Sunday, October 12, 2003
i've been very, very silent the past three weeks. see, i signed up for a LiveJournal, and i'm not really sure why. it's not like it's a huge step forward from this blogger. but now, for reasons as mysterious as the ones for which i acquired the LJ in the first place, i'm not going to use it. i'm sticking with Blogger instead. don't worry, you didn't miss too much.
anyway.
the last three weeks have been great. truly great, and actually eventful. i'll recap in the various categories which define my life....
ART: since putting All About Black Holes on hiatus (and i am now thinking about how i STILL haven't put up an explanation on the page), i decided to start working on comic strip ideas, and try to sell one to the Daily Iowan. i worked extensively on several projects: first, a strip about a bird and a duck who live in Central Park; second, a real people sort of strip inspired by my own life; third, a weird movement towards bringing back Quid Pro Quo; fourth, a strip similar to QPQ except involving humans (with better character development); fifth, a journal comic. each and every one of these ideas fell flat on its stupid face a week or two after i first started working on them. i'm only now realizing that i only really wanted to get a job at the DI for notoriety and money (and mostly the former, as i'm not even sure they pay). so, in light of this, my goal right now is to continue again working on AABH. except i'm going to completely rewrite it, start over from the beginning, and do it privately without publishing it on the internet page by page. maybe.
MUSIC: i had an orchestra concert a few weeks ago. it was great. the program consisted of Berlioz's Roman Carnival Overture, this piece by a guy named Micheal Torke called Javelin, Elgar's Enigma Variations and then his cello concerto. it was a delicious evening.
also music: danny got a drumset. he's drummer now. what this means is this: the band might actually happen. i've been practicing guitar like a madman.
WORK: my job has been very interesting the past few weeks. a week ago Tuesday, in was involved in the funniest bus accident yet: it was my Tuesday morning Hospital shift, and i was supervising a trainee doing on-routes, which is when the trainee gets on the bus and drives while you watch and train them on how to do the route. well, this trainee was driving through the Arenaparking lot, and was turning left (rather quickly) after the bus stop, and well, she sort of ran into a tree. it was the loudest sound i'd ever heard. like, she really slammed that son of a bitch. it was a big, sturdy tree, too, and wow. the bus was really screwed up. they had to send it up to Marion for two weeks to fix it. as for the tree, i predict it's dead in two years, maybe less.
and then last week i was driving down Dubuque street at rush hour and my bus just ran out of gas (after the dispatcher assured me that the gas gauge was just broken and that it was ok to keep driving). now THAT was funny.
EVERYTHING ELSE: i just finished reading Kurt Vonnegut's Bluebeard. i found the book to be top-notch late Vonnegut. book never became as well-known as Hocus Pocus, a similar novel that i believe was written immediately after (an academic type or a Time magazine book reviewer would probably say that Bluebeard was a preliminary sketch for Hocus Pocus). but Bluebeard really stands alone as a great novel, as well as an insightful treatise on art, if i may say so.
anyway.
the last three weeks have been great. truly great, and actually eventful. i'll recap in the various categories which define my life....
ART: since putting All About Black Holes on hiatus (and i am now thinking about how i STILL haven't put up an explanation on the page), i decided to start working on comic strip ideas, and try to sell one to the Daily Iowan. i worked extensively on several projects: first, a strip about a bird and a duck who live in Central Park; second, a real people sort of strip inspired by my own life; third, a weird movement towards bringing back Quid Pro Quo; fourth, a strip similar to QPQ except involving humans (with better character development); fifth, a journal comic. each and every one of these ideas fell flat on its stupid face a week or two after i first started working on them. i'm only now realizing that i only really wanted to get a job at the DI for notoriety and money (and mostly the former, as i'm not even sure they pay). so, in light of this, my goal right now is to continue again working on AABH. except i'm going to completely rewrite it, start over from the beginning, and do it privately without publishing it on the internet page by page. maybe.
MUSIC: i had an orchestra concert a few weeks ago. it was great. the program consisted of Berlioz's Roman Carnival Overture, this piece by a guy named Micheal Torke called Javelin, Elgar's Enigma Variations and then his cello concerto. it was a delicious evening.
also music: danny got a drumset. he's drummer now. what this means is this: the band might actually happen. i've been practicing guitar like a madman.
WORK: my job has been very interesting the past few weeks. a week ago Tuesday, in was involved in the funniest bus accident yet: it was my Tuesday morning Hospital shift, and i was supervising a trainee doing on-routes, which is when the trainee gets on the bus and drives while you watch and train them on how to do the route. well, this trainee was driving through the Arenaparking lot, and was turning left (rather quickly) after the bus stop, and well, she sort of ran into a tree. it was the loudest sound i'd ever heard. like, she really slammed that son of a bitch. it was a big, sturdy tree, too, and wow. the bus was really screwed up. they had to send it up to Marion for two weeks to fix it. as for the tree, i predict it's dead in two years, maybe less.
and then last week i was driving down Dubuque street at rush hour and my bus just ran out of gas (after the dispatcher assured me that the gas gauge was just broken and that it was ok to keep driving). now THAT was funny.
EVERYTHING ELSE: i just finished reading Kurt Vonnegut's Bluebeard. i found the book to be top-notch late Vonnegut. book never became as well-known as Hocus Pocus, a similar novel that i believe was written immediately after (an academic type or a Time magazine book reviewer would probably say that Bluebeard was a preliminary sketch for Hocus Pocus). but Bluebeard really stands alone as a great novel, as well as an insightful treatise on art, if i may say so.
