I Did Survive

Post-Final Good Day(s), Grad Schools and Mold Colonies

Well, ladies and gents, finals week is finished. I got my grades this morning and from my cheerful tone, you can probably gather that things went in my favor. For the past few days, I've laid up from that gauntlet. Laying up includes going for drives, playing with fat tabby cats at Petsmart, browsing around Barnes & Noble and dozing on Bear's couch after celebrating my nomination for a scholarship.

I've also been able catch my breath and get my materials together for graduate school applications. Most of my schools have later application dates, which is wonderful. I'll have time to get my writing sample together and send off all the transcripts, letters of recommendation, shot records and other bureaucratic paperwork without pulling my hair out.

Also, as finals came down, we discovered our dorm was laced with mold At first, we didn't know if it was another flaw in this building: either way, we weren't really surprised. When your dorm has seven-walled rooms, 5/6 washers that don't work, and one-coat-paint that chips when you breathe on it, you're not surprised that mold is the obvious next step.

One Good Day
Lazing on the couch
after Smirnoff and sandwiches.
This was a good day.

Colony 01

Condensation beads
Mold colonizes my sill.
Allergies and colds!

Mass Effect...and My Face

So...I finished Mass Effect. I finished Mass Effect and my face is thoroughly melted, my socks thoroughly rocked. If you'll forgive the horrid quality of the picture to the left, you can see my version of the lead character in all 47 levels of his coolness. As John Shepard, I gallivanted across the galaxy, destroying synthetics and biological terrors while saving beautiful alien scientists and duking it out with the coolest bad guy in the whole universe.

In the bouncy MAKO land-rover, I laid siege to countless bases, cracked the decryption on hundreds of weapons lockers, and squashed newly evolving forms of alien life. I tried to play a natural mix of Paragon/Renegade, slinging out cruel words to my enemies, while romancing every available character on deck and charming my way to better deals at the markets. I tried to make sure my action were justified, that I was playing it as an experience and a story - not just another game. The results were absolutely fantastic.

While Mass Effect makes a great attempt to blend traditional RPG elements with a shooter, what stands head-and-shoulders above everything else in this game is the addictive conversation and story. Mass Effect is the first in a series of three, so hopefully any bugs will get worked out. Sure, it's got frame rate problems and loads a little slow at times, but that's hardly a good enough reason not to get it. You should look into it. For serious.

Other Stuff to Discuss

As I head toward home and Christmas break with the folks, I'll fill you guys in on the missing month of my life. I've made huge leaps in my novel, planned out an illustrated short story for next semester, read a couple of fantastic books and maybe found a field of study I hadn't considered before. So glad to be back. I'll be making the rounds this week to reintroduce myself, so see you then!

So say we all.
Bri

A Robe of Novas and Other Things

In my sci-fi writing class, we're taking a look at science fiction haiku and other speculative poetry. To be very honest, I don't write or read poetry. Once, I started working, this is what came out.

A Gift

A robe of cold stars,
bright blazing novas, he gave
to the sun-haired girl.

Coming Home

Hail, the Sons of Sol.
Bred in war and brimmed with blood,
They are coming home.

Guard Duty

Weary Norsemen, guard
Titan's lonely methane seas
and long for their fjords.

Writing and Concern for Community

When you work in a Writing Center, you are faced with students who don't want to be there and who generally don't like to write. Their professors tell them to pay us a visit. This is code for I don't want to deal with you. When you've got that attitude from a professor, combined with the student's embarrassment, life as a tutor is very unrewarding.

But, over the past six weeks, as I've observed six Composition 1 classes for my CompTheory class and seen a few very interesting things. Of six classes, only one showed issue with "remedial" tasks. The other five focused on larger, rhetorical problems. All six were concerned with the community they'd created in the classroom and offered insightful critique. I know I probably shouldn't have been surprised, but when you work at a Writing Center and see only those students who don't want to be there, it gets very discouraging, very quickly. Watching these students be so kind and respectful of each other's work was incredible.

How To Play A Game

When I get a new video game, I never play in front of my guy-friends until I've worked out the controls and gotten past the tutorial phase. I want to make sure I'm a smooth customer when the bad guys come running - that I don't look like an idiot. When I started playing Assassin's Creed yesterday, I decided it didn't much matter. I had entirely too much fun scaling buildings, swinging around on narrow ledges and collecting flags for achievements. I heart this game. It's all about patience, about sneaking and about taking your time as you explore the world and complete your missions.

And then I read IGN's review. I decided they probably didn't play the same game I did (or at least that they probably didn't play it the same way I did). They played a "repetitive" game with a "bad story." I played a game where I swooped off of high buildings, saved citizens in distress, assassinated bad guys and picked pockets as I made my way through each city. Don't get me wrong, IGN wrote a very thorough review, but you might want to check out Penny Arcade's post for another perspective. I think IGN probably played Assassin's Creed for fast-paced action, rushing to finish the game to write the review. I played it (read: thoroughly adored) for the deliberate slow-paced stealth experience.

That's that.
So say we all.
Bri

On People Watching, Haiku and What I Found

PEOPLE WATCHING 101

When you sit in a Barnes & Nobles, you don't expect to hear a man read aloud from his unpublished manuscript, repeating various lines to get the language exactly right. You don't expect to hear four convicts discussing their jail time and how the system screwed them over. You don't expect to see an obscenely overweight nine-year-old shuffle-running through the aisles looking for a quarter she misplaced among the books.

But my friends and cohorts, see these things I did. Yesterday, my mom and I drove down to Shreveport to spend the day and witnessed all of the above and more. We had a smashing good time people watching and trying not to laugh.

A Few Haiku for the Port of Shreve

Under Construction!
Pedestrians dart and dodge
your reckless driving.

Power lines swoop low
new buildings in old downtown
murals of mute jazz.

Muddy river swirls
Slot machines clack, good times roll
Your city is broke.

New grown shopping malls
Eateries and car dealers
Hustle and bustle!

Shreveport, your streets wind
through boulevards of green shade

I watch, sip my coke.

PLATONIC FORMS OF PERFECTION AND ORGANIZATION

As we have already seen, I have a habit of looking for the perfect pretty notebook. What I didn't tell you was that this strange habit carries over into software and organizing stuff. Somewhere on some astral plane, there is a Form of the perfect program, notebook, organization tool - and I can't hope to find it in this world (yay Plato).

Anyway, these urges to look for the greatest (insert thing) only hits me near the start of each school year. Probably because subconsciously I know I'll live in chaos for the next nine months and I'm grabbing desperately at some measure of civilization and sanity :D

Anyway, here is a product of one of my searches, and I thought some of you writerly types might find it fascinating. Because not only is it cool. It's free.

THE NEXT BEST THING

This new program I found is called Keynote - you can look it over or try it out, whatever strikes your fancy. It's like Microsoft OneNote, but free and open source which can allow you to do some pretty awesome things.

So far, I've added all of my characters, their info, the back-stories of their respective noble houses, some world-building stuff and a scratch pad for ideas with a to-do list. Sure most of that is for me to stay consistent in the story, but it also helped spawn a great slew of ideas.

I also imported the current WIP, and so now - EVERYTHING - I've written on this project, from concept to finished product is all in one place. If I need to search for some obscure detail, I have the ability to cross-reference everything to find it. While I'm not trying to make a sales pitch for this program, I figured a few of you might be able to use it and get some inspiration like I did.

HERSTORY WITH SVEN

As far as Sven goes, today I begin my heroine's story and I'm incredibly psyched about it. She's maybe one of my favorite characters and this will give her brother, the hero, a chance to chill out for later revisions.

So say we all.
Bri