THE AUTHOR

I go by Michelle because (appropriately enough) that’s my name. I’ve had many names on the Internet and if you’re special enough, you might even know what some of those names were. You might still be able to search and find my pathetic 14 year old self on the Internet. I’m there. I’m waiting for you. You can also call me June, some people do. I’m in my mid-20s and I’m living in Northern Virginia; it’s easier to just tell people I live in DC, because us Northern Virginians are a little off and we like to make sure everyone knows that NOVA is different from the rest of the state of Virginia.

When I was in college, my biggest ambition was to learn several different languages and become a folklorist, traveling around the world and living in varying conditions to collect the stories of small villages and big towns. I’d publish books with similarities, show where Jung’s collective unconscious prevails. Towards the end of my career studying Mythology and Folklore in Literature (and a not quite double minor in Psychology and German), I started working at a bookstore. My life has gone downhill since then.

The only thing that I can do really well is work in a bookstore. In everything else my skill level is mediocre or worse. I can’t even read well; I mean, I devour books, but I wouldn’t say I’m “well read.” I’m terrible at people. I can’t handle the natural inclination to create: Instead of focusing on one pursuit, I stretch myself thin (like a small amount of butter on a large piece of sliced bread) and try to do EVERYTHING. I can’t do anything with that but continue working in bookstores, and I have been for nearly five years.

THE SITE

I fell into web design in the late 90s and like most of my peers, quickly inherited a bitter taste for blogging in the early 2000s. (If you knew me back then, along with my stupid nicknames, you’ll have read my really awful opinions on the state of my life.) I’ve tried time and again to leave, to stop pretending the world cares about my silly thoughts and ideas, but I find that I like having this little pedestal even if I only have three regular readers. If nothing else, it gives me the chance to design a layout with my car in it. The Reshaping of Everyday Life has been around for two years, at least, but sometimes I delete everything and start over so there isn’t much in the way of archives.

When people ask me, “Why do you blog?” I usually respond, “I don’t know yet.” That’s still fairly true. I don’t think I’ll know why until I figure out what I really want to write about, but I haven’t gotten to that point. I’m all over the place here, but I guess it’s nice to have a place where I don’t have to be focused and sure about what’s going on.

At the beginning of 2010 I saw Henry Rollins speak. He said something about DESTROYING the audience every time his band played a show. That’s a night they’ll never get back, and you want them to wobble home with an unsteady heart, so blown away as they are by your performance. I want to write so powerfully that you can’t feel your legs. Will writing this blog get me there? No, probably not… But it’ll at least keep me writing. At the very least, I hope I won’t waste your time.

SOME FAVORITE THINGS

  • Books: Wild Mind (Natalie Goldberg), A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving), A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True (Brigid Pasulka), The Voyage of the ‘Dawn Treader’ (C.S. Lewis), Titus Andronicus (William Shakespeare), The Iliad (Homer), The Aeneid (Virgil), Dark Hollow (John Connolly), The Book of Lost Things (John Connolly), The Martian Chronicles (Ray Bradbury), West With the Night (Beryl Markham), Airman (Eoin Colfer), After the Quake (Haruki Murakami), I Sing the Body Electric! (Ray Bradbury), The Castle in the Forest (Norman Mailer), Outlander (Diana Gabaldon), The People’s Act of Love (James Meek), The Meaning of Night (Michael Cox), Lunar Park (Bret Easton Ellis), I, Claudius (Robert Graves), The Pigeon (Patrick Süskind), Mr. Summer’s Story (Patrick Süskind), Brief Encounters with Che Guevara (Ben Fountain), Meditations (Marcus Aurelius), Loving Che (Ana Menendez), Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Murakami)
  • Movies: Inglorious Basterds, The Lion King, Ghostbusters, Pride & Prejudice, Lady and the Tramp, Reservoir Dogs, Back to the Future, Batman: The Movie, Indiana Jones, The Phantom of the Opera, Love Actually, The Incredible Mr. Limpet, Coming to America, Monsters, Inc, Finding Nemo, Adventures in Babysitting, Peter Pan, Robin Hood, Pretty in Pink, West Side Story, The Little Mermaid, Nim’s Island
  • Music: The Lucksmiths, She & Him, Third Eye Blind, The Wallflowers, Daft Punk, Dave Matthews Band, Cake, Bush, Regina Spektor, The Beatles, Neutral Milk Hotel, The New Pornographers, Belle & Sebastian, Glenn Miller & His Orchestra, Jets to Brazil, New Order, The Smashing Pumpkins, Metallica, Rainer Maria, John Vanderslice, Ace of Base, Beck, Trusty, The Living End, Local H, Pedro the Lion, Dustin O’Halloran, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, The Postal Service, Ours
  • Television Collections: Johnny Quest, Darkwing Duck, Saved by the Bell, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Zelda: The Complete Animated Series, Flight of the Conchords, HBO’s Rome

If I seem moody, it’s probably because I am.