Worms & AIDS

Today was the last day of classes and that means I am one step closer to summer vacation. Next week I have 20 pages worth of reports due and a French final but luckily blogging has made writing (even when I really don't want to) a fairly common and painless process. The last hurdle I had to jump on this specific Tuesday was a presentation I did on AIDS (for my modern African literature course). Over the past two days I have been experiencing some minor insomnia which has caused arbitrary mood shifts throughout my day. Sometimes I feel like I have a headache and that my immune system is shutting down and sometimes I will feel very energetic and talkative. Luckily I was in an accelerated and talkative mood during my presentation. I didn't even use the note card that I wrote all of my information on (my head already knew all of the facts). I just now got an email about my groups performance. We did well.

Andrew is staying in Amherst until Thursday (he goes to Emerson in Boston and is already done with his finals). Despite the hectic work schedule, it is nice to have someone around to hang out with and help relieve stress. Hopefully now that my classes are done with I will not be nearly as anxiety ridden (Mom you are probably worrying about me after the last few blog posts but I assure you that I am doing fine. You went to college, you know how it is).

The following is a comic I made when I was a junior in high school. I have become a little more articulate since then but I'm not so sure if I have advanced much as a graphic artist. It looks like I spent a lot of time shading dismembered body parts.


Note: This is a reference to the popular American reality show Fear Factor in which Joe Rogan watches people walk across balance beams and sleep in buckets of worms.

Speak easy,
Neil

Il pleut beaucoup...et un ami mange du pain.

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Water for Words

My name is Neil and I am an English student at the University of Massachusetts. I am currently drinking fresh coffee well into a Friday night. I was supposed to go home for the weekend to do laundry and meet Puff. Puff is the cat that my family adopted immediately after I left for school. She has replaced me and is probably wearing my old clothes, watching my television, and painting the walls of my room as I type this. Because of problems with time and space I am in my dorm room this weekend.

The title of this blog is the title of a chapter of the Nathanael West book, Miss Lonelyhearts. It is really good and I am going to write some sort of thesis paper on it before the semester is up.
For some reason I find it incredibly difficult to name things that are not completely self contained. Bands and blogs and projects. Songs, on the other hand, are usually fairly easy to name...as well as pets (charlie, jameson, keifer, and jeff are all good names). I have a theory that the older you get, the weirder your pet's names should be. For instance a guy like myself would not go wrong naming his dog "Mike", while an elderly person should totally name their dog "Little Stallion". It just makes sense.


Okay, so I was skimming my bookshelf and class notes looking for something that would resemble a good blog name and my eyes fall on 'The Brief Penguin Handbook'. My mind, being the way it is, processed this bit of sense-data as 'The Brief Penguin Handjob'. My roommate, Lev, insists that this is some sort of Freudian slip. The title just raises so many questions. Like "Why?" or "How?" or "Brief?".

Since my life plan seems to change just about every week I thought I would track the evolution of my future...if that makes sense. Right now I am learning French and aspire to become a "Teaching English as a Second Language" professor in Paris.

Stay hydrated,
Neil

P.S
I really do listen to a lot of music on a daily basis and enjoy making themed playslists. With each post I am going to try and compile a new (fun!) playlist. Hopefully this will force me to explore the previously unearthed regions of my iPod. 26 gigs and I listen to the same 3 songs over and over again.

Todays Playlist:
Flux Capacitor (or songs with years in the title)

1. The Smashing Pumpkins - 1979 (Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness)
2. Yeasayer - 2080 (All Hour Cymbals)
3. Peter Bjorn & John - Paris 2004 (Writer's Block)
4. Architecture In Helsinki - Spring 2008 (Fingers Crossed)
5. The Olivia Tremor Control - Memories of Jacqueline 1906 (Music From the Unrealized...)
6. The Elected - 7 Septermber 2003 (Me First)
7. Los Campesinos! - 2007, The Year Punk Broke My Heart (Hold On Now, Youngster)
8. Neutral Milk Hotel - Holland, 1945
9. The Unicorns - 2014 (2014 Single)
10. Gorillaz - 19-2000 (Gorillaz)
11. The Hives - Inspection Wise 1999 (Veni Vidi Vicious)

And for those with a more eclectic taste...

12. The Robot Ate Me - Oh No! Oh My! 1994 (On Vacation Vol. I)
13. The Fiery Furnaces - 1917 (Blueberry Boat)

*If you have any recommendations that might fit into this playlist let me know*