Positive Reinforcement

I got to campus earlier than normal today to actually get some work done for a change; I can't concentrate at home very well lately. Between my brother staying up late and the baby getting here early, I've lost a decent chunk of my sleeping hours. I'd like things to go back to normal now please TT_TT

Anyway, I hadn't read at all for my Fiction class so I needed the downtime to check over the stories we would be critiquing for the evening (side note; I don't know if it's due to my experience or the computer screen in the way, but I find critique online so much easier to do). Hopefully Amanda finally arrived to grab Russ and give Mimi a break, but all that is neither here nor there. While scribbling all over my pages, Dr. Minnick dropped by the student lounge; that would be the one teaching the class I actually enjoy and who I really, really need to do some papers for.

It's not that he's pushy about getting the work done - in fact I'm genuniely surprised at how patient he's been with me about it. But he did get on my case a touch, though it was more "you are obviously intelligent and far too clever during class discussion to be getting behind like this" than "I'm going to fail you if you don't turn these in asap" XD If it were a movie, I probably would have been hit on the forehead with the stack of papers he was carrying. I know I'll get a docking for being late; I'm not worried about that. And I have the chance to re-write anything with a score I'm unhappy with.

I'm not sure where I was going with this post now, but I kept replaying the scene in my mind all through class and put it here to get it out of my system I guess. I'm oddly pleased by the compliment.

Meanwhile, class itself was all discussion and cupcakes <3 I made cupcakes because Taylor really wanted cupcakes last week. I have apparently been crowned the Cupcake Goddess, a step up from my Cookie Queen days of high school, and am now allowed to demand sacrifice. This pleases me.

Novelty Value

My parents got an XBox so they could play on the Kinect. This amuses me X3

It offers a pretty solid workout, though I've always found motion capture games to be more gimmick-y than anything (give me PLOT). Still, watching my Dad wave all his limbs around trying to catch virtual dodge balls is... I don't know what the word is, mostly because I'm not actually sure how to feel about it XD

Trey and I dropped by their place to check it out for a few hours, and thus that paper of mine has barely been touched even now, three days before the deadline. Gotta do that tomorrow. Or rather, later today.

We left about 11:00 but didn't get home until 1:30 - first we made a detour to try and find this place I need to attend for a class next week (didn't find it). Then we went to Wal-Mart. Yes, we went grocery shopping at one o'clock in the morning. Everything is funnier at one o'clock in the morning. It's hilarious at three o'clock in the morning.

It's not the sleep deprivation or anything; there's simply something ridiculous about going through your daily activities at such an unusual time. The surreality of seeing Wal-Mart totally empty save the employees is worth the novelty value.

The best thing was these two little kids; these two seven year olds walked by us, carrying a 24 case of Dr. Pepper cans. One in front with his arms behind him, the other at the back, like grasping a stretcher. No parents or older sibling - they waltzed right by our cart and waddled off to one of the checkout lanes. Totally adorable <3

Eureka?

I was going to post something last night. But then I remembered; this is not a daily blog. So I went:

And went to bed early instead.

It seems silly, but I needed the kick in the head I suppose. I'm not sure why I'm so determined to post daily, except that perhaps fearing one missed post leads to another and suddenly I haven't updated this thing in a year. All the same, I'd like to try not being so gung-ho about posting every single evening.

Criticism

My day in the hot seat for my Fiction class. Woot.

I have trouble getting solid feedback on my work, so I'm really happy to get the chance in class. I put together some pieces that went with my Technical Romance series. I've been rolling some of them around in my head - I have a sort of idea forming of what I'd like to do, but it's not really there yet. I kind of like the idea of a book of flash fic pieces, loosely connected, maybe all taking place in the same setting? I dunno yet.

I guess I kinda want them to be a sort of yearbook, or like sifting though a box of photographs - all the pieces are seperate, yet together.

I think they enjoyed the pieces for the most part, but wanted a more solid plot, something I don't really do much of. I'll probably try for something more plot heavy on the second round.

Winter Town

 by Stephen Emond

Another strike off my book list. And that's pretty much the only reason I kept with it; so I could take it off the list. Read the entire thing in one day. Between classes. That's how simple a read it was.

Summary: Evan - Leave it to Beaver family, upcoming Valedictorian, spineless. Lucy - broken home, comes back to her hometown and Evan for Christmas, comes back one year with a nose ring and black hair.

There are your protaganists - cardboard as they come.

And that would have been fine; tropes are tropes because they work. Yet here they do not work in this instance because the writing is terrible and the characters have no character. Good lord, could this book have been any more monotone? You can have a peaceful, easy atmosphere without being boring. The first chapter is the sort of thing I'd feature as a DLD, maybe, but is not what I want from a professionally published piece. Allow me to open the book at random and type the first paragraph I see:

Lucy came home to a cluttered living room that seemed to be missing a floor. You know, those things for walking on. (Interruption; yes, the narrative actually said this.) In place of the floor were a million tiny fragments of computer guts. In the center of them was Lucy's father, with the shell of the computer opened like a book. Only the living room was lit, and sparsely. The house was barely decorated for the holidays. There was one small Christmas tree that fit on a tabletop Lucy tiptoed through the computer parts to the couch, which she fell onto heavily, flat on her face. She moaned to herself a moment.

Riveting, isn't it? I can just hear the end-stops screaming for relief. All the details are like this; tell, tell, tell, cardinal sin of description.

I wanted to enjoy this book - the summary sounded cliche, but sweet; something nice and familiar for a few hours. But it's just plain old boring. Evan doesn't do anything and Lucy is content to be a bitch to the one person that goes out of the way to be kind to her. Am I getting older, or are teen books just getting worse? Or do I just keep picking up bad adolescent literature of late?

I'm leaning towards that third option because I still really identify and enjoy "teen" books, even if good ones are coming few and far between of late. Though given that my book list is nearly 50 pieces long, there's got to be something on it for me to enjoy in the near future.

In short: don't waste your time. The cover is the best thing about this book.

No really, just look at this gorgeous cover <3

Spiral

Spent the last few hours watching a favorite anime - Spiral. It's a sorta-mystery anime, though as things progress the type of mystery goes from a "whodunnit" sort to something closer to Death Note. The best part is watching the various characters go head to head, attempting to outsmart and kill each other.

But that's getting ahead. The series begins with the attempted murder of a student and out protaganist, Ayumu, is the lead suspect. Thus, the first few episodes are him trying to clear his name. A second murder connected to the first occurs. Ayumu is challenged by a group called the "Blade Children," and thus the larger mystery of the series unfolds - discovering who or what the Blade Children are.

The anime never really gives any answers, whcih is why I prefer the manga by and large. The anime was being made as the books were released, so the divergence is understandable. I do wish the story had managed to get somewhere though. But the anime never really gained any popularity, so it's unlikely anyone will ever return to it, or try to remake it with the manga in mind. Which is sad because it really does deserve more love.

It's a very intelligent show, more about characters and strategy, like watching a chess game. With explosives. It's difficult to describe it without giving too much away, but it's also difficult due to how different the manga and anime really are. If you like a show with some brain, I recommend either one. The action scenes/ challenges are fantastic - my personal favorite involves a bomb around our protaganists' neck while he attempts to secure the safety of a hostage and a tape containing incriminating evidence against his challenger. And that sounds really boring when I put it that way. Trust me, it's all kinds of amazing, especially in the last two minutes <3

Out of the Dust

Book Three for Adolescent Literature. Yay.

First impression: Newbery Medal on the cover; someone dies.

Later: Yep. Called it.

But really, if you get a chance to read this book, do so. It's a verse novel, so the story is told through poetry, which is an interesting effect to say the least. There were quite a few poems I genuinely enjoyed.

The story is narrated by teenaged Billie Jo during the Dust Bowl of the 30's. The cover is about as boring as they come, which was what probably kept me picking it up before, but is probably a good thing - I remember this book being in my elementary school library. If I'd read it then, it would have messed me up. It's not that it's paticularly horrific or anything, but some of the passages just hurt to read. Eeeeugh.

That said, there are also several beautiful passages, more than I would have expected from a story about the Dust Bowl (hell, more than I would expect from a story that takes place in Oklahoma XD). The sections concerning infants and birth were especially poignant and the single poem about World War I stick in my mind more than others.

I've read Karen Hesse before, so I did know a little of what I was getting into; judging from this book and The Music of Dolphins, she seems to enjoy "experimental" styles - while this one was pure poetry, the latter was semi-poetic but for a different reason; the narrator is speaking mostly through Translation Convention. The prose is intersting to me because as the narrator learns more about the human world and how to speak "properly," the level of difficulty increases - from about a first grade level complete with larger print to about a fifth grade level as the text shrinks - and decreases again with her longing for home until finally being released to the sea where Translation Convention once again takes full effect.

But that's neither here nor there. More than anything, I think I'm left wondering why this book was in my elementary school - granted it is for younger readers, but fifth grade seems a little too young. While heavy on atmosphere and character, I think much of it would go right over the head of a ten year old. I could see it being one of those books you read, forget about, and then come back to years later with a fresh understanding of what was really going on within.

Not to say younger readers won't appreciate it at all of course - I think grasping the plot and meaning is easy enough, but some of the undertones, of distance between parent and child and the sort-of relationship with another character for example, that aren't quite as explicit might be lost.

When all's said and done, historical fiction isn't really my forte - loved the book anyway.