snow me. please.

Why can't i get some of this? Seriously? you mean denver can't spare even a few inches? they have so much snow there people are staying home from work. i know. that kind of thing hasn't happened since grade school.

People, listen. all we have here in A2 is a little bit of drizzle, a little spatter of rain. we need snow to live. winter has not arrived yet and it is almost christmas. good thing we are leaving tomorrow.

true, i bet these people hated it:










and these people probably weren't thrilled about spending the night at the airport.













all i'm saying is, reconsider. split the snow up fair next time and give some to us. denver, you snow hog.

Ha HA!

I'm posting all over the place! i'm blogging everywhere! i'm running around like crazy blogging and posting and i'm not wearing any pants! ok. calm. i really am wearing pants, don't get worried. i just needed a break from grading finals. no lie, i read an entire three page essay on woody allen's narcissism written by a unnamed student who thought the word was narcotism, or narcocism, or narcosim, all versions of the word found in the paper. ouch. he should have looked that one up before the test. as it was, i was unsure if he wanted the vague spelling-related nod to drug addiction there or not. ok, not really, i knew what he was talking about.

so, back to the suffering.

but first, a picture, because as the superextraspecial K says, a post is always more interesting with a picture. even an unrelated one. so here goes, bitches!

the winner of no pants day, may 5th, 2006:

i so didn't make this up. see for yourself: no pants day. Ha HA! I'm running around like crazy! and i'm grading finals! like crazy!

oh, satisfaction

the feeling you want to etch indelibly in post # 50. the one that lingers a long time after starting that magical new story/poem idea, that sudden explosion of ideas and images that has lain dormant and now finds expression. that feeling.

let's just say it was a good day off.

day off

this is my first day off school. so what am i going to do? post here, of course. my mother asked me what i wanted for christmas, and i was appropriately vague, then acutely specific. i sent her an email with a link. well, what good is technology, if you don't use it?

my computer came back on the afternoon of the day that i finished my paper. it figures. after two days camped out at my wife's office, typing the paper, my worn old beater comes back just as soon as i don't need it. why do things always happen in this way?

also, now that i have a day off perhaps i can get started on some of those long-put-off revisions. or maybe whip something into shape for my upcoming january reading. or maybe write some new stuff. or submit something and get it accepted as a way of snubbing those who rejected me previously. or maybe just sit around and cultivate my aura of professional boredom with being an artist. hmm.

really, absolutely involved with the medical community these days, what with dentist appts. and doctor visits, none of which i participate in the capacity of anything more than a bystander. well.

and anything other incidental happening to me must be connected in some way with the stunning sentences from flaubert i devoted my morning to. an example:

Every head of hair was freshly clipped, ears were sticking out, cheeks were close-shaven; some there were who had left their beds before dawn, when there was scarcely enough light to be using a razor, and now had great diagonal gashes across their upper lip, or, along the jaw, flaps of detached skin as big as a three-franc piece, inflamed by fresh air along the way, so that all those great white beaming faces were blotched with pink.

when i am writing like that i will tell you. and then you can read something and be well satisfied that the balance of work that went into it as compared with the instant it takes to perceive it is clear and shows through so neatly as to make you feel in the moment of reading that this sentence--those preceding and following be damned for now--but this sentence is one worth spending time with.

and hopefully the others will fall in place as well. let me go attend to it.

tokyoto

a seizure waiting to happen. come on guys, think before you put out a video.

paper

the paper is done. the beast is laid to rest. the library can reclaim the lost pages that have been resting under my coffee table. and i am done w/ my first semester as an mfa.

oh, cloud king

Kirsten Johnson

“apple-two”

Oil, acrylic on wood panel, 24" x 42", 2002

Thank cloud king for this.

failure

keyboard failure, that is. and touchpad failure. my computer does not work anymore. and yes, i tried mashing all the keys. no dice. so i took it to best buy to work the warranty one last time. it expires later this month. the guy said they would give it a new keyboard and touchpad. don't know how they expect to do that. it isn't like they are techno-wizards after all. they're just normal people. the guy had even less of a personality than me, if you can believe it. i made small talk about the keyboard intermittently going on and off and he looked at me like, why would i respond to this, it's not like i haven't heard it before. techno-somethings.

anyway, so now i am reduced to procrastinating in the computer lab at school, of all places. with all these people circling the occupied stations like sharks, in what is called, absurdly enough, the fishbowl. and me taking up a spot to blog when i still have a paper to write and no computer to write it with. so since i spent the better part of a week taking books from the library to rest under my coffee table, i now have to figure out how to bridge the physical space from the computers at school to my living room. and no, carrying them isn't an option. it may be a small fraction compared to the total collection at the library, but compared to the total space under my coffee table, it is a very large fraction. try 1/2 to 2/3.

how ridiculous. keyboard failure. why didn't something useful happen, like screen failure. at least then i would have gotten a whole new computer. now all they'll do is take out the keyboard and solder some new one in, and i'll be typing away on a frankensteinien machine that is about to go belly up any minute. okay, i'll shut up. please don't read this. i will be embarassed if you do.

sufjan stevens

oh such a very long song name.

The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You're Going to Have to Leave Now, or, "I Have Fought the Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!"

i could write a story about that song name. i think maybe i will, too.
and what a great picture. hello! i want to wear big old kite-bird wings and play banjo in front of a crowd of people that paid to have me dress up like that for them. i want.

Picture courtesy of Joe Lencioni, shiftingpixel.com

stuck

came down with an illness over thanksgiving break and am now stuck. dried up. can't write a thing. please let it break soon. please.