Thoughts and Musings of an StD

I have also decided to keep a running tally of awesome books.  These are books that I either have, or will at some point have in my personal library.  Hopefully I can even find fancy hard-cover editions to make them look pretty. :)  Parenthetical ones I haven't quite read yet, but will shortly do so.

Foundation Series - Isaac Asimov:

Foundation
Foundation and Empire
Second Foundation
Foundation's Edge
Foundation and Earth
Prelude to Foundation
Forward the Foundation

Ender Series - Orson Scott Card

Ender's Game
Speaker for the Dead
Xenocide
Children of the Mind
Ender's Shadow
Shadow of the Hegemon
(Shadow Puppets)
(Shadow of the Giant)

Hitchhiker's Guide Series - Douglas Adams

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Life, the Universe, and Everything
So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish
Mostly Harmless

Rama Series - Arthur C. Clarke

Rendezvous with Rama
Rama II
The Garden of Rama
Rama Revealed

Thats it for this listing.  I will add more to this list as I think of more.  While these are all Science Fiction Texts, my library won't be limited to that.   Its just what I was able to think of right now. :)

I am stealing this from Donna's LJ because it amuses me.  Please feel free to steal it yourself and see how 'cultured you are'. :)

Its interesting too, because alot of these are books that I know the plot of, the characters, etc, because their prevalence in society, and their reuse as archetypes in stories has given them entry into the lexicon, whether they've been read or not.  Alot of these books as well are books that I've read excerpts of, either for class, or online for whatever reason.  I am also adding 2 more categories, just for fun.  One is for books that you know, even if you haven't read them, and you understand the point and major characters.  One is for books that you've seen the movie to.  Its not comparable, but it will be interesting as it will show the pervasiveness of Hollywood on our literary experience.

"'The Big Read' reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed."

1) Bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) ^ next to books you have read summaries / excerpts from that you feel you know most of.
5) ** next to books that you have seen a movie of :)
6) # next to books you've seen in theater (plays / musicals)

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
**2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
**5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
**21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
**25 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
**^29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
**36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
**40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
**42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
**46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
**52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
**61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
**^65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
^70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
^71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
**72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
#73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
^75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
**81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
^89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
**97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
**99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo


Its also interesting to me the books that are missing from this list.  There is no Jules Verne at all, which is ludicrous.  Les Mis is on there, but the Hunchback is not, which is odd as it is much more established in the public mind than Les Mis is.   Harry Potter is up there, but Farenheit 451 is not.   3 Separate Jane Austen works, and no Hemmingway?  I guess I just have my own interpretations of what should be the classics, so I'm surprised which books are more commonly printed.  By this company anyways.

At least 19 out of 100 is better than 6 out of 100 :).

This past weekend, went on a trip to Panama City Beach with 6 of my brothers. It was very good times. We went down their Thursday night and stayed until Sunday midday. Spent time swimming in the ocean (well, the gulf anyways :) ), and got to hang out with cool people. I think my favorite part of the trip though, was that the group we had down there wasn't a intra-frat clique like so many things can be.

I know a lot of chapters have the cliquing problem, and ours is the same. Within the larger group, people find others that they are more comfortable with, and know better, and those are the people that hang out the most. Many times this is due to proximity; e.g. people who live together tend to clique up; thus, my clique is mostly people that live at the Crater and the AnneXXX, and the people that come hang out at these two houses.

On this trip, though, Vince and I were the only two people from my normal group. It was fun getting to hang out with other brothers that I don't see all that often and hang out with socially even less. Huzzah!

Anyways... now that the trip is over, its time to jump back into my daily life and actually get some work done. Laters!

This past weekend, I got to see my brother graduate from Sequoyah HS. This is a good thing, though I truly hope he learns that he has far to go before he is able to stand on his own. He'll make it though. I also got to meet his girlfriend for the first time. She seems nice enough, so thats good for him.

At the graduation though, the valedictorian, who clearly is intelligent enough, was a little tool. His valedictory address was essentially... "y'all made fun of me, but now i have an achievement, and I am going to pretend it doesn't mean anything, because then it makes me seem modest". He was one of those little douches that come into Tech, or wherever, and believe they are smarter than everyone, who hasn't yet come to the realization that he's not as special as his mom tells him he is.

It was enlightening, because I remember having many of the same feelings as this kid. I had been ridiculed at one moment, and then asked for help the next. It was annoying, but in hindsight, was exacerbated by a built in persecution complex. Those of us that weren't cool developed this idea that everyone else hated us, and got bitter about it. Even things that shouldn't have been seen as derogatory became thus. Seeing this kid speak just helped clarify the changes that one goes through in college, and how ridiculously unprepared I was coming out of high school for the realities of the world. It was intriguing, and made all the more so by the realization that many people leaving high school go straight into the work force, or have children, etc. Thats just crazy! :)

On a different note, another of my line is getting married! Hooray! That makes at least one third of the line. I haven't talked to a couple of them in a long time, so I don't know if they are or not :). Meanwhile... for now, I am still single :(. Oh well! It amuses me how that bothers me some days and others I don't care. Right now, I don't care... life is too short to worry about it :). Later I might feel differently, but I have coffee and am being productive (except for this post), so I don't care.

Anyways... I'm gonna work some more... hooray productivity! :)

Laters!

So lately, particularly the last week or so, I have felt so ridiculously... empty. Like a shell walking around, going through motions, interacting with people... but lacking any substance.

And as a result of feeling so empty, I guess I just feel superfluous and unneeded. I don't feel like I am even necessary to myself, so how could I be needed anywhere? I dunno if that makes sense, but its how I feel right now.

I just want to drive away, because I honestly don't think I have it in me right now to care about anything or anybody.

Well, life keeps moving. Its strange to think that I haven't posted at all in almost a year. It used to be something I did on a semi-regular basis. Somewhere in there I guess I just decided that a web posting wasn't a great place to put my inner thoughts. Maybe I was wrong in that. Maybe not. Right now it seems like a decent place. If any of you actually read this, which might be pushin two or three people, here's what is goin on:

Last night, went to a symphonic band concert, which was the last concert that Dr. Strauss would be conducting at as our symphonic band conductor. Kinda sad to see her go after 16 years here. It brought to mind to me though that I have been here for a good half of that. That makes me sad. I want to get the hell out of here now more than ever and move on with my life. I feel like Van Wilder, but without the crazy parties or irrelevant course load.

After the concert, went to city cafe and had some coffee, which was good times, but i think they messed up the coffee, because I woke up today feeling pretty ill. Hopefully it will pass reasonably quickly. It's interesting though, the coffee conversation has gotten me all introspective, and then I had an AIM conversation later last night that made me analyze myself even more. Its a thoughtful ponderance that I haven't experienced much lately, as most of my intellectual and emotional energy over the last few months has been spent on useless activities it seems.

Tonight there is a concessions gig at the GT Baseball game for Psi, which I am looking forward to. I haven't been able to participate in them at all this year thanks to GAC, but now that it is over, I get to watch some more Tech Baseball, which is always fun.

Speaking of... my team and I organized and ran Get-A-Clue this year. It was trying, but I think it went off relatively well. We attained our major objectives:
1. Have a well organized game
2. Have no broken clues
3. Have unique, clever clues
4. Not have to run it again next year (sorry Team Apathy)
Not everyone is happy with the game of course, but we did what we could, and I am happy with it. :)

As far as Psi goes, I am about to finish my term as Alumni Secretary. I originally decided I didn't want to do it again, and if someone else wants it, they can do it, but I think I've come to the realization that I wouldn't really mind doing it again. We had a really fun little candidate/alumni/active outing to a mini-golf course last weekend. It wasn't as well attended as I would have liked, since only 25% of the candidates showed up, but, as there were only 4 alumni anyways, I'll get over it. :)
If I don't do Alumni Secretary next year, I think I won't do any position, and that sounds equally fun :).

We had a good Concert Band program this year. I loved getting to play the songs we had:
Green Bushes - Grainger (I don't really like this one)
Prelude, Siciliano, and Rondo - Arnold (This was alot of fun)
October - Whittaker (holy crap rox my face off)
Carmina Burana - Orff (holy crap awesome)

Unfortunately, my chops left me about halfway through movement 12 of Carmina, and I had a dissappointing lack of ability to finish Carmina strongly, which makes me sad, and dissappointed in myself for not building my chops up appropriately over the semester to handle it. I are lame.

Anyways, this was a long post, but I think it is good for me to write this stuff down again... at the very least makes me analyze what it is I am doing with my life :)

Time to get back to work. Laters!

So yeah, my RAZR is lame. I do not like it. I dropped it once, and it got a little screwey, but after a day or two, resovled itself. That was at the Honda Battle Of The Bands Pre-Party. Now, without me having done ANYTHING, it just decided to start crapping out last week. The screen doesn't always come on, or sometimes it comes on all white, and flashes, and stays on all the time, and uses battery life, adn the buttons don't always work, and overall it was lame.

Luckily, T-Mobile rocks my face off. I have been with them for 4.5 years, and have loved the service. Whenever I have had problems, they have sent me a replacement phone quickly, and have always treated me very well. This time, I told them it was being lame, so I talked to some dude at the replacement office, and they sent me a new phone of a different model! Now I have a new Samsung t629, and it looks pretty sweet. Hopefully it won't be all lame too.

On another note, I have been elected as Alumni Secretary for the next year. That should be a fun new challenge. I am looking forward to getting to know some new people.

It used to be that I got something out of posting. I would be able to get my thoughts down, get occasional feedback, and be content with that. Now though, I don't think I am any longer getting anything out of posting to this journal.

This may change later, but I just don't care anymore about this journal. Apathy has set in so much right now in everything. I don't care about almost anything. I don't care about school. I don't care about band (right now, but that will change). I don't really even care about the frat right now. I still care about the people in my life, but nothing else really. If everything disappeared, and I was left to really do what I want, I would be grateful to the universe for letting me. I need a change. Maybe its just a case of senioritis that has grown for 3 years now into full-on, hardcore, senior-plague.

Whatever. I won't likely be posting for a while... at least not until I find something to care about.

Something I have always wondered about is what causes emotional shifts in people. Why are we such erratic beings? I can be happy one moment, sad the next, angry the next, and all with little to know change in external stimuli. Its part of human nature (certainly part of "depressed-college-student" nature, anyways), but I really don't know why.

Lately I have really been missing the past. I find myself longing for things that have long ago passed on. I miss freshman year. I miss that group of friends, our social environment, eating dinner every night with a bunch of friends, going bowling every friday, etc. I miss high school (kinda). I miss the friends that I left behind (all 4 of them or so). I don't know when it happened really, but somewhere along the line we stopped talking or hanging out or anything. One of my clique from high school got married, and that is awesome. I wasn't invited, or even informed of it, and found out about it through Facebook, and that is not awesome. I am not too concerned I wasn't invited (as I said, we have drifted apart), but to not even be told "Hey I am getting married"... it doesn't make me mad, but when did everything I knew back then become THAT far away.

I think this latest reflection is based on the fact that I recently had lunch with a good friend from HS (and someone I have known since like 6th grade), and I guess that brought on the nostalgia.

Now my life is still fine, superficially. I still have my family, my fraternity, and my work. I still have good friends, but even in some of those cases, people drift apart. I am not as close to some of them as I was even a year and a half ago. Last winter I was close friends with alot of people that I hardly ever even talk to now... what happened with that? When did it happen? Why? Did I change in some way that I don't realize? Did they? I feel like I am adrift at sea, with lots of people coming nearby briefly and then floating away. I suppose it is a natural turn of events, but I need an anchor. That person that is with you while the rest of the world changes around you. I need someone to enliven the spirit and brighten the day. All things in their proper time though... I just hope I haven't watched too many anchors float by while occupied staring at the fish. (And I think I have officially beaten this metaphor into the ground, and will therefore stop).

Anyways. I have to go learn about Fusion Plasma Physics. Yay! :)

Well, the break so far has been meh. The first weekend was fun as hell. The next week, I spent most of it bouncing emails back and forth with my advisor to try and finalize my submission to the NSE journal. Christmas was good. I like getting to see my family every now and again, and this was no different. It amazes me how much my dad and I are alike at times. We spent like 20 minutes talking about work stuff and I was like... wow... weird. HAHA.

Then came the week of BAND. Last thursday and friday, I played at basketball games, then came the bowl trip (more below), then came 3 MORE Basketball games. I am so tired of playing my horn it is sickening, and now I get to practice for concert band auditions... haha. Now I am getting back into the swing of work (and I think there will be poker tonight, which is good :)).

BOWL TRIP:

The bowl trip had about 6 hrs of good times... maybe. The Adventure Landing extravaganzza on night one was cool, though the pizza they fed us was beyond crap (and I worked at domino's). Mini-golf was fun, though primarily due to the company, and not actually it being mini-golf... lol. New Year's Eve was fairly entertaining. We went to the beach area, and i had dinner with some cool people at this little carribean place that made tasty food and 'beverage'. Then we wandered around a little, and ended up on the beach. Eventually we made our way to the carribean place's bar on the 2nd floor, and had some more beverage and toasted the new year... followed immediately by headed back to the bus that was leavin at 12:15. All told, about 6 hrs of entertainment total between the 2 nights, and everything else about the trip was crap (for me anyways).

Somewhere along the way, I just got tired of being herded around like sheep. Having 30 minutes to feed 350 people, having 45 minutes to give us our uniforms, having 2 full rehearsals, a parade, 2 pep rallies, and the game, and 12 hrs of bus ride to and from J-ville, all in 3 days. I am sorry, but I prefer bowl games where I have a chance to actually relax. I understand why all that was necessary, but it just seemed like there was a bunch of practice and performances, with attempts at entertainment crammed in wherever they could fit it. Thats fine and dandy, but it isn't all that entertaining. Maybe I just got used to trips where there was alot of down time, and then the occasional thing jammed in. Maybe if it was a day or two longer I would have had more fun with it. Maybe if it wasn't the same place as a month ago, it wouldn't have seemed so crappy. Maybe if we hadn't had such a crappy football schedule this year, I wouldn't have been so burned out already. Maybe I am just over the full band thing. Either way, I am glad to be back in the ATL, and lookin forward to see how far our boys can get in the NCAA tourney this year.