I don’t know if it’s because of a change in sleep habits, but I’ve been having a lot of vivid dreams. Now, I’m told that I grind my teeth in my sleep, and if these dreams are any indication of my usual dreaming pattern, I can see why. I don’t remember any of my dreams usually, but these days they’re all semi-present when I awaken, and they’re definitely NOT pretty. The snippet I remember at this moment was being at a hospital. A bunch of orphaned Korean children had come through some kind of awfulness — I’m not sure whether …
Month: January 2006
Camp.
It’s kind of exhausting. That’s all.
Lunar New Year Book #40: Jennifer Government, by Max Barry
Viridian Note #00456
Right now on the front page of the The Viridian Design Movement site, you can read the current Viridian Note, number 00456, which sums up the “State of the World 2006”. Included are a summary of a dozen bizarre weather moments from 2005, and a mockery of Thomas Friedman’s latecomer handwringing about the “oil problem”. Also is included a link to a pretty interesting conversation with Bruce Sterling on The Well. Worth checking out, for more than just this one strange link.
Oddunout: On the pain and pleasure of creating
In Laura’s post Oddunout: On the pain and pleasure of creating, I found something quite interesting. She discussed the offensiveness to her of sneakily using others’ creative works within her own works: So I had this conversation with the Dutch about the picture I was/am working on, and I was saying how I’d already spent like 20 hours on it, and I still didn’t have the map the way I wanted it to be. Being a programmer (or whatever it is he does, exactly), he suggested I could find a map I liked and just steal it for my own …
English Camp Madness
It’s going, it’s going, it’s already been going for two days. That is to say, two days down and… ungh, I don’t want to think about how many more. Highlights: I woke up this morning in a dormitory room with no heat. The heat vent had been blowing tepid air when I went to bed at midnight, but even that cut out sometime in the night and I awoke in a strange bed to a freezing cold dorm room. It was extremely unpleasant, and I cannot imagine how it could happen that with 150 kids plus assorted teachers and teaching …
For members of the site…
I don’t usually make announcements like this, but members of my site who are reading by RSS may miss the notice that my most recently drafted short story is now available for preview download. I’d like feedback on it, so I’m mentioning it. And camp is now in full swing, which means this is all the time I have for today. Whee. Anyway, login and download my story if you like. PS: More good news, and a nice big piece or two of it, in a day or two.
Volunteer Abroad, Internship Abroad with Global Crossroad in more than 20 Countries
Global Crossroad is an organization that organizes volunteer programs in developing countries. For anyone who’s thinking of traveling, it might be an option, since it not only cuts down on travel expenses (some — costs are reduced, not completely defrayed) but also allows you to do volunteer work whilst enjoying a foreign country. Though I can’t find a way to access it from the frontpage, the Mongolia Summer Camp program looks very interesting.
Some teachers are brilliant…
… and some are, well, not. I remember, when I was about to begin high school, how one of my teachers explained to us which courses we ought to select if we wanted to go to University. I was singularly annoyed to discover that even to get into a program like Music, it was advised that I study algebra and trigonometry. When I complained of this, Mr. Miner (or was it Minor? I’m not sure) looked at me and tilted his head to the side and asked, “What, haven’t you ever seen Donald Duck in Mathemagic Land?” He went on …
Soul Competency
UPDATE (30 Oct. 2013): Cleaning up my database, deleting the tables for the plugin used to host this file, so, no more link. The story, incidentally, has been trunked, though I may try revise it eventually. UPDATE (2 January 2006, 12:30pm): The story is now attached. You may download it here! Writing Jesus of Nazareth as a character in one’s own story is, well, as you might imagine it’s ridiculously difficult. So of course, when drafting my most recent short story, “Soul Competency”, I found myself blocked at the point where the protagonist was about to meet Him. Yes, capital-H …