Category: Writing

June 14, 2004 /

After two years, Sean is about to come back to the US from his time teaching music as a Jesuit volunteer in a Nicaraguan village. I’ve been reading his journal continuously for about three years now; he’s a funny and intimate writer, and I’ve tried to incorporate some of his observational style into my own voice.

I’ve known one (other) Jesuit volunteer teacher in real life, and I feel like I know Sean, in a way. Neither has exactly been entirely gung-ho about the program, but if my own personal sample is any indication, it attracts some pretty incredible people. I wonder if I could do what they did, and if I would. Or will.

June 9, 2004 /

It’s not online, unfortunately, but trust me when I say that the front page of USA Today has the sub-head

U.S. Olympic hopefuls face drug accusations

Battle looms to compete

which, I… I don’t know, might just be the best ambiguous headline ever.

Geraldine kicked her ride into gear and rumbled out of the gate, into the Istodrome and its ambient thunder. The others were already circling the floor: Dallas Gator and his two-treadle rig, Jingo Smith on her lean ShuttleMatic, and Sam Scarwood’s weird upside-down contraption. Geraldine shook her head. Unless he got with the times and added a double back-beam, he wasn’t going anywhere.

The announcer’s boom brought her back to the arena. “Your final contestant… the Tartan Trampler… Geraldiiiiine O’Maaallleeey!“

Geraldine grinned, checked her trigger action, and shot off a salutatory flare from her Battle Loom’s smokestack. The crowd went wild.

Adkins’s Second Law

June 8, 2004 /

No artistic medium is inherently more or less capable than any other of communicating an idea, stirring emotions, or provoking thought.

Corollary: All media are artistic media.

June 2, 2004 /

Fixed my about page. It’s sleek and powerful now, like a lion, or a submarine.

I have not fixed my “blogroll,” which is ridiculously long and makes the page scroll forever. I only found out it was a “blogroll” the other day. I just thought it was a list of peeps I read.

May 26, 2004 /

I had a busy afternoon. First, I’ve written a few stories for constrained.org, which is as neat as anticipated. I’ve got a couple more in progress, but you know what would be really neat? If you tried one too.

Second, I promised to post about it a long time ago and never did, but there’s a new theme coming up at BlogNomic–it’s still in process, but it would seem that Damanor and I have taken over the world. I’ve been playing since January with only a couple of breaks, and the game remains fun. If you’re interested in getting in at the beginning of whatever happens next, I recommend joining now.

Update 1646 hrs: I should add that Damanor and I may not end up winning, but either way there’s a new Dynasty coming, since the old Emperor has quit. (That’s what I meant by “in process.” I just don’t want to appear overly cheeky.)

April 24, 2004 /

This morning, there was a kid two floors down screaming about helicopters for a good solid hour. Also, there were a bunch of helicopters. It was that kind of morning.

(Note: the preceding paragraph exists only to make sure that on April 24th, 2005, the first “Today in History” entry won’t be so obviously referencing the second one.)

A year ago, apparently, I was gasping with horror that I’d left the same cam pic up for a week; now I’m noticing that it’s practically May and I’ve only taken like ten all year. I don’t think I’m all that short on ideas; it’s just that since I no longer have to hit the NFD front page to make sure an entry has posted right, I hardly ever see it and ergo don’t get sick of it. This is really an advantage–remember, NewsBruiser Makes Everything Better–but I don’t want to let all my content feeds get neglected. I need to take more. Anybody want a plastic mullet portrait?

I really need to get around to what I’ve been planning to do since fall 2002, which is put up a navigable IdiotCam© archive and, while I’m at it, enable time-lapse cam posts into the future. I might as well hack together an RSS feed while I’m at it. Yet another project for the summer.

April 7, 2004 /

Hey, this is the first time I’ve posted every day of the week since December. I want a cookie.

March 30, 2004 /

Oh, and Dreamhost sent out an announcement last night saying that the downtime / slowdown was caused by a DDOS attack. I guess I believe them, but I don’t understand why NFD shows up while the front page completely refuses to load. Did they somehow break PHP?

March 29, 2004 /

Grr. I like the fact that I have an insanely cheap deal with Dreamhost, but apparently the site’s been really slow lately, and until about ten minutes ago it was completely dead. If it doesn’t stay up, my apologies. If it looks like the downtime is enough for me to consider switching hosts, you can check my LJ for updates. Bleagh.

I should thank Aleeezon for very kindly putting me up this weekend, post-bacchanal. Will’s wedding was nice. Nobody fell down. And now back to the sweet, simple work that is failing my classes.