9/11 Comission Report Quote
Former President Clinton, frustrated by the US inability to strike at Usama Bin Ladin and al Qaeda, said to General Hugh Shelton:
You know, it would scare the shit out of al-Quaeda if suddenly a bunch of black ninjas rappelled out of helicopters into the middle of their camp.
It goes to show even presidents are just as human as the rest of us.
My First Writing
Although I’m formally a computer science major at Cornell University, I am not an engineer. Taking full advantage of the dual-college degree program, my enrollment in the College of Arts & Sciences enriches my educational experience with fascinating language and writing courses, such as:
ENGL 185: RE-DO FALL OF TROY
COM L 201: GREAT BOOKS
ENGL 270: THE READING OF FICTION
ENGL 289: EXPOSITORY WRITING
ENGL 354: BRITISH MODERNIST NOVEL
CHIN 101: ELEM STANDARD CHINESE-MANDARIN
SPANR 209: SPANISH INTERMED
In addition to this Faulkner course (English 368), I am also enrolled in English 406, a study of the media blowup, political atmosphere, and public reaction surrounding the events of 9/11. And, while not directly related, I am continuing to study Chinese this semester with Chinese 102, an exploration of a world without conjugated verbs.
I work for myself, running a small network of web sites that dispense my content and scholarship to the hungry masses for a 6% return in advertisement clicks per thousand visitors. I am a paragon of simplicity, and am in the middle of a major reorganization of my online presence to better categorize and interleave my articles. In my spare time, I additionally enjoy guitar & music, reading & poetry, and my social life & girlfriend.
From Faulkner I expect little. I want to see an intelligent lens peering out at Southern race issues from before my time. I want to see carefully crafted prose and a good story. In other words, nothing will please me more than to carefully read this so-called master writer. Perhaps I will read Faulkner and come to find an inferior kind of writing, latent abuse of sensible perception, or some other hidden travesty, but this would only heighten my interest in the works themselves. It has been quite a while since I’ve had the chance to read good literature.