Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Verily
I eat my peas with honey.
I've done it all my life.
It makes the peas taste funny,
but it keeps them on my knife.
Hello!
The plea
"Diasporatic, alas, is dead. The only person who is still subscribed to it is Sarah Stuntz. She is also the only person who has posted anything on it with any kind of regularity. God bless her for that. BUT I AM NOT DAUNTED! I would like to try this again. I have started a new blog which I hope can be a sort of forum for us. I am determined to bring this group of friends into the 21st century. I will not ask you all to get Twitter accounts, but please subscribe to this blog and contribute whenever you can!
I think the failure of Diasporatic might have been that we set the bar too high for what is worthy of posting. I would like this new blog to be far less formal. You needn't write an essay (although feel free to do so!) You dont have to be sharing monumental, life-changing news in order to post. Rather, please feel free to post about anything and everything! Read an interesting article? Post a link and tell the group what you think! We will discuss it! Heard a particularly entertaining new song or seen a funny youtube video? Throw it up there and let everyone enjoy it together! And if you ever feel like writing an essay, God bless you - please do!
I think this can work. I believe this because as a group we are in more-or-less constant gmail communication as it is. If we can channel some portion of those email exchanges through this blog instead, we will achieve certain advantages. Chiefly, it creates a far more permanent record of our interaction as a group. Emails are transient. They disappear from our minds as soon as they are pushed off our home screen by newer messages. For reasons which I will enumerate in future posts, I have become very conscious of the importance of preserving communications between friends and loved ones. Friendships are precious, and whenever friends take the time to sit down and write to each other, no matter how briefly, it is a monumental act. Interactions which seem trivial in the moment become priceless when preserved and read later. I am hoping that this blog can help us create a more-or-less permanent record of our collective discourse. I know you guys are busy, but this is important! Trust me!"
I think the failure of Diasporatic might have been that we set the bar too high for what is worthy of posting. I would like this new blog to be far less formal. You needn't write an essay (although feel free to do so!) You dont have to be sharing monumental, life-changing news in order to post. Rather, please feel free to post about anything and everything! Read an interesting article? Post a link and tell the group what you think! We will discuss it! Heard a particularly entertaining new song or seen a funny youtube video? Throw it up there and let everyone enjoy it together! And if you ever feel like writing an essay, God bless you - please do!
I think this can work. I believe this because as a group we are in more-or-less constant gmail communication as it is. If we can channel some portion of those email exchanges through this blog instead, we will achieve certain advantages. Chiefly, it creates a far more permanent record of our interaction as a group. Emails are transient. They disappear from our minds as soon as they are pushed off our home screen by newer messages. For reasons which I will enumerate in future posts, I have become very conscious of the importance of preserving communications between friends and loved ones. Friendships are precious, and whenever friends take the time to sit down and write to each other, no matter how briefly, it is a monumental act. Interactions which seem trivial in the moment become priceless when preserved and read later. I am hoping that this blog can help us create a more-or-less permanent record of our collective discourse. I know you guys are busy, but this is important! Trust me!"
A new trick
Is it possible to be a "diary person" despite having never regularly kept a diary? I may not have succeeded, but I've had at least a couple compelling failures.
In December 1993, I bought a one-year diary. It had 365 pages (marked Jan 1, Jan 2, etc.), and I was excited to fill them all.* By most accounts, this effort was a failure. Within a year, fewer than twenty pages were touched. I accepted the failure, but refused to accept that the irregularity of my entries condemned the diary. 16 years later, I'm still filling it in. Nothing more ambitious than a few entries a year, but it's become valuable to me.
I appreciated Diasporatic; the name, the people, the shared history. What I really loved about it was that, for a time, the blog represented the commitment to stay close as our lives diverge. Some of you are better about communication than I am, but I was born an old dog. New tricks come slowly, and the fact that I posted on a blog at all was huge first step.
Apparently, Diasporatic is dead. I don't suppose that I did much to help. I haven't written an entry in eight months, and haven't actually posted one in twice that time. If you've been unfortunate enough to subscribe to these posts, thanks for your willingness to read and my apologies for not actually writing anything. Now that it's officially dead, however, I miss it. So I'm going to give this new communal blog a whirl. Follow if you will.
Best,
Amar
*For you film buffs, my first entry ("bye bye 1993") was a review of one of the great movies of our time: Beethoven 2.
In December 1993, I bought a one-year diary. It had 365 pages (marked Jan 1, Jan 2, etc.), and I was excited to fill them all.* By most accounts, this effort was a failure. Within a year, fewer than twenty pages were touched. I accepted the failure, but refused to accept that the irregularity of my entries condemned the diary. 16 years later, I'm still filling it in. Nothing more ambitious than a few entries a year, but it's become valuable to me.
I appreciated Diasporatic; the name, the people, the shared history. What I really loved about it was that, for a time, the blog represented the commitment to stay close as our lives diverge. Some of you are better about communication than I am, but I was born an old dog. New tricks come slowly, and the fact that I posted on a blog at all was huge first step.
Apparently, Diasporatic is dead. I don't suppose that I did much to help. I haven't written an entry in eight months, and haven't actually posted one in twice that time. If you've been unfortunate enough to subscribe to these posts, thanks for your willingness to read and my apologies for not actually writing anything. Now that it's officially dead, however, I miss it. So I'm going to give this new communal blog a whirl. Follow if you will.
Best,
Amar
*For you film buffs, my first entry ("bye bye 1993") was a review of one of the great movies of our time: Beethoven 2.
Hi, Everyone!
Come on in! Make yourselves at home! I will be posting a couple of things shortly, but in the meantime, pull up a chair, get settled in, have a scotch and relax. Kick your shoes off, you are among friends!
Friday, June 26, 2009
I'm incredibly fond of northern Jersey
There really isn’t a feeling quite like leaving New York. I’m on a bus right now heading home. I’m not the homesick type, but it always feels so good to go home. I’m sure there are many reasons why (see friends, see family, get away from work), but I think a decent part is just getting to live a life different from the day-to-day routine you’ve established. What I mean to say is that even though there are loads of problems and sources of stress in your day-to-day life, it’s incredibly refreshing to realize that there are alternate lives you could be leading where those things wouldn’t matter at all. I guess it just puts everything in perspective.
Anyway, I apologize if I haven’t ever really said much in detail about work – where to begin? Let’s try the bullet point format:
- I keep really busy and work long hours (but I’m used to it now, so no worries)
- Due to bullet point 1, I’ve gotten used to a loootttt less sleep than I got back in school; however, I still suffer from TV/movie-induced narcolepsy
- Starting work in the finance industry when I did was a crazy experience, but I’ve learned an absurd amount and I think in the end it’ll be a good thing
- I’m starting to get a lot more responsibility for a lot of new, different things
- Remember when I said I wasn’t doing it for the money? Well, I think this last year proved it. So ha!
I think that’s it for now, I’ll keep it short. Except one word of advice: Dean R. and I went to see a pre-screening of Transformers and it blew chunks. Don’t waste your money or time.
GREAT summer reading!
In case any of you are beaching it and looking for a summer read that is fun and fabulous but still has some literary merit :), let me please recommend as strongly as I can..
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.
It is technically a young adult novel but I devoured it in a night. I laughed, I cried, I decided to make all of my rising 8th graders read it over the summer. It seriously is one of the most lovely books I've ever read (especially that's written from the perspective of a teenage boy).
And just in case my recommendation doesn't carry enough weight with you :), a committee of parents in Chicago recently formed to try to ban this book from the public schools. Book won--but how's a little controversy for a recommendation??
Also, today is officially my last day EVER of being a first-year teacher. EVER. Very exciting.
Happy summer!
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.
It is technically a young adult novel but I devoured it in a night. I laughed, I cried, I decided to make all of my rising 8th graders read it over the summer. It seriously is one of the most lovely books I've ever read (especially that's written from the perspective of a teenage boy).
And just in case my recommendation doesn't carry enough weight with you :), a committee of parents in Chicago recently formed to try to ban this book from the public schools. Book won--but how's a little controversy for a recommendation??
Also, today is officially my last day EVER of being a first-year teacher. EVER. Very exciting.
Happy summer!
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