2007-09-25, 09:24 AM — BAM! kicking me up a notch
Holy hell, school is taking it to me. It's insane. There is so much to do. And now I'm sick, of course.
I'm still enjoying the actual content, though. The paper I wrote for yesterday wasn't one of my most brilliant efforts, but I think it was better than the nothing I've done for a couple of years. The paper I wrote for today was much, much better. I think it was just a matter of remembering how to write. For school, that is.
It has meant that I have done nothing at all outside of school and KWFN stuff and I'm starting to feel that familiar crankiness. Also, the dishes are going to wash me, and I think something is building a fort on my desk. The plants are going to walk off and search for their own water soon -- the ones that haven't died. The fish tank filter is broken and I haven't fixed it, although everyone is still alive thanks to the magic of (aquatic) plants.
What I would really like to do, but will not be able to until... well, tomorrow at the earliest, is curl up and watch like, ten episodes of Inuyasha, and maybe play some video games. I don't want to read anything, not even something fun. I have been reading my brains out and now they are feverish.
2007-09-11, 09:19 AM — MLIS this way
Interesting how now that I've started thinking about library and information issues (which were previously barely on my radar) I find this sort of article far more fascinating than I used to. It's only been two days of classes and already I'm starting to look upon access to information in an entirely different way. For example, I think the US Gov't's actions in the above article are not only a massive waste of government funds and time (big surprise) but also impinging upon what I now realize should be a very basic right.
The amazing thing is that after two days, I'm aware, in a very real sense, of an entire sphere of human activity that I was only vaguely aware of before. It makes me wonder if people like me have no idea that library and information science is as ubiquitous as it is, what do people who have never had an interest in libraries think?
I was worried I was going to find this degree boring. There's no chance of that, I'm afraid. I'm actually going to start thinking deep thoughts again... in as much as I ever have...
2007-09-08, 11:39 PM — Madeleine L'Engle
Madeleine L'Engle has died.
This is actually a rather momentous occasion for me, in that "A Wrinkle in Time" was one of the first novels I ever read, and certainly one of the most memorable. I still have a copy of it floating around somewhere, and I love it.
But to be honest, it was "A Ring of Endless Light" that has always meant more to me. I picked up a copy of it second hand somewhere, I don't even remember where anymore. And I have read it so many times at this point that I have parts of it memorized. It used to be that I wouldn't go anywhere -- anywhere -- without it. It was my travelling book. I only stopped doing that a couple of years ago, when my copy started to fall apart.
The first time I read it I was almost Vicky's age (the lead character) and so it spoke to me for that reason. She was grappling with big things, and in some ways I was Vicky and in some ways I wished I was Vicky. I really, really empathized with her. As I got older, I felt for her, but things were different for me. Now it was the poetry in the book, and the luminous quality of the hope that L'Engle expressed in the book that really hit home.
I think I need to read it again, really. The hope that I used to get from it has sort of diminshed over the years, and I need a little help, I think.
Let's put it this way. I'm not a religious person. I'm not sure what I believe in, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't fall into any particular religious category. But I think that L'Engle's view of religion, or Vicky's perhaps, has been closest to my heart for a number of years. She is one of the few authors I am able to read without flinching when she mentions anything religious at all. I even really enjoyed "Many Waters" which is one of the more Bible-related books I've ever read.
Anyway. I'm not sure she got it right, or even more right than anyone else. But I like her light-filled interpretation of the world and I am sorry she's gone.