Wednesday, July 18, 2007
I am dropping money left and right. It also comes from below. I consider all these expenditures a huge, beginning-of-the-school year binge. Granted, school begins a month from now, but I prefer to get a head start on everything.
Motor vehicle A 1989 Dodge Aries, donated by a couple who are moving to Florida. Minor repairs add to the cost, but the total cost is entirely mitigated by the relief from stress this purchase gives me. I place Adrian Hargrove high on my Tolerance Scale, but her driving will get me killed one day. I need to be my own chauffeur.
Laptop Every college student needs a laptop. I have felt entirely inadequate without one. There are vital programs (iTunes, Greek texts) I cannot download at the library. Plus, everyone at the coffee shop has one, even most of the old people. I can't let them win. Nevermind that they don't know we're in competition. I would have spent this afternoon teaching myself to set it up, but I need to wait until after I finish reading for an American government exam tomorrow. It has been pointed out to me that I might accomplish this last task the quicker for avoiding the computer, but I've never been productive a day in my life, and I certainly have no intent to begin now.
More books I'll never read
1. Allen and Greenough's New Latin Grammar, edited by James B. Greenough: A recommend for Latinists.
2. The Clown, a novel by Heinrich Böll. I read a couple of his short stories auf Deutsch in German class a year ago. Sehr gut.
3. Greek Grammar, edited by Herbert Weir Smyth. Dr. Lavigne would be cross with me if I were to appear for class without this text clutched possessively to my chest.
4. The Plague, by Albert Camus. I just read The Stranger and have fallen in love.
5. The Fall, by Albert Camus. It has to be good: how can it not, when the author has a last name with the final letter unpronounced?
6. The Myth of Sisyphus: And Other Essays, a collection of works by Albert Camus. Some time ago (perhaps a year or more), a friend of mine read a paper incorporating analysis of the title essay with another text. I forgot the other text, but I adore the Sisyphus myth.
7. The Sorrows of Young Werther, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. I could never consider myself any sort of German scholar without having read this.
8. A History of Greek Literature: From Homer to the Hellenistic Period, by
Albrecht Dihle. This was on the must-read list for a graduate program I was researching a few days ago. I need to familiarize myself with this sort of thing over the next few years, anyhow. Again, a head start.
9. The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy, edited by P. E. Easterling. I suspect the university library has a copy or two of this, but I would use it enough that I would prefer to have my own copy.
Musik
1. Oasis - "Familiar to Millions: Live At Wembley" with Dick Carruthers (the DVD). Over winter break, April introduced me to live Oasis, to which a man or two seems to have contributed his voice, as opposed to the nasal-toned images I have retained from my junior high-hood Oasis.
2. "Dangerous and Moving" by t.A.T.u. One of the TAs introduced me to this on a German Club excursion over a year ago. Two attractive Russian lesbians singing together... how could anyone deny the appeal?
3. "200 Km/H in the Wrong Lane" by t.A.T.u. I felt I needed a double-dose of this stuff. I own relatively few albums by female artists, anyway.
4. "Jagged Little Pill" by Alanis Morissette. I listened to this album everywhere and all the time when it came out. I was in the fifth grade. Between then and now, I haven't kept up with her music much, but thanks to the Last.fm application for my Facebook account, I have been reintroduced and consequently/fatally seduced.
5. "XO" by Elliott Smith. This album contains the first of his songs I ever heard (way back in junior high, again).
6. "Our Constant Concern" by Mates of State. The only band I have seen in Lubbock. Kimmy took me out to see them freshman year, and I actually had a decent time, in spite of my usual refusal ever to have a good time. But then, that's probably just Kimmy- she's a doll.
7. "Hittin the Hi Spots" by Joe Brown. I first heard him on the tribute album made in memory of George Harrison. He apparently played in Hamburg as the Beatles were starting out.
8. "21 #1 Hits: The Ultimate Collection" by Buck Owens. After listening to a few of the songs, I decided I had to have this. His version of "Johnny B. Goode" exceeds expectations.
9. "Modern Life Is Rubbish" by Blur. This group is another throwback to junior high: they had one hit I remembered, after which I have sought out and come to like other things.
10. "Blur" by... Blur. A shocker.
11. "The Wildest Organ in Town!/Club Meeting", apparently a combination of two hit albums by Billy Preston. He is as well an artist of whom I hadn't heard, until I listened to the George Harrison tribute. He covers several famous songs. What I heard, I liked. So I need this.
12. "Alanis Unplugged", a second necessary item featuring Alanis Morissette. I like the whininess.
Starbucks I have no excuse for spending $3.85 + tax on a frappuccino.
[Lauree Frances Keith concluded this diatribe at 4:28 PM]