tychoish, now without a net

I was looking through a notebook for some notes that I made concerning a homework assignment, and discovered the following line lines of memorable text:

“I don’t think I’ll go to the store tomorrow, too” she said triumphantly.

Meanwhile their teenage son howled as he left the room fearing for the future of the family menu plans.

Most interesting. Clearly it’s something that happened in my house, but I honestly can’t remember it, and I also can’t remember why I felt it necessary to write down in my book.

Go figure. Anyway, back to the grindstone. I’ll revert to human form on Friday I think. I hope.

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As regular readers of this website will recall, Iíve had a rather persistent computer problem for the past, oh, really long time. Seems itís done this thing where it just freezes. First we thought it was a RAM problem, because it just *felt* like a ram problem, and indeed it would freeze up on block memory moves.

At which point we said, ìwell it could either be a motherboard or a processorî and after some deliberation (and a diagnostic that pointed to problems with the Real Time Memory Clock), we decided to replace the motherboard.

In the mean time Iíd developed a system that worked fairly well. If I didnít play music, and stuck to a fairly frill-free text editor, trillian, Internet Explorer, and Outlook, there wasnít a problem, most of the time.

And then, I got the new motherboard, because ultimately I wanted my computer to work properly, I mean thatís not too much to ask, really. And it doesnít. It doesnít work with the old one either. So my computer is pretty much not useable. And Iím not particularly sure that putting a new processor in is going to fix the problem. Itís also the only thing left that I *can* replace. So we have to hope.

In the mean time, since my half working computer more or less gave up the ghost, Iíve swapped it out for this older iMac that someone gave me to dispose of. It works perfectly almost, despite the fact that the resolution is jokingly low, and itís running a version of the operating system thatís circa 1997. But it runs AIM, Entourage (like outlook only macish), and Word. Ah, finally a real word processor. Life is good.

Or Iíll deal for a while.

What I am realizing is that, this whole Mac thing is really cool, and while Iíd like a newer version (Iím working on it. Soon. All I can say is it will involve a swanky purple scarf) would be nice, the whole *feel* of this operating system is something I defiantly like. Now I just hope enough money can be gathered to get that powerbook, but weíll burn that bridge when we get to it. Lets just say, Iím not going to leave home with a PC.

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In response to something Iíd written last night, Indi said something along the lines of, “you have a way of saying a lot without really saying very much.” This is a fairly valid criticism, and something I get with some regularity. The basic theme: “be more specific.”

Perhaps it’s because I’m extroverted, and by default process thoughts and ideas in writing or more often out loud. But then again, it might be because there’s a larger issue, and given that I don’t particularly agree with the idea that personality is that fluid, I’d like to act as if there’s something larger that I might have a chance to fix or improve on.

On the one hand I think a part of me has been like this (terminally unspecific) for a really long time, and that it’s been a coping mechanism for the closet, and because it’s easier, not to mention that it requires less effort.

Having said that, I think it’s a writer’s block-type dilemma. Not writer’s block as in “I have to write X today and stare at a blank page for 6 hours being devoid of inspiration,” but something more along the lines of “I don’t know what I want to write,” or “I feel like I need to write, but can’t bring myself to do it,” sort of like lethargy, And given that I have this massive amount of written material that I have to turn out every week for school, I don’t have the option of sitting and staring at a blank page for hours. So I write uninspired papers that only occasionally are ok (especially when the teacher has low standards.) I’ve gotten a little bit better at forcing my papers to be more specific, but it’s a laborious process and so far has only been accomplished when a parent has been there to keep me from running off into unspecific

The main break as far as I’m concerned is when I got back from Anytown, which was an experience I really valued, but before I went to Anytown (and really before I went to visit colleges in August right before Anytown.) Which is really when I stopped working on Another Round.

I should have someone look through Circle Games, but I’m pretty sure that I didn’t have this kind of a problem when I was writing that. Mind you, my school papers were still not specific enough but I think that is due to the (a) reason. And I defiantly didn’t feel lethargic about writing. I’d like to have someone look through the TealArt archives and see if the entries from a year ago (and before) are specific or not in comparison to the ones now. Any takers?

As for possible solutions, I clearly haven’t found anything that really works in a decisive sort of way, but, thus far here’s what I’m thinking:

I should read through Anne Lamott’s “Bird by Bird” which has a really helpful chapter on writers block, and is generally inspiring and wonderful. Revisiting that should be really good.

I’m not reading as much as I used to which is a definite short falling. As I can knit and read at the same time which is good and will probably encourage me to knit more, but I’d like to establish a routine where I can read fiction again.

I need to do more work at school. There’s a teacher who has a room that’s a very good work space, and I think by moving a lot of writing projects to school, I’ll be able to get more done. Perhaps not the final solution, but I think there is a definite “play” environment at home.

Any ideas?

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So there’s a bill before the Missouri House at the moment, that attempts to legislate creationsim. This goes beyond just trying to legislate “morality” which is questionable enough, but this is actually trying to legislate scientific fact. (Maybe they think if they make it law it’ll become true.) This follows the “if i stick my fingers in my ears and sing, and stomp around, maybe it’ll go away” method of lawmaking.

In any case, under duress I’ve compiled a group of resources for both sides of this and I hope it helps someone. (As you may or may not know, my sparse and occasional class notes for Theory of Knowledge get posted to this site for your enjoyment. Or something.

The text of Missouri House Bill 911, summary.

A creation science resource page, and another, and another for good measure

And the other side of the coin:
One
Two
Three

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