Grammar Bonanza!

I am so excited about this. I realize that I am several weeks late in talking about this, but Slate posted a fantastic article about the sentence structure of some of the things Sarah Palin has said. I will admit that if someone decided to diagram much of what I say aloud, it would look fairly ridiculous so I can give here the benefit of the doubt on most of this. However, a couple of these diagrams are out of control.

I love this article because it's a combination of two of my favorite things: poking fun at politicians and language. Thanks Slate for making my day a little bit brighter.

Life Update

On Friday I finally finished my summer class. I was lucky enough to get to take Literary Theory during a summer session so I could focus all my academic attention to what will probably end up being my favorite grad class. With the completion of this course, I'm merely twelve hours short of the required class load for a master's degree (which is the inspiration for the picture. I'll have one of these someday). Three of those twelve, however, are my master's thesis which is looming in the distance and causing me a considerable amount of anxiety.

I am not necessarily anxious because it's a massive paper or that I don't think I'll be able to do it, but there's this nagging sense of dread. For the first time in my graduate career, I'm allowed to do exactly what I want to do and that is frightening. It's okay to do only pretty good in courses like "19th C. Gender, Sex, and Empire" because that is not where my eventual focus will lie. It's not okay to have a mediocre thesis when the topic is completely up to me.

I think I'll be okay. I have a full book shelf of DeLillo's work and corresponding criticism to pour through and I'm excited that I have a few weeks before the Fall semester begins to get some more work done.

We had our first anniversary two weeks ago. After getting back from a lovely week in Searcy, we hopped on a Bolt Bus bound for the Big Apple (ooo, alliteration!). Since we moved to the northeast we've been to New York a few times and have yet to see a show. This time we were fortunate enough to see Spring Awakening and it was much better than I had anticipated. I've been loving the music since the recording was available and I couldn't imagine the book being better than the music, but the show was simply fantastic.

While in the city, we got to see Jordan--which is always lovely--and we tried to not look too touristy while we walked about. It was a wonderful trip with my wonderful wife.

Also, we've moved from Media, PA to Pottstown, PA and you should visit us. We're definitely on the fringes of Pennsyltucky but the apartment is fairly amazing and it's very close to Coventry, my wife's new employer. We're completely finished unpacking and have to hang a few more pictures in the bedroom then we're completely finished.

It's been a long last couple of weeks, but life is wonderful.

What have you been doing lately?

Flurry

As I walked home from Coldstone holding my Like It filled with a mish-mash of white chocolate and cake batter ice cream, I couldn't help but be amazed at the gentle snow flurries that clouded my vision. Initially I was impressed by the beauty of the little flakes of snow lit by the glow of the Christmas wreaths hung on the street posts; then the thought that I was carrying ice cream through snow flurries momentarily bamboozled me.

Media is a nice little town. It's very old, very middle class, and very yuppieish. A trolley runs down State Street, the primary street in the town. An old stone armory serves as the home for Trader Joe's and near the end of the street sits an old, beautiful theatre across the street from an elementary school that looks like a castle. The town is rather quaint and I like it and I like snow.

I'm nearing finals week and I'm much less stressed than I should be. I need to write three papers between now and next Wednesday. It should be fun.

Waste of Time

May I tell you how much I enjoy trick plays like the "Flea Flicker," "The Statue of Liberty," or even "The Annexation of Puerto Rico" as seen in Little Giants. It's things like that that make football enjoyable. I have my first major graduate level paper due on Tuesday and I can't seem to motivate myself to work on it. I think I'm a much better student in the Spring because there's no football to distract me. I can't help but watch the Eagles play the Patriots. The Eagles are currently winning and, though I typically hate them, I would love for them to beat the Pats.

Thanksgiving was lovely. I got to cook a turkey, cheesecake, and mashed potatoes and they all turned out pretty well. I missed the family, of course, but it was nice to have friends and loved ones to spend the day with. And it doesn't hurt that the Cowboys won and the Buckeyes won the Saturday before. Life is good and I'm happy. I'll need some extra blessing in the next few weeks regarding school work, but it'll be just fine; I'm sure of it.

I got a permanent position with the credit union that employs me. My time here has been spent at many different branch, but starting the first week or so of December I'll be exclusively at the brand new branch in West Chester, PA--the home of my graduate program. Hooray!

Sorry this wasn't more exciting, I'll see you soon.

Crank dat Soulja Boy

Instead of spending time reading The Oresteia by Aeschylus (as translated by Ted Hughes, one of my favorite poets) for my mythology class on Monday, I just spent the last ten minutes learning the "Soulja Boy" dance as taught by Soulja Boy on youtube. My life choices are sometimes disturbing. You should probably learn it and we'll have a party. Then, instead of reading, I chose to write about my poor choices here. Let's see if we can do better in the next choice.

ride on the peace train

After having heard that song for the first time in a long time on Den's deck Labor Day Weekend, it's been stuck in my head off and on. The ladies here at work listen to the Remember the Titans soundtrack often so I hear it all the time. All that to say, I like the peace train. I figure, riding the peace train is better than riding the S.L.U.T anyway.

There's a lot in life that could get one down. I've been pretty bummed about the Jena 6, The War on Terror, government in general, and Matt Drudge. I think he's ruining my life. Though there is much bad in the world, I can take solace in the occasionally overwhelming good of people and God. I have many good friends nearby and I have a fantastic wife who always makes me feel better about life. The Buckeyes haven't lost yet this season and it's possible that they could end the regular season loss-less. To add to that joy, Notre Dame is win less and M*ch*gan is 1-2. Nearly everything in the world of NCAA football is going my way. If only the SEC would implode--that would be nice. O, the Cowboys are 2-0 while the Eagles are 0-2. Take that Philly. The Braves are on a surge (much like the troops but the only causalities are the occasionally beaned players) so sports in general are treating me well right now.

There is a lot of homework, but it's considerably more enjoyable than most of the work I had at Harding. It's all exactly what I want to do. I'm sorry that this post hasn't said anything substantial but I'm at work and I'm incredibly bored and I haven't posted in awhile and I realize that if I keep typing then you'll eventually stop paying attention. Welp, it's back to the world of money markets and saving accounts.

monotony

I'm nearly finished with my third week of my job as a bank (really, a credit union) teller. While I'm no institutional expert, I have a decent amount of confidence in my abilities as a teller. I was hoping this day would take a little longer to come because I fear that from now on, I'll be just a bit bored. I do, however, enjoy the people I work with--that makes the day easier. A huge plus for this job is that I am in front of a computer with internet access (though no facebook, xanga, e-mail, etc.) so between helping members (that's what our patrons are called because we are a credit union, not a bank) I can keep caught up on the news, see sports scores, and occasionally read wiki articles about Jacques Derrida in French. We were really slow last week at times.

Graduate school is better than I had hoped, especially considering that I'm only taking one class involving actual literature. I do believe my literature course, Mythology, will be my least liked of the three I'm taking. The other two are Pedagogies and Literacies and Introduction to the Profession of English Studies. In title they're a bit boring but I'm enjoying them. Hooray for higher learning.

Yesterday on West Chester's campus I missed Harding, really for the first time. It all happened because I passed a red-headed girl talking on a cell phone who looked enough like Alice-Anne to make me believe it was her. I nearly stopped to talk to her until I realized that AA lives in Mississippi--nowhere near the CBL.

I'm not sure that anyone has read this blog yet, and I'm mostly okay with that. If you are reading this, know that you're loved and most likely missed.