My Semester this Spring

Started classes at Madison this week.  Also started work.  My weeks so far include leaving the house at 8am and coming home past 8pm.  Which makes for long days, but there's quite a bit of downtime in there.  Of course, with the semester just starting out, I'm using the downtime to do other things, like run errands and compare book prices and such.  For those interested, here's what my academic schedule includes:

Introduction to Production

Communication Arts 355

- Two lectures and two labs per week

- Light Journal (1 min, 16mm, black and white)

- Found Storyboard (approx 12 frames, photographed or drawn)

- Observational Documentary (5 min, digital, color)

American Literature

English 217

- two power lectures and a discussion per week

- 2 written responses (1-2 pages each)

- 2 papers

- midterm and final

American Film After 1970

Communication Arts 552

- two papers

- midterm and final

Intermediate Fiction Workshop

English 301

- 2 short stories (10 page and 15 page minimum)

- critique letters to peers

- reading responses

I'm most looking forward to the Production class and the Fiction Workshop class, mostly because they're hands on crafts and I like doing stuff instead of just learning about stuff.  But American Literature should keep be busy on the reading front and American Film should keep me occupied in terms of films.  We're going to be watching some awesome movies like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Blade Runner and even The Hurt Locker.  That one I'm excited about.

And of course, my extra curriculars!

Working Title

Student Creative Writing Workshop

- weekly critiques

- weekly Inspiration Trips

WUD Publications Committee

Student Union committee involvement

I've been in Working Title for a while, and I intend to get more involved in PubCom (what we call it).  Working Title is a sub-section of PubCom.  A little more than a year ago, I was informed about a FlashFiction website PubCom was hosting.  I did submit something to this site, but I never really got a response from them.  So my plan is to revive this site and give students on campus more opportunities to get their work published.  I also wouldn't mind backing raising awareness about Illuminations and Souvenirs.  I may have some qualms against Illuminations, but they're still a good opportunity for students.  

It may not be a professional publisher, but at least it's getting student work out there.  And it's also something to put on a resume that you were published somewhere that gets views.  Of course, that will involve an entire campus-wide marketing campaign and asking professors and TAs to promote the site.  But I can talk to some people in the English department, I'm sure they'll be on my side.

And, of course, I have a job.  It fits somewhere between all of this.  Actually, it's the reason I'm getting home so late in the evening.  At least in the middle of the week.  I don't work Fridays to Mondays, so that's four days off for other things, like homework and writing.  I'm trying to see the positive of that but these past two days have been long and hard.  I wanted to make homemade stir fry last night, but that's going to have to wait until tomorrow.  I can wait.  I'll make myself.

Semester Goals:

- Write more short stories to create a repertoire to submit to various online magazines and publishing companies.

- Direct a lot of time to academic studies

One More Reason to Love Japan

Do you want to know what's awesome?  Of course you do:

Japanese researchers have proposed and started work towards reviving the Mammoth.  They found usable tissue cells to use for cloning in frozen Mammoth samples, so they are taking the DNA of the frozen tissue cells, inserting that into an elephant egg that has had previous DNA samples removed, and insert that into an elephant uterus.  If this proves successful, they will use this knowledge to learn how Mammoths lived and why they would have died out.  They will also look into how to breed the Mammoth and whether or not it will be on display for the public.

The full article can be found using this fine and elegantly crafted link.

Link 4 Charity!

December is Charity Month.  Patrick Rothfuss just closed his Worldbuilders Fundraiser with the Heifer Project.  But Hank and John Green of vlogbrother and Nerdfighter fame have launched Project for Awesome on YouTube.

If you're on this blog, you probably know Project for Awesome already.  It's a day where YouTubers from all over post videos about their favorite charities.  The point is for people to comment and rate and favorite as many p4a videos as they possibly can so that tomorrow, when people log onto YouTube, all they see on the front page are videos about charities. 

There's a lot going on for this so check out the p4a2010 YouTube channel for more information on donating and raffles. 

Don't forget to be awesome and donate to a good cause (whichever one you pick).

Possible Idea and Hitler Parodies

There is an idea that may or may not fall through within the next few days.  I'll keep you updated and send you a link to said idea.  And when you do find this idea, please spread the word on it.

I am also going to point out that I love these Hitler parodies.  This one is about vuvuzelas at the 2010 FIFA World Cup.  But I've seen one about the band selection at the 2009 Freak Fest on State Street in Madison.  And I've seen one other but I can't remember what it was about, only that it was funny.  So here is your starting point for your enjoyment.  Go surf and tell me where you end up in an hour.

Across the Universe Contest Announcement

My goodness, two posts in one day?  What can this mean?

It means that I found a contest that I love and want to share with everyone reading this!  Beth Revies is the debut author of anticipated YA novel Across the Universe (a link to her blog is to the right of this post).  In anticipation of her upcoming release in January, she's holding an EPIC CONTEST OF EPIC that is so grand I want to be able to do something like that.

The EPIC CONTEST OF EPIC will give away 100 prizes to people at random.  So of course I entered my name and address.  The catch is that winners are notified with the prizes arriving on their doorstep; Ms. Revies isn't going to announce the winners on her blog. 

In order to win the GRAND PRIZE featuring a plethora of cool swag, you must do one of three things.  1). become a fan of the book on Facebook; 2). blog about the contest (like what I'm doing now), or 3). pre-order the book from B&N.com, Amazon.com, or your local indie bookstore. 

Here is a link to the contest and the list of cool prizes.  So go check it out!  It's so awesome!

NaNo Congrats

This is a late congratulations to those who participated in NaNoWriMo 2010. 

If you finished your draft, AWESOME JOB!  COOKIES FOR YOU!! 

If you stopped halfway through: DON'T GIVE UP NOW!  You can still finish!!!

If you completely and utterly failed:  KEEP GOING!  Continue your NaNo experience into December and January!  (January might be best, but I don't know your own personal schedules, so it could very well not be.)

And if you're unsure of what to do with your finished manuscript, there is a plethora of things you can do.  My personal favorite is printing out the entire thing and dropping it on a table.  The thump of the landing papers is very satisfying no matter how much you think it sucks.  The second thing would be to take a small break and start editing it.  It will call for a lot of rewriting of the scenes and reworking of dialogue and character development, but that's what writing is all about.  The magic happens with revisions, I say.  You can also forget you wrote the thing entirely, but that's completely your choice.  But why waste the idea and the month, you know?

Whatever you choose, I hope you succeed in completing that task.  Good luck on revisions and don't forget to be awesome.

Reposting and Fundraisers

There is an award that's in the works that sounds very interesting.  Every year, there are speculative fiction translated into English from other languages from throughout the world.  The purpose of this award is to acknowledge the best book from the books translated into English.  John Scalzi better explains the awards and what they're offering on his blog.

Meanwhile, there is a call for donations to help with the prize money.  Because if you're awarded a prize, some money would be beneficial.  For more information about donating (and the prizes that might come your way), check out this link here.

Meanwhile, I'm going to look into these speculative fiction books that are translated into English.  Some of them might be really interesting.

Meanwhile, there's only a few more weeks left to donate to Patrick Rothfuss's Worldbuilders Fundraiser.  (The link will take you to his blog homepage, so if you click it after December, you won't be reading about Worldbuilders.)  Check out the prizes in the lottery, the store, and the auctions going on, and donate to his cause!