October, November, and probably this is it for December

Well, those months went to my dissertation. Which is done. Finally. (and some teaching). I feel like a guilty blogger. So many things I should have written about/should write about. First semester trials and tribulations, successes and failures at teaching new media (next week is the last week of class). To do and not to do not next semester. Works to teach and not to teach. Pedagogies to embrace and avoid. Observations about New Jersey cuisine. Watching my students take to blogging (and not take to it). Reminder to self to write about the students who took to it and made actual cool web logs at the same time as they fulfilled the assignments. Conversation with Wardrip Fruin about his take on electronic writing. Talking elit archiving in Santa Fe after too little sleep and too much stress (see dissertation). Resolution to study Moulthrop's Reagan Library more carefully and to teach it. Reading Kind of Blue, the serial email novel thingie I wrote last summer in NYC. Tips to stay sane for new faculty finishing dissertations. Recipes. Thoughts on redistribution of said email novel. Thoughts about collaborative writing assignments for next semester's multimedia production class. Resolution never to try cooking fresh cranberries in rice again. Finally, a vegetarian lasagna I can live with. Resolution to quit smoking cigarettes, for real this time. Thoughts on Yuengling beer (pronounced Ying Ling) and why I like ordering it more than drinking it. Observations on southern Jersey resort culture. Thought that I could never be any but an irresponsible blogger. Could blog only when other pressing concerns (such as book review half written) were pressing, as distraction. Note to cite student Mary Beth Fisher I think comment on blogging while knowing that her teachers are reading it. Shock that this blog thing is the first thing that comes up when you do a google search on me. Mortified. Rant against New Jersey automobile registration procedures and exorbitant insurance rates. Thoughts on turning thirty-two, 2x2x2x2x2. Elation over successful defense, corresponding improvement in love life. List of films involving madness and creativity. Resolution to start using two spaces after a period again because it now feels charmingly anachronistic. Search for email system to distribute Kind of Blue as a single-user anytime opt-in mailing. After proofreading it. But not putting in any semicolons. And bringing murder subplot to less abrupt resolution. More Ernesto. Resolution to accomplish said in early spring. Resolution never to become stressed out again by deadlines. Resolution concerning UN Resolutions. Note to make list of New Year's resolutions. Realization that I only got caught up on my electronic literature reading by forcing students to do presentations on works I hadn't read. Resolution to do the same next semester. Thoughts on actual critical book Electronic Literature: a User's Manual. Private note to analyze why I like recycling other people's titles. List of people to interview for book. Resolution to interview Larry McCaffery on interviewing people before interviewing anyone else. Resolution to try at least six new recipes before the end of February, including three vegetarian. Appreciation of Chicago visit. Thoughts on language acquisition. Appreciation of Karen's cooking. Resolution to purchase pasta maker. At some point. Thoughts on likelihood that I will get searched at airport. Oh yes Shelley Jackson's visit and story idea I should have recommended to her for that GQ knockoff mag she's writing for –on eroticism of contemporary airport searches. Also remarks I should have written on her reading of “Phlegm” in Jersey. Also remarks on the Remote Lounge where I read with Montfort and Steph Strickland, the venue far more interesting than we were. Obvious Foucauldian aspects might make such ironically difficult to theorize. Rants. More rants. Resolution to write a short story for print this summer. Resolution to learn Flash but not to become seduced by it. Resolution to travel to another country, even Canada. To stay in better touch with friends. And where are the great American hypertext novels? Resolution to send Mark Bernstein a note of congratulations as soon as he conquers this task by finishing his enovel about the perverted elf photographer. Can't believe I mentioned that. Mortified. Resolution to stop writing resolutions. Resolution to write more less serious hypertext. Appreciation of Joseph Tabbi as sommelier. Comparison and contrast on Nick Montfort and Dirk Stratton's habits re: exotic beverages. Resolution to write about Atlantic City. Regrets on bit lit project Montfort owed. Resolution to stop writing in the blog and to get back to the second page of that book review. Resolution to finish my book review before Koskimaa finishes his. Preferably now. Resolution to publish something in the New Yorker within the next few months, failing that the Paris Review, failing that GQ (see piece on eroticism of airport searches), failing that, Boy's Life, failing that, Newspoetry. Expression of regrets that Newspoetry, for the last several years the sole publisher of my poetry, now more or less going under mothballs, yet another casualty of the Bush economy. Regrets on not writing on last election. Resolution to return to my comic roots periodically. Resolution to write another play. To always wear a jacket and tie to Christmas parties if I'm unsure of their formality. To begin cheering for one of the successful Philadelphia sports franchises without giving up my self-abusingly ingrained fandom for Chicago's losers. Resolution to read more Algren. Where are the great American novels? Resolution to catch up on Chabon book over break and additionally all other novels written by great American novelists now funded by the Department of State as part of the cultural war on terrorism. Note to self: drop note to Dept. of State volunteering to be funded by them. Note to self: never pass up a junket to Europe again, or Asia. Remember to buy flowers. Write more. Develop secret agenda and publish it in your weblog. Spend several hours before the end of the year proofreading the Unknown. For laughs. Do this at least once a year. With mulled wine, or hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps. Learn how to order Indian food capably without Wittig's help. Iron trousers. Start reviewing restaurants in South Jersey and publish said reviews in your Web log. Add relatives’ birthdays to computer calendar. Send emails to friends you've not written to in several years. Attach new recipes. Read Richard Powers' new novel. And Nabokov's Pale Fire. Before the New Year read Pale Fire. That about covers it. Never reveal the secret of your internal disorganization, but always publish your secret agenda. Less TV. Catch up on videogames for scholarly reasons. More satisfaction. Get Elvis album with that song. Also soundtrack to I am Sam with all the cool Beatles covers. Note to self: write long essay on note to self as a subgenre of metafiction. Try William's trick of writing without stopping each day for thirty minutes. Write Harry Mathews a holiday note using an obscure oulipan technique without explaining to him what that trick is. Read Harry Mathews Cigarettes and Journalist by Spring. Back to the book review.