Thing #229: More Junior High English Books

I don't actually remember which grades required me to read Farewell to Manzanar or Walkabout, so I'm guessing junior high based on page count and font size. I decided not to reread either one, because I need to keep this project moving.

Fun fact, though: I found a Star Wars pog tucked inside Walkabout. It's a lenticular image (a term I just learned) that switches between Luke Skywalker and Emperor Palpatine. It's pretty cool and deserves its own post, which it will get when I throw it away. Later.

Thing #228: More High School English Books

I reread A Raisin In The Sun, which doesn't take very long. It's terrific and I love all the characters, except possibly for Walter Lee (Brother), because he seems to have a complete change of heart twice in every scene. It's a play, which means the characters have to develop in a very short amount of time, I suppose.

Ethan Frome is not a play, which means everything can happen in slow motion, and it does. It's the longest short story ever, and I completely love it. I won't turn this into a book report that lazy English students can plagiarize (ha ha; we didn't have the Internet when I was your age), but I'm terribly grateful to have rediscovered this work in my adulthood. Guess I've been in Starkfield too many winters.

I'm nearing the end of the book phase, and I've reread quite a few old books now. Not every decaying paperback turned out to be a gem, but the few that did -- like these two -- made it completely worth the effort.

Thing #226: High School English Books

I studied Cry, The Beloved Country in high school, but it was also assigned reading for a college class. It has James Earl Jones on the cover; this must be a movie tie-in edition!

Jane Eyre was my summer reading assignment prior to senior year. I procrastinated on reading it, and I procrastinated on writing the paper, to the degree that I was still writing my paper the morning of the first day of school, when I was supposed to be standing in line to get a parking space. I finished the paper, but that whole year I had to park down by the gym, which was approximately nine miles from anywhere. One day, at the end of the year, my friend Paul had a prearranged excused absence, so I borrowed his parking spot for the day. The campus security guard wrote me a $20 parking ticket, and they wouldn't let me graduate until I paid it, even though that is obviously ridiculous, because nobody else was going to park in that space on that day. I remember all these events vividly, yet I remember nothing about Jane Eyre.

I did not reread either of these books. As is the case with most of my English books, these copies are full of notes and highlighting. I don't particularly want to keep marked-up copies of books, anyway, so these were simply recycled.

This last set of eight English books weighed only three pounds, so now we've eliminated 44 total books, weighing 39.9 pounds.

Thing #225: 8th Grade English Books

Pretty sure I read these two in 8th grade.

The Pearl is fantastic and I feel sorry for my 8th grade self, because he probably didn't appreciate it. I would have kept this copy, but that same 8th grade self left a flipbook drawing in the margin. A stick figure dies at the end and that's where the red pen kicks in. (Any parallels to the narrative are probably coincidental.)

To Be a Slave is a collection of non-fictional first-hand accounts of American slavery. Not an easy read.

Thing #224: 7th Grade English Books

As far as I can remember, I read both Homesick and Waiting for the Rain for my 7th grade English class. I reread each before recycling.

I recalled almost nothing about either novel, so rereading them was about as good as reading them. Homesick was surprisingly affecting, whereas Waiting for the Rain was a bit slower read: it felt more like something that junior high kids are assigned to read for English class. Apartheid is bad.

Thing #212: Classic Metered Literature Books

The Aeneid of Virgil is something I studied in a high school English class. I remember not enjoying it.

Macbeth is also something I studied in a high school English class, but this particular edition I picked up during the college era. It originally belonged to a friend's sister; I think they were going to throw it away and I decided to take it, instead. Now I don't want it.

Both of these were marked up with notes and such, so I just recycled them.

Thing #187: Napkins & Streamers

Used for a nautical-themed party some years ago, then stowed ever since. I had the napkins out for a more recent event, but then the whole pile gusted right off the kitchen table and onto the floor, so I just recycled everything blue.

Thing #178: Chicago Tribune Special Section

The day after the Chicago Marathon in 2009, the Chicago Tribune published a special section with the names and finishing times of every runner who finished, including me. I saved it!

1,315 days later, after checking my name one last time (yep, still there), I recycled it.

Thing #177: 2009 Chicago Marathon Program

In the spirit of the previous post, I finally recycled the program from a marathon I ran.

Thing #176: Seattle Seahawks Game Program

Event memorabilia is a weird thing for me. I like keeping souvenirs, but then I usually don't have obvious places to store them. I'm never going to make a Seahawks fan shrine in my basement, so I might as well get rid of things like this which hold little sentimental value, and see where that gets me.

It turns out that in this game, Shaun Alexander would rush for 140 yards and 4 TDs and the Seahawks would beat the Cardinals 37-12.

That's Chuck Knox on the cover for some reason.

Thing #175: 2008 Washington Football Media Guide

It's a 2008 media guide, 208 pages. I vaguely remember tossing it in my online shopping cart when ordering something else from the team store, because I'd always wanted to own a media guide. I'm not sure it's the same edition they actually distribute to the media, though: more of a fan guide, really.

The Washington Huskies went on to finish 0-12 that season, Tyrone Willingham's last as coach. I'm never ordering a media guide again, obviously.

On the cover are defensive end Daniel Te'o-Nesheim (currently of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and quarterback Jake Locker (currently of the Tennessee Titans).

Thing #173: Asimov's Science Fiction, September 2008 Issue

I originally bought this issue because one of my favorite bloggers had a short story published and I thought I'd read it. So I bought it, but then I forgot to read his story (or any of the stories), because I am terrible at following through on projects, which you already knew. Years later (i.e. now), I finally got around to reading it. Better late than never, as they say.

I rarely read science fiction, so I was expecting stories about planets and spaceships and aliens. If you are the kind of person who reads science fiction, you are probably laughing at me right now, because that impression was terribly wrong. Most of these stories (and, I expect, modern science fiction in general) are projections of the future, and how advancing technology might affect humanity. There were stories about genetic selection and enhancement, stories about life-prolonging technology, and stories about artificially intelligent computing. There were NOT stories about aliens, at least among the ones I read.

I ended up reading all the short stories but none of the novelettes, because I don't know what a novelette is and I've decided to recycle this issue prior to finding out. Time is money, as they say.

Thing #161: Computer Monitor Manual

Not sure what became of the monitor itself; it was a behemoth and probably lives at my parents' house or something, because I haven't seen it in years. So then why do I still have the manual and some kind of accessory disc (with screen saver!), still in the shrink wrap?

It's a mystery, but can we all just take a moment to appreciate that decent computer monitors no longer weigh 50+ pounds?

Thing #160: Metaphysical Street Poetry

Found this in a bin full of random junk. I vaguely remember buying this (hot pink) packet of "poetry" (and drawings) from a homeless guy who was selling his original writing with the help of a local shelter. Or so he said; I guess I was convinced enough that he was okay to buy this packet for $5 or whatever it was.

Here's a quote from an untitled piece:

For instance, our planet Earth is an electron that vibrates on 147 different planes of existence. Each plane has 7 subplanes that vibrate on different frequency demodulations. They occupy the same space and time though they cannot be aware of each other without special aids such as infrared lenses.

Seems pretty clear. I mean, you would make that conclusion walking down the street, or going to the store.

Thing #157: Starch Spray

The date code on the bottom of the can: FEB0106010. I have no idea how to parse that.

I found it way in the back of a closet shelf, living alone. I don't starch laundry anyway.

If you want to recycle an aerosol can, you have to take it somewhere other than my apartment building to do so.

I discovered that I have a high amount of patience for certain ridiculous tasks, like spraying 22 ounces of starch into a plastic bag full of paper shreddings.

Thing #156: Aftermarket Audio Adapter

Dumped in the "Wires, Cords & Cables" recycle bin at a Best Buy.

I think this one went with the same cell phone as the last one, which doubled as MP3 player. You could either buy the proprietary Samsung headphones, or you could buy a $4 black market aftermarket headphone jack adapter online and then use your own headphones.

As you can probably tell from the photo, I picked the good option. It was the one and only time (to my recollection) that I've received mail from Asia (Taiwan?), so that was exciting.

Thing #155: Cell Phone Earpiece

Can't remember which phone this went with. I certainly don't need it now.

Dumped in the "Wires, Cords & Cables" recycle bin at a Best Buy.

Thing #154: USB Extension Cable

Found this in a pile, never used. I don't remember what it came with, but I've never needed to extend a USB cable and this is probably USB 1.0 anyway.

Dumped in the "Wires, Cords & Cables" recycle bin at a Best Buy.

Thing #151: Interstate Map of the Southeastern United States

In college, Paul and Jonathan and I took a spring break road trip from Indiana to Memphis to New Orleans (and then a bunch of other places on the way back). We figured out which highway to take to Memphis, then we figured we'd just drive south and follow signs to New Orleans.

It totally worked. Ah, the carefree days of college (and affordable gas prices).

Then we had a few days to linger in Louisiana, so we picked up this map at a gas station or something. I must have passed it along from that car to the next one, and then to the one after that.

I've never really had any use for the map since, though, so I decided to unceremoniously recycle it. Telling a story is more interesting than keeping a map, anyway.

Thing #142: Savvy Diner Certificates

I received these multi-restaurant gift certificates as a work bonus, in 2005. I've been holding them ever since.

Good news: they never expire!

Bad news: the Savvy Diner company appears to have gone out of business.