Memoirs of an English Major

But I love Keith Olbermann

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” - Nick Carraway

   It’s strange how and why I tend to do the things that I do. Take this web site for example. Did you know that this is only the 4th blog I have actively updated? It’s true. Originally, I had a blogger account before Google bought it out, where I would comment on general geek topics with a couple of friends. In fact, that was the first blog I had used in a charity effort to post for 24 hours straight. It was actually the only time I had stayed up for 24 hours straight and it is something I would not mind doing again, should the need arise.

    But tonight’s post is not a rant on my writing past, but more so on the present. This week has been a pretty slow week to my creativity and writing style and frankly, I’m not too sure why. Perhaps it could be the week has taken a tole on me or perhaps it is my lapse in passion. Or perhaps my event in Chicago may actually be effecting me more so than I thought. Before you read on, this post may be a bit more personal and commentary on my life than other posts and if you would care not to read a memoir section of this site, you can skip this post. But, as this is my site and my content, I feel it is just and correct to write on this. And so, I continue.

read on…

Well, as you can see, I have made some changes to the sidebar. I have removed the Project Wonderful ad box. It actually did nothing for the blog money wise and it started to look tacky. It’s a great idea for bigger blogs I guess, but for my “anti-niche” niche blog, it doesn’t seem to fit, so it gone. My end report is that I’m not the type of site to make money off of that sort of ad box. It is not a negative comment against Project Wonderful, just that it is not for my site. I’ll try something some other time, but right now, this is not it.

    If life were a John Hughes film… screw it. I’d still be single

   It’s Thursday and usual this would end the week of posting, but I’m leaning towards having a post up tomorrow as well. If anything, it will be a work of fiction ready and waiting for your consumption. But my mind is currently split between writing and coding. It’s a common practice that I have become used it, but it is a bit hard to switch mind sets in one sitting. If you’re curious as to what I am working it, it is an Adobe AIR app using Flex as the engine. It will be open source and it will be something that writers should be able to use. Hopefully by the end of the month, I’ll have it in an alpha state to actually use, though the code won’t go up till later this month. In any case, I know this is short, but I must get back to coding. So, for those of your craving entertainment, click on the more tag and enjoy the video below.

read on…

Ever since Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) keynote earlier this week, I’ve been extremely excited. Even though I still have yet to purchase my first Apple computer, I am a huge supporter of the company and its principles. I know some out there really don’t see why I support the company, considering that I’m well aware I could not only build a faster computer at a cheaper cost. Well, to be honest, it’s not the hardware that’s attractive, but simply a lot of the programs that are made for the mac side, such as Scrivener and Textmate. Sometimes though, I do wish those Objective-C coders would migrate their cocoa applications over to the Windows side, just so I could try them out.

     But tonight’s post is not about WWDC. The event itself is covered in numerous places, so if you want more information on that, please refer to those articles. Nope, tonight is one other thought that entered my head during my travels, captured in my new orange book. It is another stray thought, though it is once again that of a character. It is a fairly fleshed out character and is already part of a story. As to where this will be worked into, I am not quite sure. Probably somewhere important. Anyway, enjoy.

read on…

It’s amazing what strange thoughts run through one’s mind while traveling. Take my brain for instance. Throughout the course of any one of my journeys, I tend to write more while I’m in movement that when I am sitting here in front of my keyboard. It just seems that the my mind fires off on all cylinders when I am traveling. I’m still not quite sure why or how, but it is a fact that I have come to understand and harness.

Take this little blurb here. This was a little thing that popped into my head while waiting for a flight back to DFW. I wrote it after I caught an older guy trying to catch a glimpse at what appeared to be a young mother. She looked like she was single, though I have no idea. This has nothing to do with the thought at hand. This is actually written from the perspective of some other girl. I may work this into a larger piece of fiction or spin off this sort of thought into a full blown character. As of now, I’m not quite sure how to handle this and I am willing to take any suggestions. Anyway, keep in mind that this is a stray thought I did not want to lose. Enjoy

read on…

It’s a brand new week, filled with sights, sound, and writing. This week is looking like it will be a pretty full week of writing, with a post a day. It should be interesting as to what will emerge during the week. It’s all leading to become the new format for posting and it should definitely help me get right back into a regular writing schedule.

Today, I’m going to open up with a little bit of free form poetry. This little thought was written during my flight from DFW to ORD. As the flight was at night, I had the unique opportunity to look at the landscape at night in a way that I had not done. It is also interesting to note that when we arrived in Chicago, we flew through a lightening storm and was the first time I was ever surrounded by pure bolts of electricity, Enjoy.

read on…

    Well, now that all is said and done with the interview, it’s time to get back into the full swing of things and get back to writing. I won’t go into details as to who I interviewed with, but I will say it did not go as successful as I thought it would, but it is alright. In the end, it was a great experience and possible one that made me realize what it is I need to do and what I want to do are in fact the same thing. And with this in mind, I am going to commit more time to both writing and programming not only this month, but the following months to come. I’ve decided to go into full production mode on my novel concept and an open source project that I will put online once started. But as a first action, by this weekend, I will post the first version of the theme code that powers this site. The design itself is under a separate license, however any code I have written will be fully under the latest version the the Gnu Public License. I’ll do a check before I do this to see if it violates the license, though I don’t think this will be a problem. Also, I am rolling around the idea of placing something on the Entrecard shop, though I’m not sure what. In any case, if this post does not make it apparent, my mind’s been a swirling mass of thoughts and ideas. Ever since the interview was completely botched, the electrons in the chunk of gray matter in my cranium has going into overdrive and I haven’t felt better. So, stayed tune this month as I think this will one that will be one of creative rebirth on all fronts.

   As a product review, I think I found my top notebook now. As my interview was in Chicago and since my second day was empty, I decided to go to some of the museums of the city. One of them happened to be the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art. In there, not only did I see great works of art, but also possibly the coolest notebook ever : The Orange Notebook. Part of the bigger Write On & On series, the notebook is pretty simple in appearance, but I simply love it. Maybe it because it looks like an tech manual, or that it has that Valve Orange look to it, but whatever the case, I simply love the thing. I will probably buy the other colors, minus pink and use these as my main notebooks, though I don’t know if I’ll warm up to them as quickly as I did to the orange color. It just invokes everything I think I want in a notebook and feel like it is my notebook. Unlike my previous attempts with Moleskine notebooks everything simply clicked with this little guy. At at $5 a pop, I’m not complaining. Anyways, if you’re in the market for a new notebook, I’d recommend this one. So far its pretty sturdy, though as I just bought the notebook and its only seen so much abuse. If it tears within the week, you’ll hear me complain.

   Sorry that I haven’t written much these past weeks, but I’ve been a bit busy prepping for an interview next week. Once all this is done, I will get back into a hardcore writing regiment and get back into the groove of things. In any case, stayed tuned.