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.
Personal Spam from the Pope
The Pope Ratzinger has sent me this nice spam email:
Attn: Your Humble Goodself.
RE: OFFER FROM THE VATICAN CHURCH, VATICAN CITY.
Greetings to you from the office of the Holy Father of the Vatican Church, Vatican City, Rome Italy.
We are writing this letter to you today as a Holy offer/opportunity to work for the Vatican Church, Vatican City Rome Italy, as our only official secret distributor of charity funds to our several registered charity organizations around this global earth with topmost secrecy.
In August 9 1903 when Giuseppe Sarto assumed office as the second pope of the Vatican Church Vatican city as Pope Pius PP. X, he included a new amendment to the constitution of the Vatican Church, which relates that as a result of the continuous rising several cases of corruption and mis-use of the funds allocated by the Vatican Church to charity organizations, via the power of the Cardinals of the Vatican Church, the appointment of the official distributor of funds allocated by the Vatican Church for distribution to registered charity organizations, MUST be secretly issued to a non Vatican Church individual/personnel, who must be unknown by all living person’s except the office of the Holy Father and the official holy Treasurer of the Vatican Church, in-order to curb and eliminate the continuous rising several cases of corruption and mis-use of the charity funds, since without the knowledge of the official distributor by any other personnel of the Vatican Church except from the office of the Holy Father and the official holy treasurer of the Vatican Church, the corruption cases would be brought to an immediate halt, and this new measure worked perfectly well from that time till this current time frame.
In the Addendum of this new amendment contained in the constitution of the Vatican Church, it is also clearly stated that every new Pope assuming office in the Vatican Church, must select a new official secret distributor for his regime, and upon his death, his selected official secret distributor must immediately have his/her post terminated, with the replacement of a new official secret distributor, secretly chosen by the new governing Pope only.
And with the passing away of our previous Pope, Ioannes Paulus PP. II Karol Wojtyla as Pope John Paul II on April the 2nd of 2005, and with the recent appointment of I Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedictus XVI on April the 19th of 2005, the previous secret distributor in Pope John Paul II time has been relieved of his position, and as a result a new secret distributor is immediately required without delay to serve till my regime is over via death.
In the light of the above related sentences, you have been nominated by this Holy office of the Holy Father of the Vatican Church Vatican City, to be our secret distributor of charity funds to our several registered charity organizations around this global earth SECRETLY with topmost secrecy, in which you would be continually paid a commission of 10% only, of every total amount of funds released to your goodself every four (4) months by the reputable funds organization the Vatican Church holds its charity funds in, for immediate distribution to our several registered charity organizations around the world, as charity funds from the Vatican Church Vatican City.
In-order to pre-qualify for this secret official Holy post in the Vatican Church, you must satisfy our basic requirements below;
1. You must be a honest, straightforward and God fearing individual.
2 You must be an aristocrat or an influential rich individual with a designated bank account in a reputable Bank, which can completely and always accommodate the released charity funds to your goodself, without the need of questioning by relevant authorities.
3. You must be 100% fully ready and oblige to keep your post as our only official secret distributor of charity funds as Topmost secret, and guide this secret post in the Vatican Church Vatican City with your life.
4. You must not for any reason perform as not required by the office of the Holy Father i.e embezzlement and mis-use of charity funds.
5. You must at all time adhere fully and promptly to the instructions furnished your goodself by the office of the Holy Father of the Vatican Church.Please kindly note that, Age, Sex, Religion, and Nationality, does not in any way affect your qualification eligibility, so if your humble goodself is confident and eligible for this secret holy post in the Vatican church, please kindly respond immediately to this electronic message by sending your personal response to our direct secret email address at (office_ofthe_holyfather@vatican-churchcity.org) from your private/personal email address without delay, and we shall guide you through the mandatory required steps to attain the secret holy post.
Thank you for your time as we expect your goodself to keep this electronic contact as topmost secret, in-order to protect the interest of the Vatican Church, Vatican City, Rome Italy, while we await your personal response from your personal email address to our secret email address.
Remain blessed and best regard’s from the office of the Holy Father of the Vatican Church and please take time out to visit our official website at (www.vaticanchurch-vat.org) and to view our profile please kindly visit (www.vaticanchurch-vat.org/holy_father/benedict_xvi/index.htm)
God Bless you.
Office of the Vatican Church,
Pope Benedictus XVI
Joseph Ratzinger
Pope,
Vatican Church,
Vatican City.
Rome, Italy.
Website address: www.vaticanchurch-vat.org
Harry Potter has arrived!
I had put in an Amazon.com pre-order of Harry Potter 6 (HP6), and it’s finally arrived! It was delivered to my doorstep by the early afternoon, in a very slick box:
The sides of the box have “Who is the half-blood prince?” and “Harry potter and the half-blood prince: by JK Rowling” written on them in sorcerous type.
The rest of the box is white with green hues, and distinctive “Do not open or deliver before July 16″ notices.
Opening up the package, I have a tightly-bound Harry Potter 6! I think it’s amazing that Amazon was able to fill 1,000,000 preorders for this book so tastefully and efficiently. I’m certainly a satisfied customer!
For more information about the HP6 grand unveiling, check out these links:
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Too Much Pagerank?
This is the least popular of the four blogs I run, but suddenly the Google toolbar is showing a pagerank of 5! Has there been an update? Is it just starting? None of my other sites show any change–just this one. Maybe the new algorithm favours infrequently updated pages with long articles and no backlinks!
This is definitely weird, but in that “cool” kind of weird way.