not completely gone, just busy.

(i'm in hiding).
Alright, It's jason. the owner of this blog. i understand if you do not recognize my voice. it has been a while since I've posted. but, i am still here. school officially started about 2 1/2 weeks ago for everybody else. for me, it started almost 5 weeks ago. 2 weeks before the official semester started, i had class for about 7 hours a day to prepare me to begin teaching.

so, now i am teaching.
The class I am teaching is not exactly like this (me teaching emily how to hit my drums), but there are certainly some similarities--short attention spans, lack of discussion, and lots of energy. However, I am really enjoying it. They are a good group of students, and I think that a handful of them are very talented writers. It has been a lot of fun and challenging trying to figure out how to present lesson plans in a way that is interesting and that actually teach something that will stick with the students. They have their first essay due in about a week, so I am eager to see where everybody is at. I have definitely grown sympathy for a lot of my own professors in the process. The amount of time it takes to prepare for one 1-hour class is way more than the time you actually spend in class. I spend a lot of time in my office researching different plans, reading essays, and planning discussions--and more than a little time bull-shitting with kevin and jef. My office area is great. The full-timers call it "TA row," cause it is where all the TA's are located. It is very helpful, though, because we often congregate and share some of the things that have been working/not working for us. As well as schedule our evening rendezvous, band practices, and weekend golf-outings. Plus, the entire department is right there and it is very helpful to be able to speak to one of your professors about an issue you are having in the class you are teaching. A lot of the full-time faculty are very willing to help a desperate TA.

So, in addition to teaching, I have actually gone fishing for the first time this summer. I can't believe it has taken me so long to get out there, but now that I got the taste for it, I may have trouble stopping. Over Labor Day weekend, Stacey and I spent some time in Hessel (other side of U.P.) with her parents. They had a boat so we scooted around lake Huron and we caught a good deal of perch. It was a perfect week. After leaving Hessel, stacey and i, wanting to waste a little time, found a driving range and hit a bunch of balls, stopped in sault sainte marie and played black jack for a while, then used our winnings to buy lunch at a little dive bar by lake superior, right next to the soo locks. Eventually we made it home (only to find that i had missed band practice). but, since then, we have made plans to go to a friend's property this saturday and to spend the entire day on the lake blue gill and perch fishing and sitting in the sun, and (maybe) drinking beer, and possibly camping. we are really looking forward to it. the whole plan sounds great.

In other news, stacey and i woke this morning to find water dripping from our dining room light fixture and onto our table. apparently a pipe had busted above our kitchen and pooled up in our ceiling until it found the hole by the light fixture to drip from. So, we have several holes in our ceiling that will not be fixed for a couple weeks, and tomorrow we have a plumber coming over to work on it. It sounds like they will be replacing the entire pipe. Since I am at work now, and get out at 8am (same time the plumber is arriving), i am considering bringing a sleeping bag over to my office to catch a few z's. we will see. well, the water issue is well photo-documented here if you are interested.

If you are looking for something to read, check out:
Lee Siegel's "Love, and Other Games of Chance"
Z.Z. Packer's "Drinking Coffee Elsewhere"
Tobias Wolff's "The Night in Question"

And if you are looking for some new tunes, maybe try...

Mono Men "Monomen LP"
The National "The Boxer"
Decemberists "Crane Wife"
The Shins "Wincing the Night Away"
M. Ward "Post-War"

Alright, so, sorry about the hiatus. no promises that it wont happen again. please direct all questions and concerns to the comment box...

jason

Running With the Bulls

Class is done, no more required writing, reading, etc. i am finally getting a chance to read and write the things i want to read and write. The reading includes Cormack McCarthy's "Blood Meridian" and Lee Siegel's "Love and Other Games of Chance." The last required reading i had to read was a re-read of Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises." I guess that is why i posted this picture of the guy getting gored through the leg during the most recent run. (If you haven't read "The Sun Also Rises," do so immediately). You don't have to be particularly into bull fighting, just sadness, alcohol and emasculation. Great, sad novel. I have also been thinking about this picture lately as everything in my life has slowed down temporarily. With my first break in classes since last august, it feels incredible to have some time on my hands. i've been watching movies and walking outside, playing my drums and reading and have even sat by the lake a few times. I have 12 more credits before i get my MA and then decide what to do from there and where to do it. About 3 weeks left before i get back into the footrace, when i start my training for teaching next fall. so now, i'm just relaxing. perhaps, gored a bit, but recovering. From all the forced writing exercises and from having someone always tell me what to read. recovering from all-night writing binges and neck-aches from trying to stay awake during four hour workshops after eight-hour midnight shifts at the hotel. so, nothing season ending. (alright, i've been watching a lot of baseball, too).

I'm not sure if the metaphor of running with the bulls works or not. it something that i've always wanted to do. though i may have to forget about this picture before i try.


in other news, today i swam in lake superior for about twenty minutes in cut-off jean shorts. it was very warm, but the walk home kinda sucked.

jason

my lookalikes

just because i wanted to post, but am too tired to write much, you can now scroll to the bottom of this page to view my celebrity lookalikes. very important stuff, here. and yes, john candy is one of them. did i ever mention someone told me i look just like ron jeremy? yup, glad he didn't show up on this one.

warning: if you don't know who ron jeremy is, i would advise NOT googling him.

its not fair. people say my brother looks like russell crowe, my dad looks like sam elliot, and me? I look like pope john paul I, and john candy. hmmm....

p.s. i used another photo of me and fidel castro and paul mccartney came up as the top 2. though, Kirsten Dunst also came up. i guess thats kinda cool.

bowling

for some of stacey's photos of our latest outing with our pals, click here.

THE RODEO IS IN SAWYER!!!

Before you start reading this, hit play on that white "play button, " to your right, you'll be glad you did.

My first task as i showed up to work today was to disperse a band of angry rodeo cowboys from the hotel lobby where i work. apparently, the hotel bar closes at midnight and these rope-swinging, cattle-dancing, herders were not gonna have it. especially on a FRIDAY NIGHT!! Rodeo night, to boot (cowboy boot)! I tried to explain to them that i don't know how they do things in Houston or Albuquerque, or Lonesome Dove, but up here in Sawyer, where the population of people is about the same as the amount of wild horses that need to be roped in the U.P., people are usually in bed by midnight. even on a saturday night. even on rodeo night. its not a very lively community. in twenty years when the fifteen people that live here move on to the lovely military base in the sky, Sawyer will probably cease to exist.
After a few griping comments, one handlebar-mustached cowboy noticed i had a copy of The Mining Journal (marquette's newspaper) sitting on the desk. I handed it to him and they all spent the next fifteen minutes looking for the "write-up" on the Sawyer Rodeo. For pictures, I assume. Then, they went to bed. There was no write-up in the paper. I sure hope this event won't ruin their ropin' tomorrow.

In other news, today, Stacey and i took our first swim of the summer in Lake Superior. Though it was 87 degrees most of the day, I'd be exaggerating if I told you the water was in the mid-50's. About ten feet out, it was tolerably warm--really, not bad. But after that, it was bitter cold. So, like little kids at the beach, we splashed around and swam in thigh-high water, enjoying every minute of it. I love Marquette.

Also, in case anybody was curious, the Stampers, my raggled group of english grad/softball players came out of last night's game with a 25-5 victory. It was beautiful. We had lost our two previous games in extra innings by only 1 run. We wanted this one badly, and I think it showed.

the mighty stampers have struck out

softball season officially started last wednesday when "the stampers" fell 11-9 to "team b." we had a slow first inning, giving up 6 runs. in the bottom of the 6th we came within one (8-7) only to give up 3 more runs in the seventh and then failed to recover. it was a good start though. not a bad effort from the graduate english department team. we had a blast. i played third base and hope to stay there. i guess i could just stay there, since i'm the captain, but i'll try to be fair. it was a very sunny and chilly evening. sweatshirts and long paints. (notice the grass stains on my right pant leg in the second picture and the clean pant leg in the 1st and 3rd picture. a result of sliding into second right after that hit you can see in picture # 3. a grass stain i am very proud of. i may not wash those jeans again.) we had to play on a grass field, infield and outfield, grass. it was hard to see the bases, so we're going to try to sneak to a real field next week. normally you have to pay to get on the real fields. but, we're crafty. after the game we had a mandatory team meeting at vangos bar and pizzeria, where we discussed batting order, euchre techniques, and cormack mccarthy. then played euchre and shared pitchers of beer till it closed. a great ending to a great evening.

incidentally, last night the pistons beat the bulls in game 6 to advance to the eastern conference finals for the 5th time in five years. i was booted out of the house so stacey could watch the season finale of grey's anatomy, so i rode my bike to the nearest watering hole to resume my watching of the game. go pistons.

also, this is for you alex, tonight, the tigers will take on the cardinals, a recap of last year's world series. looking forward to watching that one right after softball practice. go tigers.

graduate drumming

someone mentioned to me the other day that shrontz is drumming again. i think this is a good thing. i think this is a good thing for all of us. to listen to it, click here. This is my new band. so far, we call ourselves "the teague whalen trio." Though, there is four of us. i hope you enjoy it. and yes, that is a rhodes piano that jennifer simula is playing. beautiful isn't it? by the way, this is the second of two posts i've written tonight, so keep scrolling.