PTSD

starting from ants, leading up to meese

I should really be grading but don't have much desire to do so. So, for your entertainment and mine, go have a look at the Encyclopedia of Life.

Thanks, Dr. W. Should be a fun project. Why can't I work on something like that instead of blathering on about terrorists?

Or, combine the two: "Himalayas found to be home to 200-ft ants. Potential sources of global terror"

Right. Obviously, I shouldn't be let off to write anything until I regain some modicum of sanity.

Also, if yous live in Washington, there's an event on the Mall yous might be interested in. Apparently kids get to ride in an F-16. Too bad I'm not a kid since adult activities ("search through thousands of job options") seem dreadfully dull by comparison.

I'm not too sure about the "Virtual Army Experience" either. It's described as "a computer game rendered with state-of-the-art Army training simulation technology... with action-packed scenes featuring combat soldiers."

Don't we call that the daily news these days?

On a slightly cheerier note, I was asked this question a few days ago and was rather amused to find, after a quick Google search, that loads of people had already had similar questions and attempted to answer them.

Keeping in mind that my questioner was a friend of one of my students and hence of a younger generation than myself and just started off on the world of learning (presumably. I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt), here are some I would add (from the past few months):

I enjoyed*

Albion by a bunch of people (maybe a bit too postcolonial for an Amercican undergrad though its intro, praising the oddities of the world, is worth reading)

Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness by Bryan Lee O'Malley (rather "emo" in bits but then which comic isn't? It's also laugh-out-loud funny in other parts)

American-born Chinese by Gene Yang (We are living in a multicultural world. Not really)

Tintin. One can't go wrong with Tintin. I am still saving up to buy the hardcover sets so I can have a collection here to keep me company throughout times of mental strife. Like now.

Guy DeLisle's books. Nonfiction (I think?)

I haven't read 100 Bullets (on request list at the library) or Ex Machina but would like to get around to them eventually. I'd provide more of a list (and links!) but deadlines for grade submission and other stuff are looming about right now, looking for all the world as though they were gigantic (and yet, right now, rather shy) meese** and shuffling their feet, looking slightly out of place in my living room.

I dread to think what will happen if I don't get my stuff in on time. They don't seem like the sort to be patient.


* All acquired through my local public library. As far as I'm concerned, the public library system's the best thing about America.

** Mooses, I know. But doesn't Meese sound better?

Labels: (imaginary?) meese, dr. wilson (not the House-kind), encyclopedia of life, the Mall (the big green one)

posted by Priya @ 1:50 PM