Neglect–again!

I promised I wouldn’t neglect this blog, though I have been.  I only really write this for myself, but it feels like I should be doing more with it.

Writing for another blog, which I do, is really a blast.  It gives me a reason to read (aside from personal pleasure, of course), and I just enjoy recommending good books to people.

This summer has really flown by, I must say.  Here it is, the 17th of August.  Two weeks until the beginning of September.

I have quite a lot to keep me occupied this fall, what with my return to classes.  Even these last couple weeks of August will be busy.

My brother, Jeff, is arriving from Florida on Friday.  I miss him terribly, as I haven’t seen him for an entire year.  We are have a family reunion on Sunday, so he is flying up especially for it.

Not long after he leaves, the college semester will begin!  I bought my books today (EXPENSIVE!!), so I am slowly getting ready for the arrival of the 30th!  Then I will be back into the swing of things, learning like it’s going out of style.

On that odd note, I guess it’s time to call it a night!

It’s been a while…

Wow!  It’s been some time since I have written anything for this blog.  It’s kind of sad, that I haven’t managed to keep it up.  There’s been a lot of stuff going on in my life, and I think that has a lot to do with it.

I finished my semester of college with a GPA of just over 3.5 (YAY!) and have been enjoying the Summertime.  My father and I took a trip to see his sister, out in Arkport, New York–a trip some 400 plus miles southwest of us.

Other than that, it’s just been day-in, day-out life until recently.  I got a pretty awesome direct message to my Twitter account, asking if I would like to write for an awesome website known as, Paper Spaceships.  I sent in some writing samples, and became part of the site.  Now, I write blog posts (book reviews, mostly) on Thursdays!  How completely awesome!

I am not sure if that means this blog will be neglected (more than it already is).  Perhaps it means that I will be eager to write more often, and will post more…well…stuff!  This blog has been about anything/everything, so chances are I will have some experiences to share.

The Eleventh Doctor

I am a fairly new Doctor Who fan, in the scheme of things.  I only started watching with the Ninth Doctor, who I enjoyed.  Having seen of the episodes that featured the Ninth Doctor, and all the episodes that featured the Tenth doctor, I was a bit skeptical of the Eleventh Doctor.

I began to enjoy the Eleventh Doctor, while mourning the loss of the Tenth when he regenerated.  I missed the first episode of the new series, but managed to catch the second and third when they aired on BBC America.

I immediately enjoyed the series, and it was just like the new Doctor was the Doctor I was watching all along.  The second episode, “The Beast Below” was amazing to me.  It featured the creepy-looking Smilers, and the newest in a long line of English monarchs.  The next episode hearkened back to older, titles, showing the Doctor’s arch-nemeses, the Daleks.

Tonight’s new episode, “The Time of the Angels”, set the bar for me though!  This episode included some interesting characters from the earlier series: River Song, a woman who knows a lot about the Doctor’s future, and some of the scariest creatures that the Doctor has ever had to face: the Weeping Angels.

For anyone who has seen the original episode feature the Weeping Angels, known as “Blink”, you know how creepy these damned things are.  In the new episodes (and the following, it seems) these Angels just get creepier and creepier.

The episode was great, terrifying, and has ended in a cliffhanger.  I am ready for the story to continue, but will have to wait until next week.  I am sure this is going to be just as creepy, and just as well done.

I am going to try to sleep now, but I may have nightmares.

The return of decent weather…for a bit, anyway!

I have been in hog heaven these past two days.  It’s been absolutely gorgeous outside, and I have been taking advantage of it.  For two days I have had my bicycle out, and even riding it!

It has been, probably, more than two years since I have actually ridden my bike.  It has been in my mother’s garage for most of that time.  It’s great to have it out, and have it working!  I had to buy some new parts, like a new shifting cable, and some grips (because the old ones had to be cut off).  Now it’s up to snuff again!  I have forgotten how much I enjoy riding!

Today I may have overdone it a little, though.  The temperature was fairly warm (some weather forecasters say it got to 77 degrees!), but there was a cool wind blowing.  Well, stupid guy that I am, I never put on any sunblock.  I am reeling from the effects of the sun, for sure.  I guess there is nothing like the first sunburn of the nice weather season!

That and I am so out-of-shape.  My legs are killing me, right now.  Walking up the stairs is a chore, my knees protest the entire way up.  Tomorrow morning they should be shipshape again, though.  At least I hope so, anyway.

Tomorrow it is supposed to be even nicer than today, or so I hear.  A high in the 80s is nice, in theory.  I say “in theory” because if there is no wind to cool us down, it might be hot.  And I am not one for the heat.  We’ll see…

English Journal Entry

The English course I am taking, a 101 hybrid-learning course, has a very interesting professor.  Professor Meyers likes us to keep up our writing by doing six journal entries per bi-weekly module.  I think this is a splendid idea, myself, and I have written a couple interesting ones.

I don’t know what ever possessed me to post a homework assignment, but here is one I rather like, it’s a journal entry on test taking:

When tackling big issues, I am someone who doesn’t have a problem.  Given the correct preparation, which usually includes time I need to think about how to tackle said problem, I can usually jump right into it.  Though it might take a couple false-starts (like trial and error, I suppose) I can usually succeed in taking care of whatever it is.

Taking an in-class exam, though, is a bit of an issue for me.  Sure, I can look at it as a big problem that has to be tackled.  I can take all the same steps I would normally take when trying to solve something else.  Where my problem lies is preparation which, in the case of an exam, usually means studying.

I am not trying to say that I don’t study, I do.  I can sit down with a text or with notes and read them to my heart’s delight.  I can recite the notes backward and forward by the time I am done studying them as well.  In all accounts, I should know any answer that is thrown my way on the test.

The minute the blank test paper is there on my desk, however, I run into my problem.  I can’t remember a thing that I studied! The time comes to recall the information, and it seems to have deserted my brain, leaving me high and dry.  Though I like to think of it more as the fact that the information is there, it’s just hiding away.  I don’t know what to attribute this problem to.  I just call myself a terrible test-taker, if anyone asks.

I can work around this problem, but it might sound just a bit silly.  I read through the test questions slowly, and try to intuit the answers.  This is especially helpful when the test is multiple-choice.  A slow read through of each question usually coaxes some of the answers out of their hiding spaces, wherever those spaces may be.

If intuition fails, the best I can do is make a sort of educated guess.  Some questions allow you a way to derive the answers, based upon how the question itself is worded.  If I am not faced with that kind of question, I just answer with the answer that seems to fit the best.

What if the test I am taking isn’t multiple-choice, you ask.  Well, I haven’t run across many short-answer questions in my college career.  At least, I haven’t yet.  I think I may have a few on the test I am about to take.  I guess I will have an answer after that.  I certainly can’t intuit one.

Spring Break! YEAH!

I am a little too excited for Spring Break.  I mean, it’s not even technically here yet.  I guess I am just looking forward to some planned time off.  Not unplanned like my grandmother’s recent passing.  I know, I know, death is an unforeseeable event but it does knock you for a loop.  I am finally caught up on everything I missed in class.

I am looking forward to some quite time at home, or with other family.  It was great that everyone got together when Grandma died (and I mean I saw some people that I haven’t seen in soooo many years), but it was almost too much family, if you know what I mean.  I wouldn’t have minded so much, had it been other circumstances, I suppose.

No, I am looking for some time to just chill.  Not running here and there, not having to partake in anything, unless I really want to.  Cool-down time.  Yeah, that’s the ticket!  Time to be away from school, and school work.  Though my online English class will still be there, staring me in the face.  Luckily, that work doesn’t have to be done until after our return from Spring Break.  Of course I will be working on it, to stay caught up.

I have a test tomorrow in Biology.  A Math class and an Art quiz and mid-term on Thursday, and I am done!  At least for ten days, or so!  I have only made one concrete plan for that time, and it involves going with my sister to a doctor’s appointment in Saratoga.  Other than that, I want to spend time outside, weather permitting.

Now, all I can think about is sleep.  Might as well act on it.

SCHOOL! A mid-semester-ish blog.

I have been neglecting everything lately, and I apologize.  This blog will fill you in on the reason for this neglecting that has been happening.  It’s a good thing, actually, and I am fairly excited to talk about it.

I’s three weeks (more or less) into my first semester at college.  I don’t actually count that first week, because school started on a Thursday (January 21st) and I only had two classes tha day.  I had nothing until the following Monday, so I consider that week a full week.  I use full rather objectively, but you understand.

The online class I am taking is an English 101 hybrid course–we meet on campus once a month for timed-writing exercises–is going rather swimmingly.  The assignments are fun and, so far, fairly easy to do.  As you all may know, I do enjoy writing, so I am biased towards this class, if just a little.  The professor is a very funny guy, and though I only got to meet him one time (at least for now) I really like him.

Algebra (and this one isn’t even college level…ugh!) is going alright.  I am terrible at Math, but the instructor’s style really helps!  The homework is fairly easy, but when it comes to test-taking, I am not so good.  The instructor even pulls questions DIRECTLY off the homework we did, but when quizzes roll around (every Tuesday), I seem to have forgotten the questions and how to do them correctly.

I am also taking an Art class.  It is an introduction to the Arts, which actually taked you through all the humanities, not jus painting and sculpture.  We also look at literature, film, dance, etc.  The course teaches you about looking at art with a critical eye, and to let go of your Dionysian response (that’s the emotional one), and use your Appolonian response (that’s the more structured one).  Reading about this in the text, though, is dry and rather boring.  Listening to a lecture is so much better!

There are a few credits that must be alotted to the Sciences.  I chose Biology.  I am not going to like, this one is TOUGH!  It’s extremely homework-intensive (especially when compared to my other courses).  The lectures, and I am really just talking about the two most recent, were monstrous!  We were taught (I hesitate to saywe learned, because I am not sure how much I’ve retained just yet) an entire semester of Chemistry in one two hour forty-five minute setting.  I seriously had a headache, and thought my brain was about to explode.  The following week, the professor boiled down two semesters–this time Organic- and BioChemistry–into just over two hours.  Other than those hideous lectures, and the homework!!!, I enjoy the class.  The actual lab work is fun AND interesting.

All-in-all, I really am enjoying being a student again.  It’s been so many years (11, this year!!) since I was a student last, that it’s all so new to me.  And kind of fun!  I am doing things a bit differently since high school, too!  I  have joined a club, which I really didn’t do much of in school before.  I joined the International Club, and look forward to our first meeting on Monday.  It might even be something I will write about.

Happy New Year!

Wow!  I am totally ignoring this blog.  It’s not purposeful, in all honesty.  It’s just the lack of interesting things to write about.  Well…no.  I guess that’s not totally true, either.  It’s less the lack of interesting things to write about–because I am sure that there have been many interesting things since last month–I guess it’s just that I haven’t been visited by the blogging Muse.  Which one is she, again?

As of this writing I still have yet to even open my NaNoWriMo story file to look at it.  I have been reading a lot.  Mostly the books that TrueBlood is based on.  I guess they’re thought of as The Southern Vampire Mysteries or the Sookie Stackhouse Novels.  However you want to think of them, they are actually decent reads.  And they are a welcome divergence from daily life.

I will be starting classes next Thursday.  Well, I will have to log in to my distance learning course on Thursday.  The following Thursday is the day when I have to actually appear in a classroom.  If you don’t count orientation the day before, of course.  I am excited to head back to school, and am eagerly awaiting it.

I guess that’s everything.  Well, the uninteresting things.  Hopefully that Muse will start whispering in my ear soon, though.  And for all the holidays I missed: Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa and Happy New Year!  If I didn’t cover one, I apologize…

Long-time wind down

I may have (foolishly) said that I was going to write a blog about my NaNoWriMo experience last month.  I still might, but I can assure you that this post is not the post you are looking for.  Well, if there truly is anyone looking for such a post, that is.

This is actually a post about why there hasn’t been such a post.  I think.  It may just be a post to ease myself back into some longer-form–and I mean longer form as something not longer than a short email or Tweet–writing.  It really has been since that fateful day: November 29th, that I have written anything with substance.

I still cannot bring myself to open the NaNoWriMo file.  That story of mine, that is just over 50,000 words.  I have the post-NaNo blues, and I have it bad.  To the point where, I think, these couple hundred words are the most that I have written.  Anything I have written since has been counted by total characters.

It surprises me to be able to set to this task without my hands/brain rebelling.  I guess I am making some headway.  Though I doubt this headway will amount to much.  I still don’t think that I can open that file and read what I have written it.

Sure it all seemed like a good idea while I was doing it.  Now it feels like a digital abomination from the bowels of my mind.  Mind bowels?  Not a pleasant thought, and I am sorry I thought of it.

Give me some time, and I may warm to the idea of actually reliving NaNoWriMo.  Not a day-to-day account, mind you.  I don’t think I could actually remember in such detail.  I obliterated some brain cells last Saturday as I turned 29.  Ah, well!

(More than) Half-way through NaNoWriMo

I said that I would write a blog concerning the constant work that is involved a writing project for NaNoWriMo.  Here it is, 18 days into the whole thing, and I must say it’s actually going very well.

As I might have mentioned in an earlier post, things were going rather more swimmingly than previous attempts.  I thank myself for doing a weeks worth of preparation before the big date.  That wasn’t something I did on either time I tried in the past.

Now I am working beyond my previous preperation, though.  It seems t me, though, that the whole process of writing is going much smoother.  It might just be me and the way I look at it, but it’s much easier writing on the fly; not following any sort of outline.

By now, my characters have their personalities set, and are forming relationships better than they would do in my head.  New characters are being introduced (still) into this story, and are finding that they are enjoying their lives.

It really is amazing what you can get down, and get across, writing only 1,667 words a day.  Just plunking myself down in front of the computer, and setting to it for an hour to an hour-and-a-half, can allow me to realize ideas as words.

I find myself working in many locations at home, though my favorite is the kitchen.  When it’s much too hectic to work on anything around the house, I steal away to campus with my sister.  The campus tech building, where her biology class takes place, has been quite a place of (quiet) discovery for me.  It’s one of my favorite places to work.

This, so far, has really been the most fun year that I have attempted NaNoWriMo.  It has been up and down, not doing any writing one day, then doing more work than is even needed in a one day period the next.  I can’t wait to see what comes next in my story, by way of unplanned things!

For those of you who have tried doing it, join NaNoWriMo next year!  Even if you only make it to 10,000 words, it’s a start!