Monday, February 28, 2005
  Never a Dull Moment
For some reason the muse always strikes me while I'm working. Here, meet my newest star.
Byron Roth paced the fifteen-foot width of his office with precisely measured steps that marked off each sentance of his litany with an emphatic stomp. He was a short man with small brown eyes, sharp features, and wiry black hair that was showing more scalp than it had in years past. He was alone in his well-furnished office, accompanied only by volumes on the three-wall shelves and the birds outside the window behind his desk. His march took him back and forth along the length of his shelves, and he paused at every corner to glance at the window or the collective spines along the wall for guidance. He was a man of God, and the Word was God, so he spent much of his life in words seeking God. Once he found him, it was his duty to convey The Word through words to people who would mix it with thier own words and, in so doing, continue the spread of the gospels.
He was a preacher, and every step he took reminded him of that fact.

That's a tiny portion, but I'm going to have to cut myself off there for now. More may come later. I have a meeting coming up that I don't think would very understanding about my choice to skip because I'd rather be writing. My life's been meetings today. 3 in all. Lots of homework in between. I've been going since 7AM, and I'm about ready for a break. I'll get one this weekend. With no major assignments coming up next week and Tiff out of town for a seminar, this weekend's going to provide an ideal time to rest up and catch up with everything I haven't gotten done. I'm probably also going to be dropping southern fiction. I've been killing myself to stay on top of things in that class and I don't think I can keep it up for the semester. It's just a general elective, of which I have plenty already. I enjoy it, but I can't afford 3 more hours of C or below on my GPA, and I suspect if I stick with it that's what I'll get. Without it I'll still have 14 hours, and plenty of time to focus on my remaining classes.
Tales of the Sea's been great lately. We just finished O'Brian's Master and Commander, which I enjoyed so much I think I'm going to continue reading the series. Now we're moving back into Conrad. I can't enjoy everything we read.
German's a solid B right now, it could swing up to an A pretty easily. I'm enjoying it, but I'm probably building bad study habits. it's just a review of what we've done before, and so I don't study constantly like I used to.
I got my internship at Vanderbilt and am looking forward to that. I think I'm going to be doing user testing, but I'm a little too scatter-brained to remember. I haven't looked at it since Friday, and Friday seems like years ago. Moving Tiffany into her new house this weekend took it out of me. Her new home is great, but getting all her stuff there was murder. Ian and Tristin came home with us to help, which made it exciting. It was a relief to retreat to the quiet of my room on sunday and finally get back to work again.
I love my library comittee. Fundraising is finally kicking up for it, and it's going to be exciting. I just wish I could be as excited about RCC tonight. Last semester seems to have really confused Clark College, and this semester's group is all so new. They're enthusiastic, but unorganized. It's not exactly a problem, but it's something we're all still dealing with and adjusting to. And with our RD leaving and many new RA's coming in, there's no telling what next year will be like.
Never a dull moment.
 
Thursday, February 24, 2005
  Survival Report
So, not a lot of writing done lately. Reading for Tales of the Sea, Southern Lit, and American Authors is still keeping me quite busy. I'm also reading The Secret Life of Bees for the Clark book club. Or, hoping to. I haven't started yet. I'll be halfway done by wednesday. Hopefully.
As if actual schoolwork wasn't enough for me, I've also volunteered to help with the Clark College RCC of the year bid. What can I say? I'm a glutton for punishment. Besides, bragging on Clark comes pretty easy after 3 years of it. Although this year's requiring a little more thought than I'd anticipated.
This weekend I'm going to be helping Tiff move into her new house, finally. Los, Ian, and Tristen are coming home also, so it should be fun. We'll be beating X-Men legends at night after moving boxes by day, if we don't fall over dead from it first.
Tonight Andy, Katie, Myranda, Tiffany, and Shanna all piled in for Soul Calibur 2. It was a nice couple of hours of unwinding, and I got a little research done between rounds (2 controls passed around 4-5 people takes a while). Los thinks we've had 30 different people in our room already this semester. He might be right. It's really been a hub of excitement lately. Not that it's affected our grades, yet.
 
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
  Nausicaa
Myranda got a copy of Nausicaa today, and we're all piled in the room watching it now. Disney apparently released a butchered version years ago which Myranda saw, and this is thousands of times better. For me, it's just more proof that Miyazaki knows what he's doing. Even if the plots startlingly similar to his other stories, the visual effect is great. Patrick Stewart and Uma Thurman do some of the voices, which is interesting. He does a really good job of world-building, too. The story pulls you in pretty quickly.
And it has a flying derringer, which is just mesmorizing.
I'm still not writing enough. Such are the hazards of the rest of my major, I suppose. I talked to Dale Ray, one of our Creative Writing Professors and an author-in-residence, and it just about drove me to go sign up for class right then. I told myself I'd use this time off, almost a year now, to develop some writing of my own, but save for this blog I haven't gotten a thing done. Ideas, sure. Results, not yet.
I think I'm gonna go work on changing that.
 
Thursday, February 17, 2005
  The Write Mood
Getting back to my room is like a nice warm hug before the rest of the day starts. College means being a creature of the night, it seems, and tonight this creature delves into the Southern Renascence (not misspelled). I just got done listening to that poor Victorian recluse gasping for breath between the restrictions of being a 19th century woman. Oh, the pain of Dickinson.
Walking back from class I saw a tall man standing on a rock by the Curris Center. He wore all black, like he always does, and his pale skin and shock of red hair made him look like a buzzard waiting for carrion. I suppose I pondered the way the wind was ripping at his trenchcoat for just a little too long, I got a hazel-red glare that creeped me out more effectively than an hour of Dickinson's post-life musings.
A guy from my class was walking in front of me. He carries himself with what I consider the geeky-goth airs. His black jacket, worn out t-shirts with not-quiet-funny wisecracks on them, extra-large pants with more pockets and chains than a cargo boat, and shoulder-bag full of books clashed painfully with the aviators he slaps on with pride. I try not to be noticed.
The redheaded buzzard sneered.
Los keeps the room warm. It's probably 75 degrees in here now. Maybe hotter. He's gotten it past 80 before. Right now there's not an inch of free space anywhere. I've taken over the desk with a pile of metal that will become my mask project for theatre. He's taken over the totes around his bed, which serve as a type of table, and his "desk" has spread out around the floor. I'm typing now from the corner beside the desk, sitting on a beanbag with my back against the heater. There's a pile of papers around me: the Accolade newsletter, USA Today, Los's Plate Tectonics review sheet, and several others. Part of the ceiling fell in yesterday for no apparent reason, I hope the paintchips by Los's closet aren't too lead-filled.
I've been itching to write. I don't care what. As you can see, I'm perfectly content describing my room to the best of my abilities. Its blue carpet is 20 years old and has so many stains we're not sure what the original color was. Besides the white powder from the ceiling there's also flecks of red from an afternoon dorito snack, bits of brown from the last of my move-in peanuts, and whatever else escaped our last vacuum attempt 2 weeks ago.
This weekend Los and I go to war with this room.
We're not sure we're going to make it out alive.
Goku, Vegeta, Link, Spawn, Gambit, Megaman, R2D2, Robin, Yoda, Spiderman, Gwatto, Darth Maul, the Shining Gundam, 5 Nazgul, 3 legomen, and a Tonberry are all watching from various outposts to time their attacks just right. Last time we tried to clean Ian and Spiderman got into a tustle that resulted in Spidy's webbing falling from it's mounting point on the fire-spicket's pipe to gambit and the DBZ crew's heads. He tried to fix it 5 times before we got him to stop.
This time, my money's on the Gundam.
Or maybe the rest of the ceiling will fall.
Getting in the "write mood" (haha) always happens to me during classes. If I'm lucky, I have time afterwards to dash back and do something about it. I've gotten two story-starters done that way. Great. Now I have 2 more stories to add to the "someday-never-did-I-write-that?" pile.
Nintendo's gotten too much of my spare time. Tonight, at 11 when I'm done with all my reading and homework and classes and such, I'm diving back in. Even if I don't make it, at least I'll be able to say I tried. My new years resolution to write a little every day has been dead since I started college, but that doesn't mean I can't resurrect it. It just requires a little priority.
And today feels like a good day for it.
 
Sunday, February 13, 2005
  Weekend
Freedom!
Dude, you are BARE FEET. You are a really easy
going and caring person. People like you
because you are happy and don't judge others.
You are generally quite happy to go with the
flow but you can do your own thing too.


What pair of shoes are YOU?
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Los bought X-Men Legends. That may have been a bad idea for our grades, but it's an amaznig game. We sat around shouting orders at eachother and coordinating against the scariest evil Mutants around. Well, not really the scariest yet, but Pyro roasted us the first time we fought him.
I'm still getting the details worked out for the SGA site, which has been more annoying than I would have imagined. I'm going to take a couple of hours monday afternoon (while Tiff's at work) and actually, finally, get everything up like it's supposed to be.
As you can see, I took another fun little quiz. Myranda always has a slew of them on her blog, and I just go from there.
Congrad's calling my name. I'm really trying to ignore it, but it's calling. I can't afford to get behind, so I guess I'm curling up with it now.
 
Comments:
Not going to update my blog url? I feel so loved... Anyways, just a random thought here. I remembered way a long time ago you mentioned trying to figure out a way to get your posts to be emailed to people like a mailing list or what not.... Are you still working on that? If so I would love to know what you've come up with b/c I need to figure out something similar for my seo-blog. Thanks ttyl!
 
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Wednesday, February 09, 2005
  Auras
red aura
Your aura shines Red!


What Color Is Your Aura?
brought to you by Quizilla
 
  BHHWHAHAAHAHAHAAA








AHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAA!!!!
You're a villain!

...though you prefer to think of yourself as misunderstood. You know the world would be a better place if they'd only let you be in charge of it, and if they don't appreciate your genius by themselves you're willing to make them. You've got good hair, a secret base and an ambivalent relationship with the bishounen hero. You've got the money, the women, the best mecha and your own private army, but you still lose in the end to some jumped-up kid with spiky hair. There is no justice.

Which generic anime character are you?



 
  Shades of Grey
Today's been a grey day. Yes, a grey day. I like the british spelling better. No real reason, I guess. According to Tiff it looks nicer on paper than our American word. I don't know if I buy that, but I still spell it with an "e."
So it's been a grey day. Not quite cold enough for anything to freeze, but not warm enough for rain. The air just hangs suspended from the sky, dancing drops of moisture reaching up into the atmosphere. Color seems a little dimmer, and I can't help but think about a Manga when I look at it. Maybe I'm thinking of Megatokyo again. Seeing the world through shades of grey. Maybe it's the character of Bartelby, who I've been reading in just about every class. He's so, strange. I'm not sure grey is the right word for him, but it seems right to me. He's not hostile, persay. He'd just rather not be. No motivation, no good or bad, just Bartleby.
We watched a Bartleby movie in class today. It had the Sundance logo in the corner, but I don't know what year it was from. Good clip, though.
"Life isn't good or bad, it's both; it's a dichotomy."
Thanks Tara. She said that in her blog yesterday. Sorry, I don't have a link. She's a good friend, and more insightful than I tend to give her credit for. Another person to miss on chilly days.
I'm going to hear it tomorrow. The SGA site still isn't all the way up to date (how do I convert to .pdf again?) and the minutes are supposed to be up for everybody to see. The schedule and roster are updated though, so that's something. Tomorrow I boldly go back to more Conrad and then have a German test I haven't studied enough for.
 
Monday, February 07, 2005
  VP
It's official. I'm the Clark College Vice Prez. That fills the resume out further, and adds on a new load of activies to my list. Am I covering my enthusiasm well? This gets me a lot more involved in Clark, which in turn gets me a lot more involved on campus. I'm hoping that between this and the SGA webmaster job I'll be able to get back in touch with things. It's amazing how many new faces came in last fall, and how many old ones are gone. I'm rapidly finding my peers in more and more leadership positions. It's nice.
An old man on Inuyasha just said "Cats are vengeful creatures and will curse you for generations." Sounds about right.
Ugh, my mind keeps wandering to my writing. Usually it's during class, which isn't good. I've devoted a couple of sets of margins to little tidbits, just because I can't stand to hold it all in forever. I haven't had time to write in the room, but maybe I will someday. In the meantime, it brews.
Our "Tales of the Sea" book, Ship of the Line, ended in a cliffhanger that none of us will be able to find time to read. We're starting back on Conrad again, while other classes are pulling in other things. I'm not sure what my Southern Fiction assignment is for this week, but I imagine there's a lot of it. I'm still reeling from all the Poe last week.
Our room's still the social hub, too. It's fun, in moderation. I'm trying to teach my friends to sleep at night. It's just not working.
 
Comments:
Sleep, what the hell is that? We're in college and sleep is for the weak.

--Amber/Kui'i
 
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Friday, February 04, 2005
 
Well, today's been productive.
On the top of my useful discoveries today were the webcomic megatokyo and the blog-full-of-strangeness that I can't seem to find in my history. On that blog I found a link to Panda Golf, which I also can't find a link to, but which kept me occupied for far longer than it should have. Yes, I have things I'm supposed to be doing. I'm getting to those now.
Tonight's SGA damage control. I'm turning http://www.msusga.com into an easier to navigate, more organized and grammatically correct site. Funny, considering my own spelling on here, but I really am better at it when it's my job.
What else is new?
I got a little smirk the other day when, while walking out of my "Tales of the Sea" class Dr. E. said with an ear-to-ear smile: "I can't believe I'm getting paid for this!" I grinned, thinking of the day when I'll be able to express similar sentiment.
 
Thursday, February 03, 2005
  The Phantom and Poe
Southern Fiction's got me a little busier than I'd thought it would. It's a 500 level class, which means mostly graduate students, so I guess it's to be expected, but still the load's a little scary. This week's assignments seemed like the complete works of Poe, but it was probably only about half of them. Poems like "Sonnet to Science," "The Raven," and "The City in the Sea" went along with stories like "The Facts in the Case of M. Vlademir" and essays like "Philosophy of Furniture." Obscure and common alike, it was a regular Poe-reader, and a real cross section of his writing. I'm not sure how I feel about it all. Like all good authors, Poe evokes a lot of different emotions when I read him. Usually it's whatever emotion he's steering me to.
Anyway, as if that weren't exciting enough, I just got back from the Phantom of the Opera movie. It was good. Not great, but good. Not a substitute for the actual stage show, but the singing's decent and the imagery is great. I enjoyed it anyway.
I'm probably still overextended. The SGA job isn't gonna be as time consuming as I thought, and it looks like fun anyway. I think I can manage it, there just won't be much nintendo involved this semester.
How sad. :(
Tomorrow's committees and such, so I've gotta sleep. I'm looking at almost 6 hours sleep now, not good.
 
Welcome to the vacuum in which my various thoughts emerge, fight, and ultimately sink once more into obscurity.

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