Just When I Want to Take More Pictures...

My camera dies and I need a new one. Early birthday present, anyone? I really don't want to have to wait until September for a new camera. The problem with the old one is that I change the batteries--I even tried two different brands--and the thing won't turn on. And I don't have a 3.4V DC adapter floating around either so I can't charge it.

I was going to take a picture of the afghan I'm working on, so I can show you all what I do when I watch movies (like the Ironman cartoon :) and what I'm all excited about all the time. Bummer.

I also wanted to show you guys a picture of my yard, since I wrote a poem about it yesterday. Random huh? Blame the exercises in my poetry book. The chapter dealt with writing about nature, and the exercise told us to praise something most people wouldn't praise, like weeds or flies. Here's the poem sans picture anyway, since I actually like it:

My yellow brown green lawn is littered
With sticks from my neighbor’s lovely shade
Tree, so huge and skyline-dominating that
It’s our cul-de-sac’s personal fire hazard.

Long sticks, short sticks, fat sticks, skinny sticks,
Some knotty, some straight, even a few
Whole branches have fallen across my
Sidewalk and into the bushes I’ve been
Planning to rip out anyway.

My roommates grimace at these bland
Gray lines that cross-hatch our curb appeal
But I like them: they give me something to do.
Someone has to meet them all,
Learn their names and their histories,
Introduce them all to each other in little bundles
So they don’t get lost on their way to the
Landfill.

Of course, doing my homework hinder my idleness too,
But
I’d rather meet the sticks.

So...let me know what you think. Ideas for revision are always welcome. I expect a comment from Chessie since we're in the same poetry class. And hopefully I'll figure out a way to put pictures from real life on here sometime soon.

Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny found me today (which is the real reason I came home this weekend; never mind anything you hear about my brother's reception). I got a ton of candy, as usual, but the cool part is the useful gifts I got, such as the Ironman DVD pack that came with a DVD of the old cartoon too. Anybody wanna watch the cartoon? My brothers love it. I guess I'll have something to babysit with if they come up and hang out with me for a few hours (don't know when that might happen...).

I also got a DVD of the second season of Matlock!!! I love Matlock! It's one of the best TV shows of all time! I'm so excited. I've been waiting to see seasons of Matlock on DVD forever. The next time I get sick, it will be a difficult decision: Avatar or Matlock?




Since blogging is as much about networking as any other hobby (or many professions), every once in a while we need to talk about other people's blogs, right? So my faithful followers, check out some of my favorite blogs:
*My cousin Matt writes about the various hilarities of life, a lot like the rest of us, but with a unique voice all his own: www.mattbarrington.com/wordpress.
*I love the blog My Castle in Spain. The author writes about the kind of slower-paced life I hope to have someday.
*And a new discovery (thanks to my favorite website ever, MotherEarthNews.com) is Cold Antler Farm. The author is also a writer, so her posts are always interesting to read, but she also mostly addresses modern homesteading, which I would love to learn more about and maybe even try someday.



Now that you know a bit about my online tastes, let me know what you think about my faves, what your fave blogs are, and/or anything else you think I'd like. And I'd love to hear about your Easter! Mine was great. I hope yours were too!

The Director of the USU Press

His name is Michael. He was a Literary Studies major, so I figured he'd be interested to know I plan on changing my emphasis. I thought he'd be excited for me, but when I told him he made the weirdest exasperated kind of face. "You like to read," he said.

I nodded emphatically and asked, "Have you read Middlemarch?"

He nodded.

"Well, when we started reading it," I said, "I hated it. But now that I've finished it, I want to read it again. I want to write another paper on it." (even though I haven't actually written the first one, but that's beside the point) "Dr. McCuskey's Victorian Literature class is my favorite this semester."

Michael squinched his eyes and snort-giggled and said, "Christina you've got it bad! Wouldn't you rather work at a computer all day and make money and then come home and read Middlemarch?"

The answer is no. I want to read. It's one of the things I've always loved. I once got grounded from reading in the fifth grade because I wasn't doing my math homework, and it was horrible. And I don't actually want to read books like Middlemarch all the time; I'd prefer to read scholarly work for a career so that fiction is still fun.

So after that Michael and I had this great, albeit depressing, discussion of why such rewarding intellectual work is undervalued, especially by universities. If Lit Studies students are "only reading a novel" (Middlemarch), then why do they need any money? The problem is that university people are only interested in the economic, quantitative value of things, and the benefits of the humanities can't be measured that way.

P.S. I want to put pictures on here; my blog feels really boring compared to others, but when I'm not talking about movies what kind of pictures can I post? Ideas please! They're always welcome in the humanities! ;)

For Sarah

I'm blogging again. You can all give your thanks to my totally awesome roomie Sarah who reprimanded me on Facebook for not updating my blog regularly, like I said I would. The problem has been the last two weeks of stress and laziness. Odd combination, I know. C'est moi.

I was supposed to have McCuskey's Middlemarch essay done a week ago, at least a rough draft so I could meet with him again. So far I have nothing. By Thursday, since the essay is supposed to be done, I'm supposed to have gathered some outside criticism of the novel so I can build up that essay into something worthy of being published by, say, the Sigma Tau Delta Review. I'm also supposed to have gathered similar materials so I could do the same thing with an essay I wrote last semester about Chaucer's "Wife of Bath's Tale" (if you remember that far back; that was some of my first blogging). I have nothing for either essay.

I'm also behind in my poetry homework. That class feels like such a waste of time. Sometime soon I'll have to start working on a revision of one of my stories for Advanced Fiction Writing to hand in during finals week. I can't express in words how excited I am for another class and writing exercise that feels like a waste of time. If you've been reading regularly (even though I haven't been posting regularly), you know that my dislike for these classes has been fairly consistent this semester. But I have good news: I'm changing my emphasis from Creative Writing to Literary Studies, so next semester I should at least feel more fulfilled and satisfied by my classes, if not actually happy with the workload. I realized about two weeks ago that the reason I wished I could fit the British and Commonwealth Studies minor into my schedule was because I really wanted to write a 20 ish page paper in the Directed Studies class; that realization led me to consider which classes all my favorites have been. All my favorite classes were/are Literary Studies, Dr. McCuskey kind of classes. It occurred to me that I would rather read a book and write an essay on it, even a huge one, than just make up something on my own.

This led to another realization, even more life-changing than the first. Part of why I don't like my Adv. Fiction Writing class is because we only ever workshop, which gets old fast. If I don't like writing fiction regularly in class, and I don't like workshopping fiction regularly in class, then why in the world would I ever want to become a fiction editor? One of the best things about my schedule this semester has been my internship at the University Press, which only publishes scholarly, research-based work, and I have loved all the minor editing tasks I've been assigned. As an RA (Rhetoric Associate) I regularly read and edit scholarly, generally research-based writing, and I love that too (except on weeks like this, when it prevents me from getting all my homework and other good plans done, so I always feel like I'm running to do something). I'd rather write and edit scholarly work, which means I can get a job at any university press or non-fiction publisher, like Gibbs Smith in Utah, and not be backed into the New York/Los Angeles based industry! I can live almost anywhere! Yay! That might seem like a silly thing to be happy about but I really don't want to live in NYC or LA.

So that's my life so far. Major thinking going on if you couldn't tell. And that's not all either: I need to see Career Services for what I can do to prepare myself for a publishing career, make an appointment with my advisor so I can actually change my emphasis and talk about graduation and career plans, keep writing all genres regularly so I can get my own stuff published, get a job and make tons of money so I can finish school and maybe go to University of Denver's Publishing Institute program in summer of 2010, read Sigma Tau Delta stuff and various literary magazine stuff to get to know the market and find calls for submissions, figure out how to nominate myself for a leadership position in Sigma Tau Delta besides just wanting a leadership position, get a job (did I mention that one yet? it's really important), clean my room, wash my sheets, read something for fun...the list is never-ending.

Ah! One more thing before I sign off for today (or this week): anyone ever heard of freelance editing? I hadn't before this week. It sounds like an interesting way of gaining experience, beefing up my resume, and making a little extra cash. I realize I couldn't charge much because I would compete with the Writing Center and other RA's, but I'm wondering how I would go about doing that. Where on campus could I advertise my service of scholarly editing? How much would be a reasonable amount to charge? Would anybody actually be interested in my "service"? Let me know what you think. Also if you have any other ideas for my never-ending to-do list of career advancement, you can tell me that too. ;)

So much blogging...so little time!

HUGE apologies for not blogging regularly everyone! I made some bad decisions with my time the two weeks before this one, and this week I've been paying for it. And since I haven't been blogging regularly I have TONS to tell everybody. I never think that I'll have much to talk about with books, movies, and writing as my main topics, but I'm an English major! There's always something to say about books, movies, or writing, or at least about my plans in those areas. Fingers crossed that I'll do better at writing regularly in the future!

I've been reading To Draw Closer to God a second time, and since I have my own copy now I've been able to mark it up. Y'all should read it. Fabulous book. I learn something new everything I read through it. My new favorite quote is from that book: "If you wish to get rich, save what you get. A fool can earn money, but it takes a wise man to save and dispose of it to his own advantage. Then go to work, and save everything, and make your own bonnets and clothing." (from Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 11:201) Of course Pres. Eyring says tons of great things of his own, but this quote is the one that speaks to me the most right now. Only problem is I can't make my own clothing...it'd be cool if I could...but for now I guess I'll just reuse and recycle!

So a long time ago I talked with Dr. McCuskey about literary criticism and undergrad publishing opportunities, etc. He told me to talk to my fellow undergrad Trent, which I did on Tuesday. He's done lots of conferencing so I learned a lot about something I've never done. He also suggested the British and Commonwealth Studies minor (BCS), which I have always been interested in but up til now have found reasons why I couldn't do it. So the week I pick to email the people who would have answers to my questions is the week that those professors don't check their email! How frustrating! What's worse is that I think registration for summer classes begins next week and if this minor works for me I would take a summer class. The longer they take to answer me, the less time I have to make up my mind and finangle my finances!

Anyway...pretend that they've answered me, and I'm signed up to take three credits of Directed Study. I have to write a proposal for the topic of my 20 ish page paper that I will produce under the direction of my supervising professor (Dr. McCuskey or...or...just Dr. McCuskey). With this in mind alongside my angst about unanswered emails, I've come up with a few paper ideas.

1. Film Adaptations of Jane Austen's Novels. I would probably investigate how these adaptations change modern perceptions about the era in which she wrote; what thematic and formal changes have been made in the transition from book to movie; how do those changes reflect or affect modern society. I like the idea of the paper, but I feel like I'd have a hard time researching for it.
2. Domestic Angels/Cult of Domesticity/Female Gender Roles in Jane Austen's Novels. This is the topic I am least excited about, mostly because I feel like this is a topic that everyone will have written about. I suppose that's helpful for research, but there's no point to my paper if this something everyone talks about.
3. Dancing and Physical Activity, either in Jane Austen's novels or in Romantic/Victorian literature in general (I'm getting less specific as I go along...). How did dancing function in society? How did it change between the Romantic and Victorian periods? How did it differ between classes? I think this would be a really fun paper to write because it's so random.
4. Love Letters in Victorian Literature. This idea comes from our reading of Middlemarch by George Eliot. And doesn't Darcy write something of a love letter? or Mr. Ferrars? I might even use Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Letters from the Portugeuse" (sp?), I don't even know. I think it would be fun to write though, because love letters in Victorian literature just don't really ever work, so why do they come up?

Anyway, those are my ideas so far. Let me know what you think.

Inkheart

I've been in Kaysville since Friday (I get to spend my Spring Break at my parents' house--exciting) and I discovered on Saturday that the wonderful amazing dollar Kaysville Theatre had some great movies playing this week, including Twilight, Valkyrie, The Tale of Despereaux, Bolt, Marley and Me, and Inkheart. I've already seen Twilight twice, and of the rest I wanted to see Inkheart the most. My little sister Katie came with me and we had a whole row to ourselves.



Now before I talk about the movie, I want to extol the virtues of Kaysville Theatre. Dollar theatres are just fabulous anyway you dice it, even if they can only play 3-6 movies in any given week. The theatre is located along the west side of Main Street attached to all the other old buildings and shops in town and right across from Kaysville Library and the city hall. I absolutely love this theatre. It's a Kaysville institution. I have great memories of seeing movies I've long forgotten with friends, of learning to save my money so I could spend it on something I really enjoyed. The best thing about Kaysville Theatre is the "keep the theatre clean" message they always play before the previews: two guys are watching a movie in a theatre (all you see is their knees down), and one of them is nice and tidy--he puts his drink and candy wrapper inside his empty popcorn bucket, which he sets between his feet--and the other is wholly absorbed in the movie--he drops his drink and popcorn, which spill all over the floor, etc. At the end of the movie, the tidy guy picks up his popcorn bucket of garbage and leaves hassle-free; the not-so-tidy guy stands up with gum stuck under his shoe, and as he pulls his foot up off the floor everybody shouts "EEWWWW!!!!" It's great. If you ever get a chance to go to a dollar theatre in a little town, like Kaysville, you should do it. You get to know a community that way.



On to the movie!



Inkheart, rated PG, is based on a book of the same name by Cornelia Funke, which, sadly, I have not yet read. Because of this movie it is now on my summer reading list. Inkheart stars some big names and good actors, including Brendan Frasier (The Mummy, Journey to the Center of the Earth), Paul Bettany (Da Vinci Code, Firewall), Helen Mirren (National Treasure 2, The Queen), and Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings, all three). Basically, Mortimer (Frasier) is a Silvertongue, which means his reading out loud brings stories to life. Once nine years ago he read the book Inkheart and brought some of their villains--and a random fire-juggler--into our world, but by reading them out of their story, he read his wife into it. Now he, his daughter, and the fire-juggler have an opportunity to put characters and people back into their proper places. I love the idea this move poses about the relationship between author, reader, and character. My sister Katie said she's read the book and that it's better. We'll see. I highly recommend this movie, although there are a few scary images for a really young audience. Eight years and older should be able to handle it.

reading, writing and facebook...and Spring Break!

My titles are getting lamer.

Eventually I will post more often. I would have blogged last night: I had a great idea while chatting on facebook with my new friend Abraham and editing my personal information (favorites etc), but when I pulled up the blogger window the great idea vanished. Bummer.

I love Victorian Literature. It's my favorite class. Dr. McCuskey is awesome, the book is hard and I'm behind BUT I love discussing it and learning how to think critically, and I'm just excited to go to class every day. The difficult part is that next week over spring break I have to read two sections in the novel, which is at least 100 pages. Not looking forward to that one.

So I told you that for story #2 I was writing about an existential character and having a hard time of it, remember? I got a whopping 2 1/4 pages written. Well, on Monday my Fiction Writing professor told us if we were having a hard time to just scrap it and write something we really cared about (which is ironic because wouldn't that be creative nonfiction? not fiction?). So I ditched the existential story and decided to write something a little closer to home. She's been telling us to try new things since this is Advanced Fiction Writing, and I've noticed that religion is a theme I keep coming back to in my last two stories, so this one that I'm working on right now for class is an exploration in fiction (obviously) of the impact religion has on dating, and how/in what ways such an experience could change a character. In about three hours of sitting at my computer I've written 5 ish pages!! That doesn't include brainstorming. The Lord has really helped me with this one. As far as the brainstorming goes this could be one of the most complex stories I've written. This story is due the Monday after Spring Break (3/16), so I'm hoping I can get it finished by next Wednesday or Thursday, and then use next weekend in revision and maybe get a friend or two to read it. Wish me luck!

Nothing to write about poetry. I would post one for y'all but we turned in our journals today. No cool Christina poetry for you. :(

Speaking of Spring Break, my bff roomie Ellie is getting her wisdom teeth out! Wish her good luck! We're going to have a Masterpiece Theatre Jane Eyre party. And I'm going dress shopping with my mom for my brother's wedding reception, and I might get my hair cut, and it will just be a great week. I'm also job hunting in Logan so if you know of any good opportunities, let me know.

Happy Spring Break!