Nonsense, Drivel, and Balderdash

A few days ago, the governor announced that Boston would be in a state of emergency this week. I found this amusing because, in my mind, he Jacob household had already planned to be in a state of emergency on January 26 long before any satellites had begun promising signs snow. My amusement was short-lived however as the reality of the situation began to sink in and I began to picture my wife giving birth in the back of a hospital bound Toyota Matrix that has gotten stuck in the snow. Fortunately, before full panic set in, my aunt called me and offered to put us up in hotel just half a mile from the hospital. That is where we are now. Right now, Jessica is sleeping, sprawled out, stretched in ways that are only possible when you aren't sharing a bed. I count six different pillows, each positioned strategically to alleviate her burdens.  Pregnancy has not been gentle on her, and different discomforts have disturbed her slumber for the past three or four months now. Seeing he...

Today my hard drive in my laptop died. Out of the blue. No warning or courtesy call. It just up and died after the battery ran low. It was as if it lost its will to live as the computer ran out of juice. Maybe it was in love with the battery and it didn't understand that it could be recharged. And so, like Romeo, it took its own life as its love went into a deep sleep. Needless to say, the battery was quite taken aback by this once she awoke, sending the whole system into flashing folder icons on my screen, which I can only assume are my computer's way of expressing deep grief. I took the computer to the manufacturer's store today and they said it would be ready to pick up in 5 days, once they have ordered and received the right components needed to repair the machine. Unfortunately, all the data on the old machine will be lost. For the most part, this isn't a great tragedy. My computer was relatively new and, as such, most of the information on it was brought over f...

I have been floating in the same place for months now and my writing reflects it. Looking back at my past few blog posts, I can't help but cringe a bit. Some whiny meta-writing  and a cliche-ridden entry about snorkeling. Not my best work.        In some ways, I think I enjoyed blogging the most when I was at the height of confessional blogging towards the end of college. Reading through my old blog posts, the ones that stand out the most are the ones with some heart, the ones that took emotional risks. Sure, those risks were often cheesy and angsty, but my introspection frequently yielded decent writing and growth. Like I said, it wasn't always brilliant "writing" but there was an element of personal substance that has been missing of late. Perhaps I should simply embrace that cheesy, heart-on-sleeve personal writing that I started with. It is cathartic and easy, which would be good, since writing hasn't come easily of late. My will to blog has dried up ...

When you grow up overseas, your visions of American life are mostly formed by what you have seen on-screen. As a kid who had actually been to the US, I often found myself having to correct people's incorrect, Hollywood-created opinions. I would shake my head and smile at the Spaniards who thought that America was either some variant of Malibu opulence or a ghetto survivalism, that American cuisine was exclusively pizza and hamburgers, etc. These stereotypes were easy to make into movies and theme parks, but they were inaccurate. In many ways, Hollywood works almost exclusively with archetypes and stereotypes. I had spent so many years refuting these gross over-generalizations  that I was genuinely surprised when I arrived in the public school classroom that I will be teaching in this year. For someone who never went to school in America, it feels strange and surreal to enter a public school building here. It feels like you are on the set of a movie or television show, becaus...

It is hard to find the right balance between activity and rest, but this past weekend was nice. Sometimes you spend too much time resting and end up more tired than if you had just gone out and done something. Sometimes your mind is what is tired, and activity ends up being more restful, even if your body takes some coaxing. Friday night, Jessica and I went to see Over the Rhine play a concert downtown. It was a good show. They had a good band and have good stage presence. The audience was older than I expected. I expected mostly mid/late-twentysomethings with a smattering of older fans in their thirties (the band has been around since the mid 90s after all), you know, an older hipster crowd. Instead, we were on the younger side of their fans. Most of them were in their 30s, 40s, and 50s. Actually, I swear that my old Biblical studies professor, Elaine Phillips, was there. I stared at her for a long time and couldn't disprove it. I think the nicest thing was that they played in a...