so, over the last couple of years I've improved my writing just by actually paying attention to it and forcing it on people whose opinions are more complex than "i like it!" or "this is crap" or "I don't get it." The actual impact is showing up in the pacing and voice. Now, instead of being strings of gushing images that create an overall effect, I have a rash of pseudo narrative poems with the slower pace of southern or biblical prose. The tone isn't anything like that, or the subject or wording or characters or anything... I don't think I'm even properly describing it. I feel like my own knowledge of writing is waning the more I do it and the more I pay attention to it, and this is odd and not a little frustrating and discouraging.
I've just been informed, by two people who don't know most of the characters in my poetry, that the biggest problem with my poetry is that I don't follow it through enough. The subject isn't explored fully. Without exploration I can't relate what I know to the reader. See how this is bad?
I read Millay's biography and her biggest fear was not being clear, thus I have started trying to translate my poems into boring sentences and then reinserting the pretty words. I think this may work.
So, that's what I'm working on.
In other news, I enjoyed seeing ice balls the size of tennis balls fall from the sky a whole bunch earlier! It was awesome! It was my first slightly worrisome tornado warning. Billy and I sat and watched the swirl clouds on doppler pass right over us. Nothing touched down, nothing in Stillwater was damaged, I drank a screwdriver, I was texting Elise throughout... it was fun!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Dirty Jobs!
My new favorite show is Dirty Jobs. It's fantastic.
Content:
Mostly it has to do with food processing. Increasingly I've become aware that food is gross. It's grosser when mass produced. You hear about the puss on udders of cows when they get milked, and the steroids in cows, and the methane they produce and how they're cooped up and how baby cows aren't allowed to move around so veal is more tasty for us, but being introduced to the people who do this day in and day out makes you second guess complaining about whatever your own job is.
That's what's great about this show. The people who do the jobs are the focus at least as much as the job itself!
I mean, I've caught, gutted and cooked fish myself. It's a gross process when just you and your sister have a fish to do each. Our two fish fed our family and one other family one meal. My fish weighed (before having half of it scrapped) almost 30 pounds, Kelsie's almost twenty. We felt so good about ourselves! This Mike Rowe guy went on a fishing boat in Alaska (already notorious) and learned how to process 12 tons of that a day. Yep. On that scale there's enormous waste and ways to dispose of it and places where it gets backed up etc.
It's fascinating to watch because:
Mike Rowe has an excellent sense of humor (both mental and physical)
The content fascinates everyone's inner rubber neck
You learn stuff!
Excellent!
Content:
Mostly it has to do with food processing. Increasingly I've become aware that food is gross. It's grosser when mass produced. You hear about the puss on udders of cows when they get milked, and the steroids in cows, and the methane they produce and how they're cooped up and how baby cows aren't allowed to move around so veal is more tasty for us, but being introduced to the people who do this day in and day out makes you second guess complaining about whatever your own job is.
That's what's great about this show. The people who do the jobs are the focus at least as much as the job itself!
I mean, I've caught, gutted and cooked fish myself. It's a gross process when just you and your sister have a fish to do each. Our two fish fed our family and one other family one meal. My fish weighed (before having half of it scrapped) almost 30 pounds, Kelsie's almost twenty. We felt so good about ourselves! This Mike Rowe guy went on a fishing boat in Alaska (already notorious) and learned how to process 12 tons of that a day. Yep. On that scale there's enormous waste and ways to dispose of it and places where it gets backed up etc.
It's fascinating to watch because:
Mike Rowe has an excellent sense of humor (both mental and physical)
The content fascinates everyone's inner rubber neck
You learn stuff!
Excellent!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
ahh! Shurbutt bites my ass!
Henry Louis Gates Jr. is on Colbert.
Please, please tell me someone understands my pain!
Please, please tell me someone understands my pain!
Monday, February 2, 2009
1985 Honda Aero
Now taking suggestions for names for my new scooter. This is what he looks like:
I think it's a He. Feels like a he.
He has a one gallon gas tank, and gets 80 miles to the gallon. The only thing about this is he also needs an inordinate amount of oil, but not so much that it's going to be any more of a pain than filling up the ol tank more than once a month!
Accesories include my round black bullet helmet and Billy bought me a pair of sweet goggles and a thick chain and lock (he weighs twenty pounds more than I do).
I love him.
I think it's a He. Feels like a he.
He has a one gallon gas tank, and gets 80 miles to the gallon. The only thing about this is he also needs an inordinate amount of oil, but not so much that it's going to be any more of a pain than filling up the ol tank more than once a month!
Accesories include my round black bullet helmet and Billy bought me a pair of sweet goggles and a thick chain and lock (he weighs twenty pounds more than I do).
I love him.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)