Sanity is overrated. — Gustav Hasford The Short-Timers No fun times Periods when I have to be highly efficient are often followed by days on which I can hardly get out of my mental mess; days when I ask myself why there is so much pain and suffering in this world and why so many of
Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. — Winston Churchill (as so often, Winnie knows best :)) "lol best conference fails" As some may remember, I'm about to give a talk in London six weeks from now (nevertheless, let's feel stressed out already). Now, some may wonder how to prepare
I haven't the courage, or perhaps the hardness, to withstand the tremendous pathos of this life. I love life's casual beauty — fear its awful strength. — Jack Kerouac The Sea is my Brother What the blurb tells us: In the spring of 1943, not long after his first tour as a Merchant Marine, twenty-one-year-old
One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple. — Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums Inspiration overload on the road One of my first impressive encounters with American literature was Jack Kerouac and his most famous book, On the Road. I was about 14, and because I had already been to
With all the luck you've had, why are your songs so sad? — Reading in Bed, Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton Masking the moody bitch Most people who don’t know me well think that I’m confident, outgoing, and funny. Which I am, with the right people. And most often I have to act like
What the blurb says: "William Stoner is born at the end of the nineteenth century into a dirt-poor Missouri farming family. Sent to the state university to study agronomy, he instead falls in love with English literature and embraces a scholar's life, so different from the hardscrabble existence he has known. And yet, as years
London calling A few weeks ago I sent a conference proposal to the organizers of an upcoming event; I finished it hastily, of course having waited until the last possible moment to get it done, and Wonderguy did his best revising it even though he generally only edits German papers. Mainly, I just wanted to
They say you should start a new blog by writing something about yourself and the main stuff you want to write about. Don’t ask me who “they” are, but there are plenty of smart people out there who know much more about blogging than I do. So let’s just roll with it for a while.