8:15 PM:

Mo has an entry up in which she disputes the assertion that poetry can't be critiqued. Not that she needs any backup on this -- frankly, I think the claim is absurd on its face -- but I just thought I'd excerpt a paragraph from the introductory portion of the syllabus I wrote last semester; the syllabus for the course I would have taught next year if I hadn't been dropped from the Ph.D. program. We were given free reign to assign any sort of readings we wanted; in my case, the results were as follows:

Like all sections of English 124, this course has two goals: to teach you about writing -- especially the sort of writing you'll need to do here at the university -- and to teach you about literature. The literature we'll being focusing on will be poetry, because if you really want to understand how to use the English language -- how to strip it down, shuffle the pieces, and put it back together again, while blindfolded -- poetry is the place to go. The popular belief that "poetic license" allows poets to break any language rules they want couldn't be further from the truth; nowhere are the rules more vital, and more productive, than in poetry. The two goals of the course can be restated like this, then: to help you understand the workings of poetry, and to use this understanding to improve your prose writing.

10:37 AM:

Friday Five:

1. Do you like talking on the phone? Why or why not?
   Yes. Because it takes place in real time, and you can hear the other person's voice. I'm auditory-oriented, after all.
2. Who is the last person you talked to on the phone?
   "Professor J."
3. About how many telephones do you have at home?
   About one. In the living room. I used to have a second in the bedroom, but it broke.
4. Have you encountered anyone who has really bad phone manners? What happened?
   Telemarketers, mostly. And I've eventually hung up.
5. Would you rather pick up the phone and call someone or write them an e-mail or a letter? Why or why not?
   Depends on the case. Letters are pretty much out; I think the last time I wrote to somebody on paper was when I was in Israel, several years ago. Well, postcards excepted, but that seems a fair exception. Otherwise, sometimes e-mail, sometimes IM, sometimes phone. On the one hand, the phone definitely has a certain human element that the others lack. On the other hand, I find some things much easier to type about than to talk about, and that can be very useful, too. So... it all depends.

Okay, so let's try to catch up on what's been going on with my life. In three words: not terribly much. No word yet from the grad schools I applied to, and I haven't gotten any further on the job search.

I have, however, gotten cable Internet access, which may explain why I've hardly left the apartment since. There was this offer, see, in which service was $19.99 a month for three months, plus setup fee and $3/month cable modem rental, and I figured it'd be worth it, and that I could decide what to do after that when the time arose. I'm not gonna be here all that long after that anyway.

I don't think I'm gonna be able to go back to dialup, though. I'm actually surfing the Web with graphics turned on all the time now! I can download the entire Malory version of Morte Darthur in a matter of moments! I can spend entire days chatting with Erin on AIM while futzing with Web design stuff in the background! It just rules.

Otherwise, I'm finally catching up on the TV shows I taped while I was away, particularly Buffy; I've been way behind. Unfortunately, I discovered that, on a couple of the weeks that I taped it, the show was preempted locally by a Pistons game. The first such time turned out to be a rerun, but the second was not. And there was much wailing, as I wondered whether my usual source still had the episode, lo, three weeks after the fact.

And then, when I awoke a few hours later, it hit me that, duh, I have a cable modem. And, not to say anything may might upset the nice intellectual property lawyers who are even now spidering this site (I'm not making that up, by the way), but let's just say that I've now seen the episode. (The "bidet of evil" line? Classic.) And then I watched the next one on tape. Five down in the past few days; two to go. After that, perhaps I can think about getting started on the Angel backlog, which is more than a season long at this point.

In other news, the booklog should be ready to roll very soon. In addition to the obvious purpose of keeping track of my reading, I'm also using this as an opportunity to give Moveable Type a spin. (Installation of the thing is notoriously the hard part, so I've been letting my sister handle it. This has gone so well that I can whole-heartedly recommend this method to everybody. Well, everybody who has a sister.) It's gonna be fun, and there are additional surprises in store. Stay tuned.

12:01 PM:

Behind on updates. Busy working on exciting addition to site behind scenes, not to mention cleaning couch off. V. sorry. In meantime, check out Camelot Very Secret Diaries. Esp. Excalibur's Scabbard. Trust me.

7:59 AM:

I'm a fan of Jon Carroll, I've been reading his column online for years, and it's certainly not that I'm a fan of Ashcroft, but today's column? That was just tasteless. Not so much for the concept per se -- I'd be the last person to object to the use of parody to make a point -- but for the implication that Mr. Rogers was some sort of liberal icon, opposed by -- and in opposition to -- conservatives. Which is ridiculous, and, with the man's body barely in the grave, really staggeringly disrespectful.

Bad form, Mr. Carroll.