I haven't blogged in 5 months, but it's time for summer goals, so it's also time for a blog post! Here are the goals I've come up with for this summer so far.
1. Read the following classic novels - Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark, Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns, Something Wicked this Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen, Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, and The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum - Originally this goal was going to be to read 5 classics, but things got a little out of hand. Most of these are shorter, so I still think this is doable.
2. Learn to bake an apple pie from scratch - Apple pie is probably my favorite dessert, so I should probably learn how to make one, right?
3. Take an old TAKS test online - This is super nerdy. But one day I was talking with Camille and Erin about the STAR test Erin's students were taking. We started wondering how we would even do on these tests now that we've been out of school for awhile. So I'm going to try it and see!
4. Read an astronomy book - I've been listening to podcasts from Star Talk Radio with Neil deGrasse Tyson and I've become really fascinated with everything about space. So I want to learn more! I've chosen a book by Neil himself called Universe Down to Earth and I'm pretty excited about it.
5. Go to the planetarium - After I finish the book above, I need to do this because I've never been! Plus my sister has a museum membership, so I can go for free.
6. Watch all the movies on my DVR - I've recorded between 20 and 30 movies over the last year that I still haven't watched. Some are from free movie channel weekends. 9 of them are Elvis movies from the TCM celebration of his birthday last summer. I can't wait to see my DVR with 100% free space...and to see these movies.
7. Catch up on Jeopardy - Similar to the above goal, on the downstairs DVR, my roommates and I have over 100 episodes of Jeopardy. We'll be having some major marathons, if anyone wants to join us!
8. Finish my Thomas Jefferson book - My eventual goal of reading bios on all the presidents is moving along extremely slowly. Yikes. And Jen, my official Jeopardy coach, has assigned me to make it through Monroe by the end of the year, so I've got work to do.
9. Scat Jazz Lounge - This was on my list last summer and I just never made it happen, so I'm putting it on here again.
10. Finally visit California - I'm going for about 2 weeks this summer and I can't wait! I have lots of friends to visit and lots of things to see and one wedding to go to!
Looks like I better get to work! What are your summer goals?
Showing posts with label summer goals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label summer goals. Show all posts
Friday, May 31, 2013
Monday, June 11, 2012
What I've Read So Far
In my last post, I talked about my summer goals. One of my main ones was to read 5 classics, and another was to finally finish reading John Adams. That's a lot of reading, so I've been working hard and I've already got three books crossed off my list!
First up was Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne. I've been wanting to read some Verne for awhile and I'd heard this was a great one to start with. I loved it! If you're wanting to read a classic, but are intimidated by classics, this is a good place to go. It's a fun adventure story with mishaps and misunderstandings and twists and turns and a race to a deadline. The two main characters are delightful. I was genuinely excited to see what would happen.
Next I decided to go for an American book and read Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow. This one was honestly a little disappointing. I had seen it on a lot of lists of the best books ever and read some things about how it changed the genre of historical fiction, and these are some of the reasons I picked it. I also liked the idea of the time period - America right before WWI starts. One thing I didn't realize until I started reading it was that it was written in the 1970s and there really isn't much I like about that decade, including literature it seems. I never really connected with any of the characters and it was just a really different story from what I expected. The historical part of the historical fiction was neat though. Houdini, Ford, and other famous figures were also characters in the novel and that was interesting, but not interesting enough to save the book for me. I wouldn't recommend it.
After that I decided to completely switch time periods and genres and decided it was time to read The Once and Future King by T.H. White. I haven't read a lot of Arthurian legend before and this one was really fun. The first part is what the Disney movie The Sword in the Stone is based on. Whereas older epics like Morte D'Arthur describe a lot of what happened in the life of Arthur, this story delves into why things happened and how all the characters felt about it. It was written during and after WWII in England, and the narrator uses much of Arthur's struggles to comment on the nature of war and civilization in our own time. So despite it being the classic tale of Arthur, Merlyn, Lancelot, Guenever, and other knights that many of us already know, there was also a lot of new and interesting detail in it that I really enjoyed.
So now I'm taking a short break from the classics to read more of John Adams. I have about 350 pages left of that, so I'm going to read at least 100 pages and then read another classic. I'm also going to be watching some classic movies soon, so I'll post about those here too!
First up was Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne. I've been wanting to read some Verne for awhile and I'd heard this was a great one to start with. I loved it! If you're wanting to read a classic, but are intimidated by classics, this is a good place to go. It's a fun adventure story with mishaps and misunderstandings and twists and turns and a race to a deadline. The two main characters are delightful. I was genuinely excited to see what would happen.
Next I decided to go for an American book and read Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow. This one was honestly a little disappointing. I had seen it on a lot of lists of the best books ever and read some things about how it changed the genre of historical fiction, and these are some of the reasons I picked it. I also liked the idea of the time period - America right before WWI starts. One thing I didn't realize until I started reading it was that it was written in the 1970s and there really isn't much I like about that decade, including literature it seems. I never really connected with any of the characters and it was just a really different story from what I expected. The historical part of the historical fiction was neat though. Houdini, Ford, and other famous figures were also characters in the novel and that was interesting, but not interesting enough to save the book for me. I wouldn't recommend it.
After that I decided to completely switch time periods and genres and decided it was time to read The Once and Future King by T.H. White. I haven't read a lot of Arthurian legend before and this one was really fun. The first part is what the Disney movie The Sword in the Stone is based on. Whereas older epics like Morte D'Arthur describe a lot of what happened in the life of Arthur, this story delves into why things happened and how all the characters felt about it. It was written during and after WWII in England, and the narrator uses much of Arthur's struggles to comment on the nature of war and civilization in our own time. So despite it being the classic tale of Arthur, Merlyn, Lancelot, Guenever, and other knights that many of us already know, there was also a lot of new and interesting detail in it that I really enjoyed.
So now I'm taking a short break from the classics to read more of John Adams. I have about 350 pages left of that, so I'm going to read at least 100 pages and then read another classic. I'm also going to be watching some classic movies soon, so I'll post about those here too!
Saturday, June 2, 2012
What I'll Do This Summer
A number of years ago, my friend Jen and I decided to make a list of summer goals. It didn't start out as anything too intense. If I remember correctly, 2 of the goals were to watch the Back to the Future trilogy all in a row and to watch Sister Act 1 and 2. But we also included goals about books to read and new things to try - ways to keep our summer from being too lazy with no direction. Some of our other friends joined us and this has been one of our most fun traditions. Right around the time that my college students are finishing classes, Jen is finishing her grad school classes, and our teacher friends are getting out for the summer, we all start posting our summer goals. I always get so excited to see what my friends are committing to for the summer and what fun things they have planned that I can join them in! Jen has already posted her list on her blog, so I thought I'd post mine here and I'll write occasional updates over the summer on how things are going. Here we go!
1. Go swing dancing with Allison at least once, preferably more often - There was a period of my life where I went swing dancing 3 times a week, and I definitely miss it! Allison has been going consistently and I want to join her. I'm looking forward to getting a group of friends together because it's always more fun with a lot of people.
2. Eat only mexican food for a week - So you know how you love a food so much that you say you could eat it every day? We were talking about it in Belize and I decided I should test it. I don't eat breakfast, so I actually think this'll be really easy. And delicious!
3. Scat Jazz Lounge Black Dog night at least once - Long ago there was a place called the Black Dog and they had a free jazz jam every Sunday night. It was glorious. I recently learned that Scat has started hosting it again and I have GOT to go. Who's in? Great music, great friends, maybe we can use the swing dancing from goal #1!
4. Read at least 5 classics I've never read before - I always want to make sure I'm well-read, and I feel like I've been focusing too much on contemporary lit lately, so it's time for some classics. I spent a long time coming up with my 5 - Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin, Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne, and The Once and Future King by T.H. White. If I finish these, I have a backup list ready to go.
6. Finish reading John Adams by David McCullough - Years ago I decided I wanted to read a bio on every president to learn more American history and study for Jeopardy. I read one on Washington and stalled out. Last year I got about halfway through this and then got distracted by other things. I've got to get past president #2.
7. Make salsa - I freaking love salsa and I want to make my own. It'll be fun to try different recipes and find a good one.
8. Blog once a week - In January, Jen talked me into starting this blog. I've written on here 8 times. I figure if I blog at least once a week over the summer, I'll get in the habit and be better about it in the future.
9. Watch 5 classic movies I've never seen - I haven't chosen these yet. I'll look at lists of Best Picture winners and best movies of all times and find some that I've been meaning to watch but just haven't made it to yet. I love old movies!
10. Have 6 friends pick favorite movies I've never seen and watch them - I did this a few years ago and it was really fun! I've asked Jane, Kate, Callie, Josh, Will, and Kevin to pick movies. It's kind of a hard process because I've seen a lot of movies that people suggest at first, but it's fun to find ones I haven't seen! I'll update later when they've all picked movies for me.
11. Update pictures in frames in my room - I have a lot of pictures from the last few years I've been meaning to print and a lot of frames to put them in. I want to finally do that this summer.
12. Memorize the presidents in order - This was a goal last summer and I don't think I even worked on it a little. It's something I think I need to know if I want to be on Jeopardy someday, so I want to work on it.
13. Eat at 5 Ft. Worth restaurants I've never tried before - I love FW and one of my favorite things about it is all the unique restaurants we have. There are lots I've never been to, so I want to try some new ones.
14. Visit music class with Caitlin, Stacey, and Chavon - I won't be babysitting this summer, so I can finally go! I've heard some great stories about this class and I can't wait to see their little boys interacting with each other!
1. Go swing dancing with Allison at least once, preferably more often - There was a period of my life where I went swing dancing 3 times a week, and I definitely miss it! Allison has been going consistently and I want to join her. I'm looking forward to getting a group of friends together because it's always more fun with a lot of people.
2. Eat only mexican food for a week - So you know how you love a food so much that you say you could eat it every day? We were talking about it in Belize and I decided I should test it. I don't eat breakfast, so I actually think this'll be really easy. And delicious!
3. Scat Jazz Lounge Black Dog night at least once - Long ago there was a place called the Black Dog and they had a free jazz jam every Sunday night. It was glorious. I recently learned that Scat has started hosting it again and I have GOT to go. Who's in? Great music, great friends, maybe we can use the swing dancing from goal #1!
4. Read at least 5 classics I've never read before - I always want to make sure I'm well-read, and I feel like I've been focusing too much on contemporary lit lately, so it's time for some classics. I spent a long time coming up with my 5 - Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin, Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne, and The Once and Future King by T.H. White. If I finish these, I have a backup list ready to go.
5. Hang out with Elle, Alyssa, and Bailey - Every time we see each other at parties we talk about how we want to hang out and then it never happens. Well ladies, now it's on the list, so it's happening. Get excited!
7. Make salsa - I freaking love salsa and I want to make my own. It'll be fun to try different recipes and find a good one.
8. Blog once a week - In January, Jen talked me into starting this blog. I've written on here 8 times. I figure if I blog at least once a week over the summer, I'll get in the habit and be better about it in the future.
9. Watch 5 classic movies I've never seen - I haven't chosen these yet. I'll look at lists of Best Picture winners and best movies of all times and find some that I've been meaning to watch but just haven't made it to yet. I love old movies!
10. Have 6 friends pick favorite movies I've never seen and watch them - I did this a few years ago and it was really fun! I've asked Jane, Kate, Callie, Josh, Will, and Kevin to pick movies. It's kind of a hard process because I've seen a lot of movies that people suggest at first, but it's fun to find ones I haven't seen! I'll update later when they've all picked movies for me.
11. Update pictures in frames in my room - I have a lot of pictures from the last few years I've been meaning to print and a lot of frames to put them in. I want to finally do that this summer.
12. Memorize the presidents in order - This was a goal last summer and I don't think I even worked on it a little. It's something I think I need to know if I want to be on Jeopardy someday, so I want to work on it.
13. Eat at 5 Ft. Worth restaurants I've never tried before - I love FW and one of my favorite things about it is all the unique restaurants we have. There are lots I've never been to, so I want to try some new ones.
14. Visit music class with Caitlin, Stacey, and Chavon - I won't be babysitting this summer, so I can finally go! I've heard some great stories about this class and I can't wait to see their little boys interacting with each other!
Do you have summer goals? What are they?
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