At Age 26: Amanda watched her roommate play video games.

The other day I found this website where you can see what other people accomplished when they were your age. I can't decide if it's inspirational or depressing. For example:

At age 26:

Albert Einstein published five major research papers in a German physics journal, fundamentally changing man's view of the universe and leading to such inventions as television and the atomic bomb.

Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Chereshkova became the first woman to travel in space.

College dropout Steve Wozniak co-founded Apple Computer.

Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, revolutionizing the economies of the United States and Britain.

Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Italy.

British ethologist Jane Goodall set up camp in the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve on Lake Tanganyika and began studying the lives of chimpanzees.

Ken Kesey published his first novel, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Thomas Pynchon published V., for which he won the William Faulkner First Novel Award.

Luckily, I'm only a month into age 26, so I have 11 months to pull an Einstein and fundamentally change man's view of the universe, or perhaps conquer 2 countries instead of Napoleon's paltry UNO (N. Bonaparte and I have the same birthday, by the way. I also used to have a stuffed penguin called Napoleon.) Serendipitously, I bought a copy of "V" last year at a used book sale, and was just thinking the other day that I'd like to read it in the next few months... I'll start it next, I think. A fellow 26-ie!

For the past few weeks, I've been reading "The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov," which contains all (?) of the short stories he wrote, in chronological order. It sort of brings a whole new angle to my amateur Nabokov studies, since it allows one to see just how old boy's style develops and comes to be (600+ pages of stories, so you can get a pretty good handle on it). The early stories are shockingly... not bad, but... not quite there, either. At first I was disappointed with how little they engaged me; at times it's even frustrating, because you can see what he's trying for, and it never quite succeeds. (I think he was maybe writing a lot of poetry at the time, so some of the stories are kind of like extended prose-poems where there is no real plot.) The further I read, though, the more fun I have following his development. It's kind of a blast! I'm about halfway through the whole thing, which puts me up to the early 30's (1930's and his 30's); the ones I'm reading now are awesome. Something happens around... eh, 1927-ish where everything seems to click and come together, and the stories get better and better and better. It's been pretty inspirational to me, since most of the poorer stories were written when V.N. was around my age. Even the best writer ever had to churn out some clunkers. There may still be hope for us all!

I almost forgot that I had some actual real news to report: I HAVE A JOB INTERVIEW. (!!) It's for a job I actually want, too! The interview is on Tuesday, so please hold your breath all day for me.