Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal. — Albert Camus
EppsNet Archive: Albert Camus
11th Grade Reading List
My son and I went to Barnes and Noble in Irvine this weekend to buy the books on his 11th grade Euro Lit reading list: A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf, Candide by Voltaire, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, and The Stranger by Albert Camus. “Have you read any of these books?” I asked the checkout girl. “I’ve read Candide and Pride and Prejudice,” she said. “Candide is fun. Virginia Woolf is kind of a downer though, isn’t she? Didn’t she kill herself? “She did,” the girl admitted. “Doesn’t that set a bad example for the kids?” The Irvine store didn’t have the edition of Ivan Denisovich that the boy needed but the guy at customer service was able to call around and find a copy at the Aliso Viejo store. The boy was beside… Read more →
Daily Twitter for 2009-03-16
RT @presentationzen: So what is the good life anyway? http://snipurl.com/dx3od [Mark Albion’s animated movie – worth your 3 minutes] # John Wooden on failures and mistakes: http://tinyurl.com/d2keaf # Haiku on The Myth of Sisyphus: Master of his days / Could Sisyphus be happy? / Camus says he is. # Read more →
Haiku on The Myth of Sisyphus
Master of his days, Could Sisyphus be happy? Camus says he is. Read more →
The One-Sentence Motivator
My friend G.L. Hoffman has a great post over at U.S. News and World Report called “The One-Sentence Motivator.” His own one-sentence motivator (spoiler alert) is “Be the man you dreamed you could be when you were a little boy.” Here’s mine: To those who despair of everything reason cannot provide a faith, but only passion, and in this case it must be the same passion that lay at the root of the despair, namely humiliation and hatred. — Albert Camus It’s not as heartwarming as the little boy one but it gets me out of bed in the morning . . . Read more →
Le Hamster est Mort
Bowser died today. Or, maybe, yesterday; I can’t be sure. (French literature buffs are screaming with laughter right now. Trust me.) I feel bad that we didn’t pay as much attention to him after we got the dog, but I guess that’s why pugs cost $1,000 and hamsters cost six bucks. Read more →