Vacation is zipping past but I’m making the most of it… or maybe the least of it would be more accurate. I’d planned to use this time to get ahead on reading and to do some writing, which is still the plan, but I’ve found the most miraculous thing: Grand Theft Auto 4‘s online multiplayer mode. Holy cow, finally something that makes me want to subscribe to Xbox Live.

I’m using my dad’s free Xbox Live account he got when he purchased the console, and I’d been helping him and Amy through the beginning missions of GTA 4. Now it’s turned into a fight, where all of us take turns slowly walking past the den doorway, seeing if the Xbox is free. Amy’s a seasoned GTA player having beat Vice City back on the PlayStation 2, but my pop is having… let’s call them “challenges” with some of the basics—primarily walking and driving, but let’s not get into aiming the gun or running from the cops.

I’ve done a little reading, getting about 50 pages deep into Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon and another 50 pages into Magic Realism: The Remystification of Narrative. Compared to running over a complete stranger with a bus or nuking them with a rocket launcher, reading feels like work.

More importantly I’ve been figuring out my teaching plan for the upcoming semester. I’m planning on using Jeffrey Ford’s excellent short story “The Honeyed Knot” as part of the curriculum. Last semester, students read “What You Know” by Peter Ho Davies, which is also a semi-autobiographical work of fiction whose protagonist is a writing instructor, and both deal with the mysterious process of writing. I need to rewrite the lessons (students who failed 101 in the fall generally take it again in the spring and therefore need new materials) but I think students will find that Ford’s story holds up under multiple rereads, as that’s what this part of the assignment sequence is after.

We head back over the weekend. Not looking forward to resuming our regular programming.

Current Mood: Vacation! |