It's a tough time right now, as the full weight of my student loans is about to come to bear on me starting next month. As it stands, I don't make enough at my current job to pay my loans per month, much less everything else I need to spend money on. This biweekly payday is a killer as I am always out of money within four days of my payday.
Slight progress on the sub front, basically a half application to Seekonk. The Veteran's Day holiday messed it up as the schools and admin office were closed on the one ideal time I had to drop off my finished application.
I stalled out on Nanowrimo a tiny bit, thankfully my stupidly high word count has sustained my lack of time to write these past three days. I am about to see if I can get back on track and regain the lead on the word count I've been enjoying. I stopped updating my word count on the site, as it seemed to be an annoyance and distraction to the people I'm writing with.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Debt Worries
It certainly seems that November will go better than Octobor, but there is so much ground to cover and so little time to move forward. I'm haunted by my school debts, a ghost I let linger on the back burner for several months too long. I also remain stuck on moving my career forward. I have done nothing since last week to sign up for substitute teaching. Beyond that, I have found my current retail job increasingly difficult to work at, now that I've finally realized how fruitless it is.
On the other hand, the work towards my real career continues quite well. Five days into NaNoWriMo and I'm still far ahead of the daily word count. I can only hope this momentum can sustain me to the end. Still got 38,000 words to go. The story I settled on was the Harry Potter inspiration, but it has moved so far beyond my wildest expectations. The opening has transcended all my hopes and will easily surpass the 15,000 word count I had planned for it. It takes the three viewpoints and weaves them together, adding new details that utterly change the previous writing.
On the other hand, the work towards my real career continues quite well. Five days into NaNoWriMo and I'm still far ahead of the daily word count. I can only hope this momentum can sustain me to the end. Still got 38,000 words to go. The story I settled on was the Harry Potter inspiration, but it has moved so far beyond my wildest expectations. The opening has transcended all my hopes and will easily surpass the 15,000 word count I had planned for it. It takes the three viewpoints and weaves them together, adding new details that utterly change the previous writing.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Harry Potter and the Nanowrimo
As October comes to a close, I have few things to talk about. My lack of a Halloween costume, for one. However, the two main focuses of this post will be about my thoughts after rereading the Harry Potter series and the upcoming challenge that is Nanowrimo.
Harry Potter was well worth the second read. Although the spoilers were all known, the intricacy with which the stories were woven come out much clearer on the second read. The absurd Hallows seemed to fit into the story better than before, and my much dreaded fifth and seventh books were surprisingly good to read. Although, the fourth and sixth were even better than I remembered, and easily take the top to slots in my order of preference. The sixth is above and beyond all the other books, in terms of content and entertaining. I still dislike the idea of Tom Riddle being a person too far past the point of redemption, a villain that can never become more than a villain. It speaks to my Catholic sensibility that no person is beyond the redemptive power of God, and this sensibility reflects in my writing.
As to my writing, I am faced with a difficult choice in the next few days. With the Harry Potter series behind me, I am faced with the choice of writing my magic-based Nanowrimo without the aid of those books. A lot of inspiration and ideas have emerged from those books, and it is difficult to write those down and move on, yet I worry I will lose interest and patience for that story very quickly. Of course, my main goal in the magic story would be to tell a story about wizards that is more based upon the variety and complexity that is seen in the D&D series. My other option is the Patagonia story, which involves psions and two interlinked but separate stories, a before and after story lines which could be confusing and difficult to pull off. This was my initial plan for Nanowrimo, until I got the idea for my magic story, which is a much more interesting idea. Then there is the third option, a story about a successful book writer and his personal assistants, whom inevitably end up quitting as they find themselves characters in his stories. The plot for this one is ultimately irrelevant, which scares me as a plot based writer. The only real interest in this story for me is trying to capture and focus solely on the characterizations and the interactions of these two main characters and a recurring third character. Small cast, limited plot, are all things I dislike and avoid in my writing, which are two of my greatest faults as a writer at this time
Ultimately, I see myself as a writer, and nothing else. No job, no vocation has spoken to my experience the way that writing has. I would not go so far to say I have a gift to write, but rather an inevitable draw to write. I have realized the one thing I will do consistently for the rest of my life is make up stories in my head. I will always have my stories, which vary in flavor but revolve similar ideas. I only wish I was capable of getting some of them published, to be one of those lucky people that gets paid to do what they would do with their life anyways. It is certainly my hope to be that lucky.
Harry Potter was well worth the second read. Although the spoilers were all known, the intricacy with which the stories were woven come out much clearer on the second read. The absurd Hallows seemed to fit into the story better than before, and my much dreaded fifth and seventh books were surprisingly good to read. Although, the fourth and sixth were even better than I remembered, and easily take the top to slots in my order of preference. The sixth is above and beyond all the other books, in terms of content and entertaining. I still dislike the idea of Tom Riddle being a person too far past the point of redemption, a villain that can never become more than a villain. It speaks to my Catholic sensibility that no person is beyond the redemptive power of God, and this sensibility reflects in my writing.
As to my writing, I am faced with a difficult choice in the next few days. With the Harry Potter series behind me, I am faced with the choice of writing my magic-based Nanowrimo without the aid of those books. A lot of inspiration and ideas have emerged from those books, and it is difficult to write those down and move on, yet I worry I will lose interest and patience for that story very quickly. Of course, my main goal in the magic story would be to tell a story about wizards that is more based upon the variety and complexity that is seen in the D&D series. My other option is the Patagonia story, which involves psions and two interlinked but separate stories, a before and after story lines which could be confusing and difficult to pull off. This was my initial plan for Nanowrimo, until I got the idea for my magic story, which is a much more interesting idea. Then there is the third option, a story about a successful book writer and his personal assistants, whom inevitably end up quitting as they find themselves characters in his stories. The plot for this one is ultimately irrelevant, which scares me as a plot based writer. The only real interest in this story for me is trying to capture and focus solely on the characterizations and the interactions of these two main characters and a recurring third character. Small cast, limited plot, are all things I dislike and avoid in my writing, which are two of my greatest faults as a writer at this time
Ultimately, I see myself as a writer, and nothing else. No job, no vocation has spoken to my experience the way that writing has. I would not go so far to say I have a gift to write, but rather an inevitable draw to write. I have realized the one thing I will do consistently for the rest of my life is make up stories in my head. I will always have my stories, which vary in flavor but revolve similar ideas. I only wish I was capable of getting some of them published, to be one of those lucky people that gets paid to do what they would do with their life anyways. It is certainly my hope to be that lucky.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
The Man Who Was Thursday
So I have returned after six months to the blog. I worried that it was gone, lost forever in the ashes of cyberspace. We had accomplished what we set out to do, one solid year of blogging. I was not alone in hoping the sibling blog experiment would survive the one year requirement. But it probably was inevitable that we would all cast aside the blog for other things.
Yet here I have returned and like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the blog lives again. I think this time, there shall be no rules, no requirements, just the freedom that is in essence, a blog. To this freedom, I submit my first post of the resurrected blog.
As the fourth child, my day of required posting fell on a Thursday. I have returned to this day, for the sake of continuity, but also because I realized that I have become the man who was Thursday. This ironically matches my first topic of talking about, G.K. Chesterton's work, The Man Who was Thursday: A Nightmare. This excellent work is basically about a man who mistakenly becomes a member of an anarchist group and finds himself surrounded by enemies. However, as he confronts these men in turn, he discovers that they are all actually on the same side and each thought they were alone amongst enemies. It's a lively read that takes the reader through the excitement and fear of confronting devilish foes(such as an invalid man who can run as fast as a young man, or the sinister face hidden behind dark shades and a man who takes sword wounds but does not bleed) only for the reader to share in the joy and relief of finding a friend in one's worst enemy. The best part of this book is the Catholic aligned ideas, of salvation, divinity clothed in human flesh and the intrinsic goodness of the human being. It remains still one of my favorite stories I've read.
Yet here I have returned and like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the blog lives again. I think this time, there shall be no rules, no requirements, just the freedom that is in essence, a blog. To this freedom, I submit my first post of the resurrected blog.
As the fourth child, my day of required posting fell on a Thursday. I have returned to this day, for the sake of continuity, but also because I realized that I have become the man who was Thursday. This ironically matches my first topic of talking about, G.K. Chesterton's work, The Man Who was Thursday: A Nightmare. This excellent work is basically about a man who mistakenly becomes a member of an anarchist group and finds himself surrounded by enemies. However, as he confronts these men in turn, he discovers that they are all actually on the same side and each thought they were alone amongst enemies. It's a lively read that takes the reader through the excitement and fear of confronting devilish foes(such as an invalid man who can run as fast as a young man, or the sinister face hidden behind dark shades and a man who takes sword wounds but does not bleed) only for the reader to share in the joy and relief of finding a friend in one's worst enemy. The best part of this book is the Catholic aligned ideas, of salvation, divinity clothed in human flesh and the intrinsic goodness of the human being. It remains still one of my favorite stories I've read.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Frank: Career News!
So I'm attending a career fair tomorrow in Boston. There will be over a hundred schools there and they have a list of what schools have what vacancies. So I'll be able to hunt for a specific schools with openings in English or Religious Studies. I passed my MTELs so I can get my license to teach in public schools if I need to. Hopefully I'll get some solid leads on a job. I've done a lot of work with my resume this past week, the Career Center has been a huge help with that.
Besides career stuff, I'm in my last full week of classes. By Tuesday, I'll be done with classes and basically just have a bunch of papers and one final exam. Then we have a week off, Senior week and then graduation. It'll be strange to be finished with school.
Besides career stuff, I'm in my last full week of classes. By Tuesday, I'll be done with classes and basically just have a bunch of papers and one final exam. Then we have a week off, Senior week and then graduation. It'll be strange to be finished with school.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Frank: Been So Busy...
It's a been incredibly busy here at school. I've got final papers and Finals coming up in the next few weeks and all my professors want paper proposals. Plus we had the holiday weekend, so that was a much needed break from school work. However, I've got so much to do and finish before April is over and even more to finish before I graduate. I spent some time at the career office today and have some leads and avenues to pursue for a teaching job. I'll post more again soon, when I get some more time.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Anne This is terribly un-PC
So my roommate and I ordered Chinese food tonight. We chose the place based on their awesomely hilarious menu. In addition to Gai Pu lo mein (say it out loud), you could get onion wings.
I kid you not.
Also, I had a date! His name is Justin, and he's really sweet. He's a musician- he plays the French horn! I have another date with him next week.
I kid you not.
Also, I had a date! His name is Justin, and he's really sweet. He's a musician- he plays the French horn! I have another date with him next week.
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