Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Title Poetry

I haven't really been writing much lately, at least not creatively. Way, WAY behind on the Glory-Be Project for one thing. I've been trying to make it up a little by crafting some long, complicated title poems.

I didn't actually set out to make a super long one, but I couldn't seem to stop once I really got going. Same thing happened on the next one - it just kept going XD I have every intention of doing two more, one for spring and summer. I've been having a bit of fun just collecting titles for the last few days. I really am proud of how well the autumn piece turned out - super proud.

Doc noticed me working on the winter poem a few days ago and was impressed by the idea. Asked me to send the finished pieces to him, so I complied. He LOVES the autumn piece. Just loves it. Thinks it's one of the best things I've ever written. I believe his words were "knocked it outta the fucking park" XD I was already happy with it, but hearing that keeps me warm.

Today was the last official day of Drama. He's giving them tomorrow off to work on their assignments, but I think he really wants to chill out on his birthday. I'm planning to take him out to lunch whenever I finally get paid, but in the meantime I bought a wooden slate and some chalkboard paint - the one thing he didn't mind about our classroom being moved this summer was that the new room had a chalkboard instead of a whiteboard. This gift is one half sincere and one half me being a smartass. I think he'll like it though.

It's been a good term. I wish there had been more students in Drama, but it was still fun. I'm not really glad it's over, but I am glad that Doc is going off the clock for the next two months. It'll be nice to chill out a bit and enjoy his company instead of rushing from one place to another, always under a deadline.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Marathon Writing

On Friday, Doc challenged me to a writing contest. My first reaction was to ask if the contest was who could write more, or who could write better - he acted like I stabbed him in the back XD

The rules were to write as many radio scripts as possible before midnight on Sunday. We had to include an introductory bit of audio as well, which I usually do last, so that made it a touch harder. I didn't expect to do very many; it can take a while to do one of these well. It's easier if it's an author I'm already familiar with, and considerably more difficult if it's an author that Doc gave me to looks up. He's assigned me to some pretty obscure people in the past, which is part of the reason finding audio is the hardest part for me.

I'd say I put some seven or eight hours into writing nine scripts over the weekend. To make an already difficult task even worse, my Internet spent a large part of the weekend broken. We've had problems for a long time, but it's lasted without much issue for the past couple of months. Figures that it would start acting up when it did. On Sunday, I spent literally an hour and a half on hold trying to reach the Internet technician. Never did get a hold of them.

So at 8PM Sunday night, I packed up my laptop and went to my parents place to wrap up this contest. On the way, Doc texts me and offers an extension for me to Monday at 6:00. I turned him down because I knew I'd be babysitting in the morning (grandparents had a funeral). Even with that, I still stayed in Little Rock past midnight, swapping witticisms and taunts with Doc through e-mail. He conceded defeat ten minutes after midnight. Finally made it home around 1AM, knew I would have to get up sometime around nine.

Basically, I spent the weekend earning my nickname. I've become very attached to being called Rodette.

The authors I chose were Brian Jacques, Dorothy Parker, Dostoyevsky, e.e. Cummings, Margaret Mitchell, Nabokov, P.L. Travers, Dante Rossetti, and Jesse Stuart. I've only read three of these authors XD

I'll have to revise them of course, but I think most of them are already in pretty good shape. I'm still the most proud of my Agatha Christie and Rod Serling pieces, but I think the Nabokov is going to end up being one of my favorites. I think he turned out well.

Today we were nearly late for Drama. We wasted a lot of time going back and forth about the competition. He had a ridiculous amount of fun, and I'm happy for that. I know he's been stressed lately. It was nice seeing him relaxed and happy.

 

The blue W is my trophy. He'll be wanting that back, so I'm sure we'll do this again. Not anytime soon - I'm not writing him another script for a while XD

Monday, June 10, 2013

I made a book.

So I made a book.

A few people suggested making an anthology of the pieces I've written about Doc to give him for his birthday. I felt that was kinda vain, but thought it might make a neat present for Father's Day. A week early perhaps, but I'm bad at keeping secrets for very long. I'm rather proud of myself for this little project. I definitely want to make more of them. I had to drop some cash, but the price tag won't be so much now that I have stuff to work with. I also got some coupons from the store, so that will help too.


I found a kit of sorts when I went to Michael's yesterday - I guess it wasn't really a kit since it was more like two pieces of thick cardboard to use as a book cover and back, but it was what I needed. The main reason I've never tried my hand at making a book is because I've never been sure how to create the outside to hold the pages. I also got some binder rings, distressing ink, a blending tool, decorative keys, and some tags to decorate the cover page above a little bit. The bluebird in the center was made from one of my existing stamps and distressing ink.


I didn't choose blue and brown for any particular reason - I just liked the colors and thought they would look good together. I picked up some plain white cardstock and hoped I'd be able to make neat cuts and that I would be able to print on that. Worked out beautifully. I think I'm going to get some more ink - it's kinda expensive, but I really like the results of working with it.


I ended up using 12 pages, single-sided. Mostly poems, but I threw Superimpose in because that started the whole thing and I still believe it's the best thing I ever wrote. I didn't use everything I ever wrote about Doc, but most of it is there. The stuff I left out was either too long, or I didn't like it enough to include. And I only had the 12 pages, but shhhh.


I think he was rather touched by the gesture. Said it was one of the nicest things he's ever received.  I really am happy with this little project. I can't wait to do another one :)

I also made a little gift for his wife for the book she bought me. I picked up some nice cookies and some coffee from Tuesday Morning. I don't know anything about coffee, so I was kinda guessing, but I figure everyone likes vanilla. And if you don't, then we can't be friends =P I'm with Doc though - I'm more of a tea person. Coffee is too bitter for me.

Still stuck on what I'm going to get him for his birthday. If I can find one, I'd like to get him a handheld chalkboard. They moved our Drama class from the usual room, and as annoyed as it makes him, he's excited to be in a room with an old school chalkboard. I watched him today, and he was carrying a piece of chalk almost the entire time. I think it would be a neat little idea.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Four Things

Warm fuzzy feelings this evening <3

Been helping Doc out a lot lately and his gratitude is very sweet. Somebody changed the time and room on his Drama class, so he was scrambling to figure out what happened, why it was changed, and went ahead and got stared with class anyway.Then only half the people showed up today, so no one knows what's going on with that. He was rather aggravated about the whole mess. Walking out to the lot though, and he spent a good chuck of out talking time just being thankful to me, ending the conversation with a Taiwan-esque bow of thanks.He wanted to thank me for four things:

For calling about the time change on Drama.
For helping write and edit the radio scripts.
For being around and willing to help.
For being cheerful and positive about it all.

And warm fuzzy feelings commence.

He's reading it at the moment, but he bought me a new book. It's different this time though; he's always given me things he thought I would enjoy, but this time he picked it up specifically because he knew I loved the author, Jacyln Moriarty. I didn't even know she had a new book.

We've been going back and forth about this author for a few days actually. The Year of Secret Assignments is an old favorite of mine and he promised me he would read it since I've read everything he's ever given me. He ended up picking up A Corner of White instead. It's a fantasy book, and I've never read fantasy from her, so I'm definitely interested.

Anyway, the book is a thanks for all the work I've done on the radio scripts. I don't feel like I've done all that much, but apparently I'm a bigger help than I realize. People don't give you a bow for nothing after all =P

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Book Learnin'

I've mentioned Doc giving me a bunch of books and I don't update this thing as often as I should, so let's go through them.

The first one is the Springsteen bio. Bruce Springsteen and the Promise of Rock and Roll by Marc Dolan. Apparently Doc tries to read a biography once every semester, so I'm not entirely sure if he really is a big Springsteen fan, or if it just kept coming up because this just happened to be the biography he was reading at the time. But anyway. I still have about a hundred pages left, but I've already read 300, so I think I can talk about it. Everything up to Born to Run and just after was pretty interesting, but shortly after that it started to get into politics and I kinda lost interest. I'll finish it, but it's a long book and I needed a break from it.

I'll admit I don't know how to approach this one. I don't usually pick up biographies; they just don't interest me that much. There's too much boring stuff in the middle of living life XD Reading this one probably would have been easier/ more entertaining if I was familiar with Springsteen's discography, but as it stands, it wasn't a bad read at all for someone who doesn't really consider themselves a fan. The author goes into some technical details on the songs, which went way over my head (I made a 1 on the AP Music Theory exam - I am completely lost when it comes to analyzing music), but other parts like poking around at the lyrics were interesting.

Onward: Bento's Sketchbook by John Berger. Doc gave me this one because he was reminded of my own notebooks with the sketches and doodles (he told me off not long ago for not drawing in my notebooks more XD). This one isn't exactly a collection of shorts, but it's not quite a linear story either. It is very much like one of my notebooks - a collection of thoughts and sketches.

The philosophy of Spinoza, including lots of quotes from his work, is spaced throughout though I didn't get that much out of those segments. Most of the thoughts revolve around drawing and where the impulse to create comes from. He often presents a sketch and then the story behind the sketch - where he was, who/ what he was drawing, why he chose to draw that particular thing or person. I thought the approach was pretty neat. There's something clinical in the way he writes it all out, but not boring or sterile. He writes about the world very much as a philosopher might, in clean, rational lines. It's probably one of those things you either like or hate, but I enjoyed the book.

Office Girl by Joe Meno. I'd actually thought about picking this up once - Doc has recommended a different Meno to me in the past, though this one was the only one I could find in the bookstore. I'll probably give his work another shot if I ever run into one of his books again.

Office Girl focuses on two hipster teens, Jack and Odile, and takes place just before the new millennium. I like his writing style a lot, which made up for the fact that I really didn't like the characters. Jack grew on me, but Odile - well, she comes off as one of those people who likes to be spastic and random for the sake of "being unique." Which I think was the point, but I'm not quite sure. I can't tell if the book is satirizing their lifestyle or celebrating it. Or both I guess.

The story begins with Odile who has worked 17 jobs in the last few years and probably has some sort of complex because she sleep with anyone so that they'll like her. That's not analysis on my part, she literally says that later in the book. We follow her around for a while and then the story jumps over to Jack for some time. He is going through a divorce in all but name and is working on a soundscape project. He rides around the city on his bike with a tape recorder and captures the sounds of whatever he finds interesting (this includes the usual city sounds and also things like a balloon flying away and a green glove lying in the snow).

About halfway through the two meet while working in the same office that sells elevator music. They do random things together. Though it's more Odile doing and Jack letting himself get dragged along because he really wants to sleep with her.

I don't know - I did like the book, I just can't stand these two, or at least Odile. There are lots of great lines and images and I like the fragmented thing he does when he switches to a new scene and Jack at least does seem to grow as a person even if he doesn't get any sort of happiness for it or whatever. I'm just not sure what to make of this one. I like the sense of longing and desperation and the hunt for meaning - he's captured the feeling well, but doesn't bother to provide any of the meaning they're looking for. I really like that Jack lays it out for Odile when he reaches the same conclusion about her that I did.

Eh. Maybe I'll like a different one of his books, one without a main character that acts like a proto-Lady Gaga.

Which brings me to Stay Awake by Don Chaon. Probably my favorite of the stuff he's given me. I really don't like horror stories, but this short story collection isn't quite horror. Much of it is almost disturbingly normal. They feel like ghost stories, even if they aren't. None of the stories are connected, but there are recurring themes and images like missing fingers, abused and abandoned children, paranoia, suicide, loss; it's a psychological study in a lot of ways.

For example; a guy named O'Sullivan is coming home from college. His degree hasn't gotten him anywhere. He hitches a ride with his brother who drives a semi-truck. Lots of awkward silence ensues because they don't really have anything to talk about. They keep seeing the same motorcyclist along the road during the drive. All of this is fragmented and told in past tense - the story begins after the two have just hit a deer and get out to make sure everything it okay. It's a perfectly normal story and there really shouldn't be anything creepy about it, but the atmosphere he creates is very tense. Or maybe it's just because it was late in the book and I knew something had to be coming (I'm not sure I interpreted the ending right, but if I did, then yeah, that was pretty messed up).

That was probably the most normal story in the book actually. It may have been the only one where I didn't get a feel for something vaguely supernatural lurking in the background. One story is about a father whose son keeps having night terrors, another about a guy who keeps finding random notes (like blown in the wind random), another about a guy who takes a boy away from his meth-addicted mother but realizes he can't handle that responsibility. I think there were close to ten stories in all.

It's a pretty dark collection is what I'm saying here. Very Gothic sorts of stories; I might even venture to call them Grotesque. Nothing you'd really care to read before bedtime.

And that's what I've been reading the last few months = )

Sunday, April 21, 2013

A pear tree full of apples

So I've been busy.

No, really. I have three essays that need to be written in the next two weeks. About 25 pages in all. I've made that sound better by promising myself to write at least 1.5 pages a day for the next two weeks, and that will complete everything I need. Today, I have .5 pages.

Well, that's progress at least.

End of the semester coming up and all, so I'll continue to be busy for a little while longer. It's even worse since I'm close to graduating. Most of my experiences of late have been cataloged in poetry and dA journals, so it's not like I haven't been updating - just not here XD Anyway, I did another poetry reading, my first one in months, so I thought maybe I should give this thing some love too. I don't want it feeling neglected or anything.

I'm genuinely happy with that poem and reading. Between that one and Surrogate, I've been writing some pretty decent poetry the last month.

My pear tree is full of awkward curves
that have fallen, still green, into the shade
of your undergrowth where you have allowed them to ripen,
indifferent to the bruised skin.


I really like these lines. I think they sum up a lot of the things I want to say and cover much of the last year in a pretty metaphor. Doc has spent a lot of time on me; granted, a lot of it is because I won't leave him alone XD He honestly doesn't seem to mind at all.

This poem was the product of that sleepy time just after you've woken up - I can't remember exactly what I was thinking, but it had something to do with the opening line about bushels of knowledge. Usually I would roll over and forget about it, but I know a good line when I hear one, so I made myself get up and do something with it.

I think it also came from something I told Doc on Friday, about how these Independent Study sessions are keeping me grounded, and have been keeping me grounded for a while now. They just calm me down whenever I'm overwhelmed. I always feel like I'm accomplishing something, not just writing another essay for a grade. He's been so tired lately - I think he was grateful to know he has that effect on me. Makes the job worthwhile I guess.

I wasn't entirely sure about writing this as I was making some assumptions, so I called Doc this afternoon to ask why he became an educator, which was an enlightening conversation. I'm happy he was so willing to answer something that personal; I doubt I would have finished this without that "permission," as it were, even if I didn't tell him why I was asking. I also found out he's been teaching over at one of the local high schools on occasion; I didn't ask, but I do wonder about that. On top of everything else, and he's taking that on too, likely on his own time, without getting anything practical out of it. Just that genuine love for what he does.

Have I mentioned that I kinda love this man? <3

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Suspicious

I think Doc may be trying to turn me into a Springsteen fan.


It's only a hunch, but  I really can't shake it.

Also, this isn't out on loan; he gave it to me. I feel bad because it's a rather expensive book, unless he got it for less than the price on the dust jacket. I'm about 150 pages in.

Honestly, it's been so long since anyone gave me anything just for the hell of it. Even if he is hoping that I'll learn a thing or two about research writing by paging though it =P