This week and the past I've been reading Edward P. Jones's All Aunt Hagar's Children. He wrote a novel called The Known World, which won the Pulitzer a few years ago. That one took place in the South during slavery but centered on the plantation of a black slave owner, and that by itself gave it an incredible nuance and complexity. His new book is ( Read more... )

"The human being has two purposes in life: one is to develop his or her creative expression to the utmost, and the other is to put that in the service of something greater than him- or herself. The teaching of Sufism seeks to remind us what is worth surrendering to. We are always serving something or someone. So what do we serve? Is it that tyrant ( Read more... )

got an appointment to come see an apartment for rent tonight, but i think i'm going to cancel. i've already seen it once but the girl who i'd be sharing with wanted me to come over with my cat, to see if she and her cats will kill each other. i am not really looking forward to going across town on the bus with a cat. and i'd have to miss dance. and ( Read more... )

It was snowing today, so much snow supposedly that we got a weather alarm. Trains ran at a reduced schedule, classes were cancelled, people rushed home early, etc. etc. It was totally overkill. I work at one of the busiest intersections in town, and the only traffic jams I saw were at 3 pm when everyone was trying to avoid being stuck in traffic ( Read more... )

LAYER ONE: Spell your name with band names

E- Embrace
L- Led Zeppelin
M- The Magic Numbers
A- Autechre

LAYER TWO:
-- Name: Elma
-- Birth date: June 26 1980
-- Nickname: Elmahead, Elmie, kiddo
-- Current Location: The office
-- Eye Color: Darkish blue
-- Hair Color: Not sure what you'd call it. Blonde, but not Barbie so much as kinda golden

LAYER THREE:
-- The ( Read more... )

Reply to this post, and I'll tell you at least one reason why I like you. Then put this in your own journal, and spread the love.

A major storm today: 120 km/hr gusts of wind, and an urgent warning to stay indoors. Compared to this one, those storms that VSU closed down for for a week are nothing! By mid-afternoon, I was done teaching and tried to catch the bus to my other job on the other side of town. But halfway there, the driver announced a crane had fallen onto a ( Read more... )

This is the third day I've been at home sick, and honestly I'm kind of enjoying it. I have all the good symptoms of being sick and none of the particularly painful or uncomfortable ones. I remember after the infamous vodka night last year, I was sick as a dog the whole next day, and if I had to go through three days of that I would want to die. ( Read more... )

1) Was 2006 a good year for you? It was pretty difficult at times, but generally I enjoyed it.

2) What was your favorite moment of the year? in Florida, standing in this hotel that was built out of driftwood and looking over the ocean.

3) What was your least favorite moment of the year? Sitting in the airport lounge, waiting for my flight to board, ( Read more... )

Hi all, I am at the point of desperation about my internet and need some advice from the geeks among you...

What could cause a wireless network to continually DISCONNECT, RECONNECT, DISCONNECT, RECONNECT, repeat to infinity?

I would like to fix this before the people on my msn list kill me for signing in and out all the time.

I have not discovered any ( Read more... )