Monday, July 28, 2008

rambling thoughts of a spent mind...

i'm tired. nix that. i'm EXHAUSTED. teaching is incredibly hard work (although i think that's mostly because of the grades i'm teaching). due to all this very hard work and slightly insane schedule i have neglected my poor blog.

so here i sit, utterly exhausted, with the cursor mocking me and my inability to think of anything interesting to write. so i'll just ramble on about the things that are on my mind:

1) the dark knight was pretty much awesome. i'm not going to call it the best movie i've ever seen--probably not even in my top 10--but it was thoroughly good. i know that it's rather blasphemous to express any negative comments about this nation-wide hit, but let's face it, there were parts that could have been better. christian bale--awesome. heath ledger--incredible. aaron eckhart--eww. seriously, couldn't they have cast someone who can, oh, i don't know, ACT? now, not knowing anything about the comic book and even less about why there are two series of batman movies now, i'm a far cry from an expert on batman or comic book movies. maybe there's supposed to be one actor who acts as a foil for all the other amazing ones. or maybe they just should have cast someone better.

2) so i'm in the third book of philip pullman's golden compass series and i'm a bit perplexed. i remember that there was an enormous hoopla surrounding the movie being anti-christian. yeah, i've read the books now. i see it. pullman vaguely hints at it in "compass," teases you with it in "knife," and beats you over the head with it in "spyglass." however, i do not think that the religious zealots who boycotted the movie took the time to actually, say, read the book. yes--there is talk of destroying the "authority" (presumed by all to be god). but, if someone who reads it has even of inkling of literary training they should be able to recognize a deeper allegory running throughout. i haven't worked it all out yet, but i know it's there. and i'm tired of telling people what i'm reading and getting the following response: "isn't that guy an atheist?". so what. i have my own mind and beliefs, and contrary to the opinions of some of my friends, i am capable of forming my own thoughts about things and not being brainwashed.

not since my first reading of spenser's faerie queene (from which the name duessa comes) have i been this intrigued and puzzled by a text.

3) i'm beginning to get really nervous about the fall. i've never not gone back to school before, and it feels really foreign and scary.

so there you go. my random thoughts of the evening. feels good to get it all out--even if in a horrifically illogical manner.

Sunday, July 6, 2008

the great fishing adventure.

because my dad and i work so hard, i decided to treat us to a special fishing trip. we hired a bass guide and went to the lake saturday to fish our hearts out. 

we meet up with our guide and he tells me to put my purse in one of the compartments on the boat. i do so and think nothing of it. i finally make it onto the very wobbly, low to the water boat and we take off. i’m not going to lie. i was freaking out. the only boat i’ve ever been on was a huge deep sea fishing boat in galveston—i’m not used to bass boats. it seemed very small.

nevertheless, we take off and i finally realize that i’m not going to fly off the boat and die, so i start having a lot of fun. we stop in the first of many fishing spots, and the water is really choppy. there’s this lovely breeze and we’re pulling fish in, and i’m thinking nothing of the water that’s occasionally sloshing over the back of the boat.

a word on the actual fishing: insanity. i have never thrown my hook in the water and pulled up two fish before. until now. we were pulling fish in left and right. sometimes all three of us had a double hook at the same time. when this happened, it was like fish pandemonium. i’m holding onto my rod with two sand bass while over my should appears my dad’s and he almost smacks me in the face with his fish—also bass. then the guide, while pulling my fish off the line, gets a huge hit and pulls in a giant catfish which promptly flops around right near my foot. eww. i loathe catfish.

the fishing was nothing short of brilliant.

after catching more fish than i could keep track of, we decide to head in for the day. we pull up to the fish cleaning station where our incredible guide is going to fillet and pack up our fish for us. we take a few pics of the load (we ended up with 25 regulation size sandies and 3 catfish) and i go to call gabe to tell him when to meet us for lunch.


duh-duh-duhn!

the “waterproof” compartment that i had trusted my purse to was full of water! everything in my purse—destroyed. here’s the complete list of carnage:
· my cell phone (and all the pics and contact info in it)
· my dad’s cell phone
· my dad’s camera
· my mp3 player
· my checkbook
· the book I was reading
· several other miscellaneous odds and ends


because of the carnage, i was unable to get a hold of gabe, and had to pretty much stand him up. (you see, i don’t actually remember any numbers—my phone does that for me) my dad and i think that his camera and my mp3 player might work after they dry out completely. with the money we paid the guide, the cost of the new cell phones, and the new book, our 28 bring-home fish cost about $16 per fish. but well worth the price if you ask me.

we had so much fun. tim, the fishing guide, was incredible. he was a really nice guy, kept us directly over the fish, showed us some cool new techniques that i can’t wait to try out on my own, and did all the work for us. i never had to touch a fish if i didn’t want to. if you ever plan on hiring a bass guide on lake ray roberts you should totally check him out—http://www.reelinrayroberts.com/