in Life's name and for Life's sake

Day one • a song
Day two • a picture
Day three • a book
Day four • a site
Day five • a youtube clip
Day six • a quote
Day seven • whatever tickles your fancy



Illustration of Jane and Mr. Rochester after the proposal scene in Volume II, Chapter VIII. Engraved by Fritz Eichenberg. Reproduced from the 1943 Random House edition of Jane Eyre.

For those of you who have seen the film Definitely Maybe, this edition of Jane Eyre is the one that April's father has inscribed to her before his death, the one which she is constantly looking for. But before it had a starring role in this movie (which I really like and think you should probably watch if you haven't), it had a starring role on my bookshelf. I found it for $2 at the Mission Viejo Library bookstore and was so surprised with my good luck that I almost couldn't believe it.

I love black-and-white engravings. And the engravings in this edition of Jane Eyre so appropriately reproduce the intensity, the emotion, and the gothic character of the novel. When I think of this scene in the book, I inevitably think back to this illustration. You can't see their faces, their backs are turned, but they shelter in each other, and the curves of their bodies are echoed in the curves of the trees. This image foreshadows what is to come just as well as Bronte's narrative does. And it's just so beautiful. I feel like all illustrations should be like this.

If you want to see more illustrations, you can check out this short article about the book, posted by someone else who owned it and loved it before watching Definitely Maybe.

I've got a lot of disjointed thoughts that I'm trying to manage in the hour before tutoring starts and I start earning money. In some kind of organization, then.

I heard back from the study abroad office, and I'm 99% guaranteed to be attending Queen Mary University of London. I'm incredibly looking forward to going abroad, and incredibly nervous, though not for the things that I should be nervous about -- mostly about how I'll deal with it snowing in the winter, and how my folks will handle an empty nest, and other unimportant details. Oh, and perhaps how I will eat. But that, too, is not such a big deal. All I know is, it's gonna be crazy and it's gonna be scary and it's gonna be good.

I don't have very much homework to do this weekend, which makes me feel very strange... There is nothing for me to be frantically working on, and that is not a common feeling! But I don't have any major due dates until after spring break, which is very nice and only slightly eerie.

In other news, we have yet another personal-soul-searching journal prompt from my creative writing professor: we're supposed to write about the one time we were totally and completely wrong. My response to this is summed up best by the response made by one of my classmates: "Professor Farber, anything I turn in will have to be fiction!" Not that I've never done anything wrong. But I can't believe I've ever been completely, one-hundred-percent, this-really-matters-and-you-screwed-up wrong. I take great pains not to be that kind of wrong. And if I had ever been that kind of wrong, I can promise you I wouldn't be telling Farber about it.

I'm really frustrated that we don't get to write about fictional characters in these journal entries; I kind of want to talk with him about it, but I don't think he likes me very much, and I think I've snarked my last snark (out loud, that is) about the journal topics.

If anyone knows of a time when I have been particularly wrong, please tell me. I am currently and honestly at a loss.

Also, I don't know what form he wants these "journals" to take. I write mine mostly as prose ramblings (much like this one) but all the other people I've seen write theirs as scenes in which they are characters. I don't know, that just doesn't do it for me. We're allowed to write about ourselves in the first person now, but even that doesn't alleviate my larger complain about these journals. This is a fiction class. Why aren't we allowed to write fiction??

In other news, we're starting to read Paradise Lost (Milton's epic poem about Genesis. Yes, you did just hear me right) in my Milton class and I'm pretty excited. It's part of what prompted me to write the story about the Satan that I'm still mulling over. Right now my problem is that I need to find the character that the Satan would not want to test -- the person who'd make the devil throw his hands up in the air and say, "Enough already! God, why do I have to keep testing this guy's faith? Isn't it pathetically obvious he believes?" I have this vague desire to set the story in New York City without ever having traveled there, and with very little knowledge about the place. Because I can see this Satan hanging out in NYC. Maybe the person that he's tempting is just a regular kid -- but in my head, when I picture that scenario the devil becomes the Lone Power and the kid becomes Kit Rodriguez from Diane Duane's Young Wizards books (which rock so many socks it's impossible to explain or describe).

(Over an hour later, after being distracted by a conversation and by having to go to work...)

So while walking to work I had this idea that chinchillas needed to end up in this story, but then I had this horrible idea that the boy that the Satan is trying to tempt has a chinchilla, and the Satan KILLS IT! And I almost have to die for thinking that. But now I have a strange image of the boy being a smaller boy (which I don't want to do, because not that I've read The Book of Joby, nor do I intend to before writing this story, but the kid in that story is younger I think) who looks like Kit but for some reason has Star Wars bedsheets and a pet chinchilla that gets killed by the Satan. GAH.

In other news, here are some pretty pictures of how I picture my Satan. Because he's a not-so-shameless rip-off of Diane Duane's Lone Power, except not really. I think my Satan looks kind of like if you could mix Satan from Paradise Lost and the Lone One from Young Wizards (come to think about it, on some days that's how I consider my ideal fictional religion -- a cross between Milton's and Duane's perceptions of their various fictional worlds...this does not make me more of a geek or anything, of course not).

I should probably go do my job now.

Something I didn't have time to mention in my previous quickpost: I have a new computer!

Well. Not quite a computer. The technical term is "netbook" or "subnotebook." I wanted something ultraportable that I could use for taking notes in class and writing when I don't want to lug my actual laptop all over the place. I know, I know, I'm completely spoiled. But I did work this summer, and I did earn money, and I made the decision that I didn't need another computer, and I bought it anyway.

For anyone who cares, my subnotebook is an Asus Eee 900, the 16GB model. He weighs in at a little over 2 lbs, has a 8.9" widescreen, and is the closest a computer can come to being called cute. His name is Artemis, after a certain fictional teenage supergenius created by the brilliant Eoin Colfer.

( And here are some of Arty's baby pictures. )

So far the only "problem" I have encountered is that it's slightly slow to get started and it doesn't run super-fast, but considering that I paid $450 for it and it only has 1GB RAM, I'm alright with that. Also, the battery monitor is strange and appears to only note charge in increments of ten...and it never makes its way all the way up to 100%, even when I leave it on the charger overnight. However, I knew going in that the battery meter was slightly bugged, so at least I was warned1 Overall, it's a nice little gadget, provided that you use it only for the things it was made for: surfing the 'net and word processing. Which is, of course, all that I ever use the average computer for anyway.

Well, the Powers that Be have decided that I won't be giving a speech at graduation. Oh well. It just means I won't be paying attention.

However, these Powers do seem to have some good things planned for my life, because I got my housing assignment for Berkeley and it turns out that I've been given my first choice for housing! I'll be staying on the Clark Kerr campus in a double room in a suite. Not only does this mean that I only have to share a bathroom with three other people, and we get a lounge space and rather large rooms, but the campus itself is gorgeous. Mission-style architecture in some places, really green. And there's a pool and tennis courts (!) and a gourmet dining hall right on-campus. 


Gorgeous, huh?  It doesn't look like it belongs in Berkeley.  The thing I didn't like about Berkeley the first time I saw it was that it wasn't exactly the prettiest campus.  That's partially what drew me to Stanford -- there's no denying that it's absolutely gorgeous.  But Clark Kerr is starting to look like my Stanford at Berkeley.  And I think it's a good thing.

In other news: prom today!  I'm excited, mostly because I get to wear a gorgeous dress.

Oh -- and, on the subject of gorgeous dresses, I have officially found my wedding dress.  This one designer was asked by Disney to design a series of wedding gowns based on six of the original Disney princesses, and the Belle gown is basically to die for.  I want to get married in this.


View all the dresses here: https://licensing.disney.com/Home/display.jsp?contentId=dcp_home_pressroom_presskits_disney_weddings_kirstie_kelly_041507&forPrint=false&language=en&preview=false&region=0

See you all at prom!

So, I just installed the software allowing me to upload the pictures from my one camera on to the computer, and I thought I'd post a few.  This camera doesn't have many of the pictures since it's not as good as the other one, but it has a few.

Also, this computer's still working on dial-up internet, so it might be a while before I can upload some of the pics.  (I'm actually working on uploading one right now and it's taking forever, which is why I'm rambling on like this...)

Well, while the pictures load, I might as well do something interesting. 

( Pictures here )