This can be chalked up as another one of my hobbies: misanthropy. I follow a hilarious blog called "The Sassy Curmudgeon" and Una, the blogger extraordinaire, has a series called "Curmudgeon of the Week."
After making a list of annoyances that plagued me over the course of one day ( a Forensic Speech exercise- thanks coach) I submitted it to Una for consideration. Remarkably, I was accepted for this somewhat peculiar honor. You can see my entry here.
There are several things I'd like to add to the list after this latest Forensic Speech Tournament:
Getting up before it's light
Wearing stockings with trousers
$7 salads
Faux-hawks
Pointy witch shoes
Riding in a van full of club music
Being out of fake mustaches
Jerks that make fun of me for liking Jane Austen (she's a brilliant satirist!)
Conflicting suggestions
Dirty Gas Stations
Running out of matches
Itchy sweaters
I'm going to watch PBS for a while and then get to sleep. I might do my Ages 3+ Raccoon puzzle as well. Good times.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Happy Blog-iversary to me....
Today is the anniversary of my first post, cleverly entitled, "Awkward First Blog." I've definitely experienced many changes in my perspective on blogging since that fateful day a year ago.
I celebrated by registering my NaNo for next month, NaNo was the first major project I undertook after starting my blog. At first I was very covert about the whole thing, calling myself a "secret blogger" and not really letting many of my friends or family know about my project to train myself to be a better journalist and writer in general. Now I speak more freely about it and have reached 8 followers as well as a handful of sometimes readers.
What will the next year bring? Both in blogging and life, it's difficult to anticipate. Let's keep it as adventurous as possible.
I celebrated by registering my NaNo for next month, NaNo was the first major project I undertook after starting my blog. At first I was very covert about the whole thing, calling myself a "secret blogger" and not really letting many of my friends or family know about my project to train myself to be a better journalist and writer in general. Now I speak more freely about it and have reached 8 followers as well as a handful of sometimes readers.
What will the next year bring? Both in blogging and life, it's difficult to anticipate. Let's keep it as adventurous as possible.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Budgeting My Time
I've been awkwardly stalled on my Austen and Lawrence reading challenges for the last two months, so I'm gracefully bowing out of them until mid-December when I finish this semester and am not reading for three literature classes.
However, I think I am going to do NaNoWriMo again this year. I had to quit ScriptFrenzy, but there are a few stories I've been sketching out that I really need to push myself to bang out into a solid draft. Knowing myself, I need to write to keep myself balanced (mentally and emotionally) and I haven't been doing it lately. I need to make myself do it because I feel the frustration of unexpressed words building up in me which makes me grumpy and, eventually, depressed.
There are several stories I'm between, not sure which one I'll NaNo- I have a story I wrote a while back but basically completely scrapped, over the sumer I made an outline that restructured it completely and even changed out some characters. There's also my short story, "Target Girl"- I think that could be expanded, as well as a few random ideas I've been kicking around in an abstract way.
Reading is incredibly important and I know I'll never have enough time in my life to read all the great books I ought to- there being created much faster than I can read them and so many were created before my birth- but in the end, I want to write a few great books that are worthy of someone else's overly ambitious reading list.
For a while, books were a great majority of my life and I'm at the point where I'm trying to balance out the time I spend reading with that I spend writing and also the time I spend doing. I think in the end this is a much healthier attitude toward books. I shouldn't only live them.
But, I digress, expect many updates about the story I choose as NaNo gears up.
However, I think I am going to do NaNoWriMo again this year. I had to quit ScriptFrenzy, but there are a few stories I've been sketching out that I really need to push myself to bang out into a solid draft. Knowing myself, I need to write to keep myself balanced (mentally and emotionally) and I haven't been doing it lately. I need to make myself do it because I feel the frustration of unexpressed words building up in me which makes me grumpy and, eventually, depressed.
There are several stories I'm between, not sure which one I'll NaNo- I have a story I wrote a while back but basically completely scrapped, over the sumer I made an outline that restructured it completely and even changed out some characters. There's also my short story, "Target Girl"- I think that could be expanded, as well as a few random ideas I've been kicking around in an abstract way.
Reading is incredibly important and I know I'll never have enough time in my life to read all the great books I ought to- there being created much faster than I can read them and so many were created before my birth- but in the end, I want to write a few great books that are worthy of someone else's overly ambitious reading list.
For a while, books were a great majority of my life and I'm at the point where I'm trying to balance out the time I spend reading with that I spend writing and also the time I spend doing. I think in the end this is a much healthier attitude toward books. I shouldn't only live them.
But, I digress, expect many updates about the story I choose as NaNo gears up.
Monday, October 18, 2010
English Major Tee Shirts
The science department in my college is the dominant area of study in the school. When the college first opened it was especially dedicated to science studies and those are still the most populated programs of study.
Recently the sciences came out with a witty tee shirt that references how much time they spend in labs, so my friend Sacha and I were pondering what witty tee shirt the English department could come up with to combat this and boost morale.
Here were some we came up with:
"I'm not saying I'm perfect, but I'm an English major, so I'm a little more perfect than you."
"I have better taste than that, I'm an English major."
Those were our best, but please leave your own suggestions.
Now, I have to go read about 50 more pages without falling asleep or having my eye balls fall out. This will be a challenge.
Recently the sciences came out with a witty tee shirt that references how much time they spend in labs, so my friend Sacha and I were pondering what witty tee shirt the English department could come up with to combat this and boost morale.
Here were some we came up with:
"I'm not saying I'm perfect, but I'm an English major, so I'm a little more perfect than you."
"I have better taste than that, I'm an English major."
Those were our best, but please leave your own suggestions.
Now, I have to go read about 50 more pages without falling asleep or having my eye balls fall out. This will be a challenge.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
My Motto for the Day
This weekend was my first Forensic Speech tournament and I was nervous. I was thrown into one event only this week, so I was very nervous. One off our assistant coaches made us little slips of paper with inspiration quotations and pictures. I don't know if she did this purposely for me, because I'm an Anglophile, but she put "Keep Calm and Carry On" in the corner and it was my motto all tournament.
I knew I wouldn't be coming in top rankings my first time out, in fact I knew in some events I wouldn't even make near the finals, but I kept on. And I made it to finals on two events this weekend.
So, I'm looking to next weekend, hoping that it's only up from here.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Louisa May Alcott
Next semester I may be embarking on a rather exciting project about Louisa May Alcott. Best known for largely autobiographical novel Little Women she also wrote many stories and novels that she like to refer to as "blood and thunder" stories- gothic romantic thrillers under the name A.M. Barnard.
The more I learn about her and her work the more I adore her and become even more excited for the project. Reading accounts of her life and her personal letters makes me feel a very strong connection to her. I'll be very pleased to continue my research.
Her father was an abolitionist and friend of Emerson (Louisa and his daughter were apparently close), Thoreau and many other intellectuals of the time. She was a nurse during some of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War where she was inspired to write Hospital Sketches. Then she contracted Typhoid fever and was dosed with a mercury based medicine that caused vivid and disturbing dreams- perhaps providing inspiration for some of her sensational novels?
Over this winter break I'll be rereading Little Women, I haven't read it since I was twelve. My goal is also to go to Concord MA and visit Orchard House where she lived most of her life and wrote the novel. I have friends that live near Boston, so I'm hoping they might let me couch-surf with them for a few days. I've always wanted to see Boston as well and while I'm there, I'd love to take a day to visit Walden. It would be quite the literary trip and I want to do it in December before I fully embark on this project, but money and the prospect of driving around Massachusetts in the middle of winter may delay me until the spring.
I've also been toying with the idea of writing my own gothic romance in a similar style to hers to get me in the proper mindset.
Maybe I'll post excerpts if it goes well.
Now back to reading Sons and Lovers.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Another Cautionary Tale
This time about archery.
I forgot the leather bracer that I wear over my left arm to protect it from the bow string when it snaps forward and releases the arrow. I was wearing long sleeves so I thought it would be alright.
There are bad ideas, very bad ideas, extremely bad ideas, and 'holy mother... that was a terrible idea'. Clearly, this was the latter. While going through my second quiver of arrows my string hit my arm very seriously. It wasn't so bad until it was struck again, even harder when I started my third quiver.
I had to quit early because I was in so much pain, I kept flinching away from the bow when I went to fire. I was very inaccurate. It wasn't worth continuing, I would either be hurting my arm more or just being totally off.
It's already a little swollen and turning black. Alas.
Incidentally, I read "A Scandal in Bohemia" last night. It's the Sherlock Holmes story where Irene Adler appeared. Funny that one short story has lead to many many spin-offs and paralits featuring her. Moriarty was also only in one novel, but was retrospectively made responsible for some of the events of other stories.
Two weeks until PBS airs the new Sherlock, the campus lit club is hosting a viewing party, we're all going to get together, bring snacks, and watch the frist episode's premiere.
I forgot the leather bracer that I wear over my left arm to protect it from the bow string when it snaps forward and releases the arrow. I was wearing long sleeves so I thought it would be alright.
There are bad ideas, very bad ideas, extremely bad ideas, and 'holy mother... that was a terrible idea'. Clearly, this was the latter. While going through my second quiver of arrows my string hit my arm very seriously. It wasn't so bad until it was struck again, even harder when I started my third quiver.
I had to quit early because I was in so much pain, I kept flinching away from the bow when I went to fire. I was very inaccurate. It wasn't worth continuing, I would either be hurting my arm more or just being totally off.
It's already a little swollen and turning black. Alas.
Incidentally, I read "A Scandal in Bohemia" last night. It's the Sherlock Holmes story where Irene Adler appeared. Funny that one short story has lead to many many spin-offs and paralits featuring her. Moriarty was also only in one novel, but was retrospectively made responsible for some of the events of other stories.
Two weeks until PBS airs the new Sherlock, the campus lit club is hosting a viewing party, we're all going to get together, bring snacks, and watch the frist episode's premiere.
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