There are so many ways people categorize each other.
"She's an ESTJ FOR SURE!" or "He is a definite B-type," or even "That guy/girl is such a geek".
"The Race that Knows Joseph" (L.M. Montgomery), the "Frozen Chosen" (Presbyterians), and "kindred spirits" also come to mind.
Why do we do this? Is it some part of the naming thing that stuck with us? Did Adam have so much fun naming the rhinoceros and the antelope and the platypus that we keep naming and categorizing and fitting each thing into its own little box?
Seeing a bunch of new students come into CIU while older CIU students have a hard time getting accounting to be honest with them is...interesting. I know some people who can't come back because even though they were cleared with accounting, they were told last week that they actually owed a few thousand dollars. Poor, senior college students. Who can't even find a job right now. After they were sure they were clear financially with CIU and that they were set to graduate this semester.
Then here's these new students - naive, somewhat innocent, unsure how to navigate the campus or a meeting with their advisor. They can't know the dangers and surprises that lay ahead.
Some of them will love CIU and choose to stay instead of transferring. Some of them will lose faith and struggle into life feeling abused and let down. And some of them will just muddle through and shine later, after graduation and after all the school pressure is off.
The start of school makes me think of (surprise, surprise) Harry Potter. I'm reading The Prisoner of Azkaban right now in English/Spanish (I have two copies so I'm going back and forth) and knowing what's ahead for Harry and what happened last year is comforting. I know he'll be alright.
And, speaking of naming things/people groups:
Some people are wizards; they're the lucky ones. Destined to become great in some way. Some are muggles - doomed to (and usually content with) a life of (in my eyes) boredom - job, house, marriage, kids, etc. But then there are the squibs - those unlucky people caught in the middle.
They can see what wizardkind has; and they want it so badly. They abhor the lives of muggles, but they are condemned to never being accepted in either place because of their peculiarities.
How many of these kids will be squibs?
And what if I'm one?
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Second Thoughts
Stu and I are moving to an apartment (or at least considering it) sometime this fall because of lower rent. At least, we hope it's lower rent.
Trying to find a static price is proving difficult, and after reading some customer reviews (which, thankfully, are a few years old - the newer ones are more positive) I'm having second thoughts. We have known 2 people who lived at the place we are looking at that liked it, but it remains to be seen whether or not we can move in and have everything we want/need.
Supposedly, Charbonneau has free cable, water/gas is included in the bill, there is a dishwasher and disposal, and there are screened-in porches and storage.
So what could be wrong with it? It's in a tree-covered area, with a lake by it. Can we say bugs and SNAKES?
Blergh.
We are going to try to go see it on Saturday and then we'll be one step closer to deciding.
If not, it's back to the drawing board.
Trying to find a static price is proving difficult, and after reading some customer reviews (which, thankfully, are a few years old - the newer ones are more positive) I'm having second thoughts. We have known 2 people who lived at the place we are looking at that liked it, but it remains to be seen whether or not we can move in and have everything we want/need.
Supposedly, Charbonneau has free cable, water/gas is included in the bill, there is a dishwasher and disposal, and there are screened-in porches and storage.
So what could be wrong with it? It's in a tree-covered area, with a lake by it. Can we say bugs and SNAKES?
Blergh.
We are going to try to go see it on Saturday and then we'll be one step closer to deciding.
If not, it's back to the drawing board.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Storyteller
Feeling about the same this morning.
I'm just sort of...existing today. Not that it's a bad thing. My brain probably needs a re-charge. Trying to not stress out about money we don't have/aren't getting. It's also been disheartening seeing Stu be angry with himself for whatever is going wrong at the moment. Encouragement just seems to slip off Stu like water off a duck's back and it frustrates me that I cannot help. But, I do feel hopeful. It looks like they're charging us a ridiculous amount of tax which we shouldn't owe until next year (and probably won't owe since we are going to have an even lower salary than last year) and so the only amount we should have to pay is a little under $200, which we can pay if Stu gets a gig (and he's got two ready to go, just waiting on clients). So please pray that the $200 is the only amount we have to pay now (or that they give us grace and forgive it this time) and that Stu gets some paying gigs.
He needs some encouragement from an outside source, I think. Either getting gigs, or equipment, or just something to let him see that he isn't a failure and that sometimes, life is just hard.
I'm prepared for a hard life. I've had one. But Stu's had one too and he doesn't want to live that way anymore. I'm not really sure what to tell him - sometimes, people just have hard lives. Or, they have hard lives before they have it easy. Either way, it's going to be rough for a while. I think once we pay off the student loans and save enough money to get a new car, we will be doing better.
But that doesn't mean it'll get any easier. It just means hardships will be more bearable. Hopefully.
All that to say...I'm ok with where we are right now. Sure, it's hard to stretch one paycheck and sure, it's aggravating that we can't seem to do anything right, but we'll figure it out and by and by we'll be alright.
In the mean time, I shall write stories and become famous for my wildly inventive tales about a rockstar, a girl and a monster, and an alien family who hire a white trash au pair.
I'm just sort of...existing today. Not that it's a bad thing. My brain probably needs a re-charge. Trying to not stress out about money we don't have/aren't getting. It's also been disheartening seeing Stu be angry with himself for whatever is going wrong at the moment. Encouragement just seems to slip off Stu like water off a duck's back and it frustrates me that I cannot help. But, I do feel hopeful. It looks like they're charging us a ridiculous amount of tax which we shouldn't owe until next year (and probably won't owe since we are going to have an even lower salary than last year) and so the only amount we should have to pay is a little under $200, which we can pay if Stu gets a gig (and he's got two ready to go, just waiting on clients). So please pray that the $200 is the only amount we have to pay now (or that they give us grace and forgive it this time) and that Stu gets some paying gigs.
He needs some encouragement from an outside source, I think. Either getting gigs, or equipment, or just something to let him see that he isn't a failure and that sometimes, life is just hard.
I'm prepared for a hard life. I've had one. But Stu's had one too and he doesn't want to live that way anymore. I'm not really sure what to tell him - sometimes, people just have hard lives. Or, they have hard lives before they have it easy. Either way, it's going to be rough for a while. I think once we pay off the student loans and save enough money to get a new car, we will be doing better.
But that doesn't mean it'll get any easier. It just means hardships will be more bearable. Hopefully.
All that to say...I'm ok with where we are right now. Sure, it's hard to stretch one paycheck and sure, it's aggravating that we can't seem to do anything right, but we'll figure it out and by and by we'll be alright.
In the mean time, I shall write stories and become famous for my wildly inventive tales about a rockstar, a girl and a monster, and an alien family who hire a white trash au pair.
Monday, August 9, 2010
When She Was Bad
Feeling out of sorts...for no particular reason.
Ok, here are some reasons:
1. Walmart has discontinued my recycled-paper hardback notebook that I use specifically for my Secrets Journal.
2. I want to take Stu to see Despicable Me but because of having exactly $0.00 fun money this month I can't (but I WILL take him next month!)
3. S.C. is trying to tax Stu's business $1330.00 because we didn't know we had to pay in quarterly (but they are charging us for stuff we bought in N.Y. with money we got back from taxes THIS year. So hopefully we'll only owe a few hundred dollars. Pray, please)
4. When people gang up on me (or when I feel like they are) I get defensive, which makes me crabby.
5. I feel like people don't listen to me or take my advice. (Not that they have to, but I'd like to at least be acknowledged)
6. Work is about to get crazy (although some of it will be fun crazy) with school starting back.
7. I still have dishes in the sink.
8. My house is a mess (continually).
9. Parker keeps drinking bowls of water and then bouncing around and then spitting it everywhere...but I didn't see the last puddle because it was on the rug and I STEPPED IN IT. ...GROSS.
10. I am not good at a) not complaining b) saying only nice things.
And now for the positive:
1. Stu has fallen in love with my chili recipe
2. I got some of the dishes done.
3. I got to see Roz Stanley and heard from my old roommate this week
4. Ruth, Jen and I got to exercise tonight
5. Stu's mom sent me a HUGE box of awesome clothes! And a new pair of tennis shoes!
6. Violet's Monster: Volume II is completely outlined
7. I can feel the muscles building in my body
8. I finally made a good pitcherful of hawaiian punch koolaid
9. I got to see Despicable Me (!!!), Salt, and Inception
10. Gina let us borrow 30 Rock season 1-3
So...yeah. Things are rough...but there are some nice spots inbetween.
Although I wouldn't be opposed to shooting something with a BB gun or having a date with the punching bag.
Cosmetology School is looking more and more like the direction I should go. That and probably photography. Both will end in well-paid job potentials and possibly future career(s) in theatre/television.
Ok, here are some reasons:
1. Walmart has discontinued my recycled-paper hardback notebook that I use specifically for my Secrets Journal.
2. I want to take Stu to see Despicable Me but because of having exactly $0.00 fun money this month I can't (but I WILL take him next month!)
3. S.C. is trying to tax Stu's business $1330.00 because we didn't know we had to pay in quarterly (but they are charging us for stuff we bought in N.Y. with money we got back from taxes THIS year. So hopefully we'll only owe a few hundred dollars. Pray, please)
4. When people gang up on me (or when I feel like they are) I get defensive, which makes me crabby.
5. I feel like people don't listen to me or take my advice. (Not that they have to, but I'd like to at least be acknowledged)
6. Work is about to get crazy (although some of it will be fun crazy) with school starting back.
7. I still have dishes in the sink.
8. My house is a mess (continually).
9. Parker keeps drinking bowls of water and then bouncing around and then spitting it everywhere...but I didn't see the last puddle because it was on the rug and I STEPPED IN IT. ...GROSS.
10. I am not good at a) not complaining b) saying only nice things.
And now for the positive:
1. Stu has fallen in love with my chili recipe
2. I got some of the dishes done.
3. I got to see Roz Stanley and heard from my old roommate this week
4. Ruth, Jen and I got to exercise tonight
5. Stu's mom sent me a HUGE box of awesome clothes! And a new pair of tennis shoes!
6. Violet's Monster: Volume II is completely outlined
7. I can feel the muscles building in my body
8. I finally made a good pitcherful of hawaiian punch koolaid
9. I got to see Despicable Me (!!!), Salt, and Inception
10. Gina let us borrow 30 Rock season 1-3
So...yeah. Things are rough...but there are some nice spots inbetween.
Although I wouldn't be opposed to shooting something with a BB gun or having a date with the punching bag.
Cosmetology School is looking more and more like the direction I should go. That and probably photography. Both will end in well-paid job potentials and possibly future career(s) in theatre/television.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
No Laughing
I've always hated being laughed at.
I love making people laugh, but when I embarrass myself by dropping something or saying something stupid and people draw attention to it, I feel like I need to run before I fall to pieces.
I have learned to turn the joke on myself a lot of times, so I have gotten better about deflecting the laughter, but last night I had a dream that brought that hateful feeling back.
I was in a crowded room somewhere, (looked like a lodge at night) trying to explain something to the crowd. I counted on my fingers, "four, five, six!" and the whole crowd erupted in laughter at something. I realized they thought I had made a mistake and went on to clarify, but nobody would listen, they were all laughing so hard. I stumbled away and ran into the shadows to hide myself so nobody would see me cry.
I hate that feeling.
I love making people laugh, but when I embarrass myself by dropping something or saying something stupid and people draw attention to it, I feel like I need to run before I fall to pieces.
I have learned to turn the joke on myself a lot of times, so I have gotten better about deflecting the laughter, but last night I had a dream that brought that hateful feeling back.
I was in a crowded room somewhere, (looked like a lodge at night) trying to explain something to the crowd. I counted on my fingers, "four, five, six!" and the whole crowd erupted in laughter at something. I realized they thought I had made a mistake and went on to clarify, but nobody would listen, they were all laughing so hard. I stumbled away and ran into the shadows to hide myself so nobody would see me cry.
I hate that feeling.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
AdventureLand
I'm reading a new children's fantasy series, the first of which is titled, "The Key to Rondo". It's by a female author from Australia (I don't get to read much Australian fiction besides Garth Nix, so I was pretty excited upon finding that out!) and I'm very curious about how good it will be. Usually I don't read a book that was written after 2000 for a while, because a lot of new stuff is, quite plainly, crap. So I wait it out and see which books actually make the "must-read" lists. This one's from 2007, so we'll see.
I also just finished reading the first book of the Ga'hoole series by Kathryn Lasky, and although I've read some of her other work (and enjoyed it), this stuff is new. But it IS in an imaginary place completely, and she created her own genre of fantasy (I call it fowl fantasy), which is brilliant. So I have high hopes for that series.
I don't always wait for books to get old - whenever there is a new book by Kate DiCamillo, Cameron Dokey, or Sharon Creech, I find it as soon as possible and consume it, but these authors are consistently good writers and I've read their older books.
So, in "rare" cases (once a month) I'll try someone new, but oftentimes, if it's a newer book, I am disappointed in either the quality or content of the story.
I believe it's because I grew up on children's fiction written mostly between 1955 and 1980, and my favorite book was actually published in 1941, so I have a taste for that older style of children's fantasy - Lloyd Alexander, C.S. Lewis, Betty Brock, Natalie Babbitt, Joan Aiken, Kenneth Grahame, and Margery Sharp. (I must also plug the author of Freaky Friday and A Billion For Boris - Mary Rodgers. However stupid the newest remake of the movie is, the books are riotously, wonderfully funny)
Other older children's books I enjoy:
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (NOTHING LIKE THE MOVIE) by Ian Fleming
Detectives in Togas (translated from the German) by Henry Winterfeld
The Mona Lisa Mystery by Pat Hutchins (and continuing stories of those silly school children)
The Light Princess by George MacDonald (Also, the Princess & the Goblin/The Princess & Curdie)
The L. Frank Baum Wizard of Oz books (several people continued the stories but his are the merriest)
Jack and Jill by Louisa May Alcott (my favorite book of hers!!)
The Emily trilogy by L.M. Montgomery
The Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Time Quartet by Madeleine L'Engle
So you see, newer books have a LOT to live up to. I do discover new gems at times, but then I find older books that are just as good or better that I haven't read yet.
What I really wanted to talk about, though, was the sense of adventure you get in these books - a world wide open, where anything can happen (especially in the Oz books), and where a lot of people are good, evil is routed, and everyone returns home happily at the end.
These new children's books (and here we jump into broad generalization) are centered around things we know - urban fantasy is the new fantasy genre. Where authors would invent a new world or creature, today authors rely on whatever is trending - vampires, zombies, and werewolves, set in the real world, with whiny kids who suddenly realize one of their relatives was a powerful such-and-so and they have the power to defeat the zombie lunch ladies after all.
I'm not saying that's a bad way to write, I'm just saying...I wish there weren't as many authors who relied on trends, and what I really mean is that I wish publishers would take a chance with new authors instead of picking those who stay true to trend. I'd much rather read Toad Triumphant by Kenneth Grahame than the Goosebumps series any day. And believe me, several authors grew up reading the same books I did. The material's there.
I will say that while Violet's Monster: Volumes I-III partially take place in the new world...there are several trips to another place (no spoilers!) of questionable reality. The Chronicles of Narnia are the same way (and I'm not comparing myself to Lewis because I'll have to write 100 years before I come close to being as brilliant as he was), so there is definitely something to say for that plot device, but it just seems as if authors have lost imagination and only write what they know, instead of writing what they can know in their imagination.
J.K. Rowling is a good example of a newer author who wrote in an older tone - Harry is taken to a new, magical place, has adventures, but still visits 'the real world' from time to time, all the while preparing to fight it out with the big bad of the series and learning an important lesson on the way.
I think we as humans have lost our ability to have adventures (lack of money and time, mostly) and that is why a lot of us turn to fantasy, which I think is why we need more than just urban fantasy. I would love to escape to another planet for a while. Why not? Why stay here in the city and watch monsters invade when you can go to Perelandra and meet those awesome aliens??
Anyway. Just doing a lot of thinking about that lately.
I also just finished reading the first book of the Ga'hoole series by Kathryn Lasky, and although I've read some of her other work (and enjoyed it), this stuff is new. But it IS in an imaginary place completely, and she created her own genre of fantasy (I call it fowl fantasy), which is brilliant. So I have high hopes for that series.
I don't always wait for books to get old - whenever there is a new book by Kate DiCamillo, Cameron Dokey, or Sharon Creech, I find it as soon as possible and consume it, but these authors are consistently good writers and I've read their older books.
So, in "rare" cases (once a month) I'll try someone new, but oftentimes, if it's a newer book, I am disappointed in either the quality or content of the story.
I believe it's because I grew up on children's fiction written mostly between 1955 and 1980, and my favorite book was actually published in 1941, so I have a taste for that older style of children's fantasy - Lloyd Alexander, C.S. Lewis, Betty Brock, Natalie Babbitt, Joan Aiken, Kenneth Grahame, and Margery Sharp. (I must also plug the author of Freaky Friday and A Billion For Boris - Mary Rodgers. However stupid the newest remake of the movie is, the books are riotously, wonderfully funny)
Other older children's books I enjoy:
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (NOTHING LIKE THE MOVIE) by Ian Fleming
Detectives in Togas (translated from the German) by Henry Winterfeld
The Mona Lisa Mystery by Pat Hutchins (and continuing stories of those silly school children)
The Light Princess by George MacDonald (Also, the Princess & the Goblin/The Princess & Curdie)
The L. Frank Baum Wizard of Oz books (several people continued the stories but his are the merriest)
Jack and Jill by Louisa May Alcott (my favorite book of hers!!)
The Emily trilogy by L.M. Montgomery
The Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Time Quartet by Madeleine L'Engle
So you see, newer books have a LOT to live up to. I do discover new gems at times, but then I find older books that are just as good or better that I haven't read yet.
What I really wanted to talk about, though, was the sense of adventure you get in these books - a world wide open, where anything can happen (especially in the Oz books), and where a lot of people are good, evil is routed, and everyone returns home happily at the end.
These new children's books (and here we jump into broad generalization) are centered around things we know - urban fantasy is the new fantasy genre. Where authors would invent a new world or creature, today authors rely on whatever is trending - vampires, zombies, and werewolves, set in the real world, with whiny kids who suddenly realize one of their relatives was a powerful such-and-so and they have the power to defeat the zombie lunch ladies after all.
I'm not saying that's a bad way to write, I'm just saying...I wish there weren't as many authors who relied on trends, and what I really mean is that I wish publishers would take a chance with new authors instead of picking those who stay true to trend. I'd much rather read Toad Triumphant by Kenneth Grahame than the Goosebumps series any day. And believe me, several authors grew up reading the same books I did. The material's there.
I will say that while Violet's Monster: Volumes I-III partially take place in the new world...there are several trips to another place (no spoilers!) of questionable reality. The Chronicles of Narnia are the same way (and I'm not comparing myself to Lewis because I'll have to write 100 years before I come close to being as brilliant as he was), so there is definitely something to say for that plot device, but it just seems as if authors have lost imagination and only write what they know, instead of writing what they can know in their imagination.
J.K. Rowling is a good example of a newer author who wrote in an older tone - Harry is taken to a new, magical place, has adventures, but still visits 'the real world' from time to time, all the while preparing to fight it out with the big bad of the series and learning an important lesson on the way.
I think we as humans have lost our ability to have adventures (lack of money and time, mostly) and that is why a lot of us turn to fantasy, which I think is why we need more than just urban fantasy. I would love to escape to another planet for a while. Why not? Why stay here in the city and watch monsters invade when you can go to Perelandra and meet those awesome aliens??
Anyway. Just doing a lot of thinking about that lately.
Monday, August 2, 2010
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