Jeez, it's depressing being depressed. I've finally managed to drag myself back to the computer after a month to work on my "H Company" project. I've added a new map and continue expanding the manuscript that'll probably never see the light of day.
I've also split up my work into three different blogs as it was getting too messy: the H Company one, the I'm-going-to-dump-my-photography-and-artwork-on-this-poopie-looking blog and everything else, the one that you're on.
Or just go from here: http://www.blogger.com/profile/17628971906257747240
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Friday, May 30, 2008
big owwie
Of course, I accidently bumped his bad leg yesterday....could I feel any worse? which had him screeching his head off so I hustled him off again to the vet and more blood tests. There is a very small chance, less that 1%, that it might be a bone fungal disease, but somebody has to be that 1%..why not him?
black day
No sooner do I lose my beloved WiggleButt two weeks ago (below), when I take her compatriot Mr. Buster in yesterday for an exam for a recurring limp, (and to pick up her ashes!) do I find he has bone cancer!!! Being 14 there's really nothing that can be done.
Bunnies & Power Outages
That's what I was thinking about when I started putting together a rough draft of my family tree today. You start thinking about these things.
My father's sister is Anne. Her daughter is Hedy, my cousin, who is my age and we are good friends. From a narrative her mother wrote, I pieced this thing together. It's already a huge, tangled document but good fun. And this example is just my father's side of the family. There must have been a power outage when my father's mother and father got married. Or a power surge. Some kind of surging. Whatever. My family is on the lower-right side.
I started it in PowerPoint, where they've written software for organizational charts, which are fun if you like working in an office. Then I took some screen shots of it and worked in Photoshop, because PP only goes up to 22" wide and has limited tailoring. If I can't find a good, free family tree software, I'll just do the final in Illustrator, so it doesn't enlarge all pixelated. I'm sure there is an easier way to do this.
My father's sister is Anne. Her daughter is Hedy, my cousin, who is my age and we are good friends. From a narrative her mother wrote, I pieced this thing together. It's already a huge, tangled document but good fun. And this example is just my father's side of the family. There must have been a power outage when my father's mother and father got married. Or a power surge. Some kind of surging. Whatever. My family is on the lower-right side.
I started it in PowerPoint, where they've written software for organizational charts, which are fun if you like working in an office. Then I took some screen shots of it and worked in Photoshop, because PP only goes up to 22" wide and has limited tailoring. If I can't find a good, free family tree software, I'll just do the final in Illustrator, so it doesn't enlarge all pixelated. I'm sure there is an easier way to do this.
styron structure
You can double-click the image to see it better. This is an analysis of a section of Sophie's Choice. If you haven't read any Styron, start there. Anywhere. They're all good.
Note under the title how he refers to "Transcendent Present, Narrative Present, Major Flashback, and Embedded Flashback. Will someone please tell me how people can think like that? I know nothing of writing structures but he must purposefully write like this. How he can then hang such delicious stories on this intricate frame is beyond me...
The movie was also very good, Styron even thought so too. Read first.
Note under the title how he refers to "Transcendent Present, Narrative Present, Major Flashback, and Embedded Flashback. Will someone please tell me how people can think like that? I know nothing of writing structures but he must purposefully write like this. How he can then hang such delicious stories on this intricate frame is beyond me...
The movie was also very good, Styron even thought so too. Read first.
good news, bad news
The good news first: William Styron finally has a new book out. I've been waiting so long, then I find out the bad news, that he passed away nearly 2 years ago! Where the hell have I been?
He is the only author I can re-read. A good companion book to that is by John Kenny Crane, who wrote it for his thesis, or some such thing. Styron's work is so dense and multi-layered, analysis of it is enjoyable too. That someone could find the structural themes and put it all together is fun.
For those of you though, that have a lousy vocabulary like I do, may find it rough going, - Styron has an extensive vocabulary...sometimes I think he uses a thesaurus so he'll appear erudite...(he even is appalled at his own snobbery sometimes).
And it can get a little tedious to be constantly using the dictionary when you just want to read with pleasure. Once, with one novel, I started writing down all the words he used on a legal pad and when one page filled up with several columns of his words, I thought just get the gist and forget it! So I did.
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