Thursday, May 26, 2011

Summer Goals

I feel that I haven't done one of these in a while and that I should so I have something to refer back to when I ask myself what I've actually accomplished over the summer.

1) Read

  • This is so simple it goes without saying. I have a stack of eleven books from the library to get through, four of them being "new" books. I aim to get through all of them, including the three I have on reserve that are slowly making their way towards me. Additionally, I have a reading list (eighteen books long, including works like Moby Dick, Robinson Crusoe, and Sorrows of Young Werther) for two of my upcoming fall courses that I want to try to partially work my way through to get a head start on the course material. And perhaps one or two other books that I've been meaning to get to for a while. In other words, who is probably going to have close to 70 books read by the end of the year?
  • Additionally, I've had a Harry Potter re-read on the horizon for a while and this seems like an appropriate summer to do so, especially because I've talked about the idea with Danielle. And the re-read won't be a part of my book count for the year. I only count new books.
2) Watch

  • Dexter: During the second spring break period my college had, I picked up season 1 of Dexter from the library, having read three of the five novels and always wanting to watch the show, but not being able to since we didn't get Showtime. I marathoned the season over a few days and immediately wanted more. I proceeded to check out seasons 2 and 4, watching the second season over the last week-ish, but waiting on season 4 until I could get my hands on season 3. After season 4, I aim to either wait until season 5 is on DVD, or I'll ask the glorious Internets for assistance.
  • Doctor Who: Believe it or not, I haven't seen all of Doctor Who. ... I mean New Who. I do aim to watch what I can of it and I've said it numerous times, but I have a friend with ALL of Classic Who, so yeah ... there's that. But back to New Who. I have most of series 1 to finish watching (5 to 7 episodes) and a smidge of series 2 to finish (2 to 3 episodes). And I'm so going to. Finally.
  • Movies: A bunch of classics and new films, like The Graduate, Apocalypse Now, and Transsiberian, among others. And perhaps some re-watches, too, like Dr. Strangelove, The Usual Suspects, and Fight Club.

3) Reorganize

  • Bookshelf: I seriously want more space on my bookshelf for books from college and other such things. I mean, to start, I can clean out or move my collection of Rolling Stone backissues ... and do something about all those photo albums and chachkas ...
  • Wall: My wall is a jumble of postcards, ticket stubs, posters, and other miscellaneous items from the last year or two. I have a bunch more posters and things I want up there, but to do that, there needs to be some reorganization. We'll see how things fare.
  • Notes: I've been wanting to do this for a while: type up my class notes. Why? So I don't have to worry about carrying around notes for a previous class in a spiral notebook. And to save paper and whatnot. Shouldn't take too long with my typing skills ... hopefully.

I'm sure there's more stuff to hit on, but those are the main categories I hope to work on over the summer, giving me something to do. I'll check back on these at the end of the summer.

Until next post. Allons-y, Alonso!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

It's Been About a Month ...

*coughcoughcough* So ... *shuffles around and dusts off keyboard* It's been a while ... I have a few reasons ... first, being the second spring break. I didn't do much work and indulged in some pleasure reading. When I came back from break, I was playing catch-up, mostly with Earth Abides for my Apocalyptic Lit class. The book was ... okay. It was slow ... and I wasn't really liking the narration style. The main character, Ish, thought to himself most of the time, he rushes into a relationship with an African American woman after the apocalypse, no moves are really made to try and restore civilization to a pre-apocalyptic way of life ... and he overpraises his bright son who dies of typhoid fever. Okay read, a bit over-hyped by the professor.
Apart from that, I was finishing up Vlog/Video Every Day in April and doing my best to keep up with the rest of my coursework, the remainder of my internship, and other goings-on on campus. And those things have taken time away from my internet social activities, like blogging and vlogging and such. I mean, Twitter and Dailybooth are relatively easy to keep up with, but I wanted to hold off on the time-intensive activities until I had time ... and that time is nearing.
The semester is almost at an end, thankfully. I handed in a roughly 8-pager yesterday and I'm finishing off 2 4-to-5 pagers for tomorrow, followed by a final tomorrow night, followed by station business, and one on Tuesday night, followed by ice cream with friends. And packing. Lots and lots of packing. Well, maybe minus one of those "lots", thanks to the fact that my parents took back about half of my stuff when they stopped in for lunch the weekend after the second break. Most of this round of packing is sheets and mattress-related materials, so they'll take up the most space.
*cracks knuckles* Well, I'd best better be getting back to the writing ... post-food, of course. See you all in a few days ... with a few more comics, hopefully. Not too much drawing improvement, but ... meh.

Until next time! Allons-y, Alonso!