Something about the sound of thousands of little frigid daggers raining against my window sets the mood for days like today.
The sound isn't as depressing as the feeling of the same minute cutlery lashing against my nylon second-skin, and it is cool after several hours of sleet to look out and see cars which look like Ice Man took a piss on them.
I finished class early, barreled home...at least, barreled cautiously across a solid sheet of ice...and now I find myself tired, yet restless. Energetic, yet unfocused. Plenty of energy, nowhere to go...and no clue what to do with myself.
Yes I have a wife. Yes she has ideas about what to do with all the free time.
But she's on her period, so most of MY ideas for what to do with the time go out the window once cuddling becomes foreplay...and foreplay inevitably becomes teasing once she re-realizes that the store is closed for monthly renovations.
Yeah...
I'd read more of Betrayed, House of Night book #2, but I'm finding the inevitable problem of being a guy reading a book series written by and mostly populated by women.
I haven't had this problem with Cast's previous novels, because the antagonists have always been male, or female but overtly villainous.
When the antagonist is one of the above, the villainy is outright, direct, sometimes brutal...but there's no question who the antagonist is, and generally no question regarding their agenda.
Nuada wanted to rape every human female which came to hand, and kill and eat every human male.
Rhiannon wanted to reign supreme as a spoiled brat, bedding every man available, and doing whatever she damned well pleased to get her way, including killing, drinking blood, stabbing a pregnant woman in the womb....whatever.
Neferet drives me insane as a villainess, which I know P.C. is in the process of revealing her to be, because she's a woman.
Subtlety is the name of the game.
Keeping her cruelty and hatred and rage and...bitchness...in the shadows as Zoey continues to treat her as a trusted mentor and surrogate mother.
I just want to get to the unveiling already! Enough of this sneaking around B.S.!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
House of Night - Christianity Critique
Yeah, my addiction to P.C. Cast is seemingly never-ending.
I got 50 pages into Marked before the evil library system (which happens to employ me) had to take it back for all 5000000000 other people waiting to read Ms. and Miss Cast's vampyre series which already makes Twilight look like a sexist, pedantic, misogynist joke.
Well now it's back in my grubby little hands, and I've read over 100 pages in the last two days alone.
...yeah, it's addicting.
Especially considering that the Casts set out to turn the vampire mythos on its head...and NOT by turning vamps into sparkling little fairies who happen to abuse their women.
If anything, Twilight only took the worst plot holes in the vampire myth...and turned the myth into one gigantic plot hole.
House of Night, on the other hand, removes the traditional Dracula-based patriarchy of vamp society, and installs a goddess--Nyx, for those who know world mythology, the goddess of night-- as vamp society's head, turning a fire-in-the-testicles based myth system into a matriarchal society.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg (cue My Heart Will Go On).
However, one of the most interesting features of the Casts' vampyre (damn that's a cool spelling!) world has nothing to do with the vamps themselves. The fictional People of Faith, a protestant denomination which, even as its members eat up vampyre art, music, and other creative products, denounce the vamps and anyone else who doesn't follow their exact belief system as hell-bound, seem to represent popular criticism of Christianity.
Granted, "people of faith" is about as generic as you can get when it comes to naming a fictional religious group, but many of the sentiments expressed by its members (such as Zoey's --le protagonist-- stepfather) seem to radiate ideals of the hardcore conservative 'christians' who get on TV all the time to rant about the decay of America.
Stuff like:
"Scientists are not God. They are not all-knowing."
...so therefore, their observations and conclusions matter NOT compared to the neat little doctrines we've laid out.
I'm actually hoping for The 700 Club to get wind of this, and issue a Harry Potter-esque formal condemnation of House of Night...just to boost sales through the roof and maybe buy the Casts a new house or two.
This actually relates to my reading of The Things They Carried, specifically the story of Tim O'Brien's drafting, "On Rainy River."
Many of the emotions expressed within the story also condemn the conservative side of the political spectrum, such as love-it-or-leave-it platitudes, blind acquiescence of whatever the government tells you, and adherence to religious dogma beyond all reason, logic, or personal experience.
I've been told that during the course of the House of Night series, Zoey and her friends are aided by Catholic nuns against a supernatural foe, so I look forward to differences in the depictions of the People of Faith and the Catholic Church.
If the Catholic Church is depicted as more open-minded and compassionate than the People of Faith, expect sales of the House of Night books to skyrocket.
Religious intolerance hardcore helped Harry Potter, so get on the ball to freak out your conservative parents.
Start reading House of Night book 1, Marked, today!
I got 50 pages into Marked before the evil library system (which happens to employ me) had to take it back for all 5000000000 other people waiting to read Ms. and Miss Cast's vampyre series which already makes Twilight look like a sexist, pedantic, misogynist joke.
Well now it's back in my grubby little hands, and I've read over 100 pages in the last two days alone.
...yeah, it's addicting.
Especially considering that the Casts set out to turn the vampire mythos on its head...and NOT by turning vamps into sparkling little fairies who happen to abuse their women.
If anything, Twilight only took the worst plot holes in the vampire myth...and turned the myth into one gigantic plot hole.
House of Night, on the other hand, removes the traditional Dracula-based patriarchy of vamp society, and installs a goddess--Nyx, for those who know world mythology, the goddess of night-- as vamp society's head, turning a fire-in-the-testicles based myth system into a matriarchal society.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg (cue My Heart Will Go On).
However, one of the most interesting features of the Casts' vampyre (damn that's a cool spelling!) world has nothing to do with the vamps themselves. The fictional People of Faith, a protestant denomination which, even as its members eat up vampyre art, music, and other creative products, denounce the vamps and anyone else who doesn't follow their exact belief system as hell-bound, seem to represent popular criticism of Christianity.
Granted, "people of faith" is about as generic as you can get when it comes to naming a fictional religious group, but many of the sentiments expressed by its members (such as Zoey's --le protagonist-- stepfather) seem to radiate ideals of the hardcore conservative 'christians' who get on TV all the time to rant about the decay of America.
Stuff like:
"Scientists are not God. They are not all-knowing."
...so therefore, their observations and conclusions matter NOT compared to the neat little doctrines we've laid out.
I'm actually hoping for The 700 Club to get wind of this, and issue a Harry Potter-esque formal condemnation of House of Night...just to boost sales through the roof and maybe buy the Casts a new house or two.
This actually relates to my reading of The Things They Carried, specifically the story of Tim O'Brien's drafting, "On Rainy River."
Many of the emotions expressed within the story also condemn the conservative side of the political spectrum, such as love-it-or-leave-it platitudes, blind acquiescence of whatever the government tells you, and adherence to religious dogma beyond all reason, logic, or personal experience.
I've been told that during the course of the House of Night series, Zoey and her friends are aided by Catholic nuns against a supernatural foe, so I look forward to differences in the depictions of the People of Faith and the Catholic Church.
If the Catholic Church is depicted as more open-minded and compassionate than the People of Faith, expect sales of the House of Night books to skyrocket.
Religious intolerance hardcore helped Harry Potter, so get on the ball to freak out your conservative parents.
Start reading House of Night book 1, Marked, today!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
My ideal Creative Writing class setup
If I ran a university's Creative Writing department, I'd design a curriculum to fit these requirements:
1. No more than 10 students in any CW class.
-The concept of "workshopping" requires a small-group environment, so that everyone can be heard, and adequate time can be allotted for each student to read his/her writing, and have it critiqued.
2. Every CW class will last at least 2 hours per day.
-see above for time allottment. This timeframe will also allow...
3. Multiple in-class exercises to promote character building and setting construction.
-These exercises would be based around off-the-wall objects from which students will design characters and settings to be used in later writings. To accomplish these exercises...
4. Every CW class will take place in a computer lab.
-This prevents common wrist problems from occurring, and ensures every exercise will be legible and able to be saved, to a student's flash drive or online.
5. Introductory CW class will include materials to instruct in critique and revision techniques.
-This allows students who are not familiar with a particular literary form to learn about it, and learn how to give constructive criticism and apply others' criticism in revising their writing.
6. Every CW class will require no more than 4 major writing assignments, each of which will be a different literary type chosen by the student.
-Two writing types should be areas in which he or she is familiar and relatively comfortable, and two should be areas in which he or she has little or no familiarity.
7. Publishing information will be made available to Senior-level CW students, who can prove that the writing they wish to publish has been revised at least twenty times.
-This should help students choose what they wish to publish well in advance, and require them to invest a significant level of effort and ability into their writing.
Yeah, that would be awesome.
Mostly an amalgamation of Clay Randolph's general Creative Writing class at OCCC, and James Dolph's Fundamentals of CW I and II at UCO.
1. No more than 10 students in any CW class.
-The concept of "workshopping" requires a small-group environment, so that everyone can be heard, and adequate time can be allotted for each student to read his/her writing, and have it critiqued.
2. Every CW class will last at least 2 hours per day.
-see above for time allottment. This timeframe will also allow...
3. Multiple in-class exercises to promote character building and setting construction.
-These exercises would be based around off-the-wall objects from which students will design characters and settings to be used in later writings. To accomplish these exercises...
4. Every CW class will take place in a computer lab.
-This prevents common wrist problems from occurring, and ensures every exercise will be legible and able to be saved, to a student's flash drive or online.
5. Introductory CW class will include materials to instruct in critique and revision techniques.
-This allows students who are not familiar with a particular literary form to learn about it, and learn how to give constructive criticism and apply others' criticism in revising their writing.
6. Every CW class will require no more than 4 major writing assignments, each of which will be a different literary type chosen by the student.
-Two writing types should be areas in which he or she is familiar and relatively comfortable, and two should be areas in which he or she has little or no familiarity.
7. Publishing information will be made available to Senior-level CW students, who can prove that the writing they wish to publish has been revised at least twenty times.
-This should help students choose what they wish to publish well in advance, and require them to invest a significant level of effort and ability into their writing.
Yeah, that would be awesome.
Mostly an amalgamation of Clay Randolph's general Creative Writing class at OCCC, and James Dolph's Fundamentals of CW I and II at UCO.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Nothing like having a moderately annoying song from your wife's favorite movie and one of your favorite songs of all time stuck in your head simultaneously to get you to realize how random a human brain can be.
Not to say this is a new or recent or particularly shocking revelation.
If I recorded fifteen seconds of the stuff that comes out of my mouth when I'm alone and bored, it would probably be turned into a superweapon for its sheer ability to force individuals to shoot themselves just to release the blood pressure in the brain.
Lately I keep hearing people complain about how this healthcare bill will turn America into a tyrannical state, a socialist state, a communist state, a living hell....etc etc etc.
Just amazes me how ignorant some people can be.
Now I'm not saying I think the healthcare plan is a gift from God, nor am I saying it was culled with a rusty fork soaked in fetus blood through a mound of satan's excrement.
I'm simply saying that "we the people" ALWAYS have a tendency to blow things the government does out of proportion.
...at least, those of "we the people" who actually follow politics.
I'm happy to say I am not among them, mainly because I USED to be a disciple of conservativism to an obscene degree, then a hardcore liberal....and at no point in that time could I ever be HAPPY with anything the government did.
My zeal for keeping "them" out of power or making sure "they" weren't going to "get" me kept me from enjoying so much of life.
So, I keep to my own nest, worrying and concentrating only on what is in my direct control.
But I digress.
Anyone saying the government is out to control every aspect of life needs to brush up on their history.
Never in the 20th or 21st century has the U.S. government reached the depths of corruption and powermongering it reached in 1798, when the Federalist-controlled Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts.
Congress was fighting an undeclared naval war with France (sounds kinda like the war on terror, but at least they were fighting a COUNTRY), and many Republican-Democratic politicians and civilians were protesting the policies and actions of Congress and president John Adams.
SO, the Federalist Congress passed the Acts, to ensure that no word, spoken or written, could be projected criticizing the government.
So before you scream and cry that the government is out to get you (especially anyone who was cheering that the government was "of God" under Bush), READ YOUR FREAKING HISTORY.
Not to say this is a new or recent or particularly shocking revelation.
If I recorded fifteen seconds of the stuff that comes out of my mouth when I'm alone and bored, it would probably be turned into a superweapon for its sheer ability to force individuals to shoot themselves just to release the blood pressure in the brain.
Lately I keep hearing people complain about how this healthcare bill will turn America into a tyrannical state, a socialist state, a communist state, a living hell....etc etc etc.
Just amazes me how ignorant some people can be.
Now I'm not saying I think the healthcare plan is a gift from God, nor am I saying it was culled with a rusty fork soaked in fetus blood through a mound of satan's excrement.
I'm simply saying that "we the people" ALWAYS have a tendency to blow things the government does out of proportion.
...at least, those of "we the people" who actually follow politics.
I'm happy to say I am not among them, mainly because I USED to be a disciple of conservativism to an obscene degree, then a hardcore liberal....and at no point in that time could I ever be HAPPY with anything the government did.
My zeal for keeping "them" out of power or making sure "they" weren't going to "get" me kept me from enjoying so much of life.
So, I keep to my own nest, worrying and concentrating only on what is in my direct control.
But I digress.
Anyone saying the government is out to control every aspect of life needs to brush up on their history.
Never in the 20th or 21st century has the U.S. government reached the depths of corruption and powermongering it reached in 1798, when the Federalist-controlled Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts.
Congress was fighting an undeclared naval war with France (sounds kinda like the war on terror, but at least they were fighting a COUNTRY), and many Republican-Democratic politicians and civilians were protesting the policies and actions of Congress and president John Adams.
SO, the Federalist Congress passed the Acts, to ensure that no word, spoken or written, could be projected criticizing the government.
So before you scream and cry that the government is out to get you (especially anyone who was cheering that the government was "of God" under Bush), READ YOUR FREAKING HISTORY.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Blogging all the way...
And now, some of my favorite quotes from P.C. Cast's Divine by Mistake:
And my all-time, use-whenever-not-in-familial-company quote:
“Cliches are the bane of educated mankind.”
“I’m Freud’s wet dream.”
And my all-time, use-whenever-not-in-familial-company quote:
“Don’t fuck with an English major.
They keep lots of useless information trapped in their heads.
Once in awhile they let some of it out and it bites you square on the ass.”
So yeah...go out and get Divine by Mistake by P.C. Cast NOWWWWW!!!
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
"Let's kick this pig!"
It's a weird feeling to have random scenes from Down Periscope flashing through your mind, along with random lyrics from Maroon 5, while swearing up and down the haze of ten thousand perfumes, all of them overpriced and horrible, exuded by the "lady" who just walked by smells like barbecued pulled pork.
Two days of bondage remaining, before I get the first Christmas Break in 3 years in which I actually get to SLEEP IN!!!
Bet the wife will keep me busy, though. Gonna make me work for that new self-cleaning electric razor.
Bye bye blades! Have one left, and it's gotta last till Christmas!
Meh. I'll probably shave with it one last time, then chunk it, and just use my old electric till then...I'll just look like a mountain man for awhile.
Two days of bondage remaining, before I get the first Christmas Break in 3 years in which I actually get to SLEEP IN!!!
Bet the wife will keep me busy, though. Gonna make me work for that new self-cleaning electric razor.
Bye bye blades! Have one left, and it's gotta last till Christmas!
Meh. I'll probably shave with it one last time, then chunk it, and just use my old electric till then...I'll just look like a mountain man for awhile.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Studying Government while reshelving Theology
Curious as to the results of my mother-in-law's memorial service.
Maybe a lit candle will bring joy and fond rememberance.
Or maybe pictures will bring a resurgence of depression.
I think to live in fear is not life.
Doesn't even matter WHAT you're fearing.
Hell,
Death,
Taxes,
Bethany PD....
Doesn't matter.
Spending even a moment fearing something which is not directly in front of you preparing to harm you is a waste of time, energy, emotion, sanity...plus it screws up the sex life.
Maybe a lit candle will bring joy and fond rememberance.
Or maybe pictures will bring a resurgence of depression.
I think to live in fear is not life.
Doesn't even matter WHAT you're fearing.
Hell,
Death,
Taxes,
Bethany PD....
Doesn't matter.
Spending even a moment fearing something which is not directly in front of you preparing to harm you is a waste of time, energy, emotion, sanity...plus it screws up the sex life.
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