Chapters

Finished “Lord Jim” by Joseph Conrad and Orchestrated a Long Awaited Howdy Hey Meet and Greet

I went home last weekend. What does that mean that “home” still means Illinois after 8 months in another state?

I brought my daily reading book “Lord Jim” by Joseph Conrad. (JC’s other famous work was “Heart of Darkness”; the book that Apocalypse Now drew from)

I thought it interesting that I finished this novel in conjunction with a formal meeting of Sonya’s parents with my father, here’s why:

Lord Jim is written as a captain recounts his experience with a young man (Jim) who captivated his interest.

Jim’s life:
Young man, enthralled with the idea of the ocean goes to officer school.
Always romantically imagining his someday exploits on the high seas.
Contents himself to his dreams when he is not the student who rescues a drowning classmate.

Later, working as a ship’s mate hits the defining point in his life: he abandons ship with the rest of the crew instead of trying to save the passengers aboard. After losing his license to work as a sailor or captain he rattles around the South Seas trying to avoid his past.

Redemption comes with an assignment as a trading post representative/quasi-governor of a remote native land. He becomes the romantic ideal that he holds himself and instead of living as a pariah he lives as a kind of father to the people- becoming one of them. They revere him.

And so the novel ends with his chance to take back what he stole from himself…

A long convoluted segue could be made here- but to makes things brief, my dad got that same chance in the eyes of my parents-in-law. Of course there was no tragic sacrifice, but if not water under the boat, then at least water under the bridge.

What are the American Troops in Iraq like?

I was thinking to myself the other night-

We’ve all seen the “War is hell” movies. We’ve all heard the reports of the various strange goings-on that invariably occur on the brink of total anarchy/chaos in Iraq today.

But what are the people in the US military forces really like?

Not Willem Dafoe, not Marlon Brando, not Tom Hanks no. These soldiers are less likely to drink whisky and smoke than they are to drink redbulls and play video games.

That stuck me as sort of funny. I don’t know if it’s better to have a world-worn, hard-hearted, gruff older guy or the red-cheeked Grand Theft Auto addict trying to help another country-

I read something refreshing recently, it was a powerpoint presentation of a former captain in the army working over there. His major point? We’re trying to fight the war the way the army is used to fighting. He suggested working with the culture instead of against it: grow mustaches and use local sheiks. Be a power-broker instead of a power-breaker.

That makes sense I think.

Ein Neues Auto-gehen-kaufen-essen-vehreingten-lassen

New Car Ya’lls!

It’s a beautiful old white benz. CHEEP. As in birds.

I’ll get some pics up soon…

WingNusse

What my life is like now-

The purpose of a blog no?

Sonya’s parents insist on me driving a car to work. They’re concerned about me getting crushed in traffic. So I’m looking for nice used car. And according to either the engineer in me or the man, I want a 23 year old diesel mercedes. Which means I get to get dirty, oily and curse in german- but for many years. It seems they have a reputation for being extraordinarily tough.

I haven’t decided if I’ll try to hop on the Veggie Gas bandwagon. Biodiesel should work with no mods, but there’s the alternative of running used vegetable oil as well… Do I want to spend 35 cents on gas but smell like fries or shrimp tempura? Would Sonya like to go on fryer dates where we drive from restaurant to restaurant sticking our faces into the grease traps?

People like to ask me about my work. I like to tell them that I’m satisfied. Right now I’m trying to decide if I should spend approx. $5000 and ~100 hours trying to build a little laser gun.

I really want to own a house with S. Then we could have a dog(s).

I’m going to C-U in about a week to finally introduce my Sonya’s parents to my father. I predict another sitcom type situation; my dad has partial hearing loss, my new parents speak excellent english but do have a remnant of an accent. Luckily he’s experienced at dealing with grad students from other countries and diverse accents. Unfortunately that doesn’t mean that they’ll have anything to talk about.

I’ll be keeping Sonya abreast of the situation with urgent text-messaging.

Yoga has been fun. S and I have been going to our gym (1 block away) and taking yoga classes. 2 classes. One of the teachers likes to praise the planet and heal the ocean with our collective breath. That makes us giggle since he sounds like Mr. Garrison from South Park. “M’kay? This breath is for the planet m’kay. Now think of all the little fishes m’kay.”

Our Tomato plants are still making tomatoes in January. I wonder when they’ll stop.