Sunday, April 09, 2006

Travels

I just finished reading Michael Crighton's Travels. Maria recommended it to me when I went to visit her. Nice recommendation, Maria! It was interesting and easy to read because each chapter is a different story and most can be read and understood in and of themselves. There's no way to get bored with the plot because it changes all the time. The beginning few chapters are about Crighton's experiences in med school, and the rest is a collection of stories about different trips and personal experiences. Some of the book relates to psychic and paranormal experiences with which Crighton has experimented.
I thought it was interesting that he completed med school only to never work as a doctor. Hey, maybe it'll be like me! I'll complete grad school only to never work as a school psych... Hmmm...but at least Crighton knew what he wanted to write instead of do medicine. It's not like I have this intense drive to do anything else...so, maybe not...maybe I just need to go on "travels" of my own to understand what the heck it is I want to do. I definitely want to get out and do some new things. Hell, I am so tired of Eau Claire and grad school. I feel like it's the same old stuff rehashed over and over again. I honestly feel like I'm not learning anything new in my classes this semester.
There was a lot of interesting stuff in the book that I want to know more about. Like spoonbending...I didn't realize that there have actually been parties where people get together and try to bend flatware with their minds. How does one get invited to spoonbending parties? Where are they held? I'm fascinated. I just want to experience it.
Is it weird to want to learn how to meditate? The book reminded me that I would like to learn. Jake seems to think I'm strange for wanting to know how to do it. He seems to think that it's a worthless hobby. Maybe this is just a manifestation of how out-of-whack I feel all the time vs. how balanced Jake seems all the time.

2 comments:

Emily said...

One of my friends who is also an English teacher in Pyeongtaek said that her school made her go to this "conference" thing...I can't remember what it was called or about specifically, but it had to do with meditation and the whole spoon-bending phenonmenon. I think it's weird/interesting that her school wanted her to go to this...and I guess it was all for teachers. Huh. Wasn't there that guy on Johnny Carson a while ago who did that or something, but then they found out it was all fake? Yuri G...something or other? I don't know.

Maria said...

1)Yuri (Uri?) Geller. The only reason I know that is because there's a Toad the Wet Sprocket song (this so dates me to the late '90s....) about him bending spoons.

2) Candy, I think boys come off as seeming more balanced-- I definately feel like the WEIRD-O in my household. But really, I just think boys (our boys, at least) are unimaginative. I would totally go to the desert to talk to a cactus and try to bend spoons. When do we leave?

3) What did you think of the aura part? Like, sometime I see those halo thingies when the light is a cretain way and I like to fancy that I can see auras. Only I'm pretty sure mine are a light trick. And they are always the same color. But I really want to see auras.