October Update: Panic Mode

It just occurred to me that I would spend less time staring at my planner/Instagram trying to remember what all I did in a month if I took notes whenever something I did/read/heard/saw seemed like monthly update material. I clearly take great care with these…

• There are 7 weeks and six days left until December 31, 2015  and I have 12 books still to read on my syllabus. That’s not great math. I’ll get this done or I won’t, but I can’t say I won’t be pretty bummed if I don’t.
• In better math news, here’s my “diversity breakdown” for the syllabus so far (including Withering Heights, which I am currently reading.) I’ve also included non-syllabus authors in parentheses. I realize breaking down authors by race is only way to consider diversity and shouldn’t be the only marker but it takes less Googling than trying to figure out who went through the Ivy League.
  • White men: 4
  • White women: 2 (+5)
  • Men of color: 3 (+1)
  • Women of color: 5

• A news aggregator devoted to e-reading news (niche, guys. Real niche.) picked up my digital reader post and I saw more traffic than I am liable to see ever again. It was both weird and fun and for about a minute I was worried that I might need to start taking this seriously. I’m happily back at 5-6 page views a day (it must be “Teach East of Eden” season because that one’s getting  a fair number of hits lately.)
  

  Look at those declining numbers!

• I’ve started writing-writing again. I don’t know if that will mean I spend less time here, but there is a finite amount of time I can spend at the computer every day and if I have to choose between a blog post and a poem, I’m more energized to write the poem right now.
• Speaking of poems, I have a piece coming soon at Breadcrumbs Mag. I was told it will post around the 10^th and I’ll be sure to link to it here when it pops up.
• Rebecca Solnit has a piece in the October Harper’s about how women are still made to feel alien for making different decisions about their lives. Here’s all I feel like saying on the topic: when the government refuses to grant your fully bodily autonomy and routinely questions your ability to make decisions on behalf of that body, maybe keeping that body for your self is a radical act of self-love.

Now if you’ll excuse me, there is a dog who’d very much like my attention.