I’m back (finally)
Okay, yes, Goyaboy has been long gone for a while. Thing is, it was for good reason. Sara and I did our Big Trip to Japan from late July to five days ago and between the run-up to the departure and the recovery afterwards, there simply has not been any free goyatime. Not that there is now either, for our fall semester begins in two weeks (actually, stuff starts earlier than that) and I’m in panic mode. Course material is more or less under control now, but there are extras that need attention (conference paper, dissertation to read for a defense, etc.). And, in addition to my two normal courses this fall (”Premodern Japan” and a first-year writing seminar on “Self and Cyborg in Japanese Animation”), I volunteered (don’t ask why) to serve as a “Faculty VUceptor” for the Vanderbilt Visions program, which consists of a once a week session discussing with the new students various issues, topics, problems that come along with transitioning into college. I know that sounds lamely vague, but it is. In any case, I’m just killing time now as I await Sara to finish her work for the night so that I can continue reading Neal Stephenson’s The Baroque Cycle aloud to her. We finished all 900+ pages of the first volume (Quicksilver) the day before leaving to Japan and have just started the next 900+ pages of volume two this week. It deserves an entire blog to itself (I’m sure many exist), but I will at least offer some thoughts on it in a future post. Suffice to say now that Mr. Stephenson is steadily surpassing Thomas Pynchon as my favorite author, which in my universe is blasphemy even to think let alone announce to the world.
Oh yeah, the Japan trip was fantastic too, and there are sure to be posts on it (with photos!) soon. I MUST make it a habit to write a little goyablog every (okay, at least every other) day….