Dude–you know how Jane from Speaker of the Dead was born from the interactive, self-writing game at the battle school?
What if the first sentient AI is born from Pandora Radio?
It just keeps getting better and better the longer you listen!
Tag: College Life
It’s up!
If you look off to the sidebar on your right, you might notice the two incredibly awesome meters off to the side. Aren’t they freaking awesome?? Drek programmed those and helped me install them on my website! They show my writing progress for the last day and the last seven days. The number on the meter is the raw wordcount, and the meter gives some indication as to how well I’m doing…or not doing.
Man, this is so cool! Thanks, Drek! It makes me want to sit down and just write.
Unfortunately…I won’t be doing that tonight. Not in my novel anyways. I’ve got a paper due tomorrow at 8:00 am, and it’s a lot tougher than I thought it was going to be. It’s only three pages, but in three pages I’ve got to use all kinds of quotes from The Odyssey and Socrates’s Apology. Plus, I’ve got to attach a rough draft with the final draft in order to show progress. Unfortunately, I didn’t start writing this until tonight…
So, if I don’t pull an all nighter, I’ll be taking a quick nap before heading up to campus at an ungodly hour to print out this crazy thing. No rest for the weary. And I was so good about doing all my homework today, too. Didn’t hardly do anything else. 🙁
Ah, some days are like that. Now I’ve got to pound out a “rough draft” (fortunately, it can suck) before I register for Winter 2009 classes in, oh 40 minutes. In the meantime, admire the lovely new wordcount meters on my sidebar. I swear, before the end of the week, those meters will be cranked up where they need to be…
A change of direction?
I had a chat with Aneeka yesterday about writing. She was in London waiting to catch the bus to Scotland at around 4:00 am or so (jealous!), and I was winding down a frustratingly unproductive day.
I told her how I’m trying to divide my attention between two different projects, and she had some interesting things to say. Basically, she said that if it isn’t working and I’m not getting as much done as I’d like, I should put one project on hold and focus on the other one.
Duh. Of course that’s the answer. Trouble is, I’ve been so focused on doing things this way that I haven’t seen it.
So, before this weekend is up, I need to take a step back and figure out just what I’m going to do. Splitting my attention between two projects really isn’t working at all for me, and if I keep going at this rate I doubt I’ll be half finished with either one by the end of the semester. Definitely time for an adjustment.
Besides figuring out what I want to do with my writing, I also need to 1) send in my absentee ballot (I’m still somewhat undecided, though Colin Powell’s endorsement of Obama has almost cinched it for me); 2) read Homer’s The Odyssey and write a paper comparing Odysseus to Socrates…for Tuesday (this isn’t as bad as it seems though–The Odyssey is a really interesting story and I’ve enjoyed it a lot so far); 3) get cracking on Tales from the Thousand and One Nights, since I’ve got a book report due in a week and a half, and; 4) various other assorted homeworks. Blegh!
Oh, and I haven’t asked anyone out on a date in the past month. Haven’t even thought about it, really. Dang. How did time start moving so fast? The semester is more than half over!
At least I got in a thousand words in Hero in Exile today. That, and I’ve been working through the next few scenes in my mind quite a bit. I think I know where I want to take it, even though it has nothing to do with what I wrote down in the plot outline. I’m excited.
And tired. More tomorrow.
Making it up on the weekend
Yesterday, as I was writing a small paper (~500 words) for PLSC 201, I realized that I would be FINISHED with classes this week today at three o’clock and I wouldn’t really have to worry about homework. What a delicious breath of freedom!
So today, after I slept through the four hour-and-a-half classes that I have today (no joke–I sat next to Gretchen Belnap in history and she doodled on my notebook!), I thought to myself “you know, I could take all this extra time on the weekend and use it to catch up on my writing.”
I was really stoked until I remembered that General Conference is this weekend. Not that I wasn’t looking forward to Conference–I really enjoy it–it’s just that it’s going to eat up a lot of time, hanging out with friends and family between sessions and all.
But regardless of that, tomorrow is almost totally open! I’ve just got work from ten to three (which, even though it sounds like a lot, really isn’t), a writing meeting at five, and I’ll probably drop in on a mission reunion sometime in the evening just for a little bit. And even though conference is all weekend, I’ll probably have time in the morning and/or between sessions.
So I’m going to take that time to sit down and do some serious writing, especially in Hero in Exile. Does 3,000 words sound like too much to shoot for? I just want to sit down and immerse myself in that story. Phoenix too–maybe I can get through ten or fifteen pages.
Everything else is going really well for me. My classload is really light, which is great because it’s leaving me time for other stuff, like a social life. Work is awesome–I have so much fun going over people’s papers! Even though I sometimes feel like I’m BSing too much, I find it both relaxing and productive at the same time (if that makes sense). Plus, all my coworkers are way cool. My supervisor is way chill and thinks that I’m really amazing for writing novels. It’s just a lot of fun. Plus, I calculated that with my sixteen hour week, I can expect to earn $280 every pay period. SWEET!
Finally, here’s something interesting I was looking at today. It’s a really cool steampunk webcomic called Girl Genius. I heard about it when Brandon Sanderson and his buddies did a podcast with the creators of this comic, and got hooked on it shortly thereafter. It’s got a really complex storyline that I honestly don’t understand yet (I’m slowly making my way through the archives), but each strip is hilarious in itself, and the characters and setting are so interesting that it’s not hard to get swept up by it all. I mean, airships…need I say more? If you like steampunk and/or good quality webcomics, this is definitely worth checking out.
And now, I’m going to finish this post because I should be writing in my stories, not on my blog.
Letter to the Daily Universe
My roommate Matt wrote this awesome letter to The Daily Universe last year (scroll down to the heading “Message for Sisters” to read his letter), and garnered some incredibly hilarious responses from the BYU community. He struck a tightly strung chord in this community, something that everyone here at BYU spends a lot of time thinking about: dating.
Well, I figured that I have something I’d like to say on this subject, so earlier this week I drafted a letter of my own. I haven’t actually looked at the submission guidelines for letters to the editor, so I’ll probably have to shorten this quite a bit, but I wanted to post the full version here in case anyone’s interested. Enjoy!
When girls complain that they don’t get asked out on dates, we are quick to find fault with the guys and slow find fault with the girls.I believe this is a mistake.While it is true that a lot of the stinging criticism leveled at the guys is true and valid, there are many things that the girls do to turn off potential admirers.With regards to that, here are five general principles for dating that I believe every girl at BYU should know and follow:
1.Everyone is worth a first date.
Of all of Elder Oak’s dating counsel, the point we ignore the most is that a first date is not a big deal.Relax.Have fun.Give it a chance.How do you know that it can’t work out?And even if it probably won’t, at least it’s a great learning opportunity.No one is too far beneath you for a first date.
2.If you turn down a first or second date, no matter the excuse, it says “I’m not interested in dating you.”
Ambiguity is more painful than rejection.Even if your excuse is legitimate, guys will assume the worst.They may ask you out again, after some time, but they will be much slower to do so.On the other hand, if you want to communicate disinterest, turning down a second date is the polite way to do it.
3.If a guy asks you on a date and the time does not work for you, the way to say no without communicating complete lack of interest is to suggest an alternative time and activity.
If you have an honest scheduling conflict but are interested in dating him, do this and you erase the painful ambiguity that makes him reluctant to ask you out again.Besides, it is polite and very classy.
4.Backing out of a date at the last minute not only says “don’t date me,” it is inconceivably rude and extremely unattractive.
Guys step up to the plate by taking the initiative; girls step up to the plate by following through.If you are guilty of backing out after saying yes, you have absolutely no right to complain that guys don’t ask you out enough.Quite frankly, you are getting what you asked for.
If something genuinely does come up and you must cancel at the last minute, remember principle three.Show by your actions that you are not flaking out just because you got cold feet.
5.If you rudely turn down one guy, others will hear about it.
Guys are not as aloof as you think.We have our social networks and we talk with our friends about our dating experiences just as much as you do.Keep that in mind when someone out of left field asks you out.The word gets around.
Please know that I don’t mean to blame the girls at BYU for not getting asked out.Too many guys at this university aren’t man enough to step up to the plate.At the same time, the girls are not beyond the need for repentance.I’ve found, in my experience, that these five principles work, and I sincerely believe that if every girl in this university followed them, not only would we all date more, but we would all have a lot more fun.
New job!
This past week I just started a new job at BYU. I’m a writing advisor for the FHSS (Family of Home and Social Sciences) writing lab. It’s GREAT! I help students work on their papers and work on their writing skills, and I really love it.
How I got this job is an interesting story. Honestly, it was really just a series of flukes that ended up working beautifully. I was just in the right time at the right place and fell into it.
It began when I went to the BYU Bookstore to talk with my old boss in the stockroom and figure out all the paperwork for getting rehired. I’d talked with him at the end of the winter semester, and he knew my schedule and had told me that everything was fine for me to work in the fall–we just had to fill out the paperwork and go through the formalities.
Well…long story short, when we finally got into the rehiring interview and I told him that I could only work MWF, his face dropped and he gave me a card with a number on it to call and check on my job application the next day. He said that he wasn’t sure if they had a place for me because I couldn’t work TTh, but that he’d try.
It wasn’t hard to see, though, that I wasn’t going to get rehired.
Here’s a funny thing. I tend to get really worked up and angry over little things, like slow drivers or computers that don’t work or paperwork that I didn’t know I had to fill out. But when it comes to major things–like my old boss dropping the ball, leaving me without a job–I’m really mellow about it. Even though I needed money and didn’t know what I’d do without a job, I figured that this had happened for a reason and that everything would work out in the end.
It did. I was walking through the Wilk on my way home one day and decided to check the job boards. I skipped over all the custodial and dining jobs (those are dead ends anyways) and looked at the academic ones.
Usually when I look at these jobs, I feel that I’m much too underqualified. However, as I was skimming over them, my eye fell on the ad for being a writing advisor. I love writing, so I decided to read a little more closely. To my surprise, as I read over the qualifications, I found that I met almost all of them.
I picked up an application, selected some writing samples, and wrote a cover letter. I was a little bit worried because I spent so much time talking about my experience as Quark writing VP, since that’s a non-academic setting, but that ended up being one of my most attractive selling points. When they asked me what my greatest weakness was, I said “procrastination,” but then I was able to turn around and say “but I set a goal to write a novel last year and achieved it” through consistent, daily writing. Even though the advisor position is for academic writing only, my experiences with creative writing made me look surprisingly attractive.
The thing that sealed me the job was my schedule. They needed MWF and practically all my classes are TTh. So not only were they excited because of my qualifications, they were excited because I was available when they needed it. Getting the job wasn’t that hard from there.
So now I’m a writing advisor, and I LOVE it! I sit around the lab, chatting and hanging out with all the other cool people who work there, and every once and a while an MFHD or Psychology major comes in with a paper and we look over it. Good people, low-stress work environment, work that I actually love doing, really good pay for an on-campus job, and best of all, it’s the kind of job that looks REALLY good on a resume. This has got to be the best job I’ve landed since I came here at BYU. I’m so happy and thankful that things worked out the way they did!
Progress!
Last night I hung out with my friends Steve Dethloff and Lindsay Rowe over at Steve’s new apartment at King Henry. Had a really good time, which unfortunately involved staying up until 2:30 am. The next day I was zombified–even more than usual. I can’t keep this up much longer…need sleep…
So the day pretty much sucked. I can handle tiredness, but not too much of it. By the end of the day, I was just miserable, so I skipped my last class.
The evening was much better, though. Much better. I went out to the Smith Fieldhouse and worked out from 9pm to 10pm, riding the exercise bike while reading Dune. Fantastic book: I’m reading it for the quark book club. Working out in general is also really good because it wakes up your mind and gets your creativity flowing better. At least it does for me.
So then, I decided that enough procrastinating is enough, and if I’m going to ever write any of these novels, it’s butt-in-chair hands-on-keyboard time. Washed up, went to the library, and just sat down and wrote.
It was good! I think I’m gradually starting to get into this new story, Hero in Exile. I only got about 530 words today, but I can feel the momentum picking up. Once I’ve got momentum, things will be much easier.
So that’s what I was up to today as far as writing. Gradually getting back into it. Now, it’s 1:20 am, I’ve got a test in the Humanities testing lab at 9:00, and I really need to sleep.
Disorganization…
Yuck. My life is so disorganized right now. Behind in homework, behind in my writing, behind in my blogging, zombified with sleeplessness…ugh.
First step, I guess, is to get a good night’s sleep. So that’s what I’m going to do.
But first, I have been writing a little…500 words yesterday, 200 words today, rewrote the first chapter of The Lost Colony (I SWEAR I am going to change that title! It needs to go–next time I sit down with it, that’s the first thing I’m going to revise!).
Also, I started exercising again, which means that I have a lot more time to read. I’m currently rereading Dune for the next Quark book club meeting–it’s going to be a lot of fun! Dune is a classic. Besides that, there are so many other things I want to read–books on writing and art, 1001 Arabian Nights (which I will not only be reading for fun, but also for a class; two birds with one stone), The Faded Sun Trilogy, and just so much other freaking stuff that I want to read. I’m ravenous for books, for some weird reason.
Oh and good news! I got the FHSS writing lab job!! Yay! So tomorrow they officially hire me, I find out what my hours are going to be, what my duties are, and…yeah. It’s going to be great. More on that later.
And now, sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep…
Ggggggggroggy
Yes I am. No routine and lots of destractions equals late, late nights. I don’t think I’ve gone to bed before 2 am at any time this week, and now I’m suffering for it. Fortunately, though, this is the weekend, so I can recuperate a little.
The only writing goal I’ve marginally been keeping up with is the 500 words/day one. However, I’ve been off to a rocky start with Hero in Exile, and I’ve rewritten the first chapter about three times now. Fortunately, I got a lot of extremely helpful feedback from the quark meeting today, so I think that this latest rewrite is going to be the final one…for this draft at least.
Which reminds me, we had our first Quark writing meeting of the semester today! Yay! I think it went really well: Gamila, Jakeson, Cholisose, Hillary, Marissa, and John all came today, plus a new guy whose name is Steve. Also, I met a couple of people at the social who are interested in coming this year, including FYsenshi and some new guys. We’ll see if membership explodes like it did last year, but if it doesn’t, I’m sure we’ll still have fun.
So, yeah, it’s getting late, and I really, really need to get some sleep this weekend. I’ll probably be writing all day tomorrow when I’m not in church, since I want to finish the short story I mentioned earlier before I ask this girl out on a second date and get an earthshaking rejection. That would definitely freeze my creative juices on this endeavor and I think that it might actually end up somewhat decent–that is, if I can edit out all the superlatives and the melodramatic cheesiness on the rewrite. We’ll see how it goes.
One final thing: just now I saw this really cool site where you can create a word cloud for a website and/or a bunch of text. I copy and pasted the rough draft of The Lost Colony and this is what I got. Check it out!
Three day weekends!
Ok, this is going to be a quick post because it’s late and I CRAVE sleep.
I tried this semester to schedule all my classes on Tuesday and Thursday, and because of that I wasn’t rehired at the BYU bookstore because I didn’t have mornings open TTh. Suck. What’s more, I ended up having to schedule a couple of classes on Monday and Wednesday, so I wasn’t even able to have the awesome MWF free schedule that I wanted in the first place. Double suck. HOWEVER, I DO have Fridays free, and it is heaven! Three day weekends all semester! Woot!
Also, you know what? Every time I get fired and/or lose my job, it ends up being a great blessing–exactly what I needed at the time, even. I lost my job in the MTC cafeteria right before the start of a really killer semester, and I know I would have been horribly overwhelmed if I’d had to work as well as study. And the next semester, when things cooled down, I got the bookstore job, and it was awesome. While it lasted, that is.
But even though I wish I could still be working for the bookstore, I think in the long run it’s going to be a blessing. Today as I was looking on the job boards in the wilk, I saw three openings in the FHSS writing lab. They pay fairly good–about $8.95/hr–and I was surprised to find that I met and/or exceeded all of their qualifications for the job. So I dropped by the lab, picked up an application, and tomorrow I’m going to drop it by and hopefully get interviewed. Inshallah, everything will go well and I’ll soon be getting paid to help students in my college write their papers.
Man, I’m just blessed. Life is beautiful and I love it.
As far as writing goes, I painfully rewrote the first chapter of Hero in Exile and sent it off with the rest of the Quark submissions. Yes, the Quark writing group is starting up again. I hope that this year it will be better than ever! We only got three submissions for our first meeting, but once we get on a roll I think things will really take off. Inshallah, we’ll get plenty of new members this year to keep the club going strong.
The short story I mentioned in my previous post is off to a rocky start, but it’s going fairly well. I’m going to try to finish it in the next week or so–before life shifts again and I lose the perspective that impelled me to write the story in the first place.
And now, SLEEEEEEEP! Why? Because tomorrow is the last day of the BYU Bookstore’s progressive booksale, where everything is 90% off, and I want first dibs! And after that…THREE DAY WEEKEND!!!