The world of academia in Literature

"Daaaang" was the first thing out of my mouth after I read two articles about the most recent (I think?) edition of Ulysses by James Joyce. There are so many editions, so many different versions, with seemingly minor changes (that really change the way it's read), that it seems that one could argue for and against any of the editions.

However, in this case, the condemner has a pretty solid argument and rips the 19841986 edition apart. There are references to shoddy work, sloppiness, lack of scholarship, improper research, and all sorts of general and specific insults that point to the lack of quality and thus, the lack of intelligence in the people who undertook this project. And he's horrifically mean about it.

The people try at some kind of retort, but he responds with a story that's worse because there's wordplay that spits on how badly they bungled Ulysses. I can't say it's petty though I can see it going down that road, but geesh, no punches were pulled!

The world of literature academics is kind of scary! Oh, we'll see where this all goes...

The perks of going to a private graduate institution

Lots of free stuff: those cool highlighters that have liquid ink, a usb that was attached to our name tags, post-it notes! (those things are gold!!), the obligatory pens, free events (with meals!), crazy supportive staff and faculty, and the list continues...

If I was one of those power blogger people, I'd probably illustrate my point with pictures and all of that but it's really too troublesome. I just know that I'm benefiting from my education (though really those little free perks are built into the tuition....). But hey, I'll take it. :)

Oh, moving.

Unpacking for me is like a treasure hunt. I open up one of these chests in hopes to find gold and precious jewels in the form of kitchen goods and useful items.

It just goes to show how awesome of a packing job I did. Hahaha. At least it keeps things interesting for me.

Hello! It feels like it's been a while

Transitions transitions.

I don't have anything interesting to say except that transitions make a person busy. Moving/settling into a different country/becoming "fully" independent makes one quite busy.

Excited for changes.

Ack, but there's so much to do.

The right thing at the right time

Ever make lists of goals that you hope to keep? This can be in the form of New Year's resolutions, mid-year crisis (oh no! I haven't kept any of my New Year's resolutions!), turning point in various eras of one's life (end of high school/beginning of college, end of college, end of a career, the turning point of a career, retirement, etc.), and so on and so forth. Have you ever looked back at those goals (stumbling across the list years later) to realize (with horror) that nothing has changed?

That happened to me when I graduated college. I looked at a list I made when I graduate high school and realized that I didn't get better or become a better person. I had gotten worse. I had obtained some nasty habits, forgotten a lot of good ones, and in general had become a person that I wasn't proud of. Granted, I wasn't living a destructive lifestyle in the sense that I wasn't hurting anyone (myself included) but I also wasn't living an active life (physically, mentally, and emotionally). It's the kind of stasis that comes from coasting and I realized that I had wanted more from myself and I had hoped to gain much more in college. I don't mean to say that I didn't gain anything in college because I learned a lot (in obvious ways) and I definitely enjoyed the college experience. However, from a self-developmental point of view, nothing changed and I had only gotten worse.

I think somewhere along the line after that I realized that I needed to be more active about the person I wanted to be. If I want to change, I can't keep thinking "Oh, I'll do it tomorrow." because in the end, I'm putting off the person I want to become and when that happens, well, I'll simply continue to be unhappy or dissatisfied with the current me.

There's always that balance that one must have between bettering oneself and being happy with who one is because in constantly trying to improve oneself, there's almost an inherent thought that the current self is not good enough and thus needs improvement. I think I went through cycles of self-deprecation and contentment with my self for quite some time until I realized the two are not as closely connected as one thinks.

At any rate, I could get into this huge long (wordy and to be honest, boring) testimonial about how I changed my way of thinking but the point is this: I recently came across another one of my lists and realized that of the 3 things I listed, I had accomplished (more or less) two. To be (somewhat) active in changing myself, I had progressed.

Life is supposed to be an active engagement of the self with not only the world but with oneself in constantly encouraging to better oneself and the environment around oneself. It may not always happen, but with effort comes results.

Honesty in one's self-assessment

I like vague titles, but I realized, what ends up happening is the titles of my blogs end up being the same or being similar, despite being about completely different things.

But perhaps I will stick to the vagueness. We'll see.

I think that one thing I find refreshing, and endearing in a way, is when a person makes a somewhat negative self-assessment of themselves that shows self-awareness in a way that perhaps other people are less willing to acknowledge.

For example, someone who takes home work every night, thinking they'll get some work done, is fooling themselves if they never get any work done. (That someone is me). However, when facing reality, you acknowledge that you do or don't do whatever you think you won't or will do (respectively) and suddenly, life becomes more manageable.

I dunno, I suppose it's a roundabout way of saying that I kind of understand myself now, and I like it when other people do the same. And in the end, when we accept the reality that is who we are, I think it becomes easier to better oneself. "Know thyself" is apparently as old as ancient Greek (via Wikipedia, a questionable source) and perhaps it has survived with reason...

I am interesting, if only to me

But sometimes, I look at my old stuff (whether it's blog entries, old poems I've attempted, starts of stories) and sometimes, I wonder what the heck I was thinking.

Could this be the fabled foolishness of youth that one sees as one ages?!