The Unnamed
Posted: January 10, 2012 Filed under: Book of Sand 4 Commentsby Joshua Ferris | 320 pages, published 2010
The main character in The Unnamed, Tim Someone, is on his third relapse of a strange compulsion: he walks. He walks until he collapses from exhaustion. He walks out of meetings, out of buildings, across towns, in the dead of winter. Despite seeing numerous doctors, having tests of every sort done, visiting psychiatrists, no one can explain what it is or why it happens. The compulsion is “the unnamed,” of course.
It’s an interesting premise, and it was carried out nicely. I liked how Ferris depicted Tim’s gradual descent into madness (sorry, spoiler) and how the compulsion takes over so completely. There was a little too much swearing for me, and I felt like several potentially interesting storylines were brought up but not adequately addressed.
Big spoiler: you never find out what the unnamed really is. I suppose that’s fair, but as Americans don’t we desperately need closure? Even (especially) in our entertainment?
Also, I’m pretty sure that one of my ancestors actually did walk compulsively. I vaguely recall hearing stories like that. Anyone want to confirm or deny?
TMI
Posted: January 9, 2012 Filed under: Dangerous Book for Boys 3 CommentsYeah, you probably don’t care to hear about this, but it’s my blog and I’ll write what I want…and today I want to talk about potty training.
Most of the Evan-aged kids we know are girls. I hear that girls tend to potty train earlier than boys do, so I was a little jealous but not shocked that a lot of Evan’s friends and cousins have stopped using diapers. For the past year Evan has had a few pairs of underwear that he used for practice. In retrospect, it’s probably a bad potty training approach to just put your kid in underwear and let them figure out (through accidents) when they need to use the toilet. Also, it hasn’t ever worked. Evan knows that if he’s wearing underwear, he should tell me if he needs to use the toilet, but he just hasn’t been able to make the real connection between “I ought to” and “right now I actually need to.” As a result I decided a while ago to not worry much about potty training until Evan seems more interested on his own.
So…last night Evan was having a bath. Something disgusting happened, maybe you can guess what? As a result I mentioned to Evan that maybe he could try sometime to go in the toilet instead of in a diaper (or perhaps the bathtub). He asked for underwear after he got out of his bath and I obliged.
And he went in the toilet twice after that! And three times this morning! I don’t know where this has come from except that he has suddenly made the right connection. (Also, he loves stickers. Stickers are great rewards.)
There’s your TMI for the day. Potty training FTW!
Calendar
Posted: January 6, 2012 Filed under: All's Well That Ends Well 2 CommentsI’ve been thinking off and on about doing a calendar journal instead of (or in addition to) a typical journal. The difference? See the picture below of a simple calendar journal, where you have an index card for each day of the year, and write one short entry per day each year.
Originally I saw this on design*sponge, but another blog I read (Wit & Whistle) did a version as well. And the beginning of the year is of course the perfect time to start. I haven’t decided yet on how I want it to look…but there’s time, right?
So far this year:
January 1 – June has eye infection, boogers everywhere
January 2 – Family walk at Provo River trail. Pretty weather!
January 3 – Back to school but class cancelled
January 4 – Delicious quesadillas for dinner
January 5 – June learned she can crawl into her laundry hamper
January 6 – Friend’s 40th birthday party; my 1st time in a bar
[By the way, I’m using bigger index cards so I can write longer notes and fit more years on. This way, I can get 2012-2024 on each card. …From now until I’m 40!)
Jarom
Mika
hilleries 