A few quick observations and comments to post today, while it’s still Easter…
First, on the topic of Easter, apparently good Catholics (and probably most good Christians) do not share my amusement at the notion of Christianity as qualifying as a kick-ass religion due to its central figure being a member of the undead. Cheerily wishing my Catholic girlfriend a “Happy Zombie Jesus Day!” this morning didn’t go over so well, and my attempt to improve matters by further detailing Easter as the day “Zombie Jesus rose from the grave to devour the brains of the Jews”, well, didn’t. Oh, well. Me, I prefer to believe that Jesus and God both have a great sense of humor. Proof: the platypus. ‘Nuff said.
Second, I didn’t accomplish nearly enough on the thesis front today, in large part due to my spending most of the day chowing down on Easter candy and watching movies. In the last 24-hours-and-change I’ve watched Eragon, Flushed Away, bits of The Big Lebowski and, my favorite of the lot, The Good Shepherd in its two-hours-and-forty-five-minute entirety. The back of the DVD box advertises The Good Shepherd as being The Godfather of spy movies, and it may very well be right. I thought it was fantastic, and I’m now more impressed than ever by Matt Damon as an actor. While I thought his turn in The Bourne Supremacy was fairly wooden, his take on CIA co-founder Edward Wilson was wooden in a good way, bringing the character a kind of firm stoicism yet still showing just enough of a struggle just underneath the surface to qualify as a brilliant performance. Well done, sir, well done. I also spent part of the day looking at books about houses and sketching up possibilities for a house of my own, which has become something of a hobby in and of itself in the last year or two. I blame my mom, whose life has been taken over by a similar hobby in the same timeframe. Unlike Mom, I do not yet have an actual scale papercraft model of my house. What can I say? She’s been doing this a lot longer than I have.
Thirdly, a belated congratulations to my college friend Jessica Edwards on the event of her wedding. I’m mildly annoyed that I didn’t get invited to the big day, but I probably couldn’t have made it anyway. Pesky THESIS. So congrats from the other side of the continent, Jess – I hope you and the pirate will be very happy!
Fourthly, I am more annoyed that it is National Poetry Month and I haven’t gotten to do any form of non-THESIS writing so far. Last year I banged out 30 short poems in 30 days, and this year I’d hoped to throw together a short chapbook’s worth of stuff, but the idea of doing that on top of the THESIS is laughable. It’s too bad, too, because I had a great title for the chapbook all picked out, a phrase that’s been bouncing around my brain for the last couple of months: The Ghost of Something Better. I even have the beginnings of an opening stanza for the titular poem, but oh well. I suppose there’s still a chance that I’ll get to work on it sometime before National Poetry Month is over, but for now, it’s all THESIS, all the time. Tomorrow I have to make up for lost time; if I can have a Monday that’s as good as yesterday’s Saturday, I’ll be in good shape. Wish me luck!