Another Quickie

I have been reading about China, as many of you know. A lot. A HUGE amount. 1500 pages worth, to be exact. I have read or will by Thursday:

About Face: A History of America's Curious Relationship with China, From Nixon to Clinton (435 pages)

The United States and China: Into the Twenty-First Century (242)

China's Use of Military Force: Beyond the Great Wall and the Long March (291)

The River at the Center of the World: A Journey Up the Yangtze, and Back in Chinese Time (414)

The Travels of Marco Polo, by Marco Polo, beginning in 1297 (291)

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I also have a number of class-related ends to tie up, such as my 4000-word profile story on a professor, which needs to be revised, and some other papers for Dr. Adams.

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Thanksgiving was a success, even with the 25% expansion of our family from my brother's new wife, children and in-laws. Much turkey, ham, and rolls were had. And party mints—my favorite.

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From now until January, I will be extremely busy, staying in Waco writing 20 pages of short stories and preparing grad applications, as well a final push for studying for the almighty GRE. Hopefully, during December, the State Department will call me for another internship next summer.

Other than the latter, nothing to speak of has occurred here in Jonathanland, which, potentially, does nothing for the already-nonexistent rating for this blog. Nevertheless, this relfects a highly stressful part of my life in college as I prepare to graduate, and is limited to school-related activities and maybe a few others in there as well. I do go to all the Lady Bears basketball games, however, to take a break from working and schoolwork.

This is the short list of things that have gone wrong with our apartment:

Leaky faucets, toilets, bad showerheads

broken A/C causing two $230 electric bills (one month)

balcony cracked all the way through, a potential collapse could take place

broken bathroom vent

broken garbage disposal

you could see light coming all the way around our doorway from the inside, allowing cold air to just go outside

cricket infestation, though temporary

ant infestation, up until a week ago...we still have them but we sprayed the crap out of the place with our own poisen and then the poisen people came and sprayed

and now what do we have? A












Yes. A mouse. Iran said that Israel should be wiped off the map. So should our garbage dump apartment complex.

Panda!

I was a Panda last Thursday...

Randomly came across this little guy too, called a Kleine Panda. =]

Me, Me, Me....Me too

Yes, a new post is at hand. But is it worth reading? Who knows. Will anyone read it? Not sure.

Things have heated up around here, including the physical temperature outside, but as far as I go, things have been sizzling:

1) studying for my second GRE exam
2) Reading the 1,500 pages of books for my reading course on U.S.-Sino (China) relations
3) Discovering what I want to do for a living
4) The always-present possibility of me actually dating someone
5) Writing articles for the Lariat
6) Writing short stories for the application to UT's Michener Center for Writers
7) Writing entrance statements for: Carnegie Mellon University, Chatham College, Saint Joseph's University (all professional writing programs)
8) School work
9) Working in the library producing press releases and interviewing people for a promotional video

Next semester plans:

An internship with Baylor Press (Baylor's publishing arm) is on the horizon. That will be the equivalent of, count it, a total of FOUR internships. Yeah, take it! The course is a 'Professional Writing Internship' through the English Department. And I already know a girl working there; perhaps, just perhaps, I could find a way to get it paid. How could I work at the library and work 155 hours at Baylor Press at the same time? Answer: not possible. Figure that out later.

Last week

I dressed up as a panda. Yes, a panda. Why would Jonathan pull such an out-of-character charade? Well, author Lynne Truss came to Baylor, author of the NY Times best-seller Eats, Shoots and Leaves. The book is about punctuation, but from a humorous British author. The title is from a joke about a badly-punctuated wild-life manual that says that a panda "eats, shoots and leaves." Which is basically a killer bear. No comma would have discussed the panda's eating habits: eats shoots and leaves. Got it? Anyway, I dressed up in a big panda suit for the occasion; fun times. Pictures soon, hopefully.

This coming weekend

I will be heading to San Antonio for KXA's annual formal. It's been about two years since I went on KD's Take-a-Date to Dallas, so this should be fun.