I live in a land where just about everyone under fifty has a tattoo or three or twenty three. This will come as no shock to anyone who knows that I live in North America or, in particular, Long Beach, California. I don’t have any tattoos, which will also come as no shock to anyone [...]
Author Archive
On not seizing the day
Here’s a conversation I have fairly often with my writing students: Me: So the point of your essay is, what, “carpe diem”? What does that mean to you, exactly? Student: It means “seize the day.” Me: I know that. But what do you mean by “seize the day”? Student: You know. Like, living life to [...]
Bad job
Recently, I was on a search committee to hire new faculty, which inevitably made me feel pretty damned lucky to have a full-time job (not to mention tenure). On top of that, just yesterday I picked up my “Service Award,” which I received upon… well, having managed to not lose my job in the five [...]
Dealing with divorce: a child’s guide
If your parents are divorced or in the process of getting a divorce, you may be concerned with the effects this might have on you. And you should be. Studies show that children of divorce have considerably greater risk of experiencing, uhh … “psychological issues” compared with children who live in a stable two-parent environment. [...]
Not in my nature
The other day I ran into a colleague, and while we were doing our post-summer-chitchat-thing, she told me she had spent the better part of her summer volunteering as a wilderness ranger in the Sierra National Forest, an experience that involved hiking and working in some of the most remote and picturesque parts of California: [...]
Amusement-phobic, redux
A few months ago, I wrote a post about my (ir?)rational fear of amusement-park rides (and one ride, in particular), a fear that has followed me through childhood and teenhood and young adulthood and into my thirties. And while I’m not afraid of all rides, I generally stay away from the ones with height requirements. [...]
A cry for help
My name is Jeremy, and I’m an addict. I tried to deny this fact as long as humanly possible, making excuses, constructing elaborate justifications. But I continued to feed my addiction, and now I’ve lost any ability to control it. My problem began when I watched the first DVD of the television show Freaks and [...]
If memory serves…
I’m interested in how and why our memories visit us—and in the many cues, visual or otherwise, that help us remember. Photographs are especially interesting (and obvious) memory cues: after all, in their uncompromising and authoritative retelling of the past, they are completely unlike memories, which are shaky, uncertain. Photographs exist to tell us, “No, [...]
My night out
I’ve been grading too many papers, deciphering and producing too many words. So, just a few more… Saturday night. Sushi with Nikki. Then, Silversun Pickups opening for The Elected at the El Rey. Then, Silversun Pickups blowing The Elected out of the water at the El Rey. (I might be a little biased.) Finally, drinking [...]
You rating me grading you
Recently, a friend and I were lamenting the fact that, since graduating college and becoming college instructors ourselves, we no longer get to experience the constant validation we received as students. Instead, we’ve become the agents of validation (or, too often, invalidation)—and we both feel somewhat bereft as a result. Although I’m now presumably helping [...]
