My life is a joke

For my second summer graduate course, I'm taking an online class about technology in the classroom.  Assignment one?  Create a blog!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA this is why my life is a joke.

I am being forced to keep a blog -- although it seems like we are only required to blog twice, which seems a little odd -- and I find that f*cking hilarious.  I suppose if I was graded on this blog, I'd actually update more than once every 4 months.  Or I'd fail.  That's always an option (regardless of what I'm forced to tell students).  Perhaps, though, I will update that blog more often than just the 2 required posts, but probably not.  Is it strange that my only problem with the blog assignment is that I have to use WordPress (which is fine, but I prefer blogger) AND that I have to title it SLM508LAB?  Honestly, I hate the blog only because of the name.  It's the course tag and my initials, just in case you were dying to know.  How boring and awful is that name?  I am just so vain.  (I probably think this blog is about me)

All that aside, as much as I complain about grad school, I finally feel like something will be worthwhile.  Looking at the syllabus is terrifying because I feel like she's trying to squeeze in every type of technology possible into an 8 week class, but as I skimmed it, I saw things that should be interesting.  I finally activated my Google Reader account, and I can't wait to see the Digital Storytelling resources, but some of it bugs me.  I have to use Twitter, for instance, and I gave up on twitter because it pissed me off too much.  I also hate that I have to make multiple accounts for essentially the same things I already use for this class.  I need a new Flickr account, a new GoodReads account, and probably others, but I'm too lazy to go through everything just to complain.

Basically, my life is insane until I leave for Italy.  REMINDER: Tell you professor you are going to Italy and need to finish assignments a few days early!

In other news, I am teaching as a fake long-term-sub at my old high school for a woman out on bedrest through the end of the year.  The good news is she may take maternity leave at the beginning of the next school year, so if all the thousands of jobs for English teachers fall through (sarcasm at its finest) that might be something I at least get an interview for.  I also spent 4 days reading as a sub for the librarian at a high school and as an English teacher who was just proctoring exams (so sad).  I tore through 4 books in 4 days, and it feels really great to cross a few more books off the list.

This is me in Chicago, excited about books.  Also, it totally says "Cock Dancing" behind me.

I picked up 8 books at a used book sale a few weeks back.  One of the local public libraries was selling books for a dollar, and as a sucker for cheap literature, I made a U-Turn and went in.  Okay, if you want to get literal, it was a horribly executed K-turn, but still.  The physical turning around did happen.  I bought 5 books from my list, and 3 others that will eventually go on a shelf in the hypothetical future classroom.  I can honestly say that I loved the 4 I read, and The Reader is rumored to be excellent, as well.

I don't know or remember who recommended these books for my list, but THANK YOU.

• The Alchemist (this is already on my mom's summer list, mostly because I told her she had no choice)
• The Hours
• Wide Sargasso Sea (Don't lie to me and say you recommended it; I just thought about it, and realized it was one of the originals because of my love for Jane Eyre)
• Bastard out of Carolina

I'll do some individual comments on these later, since this post is already MUCH longer than I normally make you suffer through, but they were each magnificent, and if you read them, we can chat about them :)

"Stupid people are dangerous."

You might recall my earlier posting about Suzanne Collins' trilogy, The Hunger Games, which you can check out here.  I had to read the book for my grad class last semester, and I tore through it, and then tore through the other two.  I loved the books.  Seriously, I LOVE THE BOOKS.  I have a soft spot for Young Adult lit, and I even have a soft spot for crappy YA lit, but these books made me feel like I was discovering Harry Potter all over again.  I love Harry Potter more, but I now had a new world of characters to discover and get to know.

Yes, I am one of those weirdos who feels like book characters and authors are my besties.  I cried a little bit when Maurice Sendak died (that post will come at a later point) because, growing up, I felt like we were buddies.  I don't feel that way about Suzanne Collins -- sorry, ma'am -- but the characters she created?  Man, I wish I could hang out with some of them.

Well, let me rephrase that.  I'd like to hang out with them in my world.  I don't want to live in Panem.  That place totally sucks.

So it's been 2 months since the film came out, and I still have not seen the movie.  This wasn't an HP movie, so I didn't feel the need to do a midnight showing, but I still really wanted to see the film.  My parents saw it last week, so I convinced Anthony that we're going today.  And in 4 hours, I'll FINALLY be seeing the movie I've been excited about since they announced the plans to make the film.

I'm not sure what it is about books into movies, but I seem to put off seeing the films (Again, Harry Potter is a weird exception, and it has its own set of rules, so don't question me) because I have this underlying fear that they'll ruin the book.  Most of the time, they do.

I also have an issue with people who see movie series based on books -- or even single films -- and claim that makes reading the book a non-issue.  Are you kidding me?  Stupid people are dangerous.  Thank you, Collins, for agreeing with me on that point.  I was always appalled when students told me they'd "watched the movie instead."  How can you possibly expect to get the same out of a film?  Granted, I've used films in classes; when reading The Secret Life of Bees, for example, we watched segments of the film instead of reading them in class, but that was partly a timing issue and partly a 'none-of-these-damn-kids-read' issue.  I do think some film versions of books are amazing -- I love showing To Kill A Mockingbird -- but for the most part, films are watered-down versions of amazing stories.

Think about how many people saw The Help, but wouldn't ever pick up the book.  Or, for my fellow readers, have you ever run into someone who told you they saw a movie, and when you say 'oh, did you read the book?' they respond with 'that was a book?'

Stupid people are dangerous.

I understand reading is difficult for some people.  Trust me, I teach middle and high schoolers.  I get it.  But to tell me a book is more boring than the movie?  That's just laziness.  My boyfriend is one of those people.  It's a point of contention with us, but I suppose I'm used to it by now.  I like to buy books for him, just to see what he'll do with them, but for the most part the one just sits on the back of his toilet.  Books are never more boring than movies, it's just hard for people to get pictures from the words.  A movie cuts out all the work, but is that the best way to go about it?

There's something to be said about reading the books first.  I'll let you know how I feel about the movie.

A Passage to India

I suppose at this point it shouldn't shock me to log in and see the last time I posted.  ALMOST TWO MONTHS AGO?  How could I let it get this bad?

Truthfully, I feel bad -- not for any of my 'readers' who have since given up on my actually completing this project -- but, selfishly enough, for myself and my horrific lack of motivation.  I find that the more effort I put into things, the less I get out of it.  It's really a downer.  I apply for job after job, day after day, and I either hear nothing back or, true story, I get an interview and a job offer and somehow STILL end up without a job.  Much like Voldemort, that will be the job-interview-that-must-not-be-mentioned.

I really have to remind myself that this blog -- and most other things in my life -- are for me.  They aren't for anyone else.  Yes, I love to write and I love to share, but this blog is for me.  I started it during a rather low part of my life, and much has changed since then.  One day I will go back and reread some of these posts and think to myself 'wow, you were really insane.'  Then I'll remind myself of the goal for this blog, and think 'okay, okay, you had some decent insights back then.  And,' I'll hopefully think to myself, 'you've come a long way.'

Or, I might just delete the whole thing in embarrassment.

The point is I'm trying to stop beating myself up for the little things.  This is a side project, something fun, and although I wish I was updating more often, I'm not going to freak out anymore over 1 month, or even 2.

Right now, I'm reading A Passage to India by E. M. Forster.  It's a slow process because I only really pick it up during prep periods while subbing, but it's excellent.  It's also the last book on the syllabus for my grad class that ended on April 30th.  I didn't finish the book for our last class because I was too busy finishing my research paper on James Joyce.  I got a basic summary from a classmate, so I know how the book ends and I knew the major climax in the story... but for some reason, I really felt the need to keep reading.  It might be because it came after some very painful  Brit novels -- after not reading Tarr and becoming disgusted with Joyce, it was much easier to read -- but the book is written so well and so subtly that I couldn't put it down.

Once I finish the book, I might watch the movie.  Who knows?  I still haven't seen The Hunger Games, but I made Anthony promise to see it with me this weekend.  I'll probably put off watching the movie like I do everything else, but in 2 months, I'll let you guys know.

ps - I'm also halfway through A Doll's House.  My summer class is all drama, so I'm going to be reading the Greek classics up through modernism.  And he gives reading quizzes, so I won't be skipping any :)