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Monday, July 14, 2014

A Bastille Day Present 

Five months have passed since my last blog post, a nostalgic throwback to my days as a public school educator inspired by the blizzard-based cancellation of my recent university seminar. Since then a great deal has happened, both to me personally (e.g. I survived my semester of teaching and made progress on my book manuscript!) and the world at large (e.g. Russia invaded Ukraine, and the Malaysians lost an airplane!), and yet I chose not to remark on any of it.  Once again, I can only attribute this trend to the presence of other social media platforms and a recognition that compared to my previous life in the classroom, people simply are not as interested in the daily travails of an itinerant academic.

If that is the case, why am I breaking radio silence--if that is even the right term to use when talking about a blog--on this particular occasion? I suppose the answer to that question has something to do with a sense of obligation that I feel towards you, my loyal yet dwindling readership, and to myself, both now and in the future. Because today, the 14th of July, is my birthday, and every year since I staked out this little square of online real estate, I have taken it upon myself to jot down some wisdom that I have picked up during my most recent trip around the sun. Even if no one decides to read what I have to say, I would hate to break the tradition. At a bare minimum, it is a useful and constructive exercise to schedule some time for self-reflection. And who knows? Perhaps in a few years, I will want to get a sense of who I was in the summer of 2014, and this brief essay will provide at least a partial answer to that question.

On a professional level, not much has changed over the past year. There have been ups and downs, certainly, but I remain a postdoctoral researcher in the same institution that has employed me since defending my dissertation in 2011. I have also been able to maintain the same apartment, just a block away from my office, which guarantees that I will retain the shortest commute of anyone I know, at least for a little while. Most of my friendships here in the city are work-based, which can be something of a mixed blessing. Outside of work, I retain ties with the few people I still know around Old Ivy, but most of my peers have graduated and lately I have begun to feel a bit out of place, even at my biweekly pub quiz. In all likelihood, I will need to find a new social outlet a bit closer to home. Exactly what form that will take remains to be determined. Perhaps I can find a new extracurricular activity or find a more structured way to pursue some of my existing interests. Either way, that's something I would like to concentrate on during the coming year.

At the same time, I do not want to lose touch with friends who are further away. After all, I have no excuse. Compared to most of them, I am fortunate to have a relatively flexible work schedule. Moreover, unlike a growing number of my peers, I am neither married nor a parent. I am unattached, except for commitments that I have largely taken on of my own volition. So why is it that despite having numerous technologies at my disposal that enable instantaneous contact, I have found it so difficult to stay connected beyond the most superficial level? Sometimes I wonder if this centrifugal fracturing an inevitable part of growing older or if it merely feels that way due to my own actions. I would like to believe it is the latter, because it offers the possibility of change. And in the end, what could be more inspiring than the knowledge that even if life seems terrible that there are things we can do to make them better?

Whether or not I succeed in this endeavor over the course of the next year remains to be seen. For the present, however, I can at least make up for my recent stint of blogging inactivity by posting the overdue answers to this year's movie quote contest. This year's crop of quotations was trickier than most, so thanks to everyone who submitted guesses this time around. Our winner was none other than Ramblin' Dave, the only person on my blogroll who still posts updates from time to time. He will be receive our customary prize, an Invisible Trophy to place on his mantle.

Until next year, have a happy Bastille Day!


The 2014 Holiday Movie Quote Contest-ANSWERS
1. “Something familiar, something peculiar, something for everyone...a comedy tonight!”
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
 
2. “Did you ever hear the story of the old woman who shook her head at the family so much that one night it fell off? Right on the dinner table.”
Hans Christian Andersen
 
3. “You teach yourselves the law, but I train your minds. You come in here with a skull full of mush. You leave thinking like a lawyer.”
The Paper Chase
 
4. “Ain't a son of a bitch in the world has to know we're in that pool. We'd just be a few old farts paddlin' around in that pool. Who's gonna know?
Cocoon
 
5. “All my life I had to fight. I had to fight my daddy. I had to fight my uncles. I had to fight my brothers. A girl child ain't safe in a family of men, but I ain't never thought I'd have to fight in my own house.”
The Color Purple
 
6. “You don't know who I am. You don't know where I am. And you'll never see me coming.”
Iron Man 3
 
7. “You're a very nosy fellow, kitty cat. Huh? You know what happens to nosy fellows? Huh? No? Wanna guess? Huh? No? Okay. They lose their noses!”
Chinatown
 
8. “With my brains and your looks, we could go places!”
The Postman Always Rings Twice
 
9. “Don't eat the car! Not the car! Oh, what am I yelling at you for? You're a dog!"
Turner & Hooch
 
10. “You know what they used to call Alcatraz in the old days?
“What?”
“Bird Island.”
The Birdman of Alcatraz
 
11. “You've tricked and fooled you readers for years. You've tortured us all with surprise endings that made no sense. You've introduced characters in the last five pages that were never in the book before. You've withheld clues and information that made it impossible for us to guess who did it. But now the tables are turned!”
Murder by Death
 
12. “All I know is I have to catch an Austrian Airlines flight tomorrow morning at 9:30 and I don't really have enough money for a hotel, so I was just going to walk around, and it would be a lot more fun if you came with me.”
Before Sunrise
 
13. “Today, we are canceling the apocalypse!”
Pacific Rim
 
14. “Of course, I can get a hell of a good look at a T-bone steak by sticking my head up a bull's ass, but I'd rather take the butcher's word for it.”
Tommy Boy
 
15. “Listen to me, Mister! You're my knight in shining armor. Don't forget it. You're going to get back on that horse, and I'm going to be right behind you, holding on tight and away we're going to go, go, go!”
On Golden Pond
 
16. “Who expects a psychologist to think? Especially when you are so busy thinking what you think other people are thinking?”
Bedtime for Bonzo
 
17. “You can lose all your points for any one of three things. One: If you cry. Two: If you ask to see your mother. Three: If you're hungry and ask for a snack. Forget it!
Life is Beautiful
 
18. “Well, I'll hazard I can do more damage on my laptop sitting in my pajamas before my first cup of Earl Grey than you can do in a year in the field.”
Skyfall
 
19. It's like looking in a mirror. Only...not.
Face/Off
 
20. “We must get beyond passions, like a great work of art. In such miraculous harmony. We should love each other outside of time...detached.”
La Dolce Vita
 
21. “Hemingway did have one plot suggestion. He doesn't quite believe that the protagonist doesn't see that his fiancée is having an affair right before his eyes.”
Midnight in Paris
 
22. “When you give up your dream, you die.”
Flashdance
 
23. “Clang, clang, clang went the trolley. Ding, ding, ding went the bell. Zing, zing, zing went my heartstrings, as we started for Huntingdon dell.”
Meet Me in St. Louis
 
24. “You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!”
The Italian Job
 
25. “Mike, let me tell you something. The whole world is a circus if you know how to look at it. The way the sun goes down when you're tired, comes up when you want to be on the move. That's real magic.”
7 Faces of Dr. Lao
 
26. “Falling in love is a crazy thing to do. It's like a socially acceptable form of insanity.”
Her
 
27. “He was like a god walking amongst mere mortals. He had a voice that could make a wolverine purr and suits so fine they made Sinatra look like a hobo.”
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
 
28. “You stole your father's armor, ran away from home, impersonated a soldier, deceived your command officer, dishonored the Chinese Army, destroyed my palace, and...you have saved us all.”
Mulan
 
29. “His real name is Charles Lee Ray, and he's been sent down from heaven by Daddy to play with me.”
Child's Play

30. “There's no room for personal feelings in science, Judith!”
The Quatermass Xperiment
 
31. “This box is full of stuff that almost killed me.”
The Hurt Locker
 
32. “If something should happen to me, put on my suit. The reindeer will know what to do.”
The Santa Clause
 
33. “Inside the center my boys would be clean, and outside they'd be surrounded by the same rotten corruption and crime and criminals. Yes, yourself included.”
Angels With Dirty Faces

34.”Why did I take up stealing? To live better. To own things I couldn't afford. To acquire this good taste that you now enjoy and which I should be very reluctant to give up.”
To Catch a Thief
 
35. “I can't offer you a legally binding union. It won't hold up in the state, the county, or frankly, any courtroom in the world, due to your age, lack of a license, and failure to get parental consent. But the ritual does carry a very important moral weight within yourselves.”
Moonrise Kingdom
 
36. “It's better to help people than garden gnomes.”
Amelie
 
37. “I don't want to be rich and respectable. I want to be just like the rest of you.”
The Sons of Katie Elder
 
38. “I see. So what you're saying is that even though you are an almost-paralyzed, multiphobic personality who is in a constant state of panic, your wife did not leave you. You left her because she...liked Neil Diamond?”
What About Bob?
 
39. “Me, I'm gonna have more money than you ever thought you could have...you and all the rest of you stinkin' sons of...Benedicts!”
Giant
 
40. “The war started when people accepted the idiotic principle that peace could be maintained by arranging to defend themselves with weapons they couldn't possibly use without committing suicide.”
On the Beach
 
41. “Weigh anchor! How much does it weigh? I don't know...I forgot!”
Up in Smoke
 
42. “You just point the damned thing at Earth. It's not rocket science.”
Gravity
 
43. “I'm gonna find the guy who invented Xylocaine and kiss his ass on Hollywood and Vine!”
Hooper
 
44. “I'll give you the best performance you ever saw in hotel bedroom.”
Room Service
 
45. “Kowalski! We'll need to win the hearts and minds of the natives. Rico! We'll need special tactical equipment. We're gonna face extreme peril. Private probably won't survive.”
Madagascar
 
46. “As the good book says, if you spit in the air, it lands in your face.”
Fiddler on the Roof
 
47. “I'll do to you things that are beyond all known philosophies! Wait until I get my devices.”
Barbarella
 
48. “I have never seen blood crystals as anemic as these. They may be mental giants, but physically, by our standards, they must be very primitive.”
The War of the Worlds
 
49. “I was abducted into the Prussian army two years ago, and now have been put into your service by my Captain Potzdorf, and his uncle, the Minister of Police to serve as a watch upon your actions.”
Barry Lyndon
 
50. “I'll be back!”
Only in a rerun.”
The Running Man

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