December 2004

School's Out, or "What I'm Doing in My Free Time"

As all faithful ERI fans are aware, there are two groups in society that consistently earn the disdain of Godzilla & Grandpa-right-wing talking heads (such as Ann Coulter) and graduate students. I have recently become one of the latter.

Despite this, I continued to make small contributions to Evil Robots. Probably even kept up with my contribution pace of the last year or two. I'm trying hard to stand out from all of the other grad students they know who have become seldom-seen former contributors. After all, I think Grandpa's kinda cute, & I'd like him to think nice thoughts about me.

My last class of the semester ended the evening of December 21. It was a grueling semester toward the end. I hardly had time to keep up with my logs, if you know what I mean. With the spring semester starting on January 24, I have plenty of time to laze around before my life heads back into the mega-work zone. And, where better to detail my kickin' back plans than on Evil Robots, right?

My month of kickin' back started with buying a mass market mystery novel, The Death of a Princeton President. No serious read-all-the-words books for me. Oh no. This is my break. I'll read fluff with pride. The Death of a Princeton President consists of around 200 pages of name-dropping of buildings and businesses in the vicinity of Princeton University. Of side interest, there's also a murder investigation or something like that. It was alright, but the author forget to have anyone eat at Teresa's, my favorite restaurant in town. All in all, it set the right tone for my holiday.

Next I started reading a novel I got for Christmas. The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror by Christopher Moore has moved right to the top of my book recommendations list. I wish I had presents to buy all over again so I could give it to everyone. Even with some serious time spent veggin' out in front of any ol' crap on the TeeVee (another part of my plan for the semester break, by the way), I finished The Stupidest Angel in maybe three days.

I've read a number of other Christopher Moore books & loved all of them. Having a prior knowledge of the kooky characters from Pine Cove makes The Stupidest Angel even better, but it's not really necessary. He does a good job of introducing all of the ways they're a weird bunch without boring the repeat readers.

Because I know you've all opened a new window & headed over to Powells or Amazon to order The Stupidest Angel already, I'll stay sparse with the details. Here's the critical selling points for why even non-readers like Grandpa should pick this up. The Pine Cove locals mistake the angel for a child molester. Much sword-brandishing is done by Kendra, Warrior Babe of the Outland. The town constable's wife gives him a $600 custom-made glass bong for Christmas. And, of course, the undead crash a Christmas party to suck people's brains out.

Now that's the way to kick back after a crazy semester! Next up for the month of kickin' back is getting' my buzz on, reading another absurd story by Christopher Moore, and convincing Grandpa that we should have mac n' chee for dinner every night.