patrick.net

Wow, you guys were chatty last night. I missed an interesting conversation! And now it's taking way too long trying to read through it!

I fell asleep watching Seven Samurai, damn it. It was a good movie--I was just too tired. Yes, it's a classic Japanese film. It's not really a fight movie, more of an epic or something. It was the inspiration for The Magnificent Seven (?), I think.

"I’d like to see Jamie’s blog, too."

I don't mean to be cryptic. I was just hesitant to toss the last bit of my privacy. :-P Since you and newfreak have both asked, here is a link to the blog: http://tinyurl.com/8ctrt

There's nothing exciting about it. Just me blabbering about nothing.

There were more posts I want to reply to above, but my quick morning email check has already turned into a two hour event.

Later!

Did I miss a Mr. Wrong/Newsfreak meltdown? What happened?

You're moving to PA, newsfreak? Why do you think it's a bad time to buy there? Is it in one of the major metro areas? I looked at housing in some more rural/suburban parts of PA recently because of a suggestion that we might have to move there (doubt it), and it seemed pretty stable/affordable to me.

"And I can’t send poems out to publish if we are ever moving, the snail mail is a joke I won’t get into if you move."

Do you have someone else's address you can use? Someone trustworthy who isn't moving? This is what I used to do--I used my parents address if I knew we were moving soon and I needed to submit something. And yes, I've submitted poetry before and know it can take years to hear back. ;-) Luckily my parents never move. Also I use a permanent email address that never changes when we move, for submissions and such.

"So it’s sort of a huh-blog? A jabberwocky-blog?"

LOL, it's sort of a head up my ass blog. I think writers just keep blogs for other writers to read. I keep mine mainly because I wanted a way to make my website more interactive and give readers a reason to visit it regularly.

Jack, thanks for the compliments on my pink dress. I guess I don't dress like an introvert, but then introversion is not all of who I am. And yes the award ceremony/conference is the one time of year when I get to have fun playing dress-up.

Re: teaching, I think it's good to push ourselves out of our comfort zones. That's part of the reason teaching appealed to me. I would probably find it much less draining if it were my own class. One of my best friends is a teacher and she always told me that student teaching is three times as hard as the actual job--there's the inexperience, working in someone else's class, always being watched and critiqued, etc.

I really respect and admire teachers, because it's just one of the most challenging jobs out there, and it can encompass your whole life if you let it.

SQT, fusions of different genres is becoming more and more popular. I think your idea sounds intriguing and unique.

Re: feeling like an imitator, I think that's just part of the process. When I first started out, I had no idea who I was as a writer (part of the downside of starting in college), and I spent years immitating other writers before I found my own writing voice. Some people find their voice very quickly...but I wasn't one of them. :-)

"Teaching is tough. I found I couldn’t teach and comfortably raise a family at the same time because teaching is so draining."

Yes, I can totally see how this would be the case. I found it very telling, in a book I had years ago about award-winning teachers in America, that so many of them didn't have families of their own. They were just teachers--that's all they could be and do the job that well. Not that that's the case for everyone--I"m sure many successful teachers manage to have both, but thinking back on my own high school years, many of the most committed teachers I had were single, didn't have kids, or were divorced. :-/

Thanks, but I don't want an apology. It would surely be loaded with an air of superiority. :-P

SQT, I agree, and you have every right to be pissed. I'm sorry for not noticing in the first place how one-sided the deleting was.

I don't want to stir the shit over there any more though. I'm trying to be nicey-nice so I'm not accused of being a hysterical over-emotional female any more, LOL.

I think he is inexperienced and didn't understand the context (or humor) of the comments. Nor did he understand how lenient threadmasters have historically been, especially you (not that you needed leniency--all our comments were harmless, IMO)!

Oh, and let me join in:
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Just posted there myself, SQT. I'm so glad you posted that stuff, because it made it much easier for me to say what I wanted to say. :-)

I am so sick of this topic. I wish allah would have just let it drop gracefully.

Bleh. Now I feel like fucking up all of Matt's threads. Just because.

Maybe I'll go make some muff jokes.

Eeeehhhhh, maybe not.

SQT, I'm sorry you took all the heat today. You did good!

I hope he buys the shitbox now.

Oops, correction: huh is at 2240, not 2290. But that can change!

"jack commented on, that picture that says “click to enlarge,” with the small picture showing up…very funny! "

Oh, are you guys talking about the profile picture? That one freaks me out when I click on it--turns me all pixelated like I'm composed of squares.

"Jamie, I saw your blog. Not enough pictures. It’s very…rosy…or mauve…okay, it’s quite PINK! You should put more pictures."

More pictures of what?! The goat? Allah and the goat?

But my website has more than enough photos, on the about jamie page. None of the goat though.

And what's the problem with pink? It looks good with red and orange. It's the ultimate girly girl color!

Yeah, yeah, pink *does* have tnose other connotations. They tend not to be the first thing I think of when I use the word though, LOL.

Okay, I just read through the tangent thread to figure out what I'm supposed to be weighing in on. I would post there, but I'm ambivalent.

I already feel guilty about clogging up the blog with our off-topic stuff even down here in the shed. I think it's fine to keep the tangent thread where it is, because it does have an interesting and relevant topic, but I guess I don't really want to go off on a tangent on it while it's up there on top. ;-)

So I vote to keep it. And now that I think about the deleting issue a bit more, I think deleting all the stuff you talked about last night would send a bad message, after all the controversy over deleting yesterday. I'd just leave it as is. :-)

LOL, yep, SQT.

I think the tangent thread is a really good thing, now that I've considered it more. No longer ambivalent. It's got an interesting topic, should anyone want to discuss, but it can also serve as a sort of release valve for some of us tangent-prone types. :-)

"I feel bad. I don’t think I jumped in soon enough on the Tangent Thread"

SQT, don't feel badly! He gets too easily distracted by shiny objects and can only talk to one person at a time.

"I think I’m just kind of mentally exhausted from yesterday"

That's how I feel now. So I totally understand.

"can be insufferable. Sometimes I think he’s deliberately obtuse just to annoy the rest of us. "

Um, after his last two comments to me--after I tried to make amends--I have a final opinion which I cannot state in a public forum without fear of deletion (he can go F himself and the goat he rode in on). I am officially ignoring him from here on out. I will NOT acknowledge his comments again.

(he can go F himself and the goat he rode in on).
.
.
.
...well then he just has to go play with himself.

The imagery! The horror! Make it stop!

I think that is the overall best solution...not responding. In fact, you two should make it a goal skip his posts...as in don't read 'em at all; it's not worth the "angst". Look, you're talking about being drained by yesterday's conflicts, etc. Who needs that???
:)

Huh? : ) = :)

Bury the crap...

Hide it...

Cover it up...

LOL I just got a "Sorry you can only post every 15 seconds, slow down cowboy message" from the server.

Is the shed thread dead?

Aw, come on, don't get all stern with me like that Jack. I mean, unless, you know, that's just your thing. I'm actually starting to like this thread better. The SHED THREAD, that is! It's taking on a certain Pigalle quality. Red velvet curtains, seedy people lurking about...

Oh, and I somehow got lost trying to get here just now, and couldn't find it, and ended up on the social effects thread again. Surfer X called someone a cum drunk sorority whore over there, LOL. Such a talent for profanity that boy has. I'm in awe.

Oh dear. Jack has turned into a raving lunatic again. It's okay, Jack. Put away your can opener and come back out of the shed. We can work through this.

newsfreak already blew 2500, which is okay. I really don't like 2500. I don't like the 5. It doesn't work with 2.

Pigalle:

http://www.rendezvousfrance.com/pigalle.html

I believe it's where red velvet curtains were invented. ;-)

And *I* hung those curtains!

Oh the echo in here. Must hang more curtains to buffer the sound of my despair.

Of course red velvet curtains!

Uh oh, I didn't bore SQT to death with TS Eliot did I ?

Oh there she is!