Saturday, February 18, 2012

It's ALIVE.

Hello again.

I'm horrible at keeping this blog, but I think I get props for not abandoning it completely with the million other things I've decided to take on in addition to school. Let me list them, so that you can feel appropriately sympathetic and abolish any complaints about the lack of posts.

Shit I am doing:

  1.  School - This is kind of necessary because it's the reason I'm over here. This semester is 'do your publishing project along with class along with researching for your dissertation'. This semester makes last semester look like kindergarten. 
  2.  Publishing project - This follows from school I have to create a publishing dummy (16 page example of a book), and I'm writing the content. For some reason, I thought that would be a good idea.
  3. Blogging - Yes, I'm counting this blog as part of the list because I will be doing it. I realize that's sort of cheating, but it's my list. Make your own list
  4. Writing collective - A project we've started this year where we're working with the brand spanking new, born-this-year creative writing MFA program to publish a compilation of their (and other people's) work. It's new and shiny and we're completely in charge of it, which means all the work is ours to create or destroy.
  5. Internships - I've already got one creating web content for an author. Looking for another possibility for after this one. Some overlap may be necessary.


That may not be all, but 5 is a nice and round number. It's got that circular bottom half and everything.

To catch you up on my life during the absence, I managed to survive the first semester of this degree with minimal psychological damage. Sometimes the voices are a little loud, but a little music drowns them right out. My cousin came over to visit, and we did an assortment of exploring/frolicking-type things before we got on the flight home (which was blessedly uneventful). My break was entirely what it should have been - relief work at the bookstore, hanging out with family and friends, and a crap-ton of sitting around in my pajamas watching my dad play Zelda: Twilight Princess.

The return flight was also uneventful, although Newark airport is really freaking bleak. The place has this air of misery, like the little island before people cross the River Styx. I'm not sure if the florescent bulbs were dusty or if the whole town has this gray appearance. It made me wonder even more than usual at where everyone else was going that they were so downtrodden. Maybe they were already home.

This first week has been a couple of major deadlines. Ironically, not actual marked assignments. These were the type of assignments that were based in preparation. As in 'if you don't get this done, you can't do the rest and you fail horribly and must commit harakiri because of the shame you've brought upon your household' assignments. Needless to say, I completed them, although the pressure to perform for something that wasn't even marked stirred a little rebellion in me. I vowed not to do anything productive this weekend except sit around in my pajamas, read, and play Ocarina of Time on my 3DS.

But I lied. I've already started organizing stuff for the collective and am writing this blog and thinking about writing another one for the class website about the collective.

It's a different kind of failure altogether.