Every once in awhile I google myself to see what comes up and every so often I get a pleasant surprise or two.

Like the fact that Jim Henry put my story “From the Mouths of Babes” from F&SF March 2006 on his Hugo ballot. I don’t know Jim, but it’s nice to know he ranked my story up there with his favorites for the year.

Perhaps even more startling was the discovery that I’m being taught. My story “A Change of Seasons” which appeared in Sep/Oct issue of Cicada is being used in the curriculum of what I’m guessing is a middle school course. Check out this 1st page analysis and plot summary the students have to complete.

It’s a strange sensation to wake up on a random Saturday afternoon to discover you’re someone’s homework.

Current Mood: Very Happy |

I’m always astonished by pronunciation gaffs in audio books. I don’t expect the readers to pronounce everything correctly, but I do expect an audio editor to do some follow up. I mean, retakes have to be a necessity when recording 20 hours of reading, so I can’t figure out why these blips aren’t picked up.

Some of them are just accents. The guy reading Philip K Dick’s “Second Variety” pronounced “robot” as “robut” which annoyed me to no end, and I have it out for anyone who pronounces “again” as “aGAIN.” But in The Time Traveler’s Wife, the man reading Henry’s parts pronounced a drug as “vi-CO-din” but every good Green Bay Packer fan knows Brett Favre’s drug of choice is pronounced “VI-co-din,” with the stress on the first syllable, not the second.

Even more alarming was in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series where George Guidall twice said, “with Roland winding his horn,” pronouncing that third word with the long I as in “he was winding his watch” instead of the correct pronunciation, as in “a bad wind blowing.” This is especially weird considering that winding a horn like you would to a clock or watch makes no sense, where as the true meaning is “to add wind to, i.e. blowing.”

By the way, I’m close to finishing The Time Traveler’s Wife, and my verdict? It’s okay. I’d give it a B. As the book wears on, it becomes less about the interesting conundrum of time traveling and more about domestic unrest, which I found, erm, less interesting. Add to this the fact that I totally don’t buy the Gomez subplot/drama, and the longer the story goes the more suspicious I am about why Henry’s time traveling needs to be kept a secret. Niffenegger is wise to this second point, and drops in a few lines about why Clark Kent doesn’t just admit he’s Superman to Lois Lane; to which another character responds, “Because it makes a better story if he keeps it a secret.” Cute metafiction maybe, but that doesn’t rebut my complaint. I wanted this book to be a third shorter.

I’m about half finished with Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell and this one just keeps going from strength to strength. So far, I’d give an A+ and I don’t expect that to change. The real magic here is Clarke’s writing. She has a wonderful sense of when to throw in asides or when to directly address the reader. And it’s just a lot of fun. The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories definitely makes my “books wanted” list.

The novel stands at 55K words and writing is akin to pulling teeth, or putting my shoulder to boulder. I’m 2K words behind schedule for this week, which means I need a big day today to make up for it. Most of Wednesday and Thursday was spent thinking instead of writing because I didn’t know where to take the penultimate chapter. I finally figured out one way to go, but I’m not convinced it’s the right way. Words on paper is the most important part, though, so I soldier on.

Current Mood: Fine, I Guess |
Currently Listening To - Beck - “Midnite Vultures”

(sigh) Argentina 4, United States 1 in the Copa America. The United States certainly didn’t deserve to win, didn’t even deserve to draw, but 4-1 doesn’t reflect the game. Argentina had six or so clear-cut chances and took four of them. The United States had virtually none but did manage to win a penalty in the opening 10 minutes.

Unfortunately, 95% of the planet will not know (or not care) that this is far from the full-strength US team that held up for the most part against the best side Argentina could put out. They kept calling it the United States’ “C Team” on GolTV and that’s about right. No Donovan, Beasley, or Dempsey on the roster says it all. Other scatter shot thoughts.

* Eddie Johnson needs to drive at defenders more often. He looks too casual out there, and is most dangerous when he puts the pedal down. Taylor Twellman more often than not looks lost at this level; Jonathan Bornstein and Benny Feilhaber do not, although BF did not have a great game tonight.

* For all the fans singing Justin Mapp’s praises, he could not beat 33-year-old Javier Zanetti all night long. Eddie Gavin and Hercules Gomez did absolutely nothing off the bench to make me believe they should be on the national team; the jury is still out on Beckerman, but he should be aware the jury is not biased in his favor.

* I trust the defensive pairing of Demerit and Conrad more than Bocanegra and Onyewu. Kasey Keller has clearly lost a step in goal. He made one great save but did not otherwise improve on his shaky Gold Cup performance. Marvell Wynne, besides have a name fit for a superhero’s alter ego, did a good enough job tonight; which means it’s a friggin’ awesome job against one of the world’s best teams on his international debut.

Overall, it’s a strange feeling to be uplifted after being on the wrong end of a 4-1 scoreline. Ray Hudson was singing the praises of this US team in the dying minutes of the game and I had to agree. For someone who has followed the US Natl Team religiously for almost twenty years, it’s amazing to see our country throw together such a young team and watch them play good football against a world giant. Even with this scab squad, they played the ball up the field, they didn’t pack the defense for 90 minutes, they didn’t rely on long punts for the attack.

Next match is against Paraguay on Tuesday. They put five past Colombia, so it should be a cracker.

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Faithful readers of this space will know this, but one of the requirements for my Ph.D. program in Creative Writing is proficiency in one foreign language (the Ph.D. in most Literary Studies programs requires two foreign languages) and for the last eight months or so I have been taken, and wildly enjoying, an intensive Spanish course through Bilingual America. I’ve been digging Spanish so much that I’ve been looking into ways into incorporating it into my graduate program.

As it turns out, the academy’s professed desire for their doctoral students’ proficiency in a foreign language isn’t so great that they actually allow you to do anything with this knowledge. As an undergrad, I had both a Ph.D. student and a professor tell me that the foreign language requirement is basically a bullshit hoop that must be jumped. The idea is that you could read literary criticism in German or French, the kind of stuff nobody translates. The reality is that students do the bare minimum to pass the requirement and never use it again. My school actually offers single-semester online classes like “French for reading comprehension” so students can get this requirement out of the way with as little fuss as possible.

I have no problem with this. But after asking a couple professors in my program, I’ve found out that there is virtually no encouragement to exceed this minimum requirement. In fact, it’s quite the contrary; I’ve been told that pursuing an MA in Foreign Language and Literature or the certificate in translation wouldn’t be worth the extra work and time. I was hoping that it may make me more valuable in the competitive job market (which is a full-time nagging concern of mine) but I’ve been told point-blank this isn’t the case, and could actually make some potential employers think I wasn’t taking my studies of English literature seriously enough. Sheesh.

I’m still trying to see if I can burn a couple electives by taking upper-level literature courses in the Spanish department, enough to quality Spanish/Latino/Hispanic literature as one of my minors. I just think it’s weird that Borges translated into English counts as English literature, while Borges in his native Spanish is considered something else. Add to this fact that you can’t seem to escape discussing Derrida (who wrote in French) and the deconstruction of literature, and suddenly the rationale for studying only works in English seems very strange.

The likelihood is that I will continue to work on my Spanish regardless mostly because I enjoy it, but with the workload during school it’s questionable how much extra time I’ll have to dedicate to it. Which annoys me.

Current Mood: Annoyed |

Civil war at Chez Hergenrader. The wife insists that Pan’s Labyrinth is a movie geared towards adolescents and isn’t any scarier than The Dark Crystal or Labyrinth (the one starring David Bowie). And I’m arguing that she’s oh-so-wrong. Luckily, I’m right.

What a terrific movie though. I don’t think my attention wandered for a single moment, and like I said to Amy, that movie pretty much hits the nail on the head why I (and I would imagine countless others) bother reading, writing, and generally taking fantasy seriously.

And I could pick out a lot of the Spanish, especially from the Faun. But sometimes the Spanish accent threw me (making a th sound for the Z, and sometimes for the c, as in Tharagotha for Zaragoza, and thinco for cinco, which I think is only a Madrid/northern Spain thing.) I thought with all the lush greenery and Celtic-looking statues that the movie took place in Galicia, but it didn’t; it took place in Segovia and the Sierra Mountains outside Madrid.

The Devil’s Backbone is next, unless I’ve gotten too lippy and Amy bumps all my movies to the bottom of the Netflix queue.

My independent study for the fall has been approved. Now I need to come up with a book list (book-a-week) and rationale. I’m going to continue the sci-fi/utopia/dystopia theme but focus more on gender issues, body/humanity issues, and the American dystopia. Here’s what I’ve come up with in the order I’m going to propose to read them—other suggestions appreciated from the peanut gallery, if you’ve got them.

Mieville, China - The Scar
Mieville, China - Iron Council
Butler, Octavia - Kindred
Dick, Philip K - Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
LeGuin, Ursula - Lathe of Heaven
Ishiguro, Kazuo - Never Let Me Go
Sturgeon, Theodore - More Than Human
Lem, Stanislaw - Solaris
Piercy, Marge - Woman on the Edge of Time
Russ, Joanna - The Female Man
Atwood, Margaret - Handmaid’s Tale
Butler, Octavia - Parable of the Sower
Dick, Philip K - Ubik
Robinson, Kim Stanley - Gold Coast
McCarthy, Cormac - Blood Meridian

I see this list as moving from sort of slipstreamy fiction focused on societies, then shifting to books about the mind, body, and definitions of humanity and alienness, to more strictly gendered sci-fi dystopias, and finally winding up with a few American dystopias. Obviously the themes are somewhat fluid.

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Right, so we spent the weekend canoe camping (sort of) at Buckhorn State Park outside Mauston, WI. It’s really quite a short jaunt from Madison, a little under two hours one way. Clicking on any of the images below will give you a bigger picture.

Mapquest totally hosed us on the directions (surprise!) so we got in later than we wished on Friday night and had to chase the dying sun. We quickly loaded up the canoe and Steven and I paddled about 1.75 miles out to the campsite with ludicrous amounts of stuff while the ladies walked the infinitely buggier one-mile path with the watch dog, who was very excited to receive us on the shore.

This was canoe camping, which means weight is more or less irrelevant so we brough out decadent stuff like a mini-keg of beer, boxed wine, folding chairs, and a guitar. Lovely campsite right on the water though, which meant ’round the clock entertaining of the dog who loves her floating frisbee and will not stop until you pry the thing from her cold, dead jaws.

It was a lazy weekend. We had planned to canoe around the park and blah blah blah but ended up sitting in the sun and doing flat nothing all day. Wasn’t a bad call at all, actually. This picture taken by Amy sums up the weekend the best:

Overall, it was a fun weekend but we’re not going to sprint back to the Buckhorn. The park description made it seem much more remote than it actually was and the lake had quite a bit of motor boat activity. The new thing in Wisconsin is the “pack-in” campsite that’s set between 0.5 and 1.5 miles from the parking lot. This caters to a growing population that wants to escape the boors at the drive-in campsite but don’t want to graduate to full-on backpacking. The park offers carts, so people can still bring in way more than they would backpacking, and we saw a lot of boaters pulling up to campsites as well which means you don’t get that backcountry feel with all this stuff. Of course, we were just as guilty as anyone, but had garbage disposal and other backcountry concerns actually mattered, we would have packed very differently. The verdict?

More like car camping than backpacking, but it was secluded enough and it ended up being a lazy weekend which we all probably needed more than a grueling backcountry excursion. And Athena has been sleeping it off ever since.

Current Mood: Fair to Middlin’ |

Ahoy! We were gone for the weekend to Buckhorn State Park having a wonderfully relaxing time. I stayed up last night catching up on Saturday’s UFC matches and Sunday’s Gold Cup final between the US and Mexico. I’ll post some pics of the weekend frivolities a little later.

I’m beginning to love Mexico coach Hugo Sanchez. Why? Because I can’t possibly hate him any more than I already do, so the only way is up. The big bogey for the Mexican national team is beating the US outside Mexico. You see, they can’t seem to do it. The US holds a 9-2-1 record against Mexico since 2000, 8-0-1 on home soil. Yet when the US plays in places like Los Angeles, DC, New York, or Chicago, it’s hardly home field advantage since 90% of the roaring crowd cheers for Mexico. It was like that at Soldier Field on Sunday, where the US came from behind to win 2-1 on a wundergoal from Benny Feilhaber.

What is it with Mexico’s coaches? I have to give credit to the players this time around who bore the defeat with dignity. No flurry of cheap shots late in the game, and some handshakes and jersey-swapping which sadly they did not show on TV. Sanchez’s predecessor Ricardo Lavolpe could never manage to give the US any credit, blaming loss after loss on the referee, negative tactics, and my favorite, luck. But 9-2-1? Well, Sanchez and some players surrounded the referee after the match to scream about the penalty (which was the correct call) and then retreated behind the ol’ saw of “the best team doesn’t always win.” Apparently, they only win two out of eleven and then only at home.

The game? A cracker. Some are calling it the best ever but I won’t. Too many young players on both sides who are just learning the international game. The US played some great soccer but Mexico probably played slightly better. Technically, the Mexicans are better players. Tactically and physically, the US has the advantage. The US wasn’t stringing together pinpoint passes and players weren’t making mazey runs through crowds of players. The US looks good playing fast and strong. And I’m still not convinced by the Bocanegra/Onyewu pairing in the back. The defense often looks all over the place, and while those guys are good at hacking away dangerous chances, they always seem to be of the last-gasp variety. They say the best goalkeepers make saves look easy. I think the same goes for defending, and the US makes defending look anything but cool, calm, and collected.

I’m also disappointed in the US’ inability to finish. Ching, Twellman, Dempsey, and Beasley each missed multiple Very Good Chances or complete sitters over the course of the tournament. You can do that against the mighty opponents of Guatemala, Trinidad & Tobago, El Salvador, Panama and yes even Mexico and still win. But against Argentina or Germany? Forget it. If you get two chances, you need to take two chances.

And not to throw a wet blanket over the whole thing, but I don’t see how the Gold Cup will advance the US in the global game. I think it helps immeasurably for qualifying, but most South America, European, and African teams have little in common with the minnows of CONCACAF. You can play a tough Panama team ten times in a row and it will mean next to nothing when you play at team like Portugal.

But winning the Gold Cup is far better than losing it, especially when the US beats Mexico yet again and this time from behind.

I watched the Ultimate Fighter Finale and was disappointed even though there were some good fights. The Gray Maynard vs. Rob Emerson was downright weird with a no contest decision after Maynard knocked himself out slamming Emerson, who he had been dominating, to the mat. Injury marred what should have been a very good fight between Manny Gamburyan and Nate Diaz (who uses the words “understandable” and “respectable” when he means “understanding” and “respectful”). Manny’s shoulder popped out at the start of the second round when he was trying to take Diaz down.

And Jens Pulver got completely worked by BJ Penn, who I can’t stand. I thought it was tacky that after winning he stuffed Joe Rogan on the post-fight interview and said, “If you want to know how BJ Penn is feeling, go to BJPenn.com. right now.” Where he probably had written a pre-fight message that he had posted the minute he won. Great. A season-long rivalry comes to a head in shameless self-promotion.

Photos hopefully soon if I can get to them.

Current Mood: Tired |
Currently Listening To - Elliott Smith - “XO”

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It’s done and dusted. Last night we booked tickets on American Airlines for $335/ea. round-trip from O’Hare to Guatemala City. We haven’t chosen a Spanish immersion school yet, but there are plenty. The ones with the highest ratings are booked but there are others that have overwhelmingly positive reviews that are still open.

The basic gist is this: for around $150/week, you get five hours of one-on-one Spanish instruction each weekday, a home to live in, and three meals every day but Sunday. Generally, tutoring happens from the morning to mid-day and the afternoon is open for extracurricular activities. Amy will likely help out in a medical clinic; I plan to teach English to school kids. Every program has offered me the opportunity to play footie with kids, too; I just hope they don’t play like the adults. Weekends are spent hiking the rain forests and volcanoes.

All expenses included, two weeks of Spanish immersion classes for two should come in well under $1500. Guatemala is a poor country so you do have to watch yourself, and some students have lamented that their home-stay families didn’t feed them enough, i.e. serving a single corn cob for dinner. We’re not convinced that this will feel like vacation, but we’re both hoping for a significant boost in our proficiency with Spanish. Absolute beginners claim to leave with a firm grasp on the language. We’ll be about 10.5 months along in our intensive Spanish course by August, which should put us at either a high intermediate or low-advanced level. Three weeks would be better but we have to live with two.

My hope is that I can test into graduate-level Spanish literature courses by the fall semester. Only time will tell.

Current Mood: Insomnified |

I was going to write a long, rambling post about Alexi Lalas’ comments about MLS being on par with the English Premier League, but happily Jen Chang over at Soccernet.com has already done it for me, except he’s concise. The basic points I wanted to make were:

* Lalas is doing this for publicity (check)

* Not everything Lalas said is nuts—the Premier League is seen as the best league in Europe because of a slick marketing campaign, not because they’re heads and shoulders above the others in Europe. Spain’s La Liga is arguably better than the English Premier League from top to bottom, and the German Bundesliga and Italian Serie A aren’t miles away either. (check)

* The best players in MLS could play in the Premier League no problem, but even the best teams would be fodder for relegation (check)

* Most MLS teams are probably English Championship quality (the league directly below the Premier League) (check)

So there you go. I’m happy to have saved some time this morning.

Current Mood: Fair |
Currently Listening To - Elliott Smith - “Roman Candle”

The word count totaling feature in Word does not grow according to how often you check it. In fact, it seems like the longer you go without checking it, the bigger the word count when you finally come back to it.

Funny, that.