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The Grade Keeps Increasing and My Brakes Are Nearly Shot - De File — LiveJournal
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10:13 pm July 13th, 2008
cbertsch
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The Grade Keeps Increasing and My Brakes Are Nearly Shot
Today I realized that I reached my intellectual peak in 1993. I'm not sure it has been downhill ever since -- I recall plateaus with the occasional rise along the way -- but the overall trend has not indicated an ascent to greatness. Bearing this depressing realization in mind, I have decided that I need to do a series of things to get back on track:
• Grow my remaining hair as long as I can
• Start smoking again
• Curl up on the sofa with a pint of Ben and Jerry's chocolate cookie dough ice cream and watch my tapes of MTV's 120 Minutes while fantasizing about Sarah McLachlan's dreamy raven-hued tresses
• Wear baseball caps backwards, even on "formal" occasions
• Read a lot of Pierre Bourdieu
• Listen to Pavement incessantly
• Spend long hours conversing about international literature on the sly
• Take a trip to the Pacific Northwest
• Eat more microwaveable meals
• Exercise less
• Live in a place where I can where chamois shirts
• Wear chamois shirts
• Start smoking again
• Wait, did I already mention that?
• Start smoking again
I'm hoping that, if I stick resolutely to these vows, that my chronic depression will turn into chronic productivity. Even better, when Sleater-Kinney comes on the scene again, I'll be ready to clip every mention of the band for my files. It would make the chapter I'm writing a lot easier if I'd done so the first time around.

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Comments
Thread started by E.
e_compass_rosa From: e_compass_rosa Date: July 14th, 2008 05:19 am (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
All Sleater-Kinney all the time. That's what I say, but you knew that already.
(Reply) (Thread)
cbertsch From: cbertsch Date: July 14th, 2008 05:22 am (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
I could certainly use something to dig me out. But I'm not sure a heart attack is the way to go. Hot rock is fine, though.
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
e_compass_rosa From: e_compass_rosa Date: July 14th, 2008 05:27 am (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
It's enough for all hands on the bad one to dig me out, but it might be the end of you.
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
cbertsch From: cbertsch Date: July 14th, 2008 06:47 am (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
Get up! Otherwise the party will be over before it's begun. Besides, don't you have a flush to show me?
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
Thread started by celebrian_3
celebrian_3 From: celebrian_3 Date: July 14th, 2008 05:43 am (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
I think you've got the Pavement listening and the trips to the Pacific Northwest covered ;-).

But what do I know? Maybe you're well on your way with all of them.
(Reply) (Thread)
cbertsch From: cbertsch Date: July 14th, 2008 06:46 am (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
I've been exercising too much and smoking too little, though I have definitely increased my ice cream intake lately. Still, I will have to work hard to achieve my goal. But you're right: Pavement, the Pacific Northwest (and Pierre Bourdieu) are the items on my list in which I'm least in need of remedial education.
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
Thread started by Elaine Axten
From: e4q Date: July 14th, 2008 02:54 pm (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
that's a great list.
(Reply) (Thread)
cbertsch From: cbertsch Date: July 14th, 2008 03:09 pm (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
Thanks! Unhealthiness seems to do me better than obsessive attention to my health. Or maybe I'm just old and/or doomed now.
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
From: e4q Date: July 14th, 2008 03:17 pm (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
Comment by a_dialectic
a_dialectic From: a_dialectic Date: July 14th, 2008 06:02 pm (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
Portland baby, August 1st. Come out. We'll party all night!
(Reply) (Thread)
Comment by Dick Trout
From: babyiwasshot Date: July 14th, 2008 09:32 pm (UTC) (LINK TO SPECIFIC ENTRY)
I've reached a similar point, yet I was contemplating quitting smoking for fear that it was depriving my brain of oxygen. Seeing as quitting didn't help you, I suppose I can keep on going.



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PROFILE
Charlie Bertsch
User: cbertsch
Name: Charlie Bertsch
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ABOUT DE FILE
You're looking at content from my Live Journal, which I have been keeping since 2003. I consider it a personal blog, though it lacks stream-of-consciousness revelations that typify that genre.

That said, if you manage to discern the confessional mode within entries that are superficially tight-lipped, I will reward you handsomely. Or at least pretend to do so.

In addition to reflections, however mediated, on my daily activities, De File features periodic excavations of material from my "files," a revelation sure to disturb anyone who has seen my garage. It's an experiment in integrating past and present, perhaps with a little redemption along the way.

Politics is always on my mind, but rarely explicit here. I’m working on a theory about what personal writing like this does to literary identification and why some people resist its pull so powerfully. But my goal is to make that theory dissolve in my practice, a density in liquid.

You'll note that I have links to blogs not on LiveJournal directly above, as well as assorted websites of note. The blogs I read regularly on LiveJournal itself fall under "FRIENDS" at the top, for those of you unfamiliar with LJ’s workings.

You can write me. I'm "cbertsch" before the circle-a and "comcast.net" after it.
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