sturtle [dot] com

I came right out of Carnival and into what can only be described as grant deadline hell. (I wish I had more vivid, less 80s terms at my disposal, but it’s early, and I’m undercaffeinated. Gimme a break.) My last application postmark deadline is Monday, so I hope to return to normal by then.

Of course, as soon as I’m done with all that, I have to start prepping for a trip with the boyfriend, his mom, and aunt. I’m looking forward to the 10-day vacation, though in typical fashion, I’m already dreading the pile of work awaiting me when I get home. I don’t really excel at the whole “enjoying myself” thing, do I?

This morning–before heading out the door to teach young ones the wonders of hand-coding HTML–I’ve taken a few minutes to catch up on my reading. Here are a few of the tidbits that have caught my eye:

• James Dobson has resigned as chairman of Focus on the Family. Something tells me we haven’t seen the last of him, but we can hope, can’t we?
• There’s this kid I read every so often. He’s smart, funny, and a really great writer, and his voice…well, to have found it before he’s even hit 30 is pretty amazing. He’s also HIV+, and he’s hit some very rough patches lately–but he doesn’t really go for the sympathy vote. (Well, maybe a little, but it’s usually pretty subtle.) If you’re looking for something to add to your feed reader–you do use a reader, don’t you?–I’d recommend it.
• I adore Jennie–especially the beautiful excerpts she posted from Walt Whitman’s journals and her link to a lengthy but very thoughtful talk by Elizabeth Gilbert on the nature of genius.
• Project Runway‘s latest season is still stuck in legal limbo, but collections from the three finalists (no need for all those extra decoys!) still showed at New York Fashion Week. Take a gander: at least the clothes look better than the ones from the last cycle.
• I don’t have a real problem with pee-fetishists [safe for work!], but I prefer to feed my plants compost–or better yet, let them fend for themselves.
• I do not understand the Mima Mounds, but I want to–I want to understand the Mima Mounds.
• You know how you’re up late some nights–maybe you downed too much coffee, maybe you’re all stressed, whatever–and you’re watching some retarded talk show, and there’s this interview? And you wake up the next morning, and you’re all like, “Damn, did I see that?” And you totally did, but you had no proof? Well, now you have proof. My fave: this bit of weirdness, which I reference constantly–and which I remember watching during its initial airing.