the last day of blog-a-day, which I had an alright time doing. It was somewhat interesting to be able to keep stuff short and specific when I wanted to, and not be constrained by having to talk about senior project whatsoever after the first couple days. I don't think it'd work out for more than a week though. After just the 5 days, I'm kind of ready to be done with it. One a week makes for a bunch more readily available material than one a day.
That being said, I've still got stuff to share, and this is still a place I can share mostly whatever I want for no good reason. Over break, I'm planning on spending a lot of time mapping Jazz songs. I think I'm probably gonna do something Louis Armstrong, though I don't know which yet. This has been stuff in my head most of the week though. My dad has a really old mix tape that I think a jazz musician friend of his gave to him at some point, and it's the first song on it. I had needed a tape to test the tape player in my car and that was the only tape in the house, so I ended up listening to some Louis Armstong, among other things, and then I ended up singing Louis Armstong (a lot). And now, you just might end up doing one or both of those.
Also, this is just amazing. I can't even believe it. You should read it.
And, lastly, if I could make my blog glowy, I would, but sadly everything on a computer is glowing, so to make my blog somehow more glowing would be probably impossible. And if it were possible, it wouldn't be the kind of glowing effect I wanted I don't think.
I heard once about a guy who wrote a short story that was one sentence long, apparently one of the shorter short stories ever written, if not the shortest. I imagine that guy had a deadline for his story, but also a lot of other work to do, and due to this found a way to write an entire story in a fraction of the time it might usually take to do so, and that afterward everyone thought his product at least interesting, if not brilliant.
Seeing as this is the Tuesday post, it seems appropriate, if kind of predictable, to talk about the Tuesday maps. I seem to keep ending up at wanting to talk about senior project with this blog-a-day thing. Wasn't really my plan when last week, but it can't probably to dwell on my project a little bit, since it's been sort of neglected.
I think I've already kind of talked about the Tuesday maps in other posts, so I'm going to leave discussing the basic idea of them alone. If you don't know, in a sentence I mapped a bunch of my Tuesdays using different criteria with the intention of showing an ordinary Tuesday to be something more interesting and complex than it's generally thought of as. Instead, I'm going to leave you with a piece of information from each Tuesday that's going to end up in the project (a few of them I took notes for, but had them not turn out too well [I tried to do smells, which I thought was gonna be cool, but I haven't been able to smell much of anything for like 3 months]). Here goes.
Dialogues (I had on a Tuesday):
Foard: Ok, how many teaspoons are in half a cup?
Moss: 12…17. 24, 48, some multiple of 12. I don’t know.
Kate: 8?
Foard: Yes.
Moss: What? A half a cup is like this big and a teaspoon is
like this, how can that only be 8?
Where things I used had to come from to make my Tuesday possible:
Nokia Cellphone: Espoo, Finland (4000 miles away)
Commee de Garcons Wallet: Tokyo (6700 miles away)
Processfolio: Just from New Jersey, some town called Canbury (about 129 miles away)
Hero Myth (this one needs some explaining, but basically I gave my Tuesday the structure of an epic movie (I took the basic structure of such movies out of a book on the subject) with me as the hero. I'll give you two steps so there's some context:
"Approach the Inmost Cave" (Basically, I approach the central, epic challenge of the story, or in my case the day):
I decide to defend my reasons for not having written my
Spanish essay. I start things off with an almost frightened “I didn’t write
it.”
"The Ordeal" (AKA the central challenge in the story, during which I face near death, but ultimately escape):
I attempt repeatedly to make clear why I didn’t think we had
any homework, but I am no match for my adversary. I suffer blow after blow,
failing to return even one myself. Luckily, class ends before I am completely
broken, and I am left only with severe wounds.
Narratives I experience throughout the day:
The narrative Billy Holiday tells when she sings the song Blue Moon, of a narrator who is lonely and then finds someone who loves her.
Songs in my head throughout the day:
Looking at them, one detail from every day doesn't really give the best sense of what each map is supposed to get across, but it's something, and now you have an excuse to watch that Arcade Fire video that it's been too long since you've seen, especially if you've never seen it at all.
You're thinking it's not Monday aren't you. Well, I said I would be back monday "If I remembered" for a reason. So that's all I'm gonna say about that, and I'm going to go on pretending its Monday for now, and have it turn to Tuesday later tonight.
Alright so, after taking a shower and giving it some thinking time, I've decided that I'm going to take the first of my blog-a-day blogs to talk primarily about my senior project for a change, because if I'm going to have 5 of these things this week, its acceptable for one of them to be devoted to the actual goings on of my project I think.
The highlight of last weekend (not even just in terms of senior project, but in terms of the whole weekend, which is kind of sad, I know) was short story mapping. The idea, basically, is to take some short stories and try to get at what they're really about by mapping them. The motive was kind of that the common map of a story (e.g. Freytag's Triangle, which you are definitely familiar with even if you don't know it by name, see link: http://www.grammarstore.net/freytag.jpg) highlights the events that take place, and that a proper map would instead highlight the literary value of a story, which is often largely unconcerned with the plot.
In case I'm making seemingly no sense, I'll give you an example. Louis Jorge Borges has a short story called Garden of The Forking Paths. If you read it for plot and take the events that Freytag's map of the story would highlight to be the important elements of the story, then you'll read it as a decent piece of detective fiction. The reason the story if famous though, and what makes it good, is an interesting philosophy of how time works that Borges presents in through thoughts and discussions the main character has over the course of the narrative. The detective story, which is all that Freytag's triangle would give any attention to, is essentially only a framework for discussing that philosophy of time represented by the analogy of a Garden of Forking Paths.
If I'm still making no sense, then you might have to wait to see the actual project, and if it still makes no sense then, then that'll be bad (because it'll probably mean I made a bad map).
If you want to read the story, you can find it here. You should take note, if you do read it, that there's a lot more to it to figure out than I explained above, or probably could explain at all.
And lastly, an update on my wart, since its now part of the blog. I have recently decided, as in in the last few minutes, that I'm getting rid of it because this morning Patricia e-mailed me telling me that the picture of it was gross, and then I started to pick at it again and it grossed me out. Eeeeeeew, shocking.
meaning there are still only 3 blogs left...(but does that mean the last one was mistitled then? or do parts 1 and 2 of "Only Three Blogs Left" count as 1? I'm not sure which to go with, both leave something slightly inaccurate) At the same time, it might not really matter, because they might end up both being very inaccurate. I will explain.
When I first started doing the school Newspaper in 9th grade, Foard said that he wanted to do a thing where we published an issue every day for a week, to see how it would function on the timeline of a real newspaper. We never did it, but it still sounds like it'd be kind of cool, and in fact I might ask him if we can try it this year, before the Echo is no longer mine to be a part of. In the meantime though, I'm going to do a-blog-a-day for a week (not really a week week, just a school week, but, same idea). So, as it turns out, there are many blogs still to be had. Do I really just love the senior project blog so much that I couldn't bare the thought of only have three posts left? Maybe. Either way, a-blog-a-day is commencing next week, so long as I remember come Monday.
And now I'm going to continue where I left off in Part 1 (which is not labeled with a "part 1" because I wasn't aware when I started it that there was going to be a part 2). It just works so nicely to be able to get the deadline done and then go back when I actually want to, and have some time to, write something. Anyways, some "...s" to start things where I left off...
...and my ranting about things that no one cares about in an excusable manner due to the fact that no one has to really care them (save Devon, who claims she reads it all [and I believe her I think], and whom it should be noted I am allowed to call Devon now). I might, just might, just maybe, a little bit, miss it. And starting a blog myself doesn't really seem like much of an option, because it was the fact that I was required to write this one that fueled not only it's existence, but it's content and even it's tone.
So, there's that. There's also a bloody wart on my hand, and christmas lights on my deck, and frost on my car in the morning (although only once). And there's homemade bread pudding (mine, though I had help) in my fridge, and chocolate mousse cake left over from my mom's birthday somewhere near it, and somewhere near that the tiniest birthday card I've ever made held in place by a magnet. There's my stuffed animals, and my desk chair, and a lot of scattered Uni-ball Vision pens, and mostly tasteless mints from Brandon's birthday party 2 months ago. And, there's my senior project.
But first about the bloody wart, because hopefully you're thinking "Jesus its bleeding that can't be good" and probably also something along the lines of "Dear God, that's gross." It must have been like three years (wow that sounds like a lot when you think about it, I hope it wasn't quite that long, but I think it really was something around there) that I got two warts on my left palm. Kinda nasty, but only when you really take note of them, and when they exist on your hand 24/7, their presence seems commonplace and isn't really paid much attention to, so it wasn't really too much of a problem. Nevertheless, I eventually ripped them both out by picking at them over and over, and for a while they were gone. Then, a year ago or so, one of them reappeared. Same one, in the same spot, and now its back again, and I've been picking at it again ever since, and today I gave it a pick and it started bleeding (and now it has dried blood on it). And now, I've grossed myself out, and, for the sake of your normalcy, hopefully grossed you out too. And Kablam! (best magic-type word I could think of, I really don't care of shazam [I'm just reminded of the movie with Shaq] or Allakazam) my blog has shock value. Wouldn't be complete without a picture though, would it? There you go, thoroughly freaky.
Note: I realize the painted nails probably already counted for shock value, but blood and warts are more legit, even if not actually scarier.
And this is getting to about the length where I start to feel bad for anyone reading, and my computer is getting low on battery, and it's getting late (for me), so it seems its about time to end this thing.
And you thought I was going to get to senior project at the end like I usually do didn't you...
Well, this time I wrote all the interesting stuff you truly care about, and comment on, and come to the blog to see in the last part 1. I'll be back Monday, suckers!
I was surprised. Only 3? This blog has become such an integral, meaningful part of my week over the last couple months; such an outlet for my sarcasm... (bell just rang, I'll be back later today)
For safety reasons, this week I met with Julie twice to work on Tuesday stuff and Road Runner. Road Runner is very close to done. I printed drafts last night.
And that was as far as I got in the five minutes. I took like 3 of them rewriting the first sentence a good four times or so. I suppose that post was somewhere in the middle of the two extremes I was talking about. Wasn't intentional, I promise. I guess I kind of hit every important point in the spectrum of getting stuff done in a restricted amount of time today though.
I should note that I hereby rescind from you the right to judge my writing in those 5 minutes, because it was rushed. An example of that fact: The first sentence that I spent 3 minutes rewriting read
"Today has been a day of trying to do things in restricted circumstances, and, coincidentally, the subject of my senior project work this week has also been about that."
If I had re-read that paragraph, which, yeah, I didn't really have time to do, I would have re-written it
"Today has been a day of trying to do things in restricted circumstances, and, coincidentally, the subject of my senior project this week has too."
And I wouldn't have sounded as idiotish (first made up word of the post).* If only I could rescind that right from Humiston too, eh? Actually, thinking about that, I feel a little bad for him. He's going to have to read 50-something 5 page + essays written in an hour and a half. That's gonna be rough.
Anyways, continuing from the failure, with more time this try.* I was saying...
...I deleted them all pretty quickly). And onto how my senior project related to that last point, without proper transition, like in my English essay, which also had sentences connected by too many commas. I spent this week [or at least the portion of it after I got ripped into, mostly justifiably, about sucking really, really badly at doing Senior Project work, and kind of work in general] working on getting a final draft of the Road Runner map together. When I was writing the description of the map, I came at the show from the basis that both its simplicity and its complexities are derived from the restrictions of the world in which it takes place. The map is very much based on those restrictions, namely Chuck Jones's set of rules for what could go on between Road Runner and Coyote.
I think I'm going to leave the Road Runner talk at that, because I've got other things I want to move on to. No, those things are not what I'm going to do next week and what challenges I met this week, but yeah, I am going to address that first.
Next week (including this weekend): 4 or so Tuesday map drafts on the computer, finishing up at least the Newspaper version of the chair map, initial ideas for all short story maps. The rough inspiration for the Tuesday maps are going to be these <http://www.lamosca.com/data/>, which I think I actually came across by way of a website that David left in a comment. So David, you deserve some serious thanking, because those are going to be really helpful, and Senior Project Blog, you get slightly (is slightly too harsh?) more credibility as something useful.
Challenges this week: The challenge is always really getting my stuff done. I don't think I've probably even ever listed anything other than that. As for that challenge this week, it went something like horribly for a while, and then something like pretty well for another while.
Stuff I am angry about (should be a required part of everyone's senior project blog as to help relieve stress during senior year): This blog still really kind of sucks. I wasn't going to say anything about this, but then I logged into the blog like 3 times today and every time I was like wow, I can't believe they went to the work of changing the design* just so they could make it uglier, and on the last time, I decided it was going to get blogged about, because it's probably really the proper place of my blog to do that anyways. I think the only reason anyone who does actually read it does so because of my complaining about the ugliness of this thing in the first place.
They changed the login screen so that the little "E-mail" and "Password" boxes are dark blue, and seriously (and its not that I have any problem whatsoever with the color blue, Typepad just manages to use it very poorly) it's freakin ugly. Go look at it. I swear I'm not just being snobby. Or that I am at least being as minimally snobby as one can be when complaining about blog aesthetics.
And I couldn't make changing the font in this post work until I clicked it like a zillion times and selected only parts of the stuff I wanted to change. And that was kind of pretty lame too.
And, I might have had some other stuff to say, but I just turned on Bob Dylan and it really kind of took me out of the ranting mood. Maybe not such a bad thing, I probably should be weary of that fine line between ranting being ok and being really annoying.
Well, I'm all calm now, so I'll leave you with Bob Dylan in case at some point you want to be too.**
*Times when I had something I would have kind of liked to talk about, but refrained for the sake of length and continuity.
Don't look at the pictures, just listen. It's better.
Today has been a day of trying to do things in restricted circumstances, and, coincidentally, the subject of my senior project work this week has also been about that. It's really not something I'm good at, or something I like, because either I end up taking way too long to do whatever I need to do and can't get it done, or I do it and it ends up being really crappy. The latter was the case this morning with my English essay (5 pages in an hour and half, not bad right? except it was bad. I didn't even re-read it, but it has to be one of the worst things I've written in a while), and the former the case with my philosophy essay right afterwards (I didn't even finish with one sentence. I tried writing a few, but
Late has in fact kind of characterized the past week. First, in terms of the fact that my senior project blog (which of course is always one of the more defining parts of my week) was late, and secondly in terms of my not sleeping. Remember how I said I was going to learn not to sleep? I've been trying, and it hasn't really been working out. The not sleeping part, going ok. The learning to make not sleeping somehow work for me, not really.
I am tired. I need to sleep. And my body clock is all whacked out now so that I end up needing to take naps at like 6 o clock so I can be awake enough to do work, but then not being able to fall asleep till 1. It's not working out.
As for what I did last week senior project wise, mostly Tuesday maps. Maybe only Tuesday maps. I can't completely remember, probably due to the whole not sleeping deal.
What I do remember: I made mock ups of the dialogue, where things came from, and songs in my head tuesday maps, and maybe one other one. I talked to Foard about them for about an hour and we came up with some stuff, and that went alright. I need to talk to Julie about them, didn't happen yet.
I also read a short story called The Grid by Rick Moody, because I'm going to map that, along with some other short stories. [Don't know if I've talked about the short story maps on here yet.] It was good. It was more than good too, but I'm finding it hard to articulate precisely what more it was, because I've got Peirce on on my mind, along with various important things that were due at times now gone by. It's a story you would want to read in bed before going to sleep. I'll say that. Recommendable, definitely. In fact, if you e-mail me, or maybe even comment, I'll photocopy it for you, even if you're far away and I have to mail it. If you actually read some portion of this blog, I think I almost owe that to you.
And, its lunch time, so I'm done for today. I will leave you with the promise that I have the utmost intention of making the next post at least slightly more interesting.
