I've continued to play with the photo program, exercising my preference for saturated primary colors. I've engaged in more picture play than word play lately, and have found it to be very addictive.

I've also been thinking about the inconvenience of moving these pages to a different location within the next thirty days. Tripod will soon require advertising on the pages. My six-month subscription, which has permitted the removal of advertising, expires on May 10, and Tripod is not renewing what they have called premium memberships. Well, I guess others suffer worse inconveniences, and the move to a different location might prompt me to create some sub-directories and get this place organized.

Whatta snooze!

Moving on...

Yesterday Joshua needed a copy of Siddhartha for a school project. While browsing the shelves to find the Hesse for him, I started to pull some shorter books that I would like to revisit -- more weight for the nightstand. Who am I kidding? The nightstands won't hold another book and I have already carpeted the floor around the bed with books and magazines -- clean litter though, and my litter.

Anyway, the length of the books and their physical size were as important as any other criteria for selection. They had to be pocketbooks with foxed pages. I'm not sure why.

This is the short list:

Percy, The Moviegoer (a sentimental favorite)
Barth, The Floating Opera (ditto)
Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk (about marriage?)
Thoreau, Walden (great recipes for woodchuck)
Nabokov, Pale Fire (because it's Vladi)
McMurtry, Leaving Cheyenne (to ease the westering impulse)
Caesar's War Commentaries translated by Warrington

(because it fit into my pocket?)
Auden, The Dyer's Hand (for poolside display?)

And then one that I haven't read before. I suspect I am one of the very few who survived the sixties without reading The Hobbit. I suppose it's time.

While browsing for Siddhartha (well, aren't we all?) I came across the Cormac McCarthy books that I've been putting off. Maybe I'll read them this summer, or maybe I'll put them off as long as I've postponed reading the Tolkien.

A short entry today because grading beckons. Where does that stuff come from? I hope I can tear myself away from fiddling with pictures. Actually, I think that if I squint I can see nirvana right over there on the couch. Might be Middle-earth though.

I'm back in familiar territory as I reread Walker Percy's The Moviegoer. In the spirit of one of Percy's themes, I first read the book in New Orleans, validating my presence there.

The redbuds here are at their peak. They might have passed their peak, but today the other trees -- helped by the weekend rains -- have finally begun to leaf, providing the redbuds with the pale green backdrop that I've missed so far this season. And lilacs are blooming.