I must say this isn't virgin territory. I've used a variety of online journals in years past, and during the ages 13-15 I regularly maintained my presence as an amateur melancholy teenage website owner. Not really blogs, and most of them were filled with my rather maudlin musings. I have a funny feeling this blog will not escape the clutches of my stupid tendency for annoying melodrama, but I will try to confine this to my fluffier, happier thoughts. The rest, I think, I will keep private and nicely under wraps in other places. That is, such things will remain chiefly inside my head and in my lovely Italian paper journal.
In fact, I'm not entirely sure why I started this blog. I suppose its because I've been reading many interesting blogs(none of people I know) lately, and was inspired to start my own, specifically as an outlet for random thoughts and as another excuse NOT to study. I have a terrible habit of procrastination. I find I cannot study more than a certain number of hours in a day, I can't understand it really. Nothing has quite sunk into my brain, and when I stare at my history notes and literature books I am constantly reminded of the fact that I know nothing.
Also, I think I've been paying more attention to reading my copy of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "Love In The Time Of Cholera" than anything else. My copy brings back fond memories, for it was purchased, I believe, in a bookstore in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on the same holiday I went skiing in Taos, babysat for my wee Asian-American cousins, went to a lot of lovely art galleries, and bumped into Julia Roberts at a place I was having lunch at. Frankly, I wish I had bumped into Ewan Mcgregor instead. Though, had that happened, I am certain I would have died of a heart attack on the spot.
Anyway, enough of the digression. Love In The Time of Cholera! It is a lovely book that I never finished reading, perhaps because all the other times I attempted to read it I wasn't bogged down by far more pressing matters. I am an excellent book-reader in times when I should not be reading books for recreation. I am quite taken with Marquez's exquisite manner of description, although as I read it I am always aware that what I read is in translation. It makes me wonder what it must be like to read it in its native language. Perhaps the magic in his magic realism becomes more immediate, more richly felt. That would be splendid. I am thinking of learning Spanish because it is incredibly useful, and I would like to add to my repertoire of "Languages That I Have Painfully Rudimentary Command Of", which currently only includes French (I can say one to ten) and Italian (I can say more than one to ten).
Now, I realize I had started writing this entry with an agenda in mind, and it included a)Talking about the Atkins diet in lieu of this article I read and b)Why I named this blog what it is.
I think I shall have to whittle down my expansive list of things I planned to do in this entry down to just one thing. That is, point B. Okay, so this blog is called agirlcalledjohnnypanic. For all those who have undoubtedly passed the stage in your life when Sylvia Plath was your confessional-poet-goddess, you may be acquainted with the term Johnny Panic, which is half the title of her post-humous short story collection, which was probably cobbled together by her publishers who greatly desired to turn a profit from her illustrious life and death. Anyway, I always liked the name, and since johnnypanic was already taken up on blogspot, I figured I would rename it agirlcalledjohnnypanic. I am fond of long names, anyhow.
And, I must inform everyone that I am horrifically bad at ending entries. This is partly because I write everything organically with no particular topic in mind, and because I am too lazy to sum things up. Rather, I prefer for you to do the work, and glean what you may from this entire entry, assuming you read it from finish to end. Toodles. Till another time when I choose to procrastinate, which is probably soon.
In fact, I'm not entirely sure why I started this blog. I suppose its because I've been reading many interesting blogs(none of people I know) lately, and was inspired to start my own, specifically as an outlet for random thoughts and as another excuse NOT to study. I have a terrible habit of procrastination. I find I cannot study more than a certain number of hours in a day, I can't understand it really. Nothing has quite sunk into my brain, and when I stare at my history notes and literature books I am constantly reminded of the fact that I know nothing.
Also, I think I've been paying more attention to reading my copy of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "Love In The Time Of Cholera" than anything else. My copy brings back fond memories, for it was purchased, I believe, in a bookstore in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on the same holiday I went skiing in Taos, babysat for my wee Asian-American cousins, went to a lot of lovely art galleries, and bumped into Julia Roberts at a place I was having lunch at. Frankly, I wish I had bumped into Ewan Mcgregor instead. Though, had that happened, I am certain I would have died of a heart attack on the spot.
Anyway, enough of the digression. Love In The Time of Cholera! It is a lovely book that I never finished reading, perhaps because all the other times I attempted to read it I wasn't bogged down by far more pressing matters. I am an excellent book-reader in times when I should not be reading books for recreation. I am quite taken with Marquez's exquisite manner of description, although as I read it I am always aware that what I read is in translation. It makes me wonder what it must be like to read it in its native language. Perhaps the magic in his magic realism becomes more immediate, more richly felt. That would be splendid. I am thinking of learning Spanish because it is incredibly useful, and I would like to add to my repertoire of "Languages That I Have Painfully Rudimentary Command Of", which currently only includes French (I can say one to ten) and Italian (I can say more than one to ten).
Now, I realize I had started writing this entry with an agenda in mind, and it included a)Talking about the Atkins diet in lieu of this article I read and b)Why I named this blog what it is.
I think I shall have to whittle down my expansive list of things I planned to do in this entry down to just one thing. That is, point B. Okay, so this blog is called agirlcalledjohnnypanic. For all those who have undoubtedly passed the stage in your life when Sylvia Plath was your confessional-poet-goddess, you may be acquainted with the term Johnny Panic, which is half the title of her post-humous short story collection, which was probably cobbled together by her publishers who greatly desired to turn a profit from her illustrious life and death. Anyway, I always liked the name, and since johnnypanic was already taken up on blogspot, I figured I would rename it agirlcalledjohnnypanic. I am fond of long names, anyhow.
And, I must inform everyone that I am horrifically bad at ending entries. This is partly because I write everything organically with no particular topic in mind, and because I am too lazy to sum things up. Rather, I prefer for you to do the work, and glean what you may from this entire entry, assuming you read it from finish to end. Toodles. Till another time when I choose to procrastinate, which is probably soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment