks with the exact same combination so if you see one on campus and want to take a ride you are welcome to. It's kind of like the bike program at University of Wisconsin - Madison. The seats are kind of high which makes getting on with a backpack kind of a challenge but the ride is oh so smooth. It's a nice little surprise to walk out of a class and see that you can take a bike ride home instead of walking.

If I Were Rich...

I would subscribe to these journals, quarterlies, magazines, etc...
When would I find time to read them though?

1. The Paris Review ($40 / year -> 4 issues)
   
2. * McSweeney's ($135 / year -> #2-4 on list)
   
3. Wholphin
4. The Believer
5. The Virginia Quarterly ($32 / year -> 4 issues)
   
6. * Cabinet ($32 / year -> 4 issues)
   
7. Tin House ($19.95 / year -> 4 Issues)
   
8. Indiana Review ($28 / 2 years -> 4 Issues)
   
9. Alaska Quarterly Review ($10 / year -> 2 Issues)
   
10. The Kenyon Review ($40 / year -> 4 issues)
    
11. Ploughshares ($24 / year -> 3 issues)
    
12. the tiny ($12 / issue)
    
13. The Threepenny Review ($25 / year -> 4 Issues)
    
14. n+1 ($28 / year -> 2 issues)
    
15. National Geographic ($34 / year -> 12 issues)
    
16. Five Points ($20 / year -> 3 issues)
    
17. Creative Nonfiction ($29.95 / 4 issues)
    
18. * Foreign Affairs ($32 / year -> 6 issues)
    
19. Third Coast ($24 / year -> 2 issues)
20. X-tra ($24 / year -> 4 issues)
21. The Gettysburg Review
22. Shenandoah
    

* = already a subscriber

(Just jotting them down somewhere for the future - unless you want to order a couple for me, lifetime subscription preferred)

Sitting in Oliver

Went to pick up Oliver today from the car-fixer only to find that the car hadn't been fixed.
Things still wrong:

1. The convertible top wasn't installed correctly
2. The wax job was horribly streaky
3. Two dents on the quarter panels
4. Flat left front tire

Awesome.
They've had the car since 9/08/07 why not let them keep it a few more days...

Wedding Photos

I just noticed that we didn't take photos of the bride and groom. I guess there will be enough of those floating around that I can post those later.

Driving to the Lou

Aunt Shelly and Uncle Ben as Readers

Escorting mom

Kyle showing off "The Sprinkler"

Sarah and Kyle share a laugh

Me and the GP's

A few of the 1,000 lucky paper cranes

Still Sore, an update

It's been a few days and I'm still recovering. Even though the car that hit me was going relatively slowly, it is surprising how sore I am. I hit my head pretty good on the seat and had a headache for a day or so. But I didn't think my body got jostled as much as it did. I was tired at school the next day and my back and neck are still sore. I don't feel like I need to get "checked out" so this shouldn't be read as complaining. Anyway, I'm without a car now and now get to take the train to school which isn't so bad. I've already contacted the other driver's insurance and I go to get an estimate of the damages tomorrow after school and then I can send in the accident report to the state. I guess now I wait for the Claims agent to call me so that he can do an assessment.

My sister got married this weekend so I'm sure the drive down to Saint Louis and back didn't do much good. But on a different note, it was a really fun wedding; I'm glad that my sister is happy. I'll post pictures sometime. Even though for a while there when we were growing up it didn't look like we were going to be on speaking terms because of my constant pestering, I'm proud to call her one of my closest friends nowadays. Funny how things have a way of working out.

And her friends! At some point between while I was in high school and now, my sister's friends have transformed from annoying, young girls that were seemingly out to ruin my enjoyment into cool people doing cool things like living in Detroit or student teaching in Costa Rica. It used to be that the only thing that we had in common was mutual disdain but now we can talk about travel and music and experiences with nothing but admiration. Crazy. Anyway my sister is off to Honeymoon in Hawaii. I look forward to seeing her pictures when she gets back.

My other sister and I had a nice time hanging out together while after-wedding pictures were being taken in the park. I'll be damned if she isn't one of the coolest kids out there.

Oliver is in Critical Condition

Oliver, my car, a car that survived a 16,000 mile road trip across the United States, was critically injured today on my commute home. We were rear-ended. I still have a mild headache several hours later but Oliver can no longer close his trunk and has lost the use of all rear-lights. It is a pretty significant injury. I have to report the accident tomorrow to the assailant's insurance company and then I guess find out if Oliver can be saved after they come out and take a look. In all fairness the person driving the other car, while totally at fault, was very shaken and contrite. It doesn't help Oliver but I was courteous and really don't really feel that bad, considering how much I love that car.

Class is in Session

Well the 'Summer of Joseph' has again come to a close and the hectic school schedule will begin. Organization and time management will be of top priority since I'll also be taking two grad classes, volunteering with World Relief by helping a Burmese family, taping the football games on Friday nights, and trying to keep a training / exercise schedule.

Some things that I'm looking forward to (besides school starting):
1. My sister's wedding next weekend
2. Building houses in Louisiana over Spring Break
3. Traveling to Ghana next summer

Summer Flowers

I carved out a little spot in the dirt and scattered some seeds this summer. These are some of the fruits of my labors.

Home from Duluth

I ran in the Grandma's Marathon in Duluth on Saturday. Read about it at my other blog...

A Multimedia Explosion

Three multimedia events:

1. My friend made the news with his artwork! Check it out here: Barack is Jesus.

2. Pictures of my Spring Break are online. Southern Illinois in all of its hilly glory. Check those out while you still can. [link]

3. I recently had my external hard drive crash. I lost 15,000 MP3's. Can you help? Leave a comment and give me a hand. It's so quiet here.

You Know You're Getting Older When...

You know you are getting older when the music that you love or used to love, music that you thought was esoteric and unique becomes the background music for commercials. What is Camera Obscura doing promoting Coldwater Creek? Postal Service backing UPS (although I think that is brilliant)? Air on some commercial on the radio (I get too caught up in the music to remember the sponsor)? All of the civic commercials!

And the kids just think that it is commercially processed background music. It's a shame.

Some Jokes

The Believer magazine has a policy of only reviewing books that they can say positive things about. This seems like a reasonable policy so I'm going to give it a try with my comments on Lucy Thomas' Jokes Told in Heaven about Babies.

1. The title is interesting.
2. The book itself is well constructed.
3. It's only 32 pages long.

The News

I made the paper! Woo-hoo! [link]

Some Books I've Finished

This year is starting to turn out to be a pretty good reading year. Unfortunately, there is really only one place to go from here and I'm not holding hope that I'll find better books than these two. I'll hold off saying anything about these books until my end of the year lists come out so I'll just say that they are really, really good. There are images in these books that I'll never forget, and single lines that I've read over and over and marveled at how simple but full of meaning they are.

The McSweeney's Book Club has already paid for itself.

Top Three Reasons

K has taken to saying that I would love living in a small town (I think she said that I pretend that I actually live in one) , and while I did look for jobs at one point in rural Vermont I've always liked the big city going-ons. Anyway, here are three recent examples of why she just might be right.

1. I went to a local chili cook-off in a church basement and had a smile on my face the whole time. Even when I was eating the really bad, overcooked varieties. I talked to the local newspaper reporter about the experience at the chowfest and discussed rating methods with the elderly couple that I was sitting with.

2. When the train into Chicago was delayed because of "severe switch problems" K and I decided to drive into the city. I made the suggestion that we should ask strangers if they would like a ride with us. One guy took us up on the suggestion. Nothing like looking out for neighbors, I suppose.

3. Speaking of neighbors, today on my jog I began talking to sixty-year old guy about running and whatnot and ended up eating lunch with him later. Turns out he ran cross-country and was a sniper for the IRA when he was a teenager, moved to the States, earned a couple of master's and now teaches remediation classes at night at the local high school. Who would have thought?

Ice Carving

Went to the National Ice Carving Championship today in Downer's Grove, IL. Check out the pics here: link to pics

I think they speak for themselves.

The Middle Stories

I guess I should start out by saying that this isn't the book that I read. My book has the sharpie graffiti in the form of fish surrounding the guy's head and then a cat face on the actual guy. This book has several various stickers that are slapped on the covers, all of the big guy seen here but with a slight, not-so-subtle change. Why? I guess so you'll know which one is yours at the book club.

So even the cover is gimmicky and while many of these stories are good, some are really good - it never really gets past its cuteness. They all seem like the beginnings of really great stories but end up with vague not-quite-conclusions. But since Heti's style is unmistakably polished ("Every plan fails. That's what the man had refused to tell him. Every single body's. But that, my friend, is precisely life's sorrow.") You can't deny that that there is something there.

Maybe I'm out of touch, out of practice with the modern short story. But at the end of the stories you aren't given hope about the state of fiction. It is easy to see why people stay with the classics, why people aren't sure why they should read anymore. The monotonous, intelligent, austere, polished prose doesn't lead the reader to new discoveries, instead it leaves him confused. I realize that, after reading this, that it sounds like I hate this book. Not true. I like it. I like the challenge. I would read more by Heti. It is a book that does not comfort. It does not provide conclusive, moral endings. In fact, the goals it often seems to deliberately confuse. But then you return to them, and you might possibly think: how curious, how interesting, how nervy. Maybe it's the same reason why I got tired of John Barth or never really began liking Donald Barthelme. Maybe it's a reaction to how things aren't nice and tidy anymore, that we aren't told - or aren't able to tell - what the morals or dreams or ideals should be passed on because it can't fit into a sound bite or short story.

A Good Barber is Hard to Find

One of the hardest things about moving to a new town is finding a place to get a haircut. It is usually a case of the Goldilocks' porridge. It was no difference in my case.

My criteria was simple:
1. Have a barber's pole out front.
2. Not part of a corporate chain.
3. Have old-fashioned barber's chair (not expecting a porcelain base or anything).
4. Cash only.

Too Crass:
I thought that I found paydirt on my first shot: small shop down by the riverwalk and historic downtown area. Barber pole spinning (yes - even spinning!) out front trying to centripetally force me in. There were old fashioned register in the middle and five chairs on the perimeter. The guy that cut my hair was in his fourties and made some 'funny' jokes about having an old nag as a wife and about how he hated school. I was still looking for a job at the time (which prompted the school digs) and I had an interview the next day so it seemed natural that when I landed the job the next week that I would return. However, the jokes got old/uncomfortable the next month so I never went back. Next!

Too Inconvenient:
So I moved on. I found a barber shop even closer to my house with a working pole plus only two chairs (community must happen here!); the bathroom is even charmingly hidden behind 3 doors in the basement; and it is right on the corner. What sold me here was that the barber respected education but put an amusing twist on it. "I was doing great until seventh grade - then I went to a Who concert" How can you not fall for a one liner like that!? To make things even more perfect the barbers use a straight blade to trim up the back of the neck instead of the regular trimmers. However, they close at 5 on weekdays and are only open for a few hours on Saturdays which means that when IU lost in that foul-fest marathon vs Iowa; I couldn't even get my haircut. Next!

Just Right:
The barber's name is Joe; has 50 years experience; uses the lather and straight blade, and knows the name of the haircut that I want after I describe it (Princeton, long) - the shop is between the two other shops but still within walking distance,has seven chairs, and lots of chatter. Joe talked about convertible care, his stint in Greenland during WWII, and beards. He also had a great one-liner of his own, "Men don't wear clean gym shoes." He works until 7:00 on Thursdays. I'll return.

To Ruhleben -- and Back

A review on Amazon says it best: "this memoir was a strange and wonderful surprise: English college kid sneaks into wartime (1914) Berlin as a journalist on a dare, gets in way over his head, is thrown into a prison camp, and then escapes with a fellow inmate in broad daylight to run, hide, and bluff their way across Germany to freedom. It's a really engrossing, old fashioned page turner. It's not a war book at all, more like a weird survival odyssey with a total wiseass."

The best part is that it is true. A little slow at the beginning but even that part is interesting in how similar prison camp survivors descriptions of food are: the slow, contemplative chewing of each piece: trying to see how many times you can chew a morsel of bread...

I guess this isn't a surprise...

Who does the computer tell you to vote for? Here are my results...

Your results for "Presidential Candidate Selector -- 2008 Front Runners"

URL: http://SelectSmart.com/plus/select.php?url=08frontrunners

Percent

Rank

Item

(100%) 1: Sen. Barack Obama (D) Information

(96%) 2: Retired Gen. Wesley Clark (D) Information

(95%) 3: Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D) Information

(91%) 4: Ex-VP Al Gore (D) Information

(87%) 5: Sen. John Kerry (D) Information

(82%) 6: Sen. Christopher Dodd (D) Information

(80%) 7: Sen. Hillary Clinton (D) Information

(77%) 8: Sen. Joseph Biden (D) Information

(76%) 9: Gov. Tom Vilsack (D) Information

(75%) 10: Ex-Sen. John Edwards (D) Information

(70%) 11: Gov. Bill Richardson (D) Information

(59%) 12: Gov. George Pataki (R) Information

(55%) 13: Gov. Mitt Romney (R) Information

(48%) 14: Sec. Condoleezza Rice (R) Information

(46%) 15: Ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) Information

(46%) 16: Rep. Ron Paul (R) Information

(36%) 17: Ex-Rep. Newt Gingrich (R) Information

(34%) 18: Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) Information

(31%) 19: Sen. John McCain (R) Information

(27%) 20: Sen. George Allen (R) Information

(25%) 21: Rep. Duncan Hunter (R) Information

(25%) 22: Sen. Sam Brownback (R) Information

(23%) 23: Rep. Tom Tancredo (R) Information

(11%) 24: Sen. Chuck Hagel (R) Information

(0%) 25: Sen. Russ Feingold (D) Withdrew from race.

Globiblio and Bluestockings

Yesterday, I went to a book club. You know, a real book club, where people discussed real literature and not some Mitch Albom, Dan Brown, or other current top 10 book. It was at 826Chi and the 15 or so of us read Monkey, apparently one of the most famous novels in China. The book is basically a group of four creatures (a priest, monkey, pigsy, sandy) who are on a quest from China to India to receive the Buddhist scriptures and hopefully gain enlightenment. Along the way, they have to overcome obstacles that challenge them emotionally, physically, and spiritually - so basically your standard epic. But instead of all the fractured stories that we tell our kids in America that pass on ethics (Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyon, etc.) this book would open up a world of possibilities to discuss with your child.

At first Monkey is this party crashing oaf that is pretty annoying but with amazing magical powers that he learned from a zen master so there is enough fighting to keep the interest up but then there are these profound (and somethings pithy) statements that would shape the zeitgeist of the country: "Such blank scrolls are the true scriptures." I really liked this statement which focuses on the interplay of silence and spirit. The repetition of water as a force both as an obstacle and an element from rebirth is a nice touch also.

Overall, the other members seemed like great fun; the discussion never got too deep but I'm not sure it really needs to: as Monkey-Squirrel has said, "It's the common experience that counts" - to top it off, people brought Chinese food to eat, peaches to snack on, and Tsing-Tao to drink. I can't wait for next month.

On the train ride back home, I read Lethem's 55-page short story, This Shape We're In. I'm not sure that it's a great or even good book and it doesn't really have the great description that I've come to love from Lethem - it has an interesting comment on the post-downfall of America and the interplay of sex and violence but ultimately lacks focus which is almost absolutely critical for a short story.

Eggers in Chicago

I trained into the city yesterday to check out the Valentino Deng and Dave Eggers book signing / reading yesterday. There were at least 250 people crammed into this small room - it was so packed in fact that to get from the front, book-signing part to the back, reading area, Deng and Eggers had to go out the front door and come back into the store via the back, emergency-exit-alley-way. I was fortunate enough to get there early to get my book signed before the show and still have a seat, albeit on top of a bookcase. Dave and I chatted for a couple of minutes about the need to infuse modern fiction in the classroom and how reading books like the Scarlet Letter; however good, ultimately turns kids off to reading and writing. Eggers has always been a big supporter of education (starts tutoring centers / writes about educators) and had these parting words: Keep at it. Do not tire.

When I was in college I sent my uncle a postcard of IU, he sent one back of UC with these words in closing: Do it right. I still think he influenced my philosophy of life more than any text I'd read at the time.

Do it right. Keep at it. Do not tire.

Anyway, the reading was at the inauspicious 826Chi tutoring center which can be seen to the right. The front of the store is a secret agent supply store known as "The Boring Store" because if you are a secret agent you can't be seen going into a spy store. The hope is that each tutoring center can be run self-sufficiently from the profits of the store. This summer I would like to volunteer there if they need help. I think I could help the 6-18 year olds learn more about creative writing and I would learn some new, great activities that I could take back to the classroom next year. But, that's the long view. We'll see how everything shakes out.

Hoosiers Basketball

For the last couple of years, watching IU basketball has been an anxiety inducing chore. This season things have started to turn around with new coach, Kelvin Sampson. It used to be that IU would build a lead, muck up the last couple of possessions before halftime, make no adjustments, and lose the lead and usually the game.

Nowadays, IU can build a lead. Or more importantly sustain one: up by 5 with a few minutes to play used to be as good as a loss. Even when things aren't going the Hoosiers' way, I am confident that they will make the correct adjustments and get things going their way. There is still plenty to improve on, but watching IU is fun again.