April 2, 2009

1. I have started getting on more friendly terms with some of my students, chatting with them before and after classes. I've learned that among my students are a reverse-engineer for China's space program, a PLA general who works in the strategic planning division, several actors and dancers, and a full-fledged corporate spy. It's a real cast of characters. So far, no poets.

2. Rereading Stephanie Young's Picture Palace. I have dog-earred pages 52-3 for future consideration.

3. I have been amassing 1 yuan peasant notebooks like they are going out of style. Not sure what I plan on doing with all of them, but they make a lovely stack on my dining room table that I am using as an office.

4. I like the story behind the name of the old lit magazine Big Table. Kerouac wrote a letter to editor Irving Rosenthal saying he should get a big table . . . .

5. I think I lost my digital camera.

6. Sha and I are going to the Arrow Factory this afternoon. I will report later if there is anything to report.

7. One of the outfielders on my fantasy baseball team may get called up mid-season for military service in Korea. My second round draft choice isn't recovering well from kidney surgery over the break. And I don't know why, but I am keeping Jack Cust as a bench-warmer.

8. I get Saturday off for Tomb Sweeping Day, which means I have three days free (I usually get Thursday and Friday off). I may go to Tianjin just for the hell of it. Word is it's boring and an industrial shithole. This may just make me nostalgic for Oakland and Detroit.