Friday Film Quiz

I feel like the previous FFQ was a little too easy. When you have multiple people saying, "I know what it is but I'm not saying," then I know I've gone too soft. So here's something a little tougher. I'll give a few hints: it's in black and white, it's considered one of the first of its kind, and it features at least one quote (not this one) that is still part of the popular vernacular. Good luck.

"When a man's partner is killed, he's supposed to do something about it. It doesn't make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you're supposed to do something about it. And it happens we're in the detective business. Well, when one of your organization gets killed, it's bad business to let the killer get away with it, bad all around, bad for every detective everywhere."

The Calm Before the Storm

Next week is the last full week of regular class for this semester. Finals will be after that but most of my work begins on the last day of classes when I collect everyone's big assignments. For the moment, I only have a few creative writing assignments I need to read and grade. Other than that, things are quiet work-wise.

It feels good to have the foreign language exam off my back. It clears the way to focus just on my prospectus and dissertation. Admittedly, the feedback I received from my committee earlier this month dealt a real blow to my confidence but I'm feeling better now, more clear-minded and ready to tackle this thing and get something workable written.

I'm taking the summer off to write and it's a weird feeling. I haven't taken a summer off since high school. I would say it feels indulgent, but it doesn't. It's not as though I'm going to lay around in a bathrobe and eat bon-bons while watching Oprah. I'm going work five days a week, reading and writing. I haven't decided if I'll be doing it at home or at my office here at the school. Our office at home is in the sun room which has lots of natural light, nice views of the yard, and our cool new IKEA desk/shelf combo. The only problem with it is that it has a door that leads to the rest of the house - a house with TVs, kids to play with, and a wife to help. When it comes to working at home, I have the attention span of a goldfish. (I'm surprised by the plastic castle every time.) A particular problem is Miss Parker. If I'm in the sun room and she's in the kitchen, she comes up to the gate we block the door with and screams, drools, flirts, jabbers, and does everything short of clinking a metal cup along the bars. She's like a force of nature. Trying to ignore her and keep working is like saying, "I'm going to keep reading while this tsunami washes around me. It will be fine." Doesn't work.

The problem with working at the school is kind of the polar opposite. I'm not at home to help. Maryn and Avery will be at home along with Miss P and that's a lot for one parent to handle solo. If I'm off at the school, I have fewer distractions but I'm also somewhat isolated from my family who may need me. Yes, I leave for six or seven hours each day now but summer is a whole different bird. Three daughters running around, the older two fighting and bickering over stupid stuff, the younger one doing her Mussolini impression, is a lot.

So we'll see what works out. It may be that Suzanne wants me to go to the school regardless. She's apprehensive about me taking the summer off because, frankly, she doesn't relish the idea of me being around all the time. I think it's that retirement anxiety people go through - your partner has been at work for 8 hours a day for the last forty years and now, all of a sudden, they're going to be in your house, in your face all day every day? I think she likes me okay but she doesn't like the idea of me being at at the house all day.

Speaking of Suzy, this Friday is her 37th birthday. Be sure to wish her well via facebook.

In other news, I hope to have my second issue of IVCC's literary journal, River Currents, out and on the proverbial newsstands before graduation. The student designer should be sending the file to the printer today. Fingers crossed. It took all last summer for the first issue to come out and I don't want a repeat of that freaking TRUCUS (three-ring circus). We shall see.

In the last three weeks, I've been asked to be on the hiring committee for the new head librarian this summer, to participate in an AWP panel about student publications at two-year schools next year, to serve on the board of the Association for Mormon Letters, and to present a paper at the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association conference in Scottsdale, AZ next October. Suddenly, I'm popular.

The semester is coming to an end. I'm glad.

Briefly Then

Last Friday I missed the Film Quiz because I was in a room on the fourth floor of the Manoogian Building at Wayne State University translating a section of El Amor En Los Tiempos Del Cholera into English. Through hard work and a stroke of dumb luck, I pounded that sucker out and was done in about three hours. I won't know officially if I've passed for a couple of weeks but there isn't any doubt in my mind that I did pass. The section I was given to translate was exactly the section I had already translated on my own AND had reread that morning over breakfast. So I'm grateful to be able to say that I rocked that bad boy. One more PhD-related hoop successfully jumped through.

Due to our computer being a big piece of suck, I still do not have the Admiral's fabulous prize. I'll get to it. But here's Suzy's:




He seems to be saying, "Why hello there, Suzy. My name is Hugh. You're turning 37, you say? You don't look a day over 24. Why do I glisten like this, you ask? I always glisten around pretty girls such as yourself. Would you like me to hook up your VCR or repair your Internet connection? Those are just some of the services I provide."

Who knows? Maybe Admiral Brad would like this as his prize too?

Friday Film Quiz

Here comes a slow pitch right down the middle. If you have won in the last three weeks, please let the other kids have a turn.

"Not that I condone fascism, or any -ism for that matter. -Ism's in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an -ism, he should believe in himself. I quote John Lennon, 'I don't believe in Beatles, I just believe in me.' Good point there. After all, he was the walrus. I could be the walrus. I'd still have to bum rides off people."

Random Updates and Rants

Our computer failed once again this week. It's in the computer hospital, hopefully undergoing some permanent reconstructive surgery that will remove whatever board or chip that makes it suck so bad. As a consequence of said crappy computer, the Admiral's fabulous prize will have to wait for next week. It'll be a doozy.

The quiz is still on for tomorrow though so be on the lookout.

Does anyone else besides me watch Justified?

Lazy, unmotivated, flat-out dumb students make me crabby. Why does it take an assignment due date coming and going for them to say to themselves, "Hmmm, I might need some help here"? Why not before the assignment is due? Why not well-before it's due? If they put half the energy they put into begging for extensions into just doing the work in the first place, they'd be terrific students.

I think obscure, esoteric Facebook updates are obnoxious. They are the digital equivalent of dressing all in black and prominently displaying your Moleskine notebook while wearing horn-rimmed glasses while sitting at the fair-trade-only vegan coffee shop while reading a copy of The Stranger. It's like begging someone to point out how fascinating and mysterious you are.

Clearly, I'm feeling a little ranty. Maybe I should get back to grading papers.