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Infinite Country by Patricia Engel | Thoughts

   Published : 2021   ||    Format : print   ||    Location : Colombia ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆   What was it about the country that kept everyone hostage to its fantasy? The previous month, on its own soil, an American man went to his job at a plant and gunned down fourteen coworkers, and last spring alone there were four different school shootings. A nation at war with itself, yet people still spoke of it as some kind of paradise.. Thoughts : Infinite Country follows two characters - young Talia, who at the beginning of this book, escapes a girl’s reform school in North Colombia so that she can make her previously booked flight to the US. Before she can do that, she needs to travel many miles to reach her father and get her ticket to the rest of her family. As we follow Talia’s treacherous journey south, we learn about how she ended up in the reform school in the first place and why half her family resides in the US. Infinite Country tells the...

The Sunday Salon: My favorite day of the year

The Sunday 
Salon.com

Not Christmas, not Thanksgiving, not any of the other holidays, but it's the Fall Back day. The clocks in most of the US have gone back an hour today, so that means there's an extra hour in the day to be used up any way one wants to. Ever since I came to the US years ago, I have always looked forward to this one day. I never made big plans for that hour; I just had the feeling one gets when you unexpectedly come into some good fortune. Being an introvert, my favorite way of spending it was by reading, or doing stuff online; and some years, especially during my university years, I used it up by catching up on lost sleep.

It takes a good long while before my body clock syncs up with the actual time, so I probably will end up sleeping earlier and starting each day sooner. I'm so lazy that whenever I make resolutions to wake up earlier each day, I generally plan to start the resolution on Fall Back day. It isn't soon before the rest of the universe conspires to upset my plan, but hey, at least I can't say that I didn't try.



For the record, my absolute worst day is the Spring Forward day. It feels almost vicious to have a day with just 23 hours. When has anyone ever felt that even 24 hours was enough for a day? Eight months ago, I rued about this clock jumping tradition in the US, and from the comments, it doesn't look like anyone likes the concept either. I doubt the lawmakers like it even! It's one of the most disrupting practices ever. Even though I generally like Fall Back day, I don't like how dark it is by the time I get home in the evening. Looking forward to a bunch of sweater-clad, dark, gloomy evenings - yay! #sarcarsm

This Friday, as soon as I left work, we had a big issue crop up - I spent all of Friday evening and Saturday morning working to resolve it, so I'm now scavenging the remains of what feels like a much shorter weekend. I will have to clock in couple more hours today, but I'm trying to postpone that as much as possible. Guess where my extra Fall Back hour is going. Hmph.

Last week, I started reading The Martian and The Blind Assassin. I had already listened to half of The Martian, five months back, but never quite finished it. I loved the half I listened to, so now I'm looking forward to reading it. Also, Trish mentioned last week that there were lots of exclamations! I picked up The Blind Assassin to feed my long-time desire to read an Atwood book but always feeling intimidated by the idea of it. I'm only a few chapters in, but what a delight it is so far!

In the car, I'm listening to Roxane Gay's Bad Feminist, which is annoying me as much as it is delighting me - a sign of a really good discussion book. I think I have about 3 more hours of listening time left, but at this point, I'm a little tired of how repetitive her essays sound and how if she had fewer well-chosen essays, I won't feel as if I am hearing the same thing being said. I can also not help feeling that this book is going to be read/listened to by an exclusively women audience, just because of how angry she sounds, and how she generalizes men as failures often. I believe the best way to solve gender bias problems is to get the men involved, but no one likes to be put in a corner and berated at. She certainly brings up a lot of good examples for the listener to ponder over.

For the rest of today, I don't have any major plans, except some work and some shopping. I'm still knitting stuff on and off and looking forward to wearing all these handknits and dressing up my folks in them too. What do you have planned for your Sunday?

Comments

Katherine Koba said…
Businesses like DST (maybe not the spring ahead day in particular), especially retail. People's workdays adhere to clocks and not to daylight, but people's internal clocks seem more motivated by daylight. If you get out at 5 and it's dark, you'll go home. If you get out at 5 and it's light, you're more predisposed to going out and running errands. That's the idea, anyway.

I hate DST too, though. The whole concept. South Korea doesn't use DST and their economy is doing just fine, I wish everywhere else would catch on.
Diane D said…
I woke up super early for a Sunday 6:15am so I have a feeling I'll need a nap this afternoon...LOL My husband, on the other hand, is STILL sleeping...LOL I do like fall back day as well. Enjoy your day and the coming week.
I like DST conceptually but in reality, Sundays always have been a day of rest for me so it doesn't really affect me one way or the other. I usually use the day as a day of reading and relaxing anyway...and yep, that's what I'll be doing today, starting with reading Sunday Salon posts like yours. All that said, I hope you can find a little time to read, relax, and knit, after the work and shopping.
bermudaonion(Kathy) said…
I'm with you on the time change. It takes me FOREVER to adjust, especially in the spring.
Jess - A Book Hoarder said…
I'm excited that when I get ready for work in the morning there is going to be more light whe I get ready for work. My husband works at night so I always feel bad when he has to work that extra hour while I'm home snuggled in bed for a little bit longer.

I've heard that Bad Feminist would be better read a little at a time so it doesn't come off as so repetitive. Which is a bummer.
JoAnn @ Lakeside Musing said…
It takes me forever to adjust to the time change, too... springing forward is the worst!! I did enjoy my extra hour of sleep last night though ;-)
Vasilly said…
I hate DST! The day felt way too long yesterday. I found myself going to be bed way too early. ;-) I really need to read The Martian soon. Everyone keeps talking about how good it is. I hope you have a good week.
SPRING FORWARD IS GARBAGE, and I was totally unsettled by Fall Back, even though I do like having the extra hour. It's confusing that it gets dark at 5:30 and I'm staring outside and feeling like it must be time to start thinking about bed.
Trish said…
The end of DST certainly is different with kiddos who don't understand that they can certainly sleep in an extra hour that day! ;) By Tuesday we're almost back on schedule and I'm trying to be diligent about getting up earlier since my body is used to it (like you I always wait until that ONE day to get going earlier). :)

Yes, totally understand what you mean about Bad Feminist. I really enjoyed the first half of her essays but became so discouraged and irritated the further along she got. And this: "I believe the best way to solve gender bias problems is to get the men involved, but no one likes to be put in a corner and berated at." Yes. I think this is a big failure of a lot of feminists. It's a tough Catch-22. I'll look forward to your final thoughts.
Athira / Aths said…
Spring Forward always upsets me. I am fine with Fall Back though, just because I seem to feel on top of things, just because of being up early for a while. On the whole though, it's just not something I like at all. It would be nice not to have to spend a couple of weeks each year adjusting our internal clocks to the new time.
Athira / Aths said…
Fall Back usually seems like such a long day! I ended up napping too in the afternoon.
Athira / Aths said…
It's a good thing they do the DST on Sundays, though I'm sure it probably won't be practical for most people if it didn't always fall on a Sunday. For that reason, I like Fall Back - it feels like a long Sunday. The Spring Forward Sunday generally feels very cruel.
Athira / Aths said…
I would love to see this practice stop but oh well, something that's been going on for a century is probably not going to "just stop".
Athira / Aths said…
Yeah, Bad Feminist is probably best read in several sessions. Plus, if you could jump around and choose which essays to read, that would be a good option too. The audio version does have each essay in a different track but I would probably not remember which essays I had already listened to.
Athira / Aths said…
That extra hour is such a wonderful thing!
Athira / Aths said…
I need to find more time to read The Martian. It is a funny book.
Athira / Aths said…
We generally go out for a walk most evenings, but now after the Fall Back, it has been so hard to do that because it gets dark early and we don't like walking when it's practically night outside and vehicles are on the road.
Athira / Aths said…
Ah yes, kids. I had almost forgotten that. Even our dog is confused why her food and her walk is an hour late. Kids and dogs are enough reason to not have DST anymore.
literaryfeline said…
When I picked my daughter from school yesterday evening after work, she told me she didn't want to go home and go to bed, that she wasn't tired. The darkness confused her. I like the idea of gaining an hour in theory, but it never proves to be much of a gain. Especially since we lose it a few months later. I am on the side of those wanting to abolish the time change all together. If I could move to Hawaii or Arizona, I would.

The more I hear about The Martian, the more curious I get about it. But whenever I read the description, I am turned off. I may eventually read it. I know it's well liked. I hope you enjoy the Blind Assassin. It was a slow read for me, but I loved Atwood's writing style. I look forward to reading more by her at some point in the future.

I haven't read Bad Feminist, but it seems to be causing a bit of a stir in terms of discussion. Trish's review of it made me add it to my wish list. The bias against men you mention of the author's does concern me though. I'm curious in what context she's getting down on men. I think the majority of feminists, like myself (and my husband too--he's a feminist as well), do not have anything against men in general nor do we think of men as failures. Anyway, like I said, I haven't read the essays, and so wonder what my take would be on it. Like with any group or philosophy, there are always varying opinions within. But in my mind the whole anti-man theme is another misconception perpetuated, in part, by those with more extreme views. It makes me sad.



I hope you have a great week! I have a doctor's appointment in the morning, and am hoping I can get hubby to buy me breakfast. We'll see.