December 29, 2020

From Gerald R. Lucas

Last of 2020 covid-19: day 281 | US: GA | info | act

I had a terrible night trying to sleep, so I finished HEX, finally. The ending is pretty grim, a fitting close for an equally shitty year. It’s fitting, then, that this will be my last novel of 2020. It ended up being a contemporary morality tale that shows how humans at their core are superstitious, fearful, violent animals just under a veneer of civility, reason, and rationality. The novel was generally well written, but maybe not my thing. I think it would make a better TV miniseries.

Next up, I really have to begin my novels for the spring semester, starting with Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain.

Similarly, I started designing my courses on D2L today. Yeah, I’m gonna use D2L this spring to gives students one less thing to complain about. This is not easier for me, but what the heck. I’m not enthusiastic about the upcoming semester, but hopefully will get into it as my classes one together. It will be great to (re)read the eight novels I have chosen for ENGL 3700. In fact, I am re-reading six of them.

Biotar in Poland.

On another note, I purchased a Helios-44m from a seller in Atlanta[1] this evening. Before I bought this lens, I made an offer on a Biotar to a seller in Poland. These are pretty much the same lens, so I’m kind of hoping now that the offer is rejected. Still, the lens looks like it’s in pretty perfect condition, so even if he accepts my offer it will be at least a month before I received the lens from Eastern Europe.[2] At least I’ll have an Ultron to play with in the meantime.



notes

  1. I am dubious about this, as shipping estimates are far too long: about 2–3 weeks out. Yeah, this makes sense coming from “Atlanta”—even with the USPS back-up.
  2. In fact, this auction estimates an 11–24-day delivery from Poland, but what the Helios for “Atlanta” estimates.