So, I'm trying to learn more about how to schedule a GRE exam in Williston. I'm not turning up anything on the GRE website about testing sites and the like, but maybe I just need to keep digging...
And I was looking over my lj friends' page today when I came across this bit of silliness:
http://metalclarinet.livejournal.com/60526.html?view=122478&style=mine#t122478
Worth watching, I think, regardless of who you vote for. For pure lunacy.
I'm glad I'm working next Tuesday night. It means no one will be up, insisting on watching other things on TV while the election coverage is on CBS. This is apt to be the last time I vote in national elections (being as I am a believer in a sort of post-modern Marxism), so I'm quite interested to see how it goes, and how the next four years pass as well...
Three and a half hours before my meeting with top brass at People's Academy. And once there, I'll be officially on the substitute teacher list as far as I can tell. Hooray for a second job. That's about it for me today. Time to go read a little of The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller. Yes, that will round out my morning nicely.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
I think that my biggest stumbling block, in terms of getting any writing done (aside, that is, from laziness and a short attention span) is that most of my ideas for stories have sort of grown together into something I pompously refer to as my "mythos" in emails to firends who are thankfully fairly patient with my ramblings about writing. It's very convoluted, and many of the snippets that have come to me are not actually stories but characters or details. For instance, thanks to my interest in paying homage Kill Bill style to a number of works that have influenced my thinking about my "mythos", I have the names of a handful of businesses located in my imaginary region.
Backing up. I realize I just sort of started out in media res here. Ten deep breaths. Ready? OK then.
I have been toying since high school with the creation of several Vermont towns of varying sizes. Over the years, my sporadic (and usually incomplete) forays into fiction writing have made use of these towns, though they have never really been given much attention. They were usually just names thrown onto paper so that I could set things in places with names. I guess part of it is due to my teenage fanaticism for certain works by Stephen King. The two towns that I guess I retaibned often enough for them to stick with me over the past 7-8 years are Westborough and Garstow. At some point, perhaps primarily influenced by my college readings in Faulkner, things organized themselves a little more clearly into a fictional county which I've always figured would be Westborough County. These days, I wonder if it oughtn't be named something else, and a different town be made the county seat, despite Westborough being a decent sized large town/small city. Brattleboro sized, for anyone familiar enough with Vermont to know. But Hyde Park, the county seat in Lamoille County, is in fact one of the smaller villages--little more than the county buildings (cops & court) and a few houses. So it isn't impossible. Another recent discovery, through historical research, is that counties in VT, and much of New England, have never been very important except as court districts. Probably the effect of having such emphasis on town governance via Town Meeting. This has let me to wonder how many towns I need to create, because the county would only be an "arbitrary political division," rather than a dfistinct and important entity. My initial plans for the Westborough County "mythos" don't need to be as far reaching and county-bound as I initially planned, particularly since my background in cultural studies emphasizes lived spaces as perceived by the inhabitants over abstract political units...
Anyhow, rambling again. Point is, I have some ideas about Westborough County, but nothing is really set in stone.
Would you believe I actually started typing up a gazette-like compendium of some of these characters, places, etc here? Sheesh. Not exactly what anyone wants to read. I'm not sure why I even started this post. Shrug. Guess there wasn't much point...still, if I get any stories actually written, I think I'll post them here. Again, not that anyone will actually read this blog in the first place...
Backing up. I realize I just sort of started out in media res here. Ten deep breaths. Ready? OK then.
I have been toying since high school with the creation of several Vermont towns of varying sizes. Over the years, my sporadic (and usually incomplete) forays into fiction writing have made use of these towns, though they have never really been given much attention. They were usually just names thrown onto paper so that I could set things in places with names. I guess part of it is due to my teenage fanaticism for certain works by Stephen King. The two towns that I guess I retaibned often enough for them to stick with me over the past 7-8 years are Westborough and Garstow. At some point, perhaps primarily influenced by my college readings in Faulkner, things organized themselves a little more clearly into a fictional county which I've always figured would be Westborough County. These days, I wonder if it oughtn't be named something else, and a different town be made the county seat, despite Westborough being a decent sized large town/small city. Brattleboro sized, for anyone familiar enough with Vermont to know. But Hyde Park, the county seat in Lamoille County, is in fact one of the smaller villages--little more than the county buildings (cops & court) and a few houses. So it isn't impossible. Another recent discovery, through historical research, is that counties in VT, and much of New England, have never been very important except as court districts. Probably the effect of having such emphasis on town governance via Town Meeting. This has let me to wonder how many towns I need to create, because the county would only be an "arbitrary political division," rather than a dfistinct and important entity. My initial plans for the Westborough County "mythos" don't need to be as far reaching and county-bound as I initially planned, particularly since my background in cultural studies emphasizes lived spaces as perceived by the inhabitants over abstract political units...
Anyhow, rambling again. Point is, I have some ideas about Westborough County, but nothing is really set in stone.
Would you believe I actually started typing up a gazette-like compendium of some of these characters, places, etc here? Sheesh. Not exactly what anyone wants to read. I'm not sure why I even started this post. Shrug. Guess there wasn't much point...still, if I get any stories actually written, I think I'll post them here. Again, not that anyone will actually read this blog in the first place...
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Late On the Bandwagon...
~RK7
...but I usually am. Never knew as much about the interblags as most of my peers I guess. Never had it at home, rarely had much time on it through high school. College was my escape into the world of computer technology, and I still know very little about it. In many ways, I'm a slow learner I suppose. I'm not entirely sure how doing this here is in any way different than working on livejournal, for instance. But I figure what the hell. I'm on both myspace and facebook, after all...
So happy that my twin sister finally had her baby on Tuesday. It was a difficult night, but he's been worth it. No doubt about it, he'll be a change in the lives of everyone who was present at the hospital. Her boyfriend's parents' first real grandchild (I guess his dad's girlfriends grandkids call him grampa, but it isn't quite the same as blood, and it was obvious from his expressions that night how different it was for him). Her first child, and with her being my twin sister, it's sort of special to me. We're fraternal, so I luckily missed out on sympathy labor pains...
Huh. this is probably more personal than I ought to be for my first ever post. But what the hell. Who's going to read this thing anyway? I reckon I can say and post whatever I like. Who'll care?
El pueblo unido jamas sera vincido. If I spelled that right (damn, is my little bits of spanish vanishing? terrible).
Looking into grad school again with a real serious eye toward doing FAFSA etc in January and tyrying to do my GRE in Williston before next summer. That way I can (fingers crossed) be in Oregon by mid-summer, and established at PSU's College of Education in September. Leadership in Ecology, Culture, and Something Else Impressive. Lovely sounding program, if I can get through it better than my undergraduate years. Maybe I'm just not cut out for the academic life. Or maybe I just let too much get in my way last time around. Too many distractions, and by the end my primary focus (tourism studies) held little interest for me, which I expect played a large role...
So, yes, that's me and my life as of this instant.
What a wonderful and crazy thing it is to be alive.
Snyrt
...but I usually am. Never knew as much about the interblags as most of my peers I guess. Never had it at home, rarely had much time on it through high school. College was my escape into the world of computer technology, and I still know very little about it. In many ways, I'm a slow learner I suppose. I'm not entirely sure how doing this here is in any way different than working on livejournal, for instance. But I figure what the hell. I'm on both myspace and facebook, after all...
So happy that my twin sister finally had her baby on Tuesday. It was a difficult night, but he's been worth it. No doubt about it, he'll be a change in the lives of everyone who was present at the hospital. Her boyfriend's parents' first real grandchild (I guess his dad's girlfriends grandkids call him grampa, but it isn't quite the same as blood, and it was obvious from his expressions that night how different it was for him). Her first child, and with her being my twin sister, it's sort of special to me. We're fraternal, so I luckily missed out on sympathy labor pains...
Huh. this is probably more personal than I ought to be for my first ever post. But what the hell. Who's going to read this thing anyway? I reckon I can say and post whatever I like. Who'll care?
El pueblo unido jamas sera vincido. If I spelled that right (damn, is my little bits of spanish vanishing? terrible).
Looking into grad school again with a real serious eye toward doing FAFSA etc in January and tyrying to do my GRE in Williston before next summer. That way I can (fingers crossed) be in Oregon by mid-summer, and established at PSU's College of Education in September. Leadership in Ecology, Culture, and Something Else Impressive. Lovely sounding program, if I can get through it better than my undergraduate years. Maybe I'm just not cut out for the academic life. Or maybe I just let too much get in my way last time around. Too many distractions, and by the end my primary focus (tourism studies) held little interest for me, which I expect played a large role...
So, yes, that's me and my life as of this instant.
What a wonderful and crazy thing it is to be alive.
Snyrt
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