| This entry is stretching over two days - Christmas and household shopping prevented me from finishing last night. I just wanted you to know that even though I was absent yesterday, I was still thinking of you. Heh. Ahem. Before I get started here, some of you may have noticed a little slip-up in December 4th's entry. I referred to two differently named men while telling you about our Friday evening. Rest assured, they are both "Calvin" - as you may or may not realize, "Calvin" is a nom-de-net. I flip-flopped between his "net" name and his "real" name. It's changed now, but for you observers of yesterday's oopsie, you now know his "real" name. And aren't you a lucky bunch? So no, I'm not cheating on Calvin. ~grin~ I *knew* I'd do that one of these days. Oh, hey, and you know what I like to do? Find a journaler, and read their very first entry, and then their latest entry. There's always a "tone" difference. I have (had?) one, and I've only been on-line for a few months. It's interesting. I remember feeling "off" for my first entry, like the voice wasn't mine. I'm thinking I'm not the only one - at least, the comparison of first and latest of other journaler's entries makes me think so. You know what else? Absolut Mandarin Vodka and Tonic is my new, best, favoritest drink. Oh yes. And since I seem to be coming down with *another* cold (or perhaps I didn't get rid of the last one fully) we'll see how well it works as a cure-all, when combined with cold medicine. Heh again. Okay! Onward and upward. December 4th's mission involved investigating written works of the past. I was forward-thinking enough to save the writing folder from my 8th grade literature class. I swear to God, I was laughing hysterically over some of this stuff. I wonder if I were able to meet my 8th grade self, as an adult, what my impression would be. I'm getting mixed feelings from my writing examples. For instance: Writing Assignment - Your Impressions of the First Day Of School"I was up at 4:30 AM this morning when I was supposed to get up at 5:30. It was strange getting up in the dark. My bus comes at 6:15 and we get to school at 7:00.This year is definitely easier because we already know where most of the classes are and what to expect. Now that I think back, I pity the poor 7th graders. I know what they're going through. Then again, I wish I were in 7th grade. I don't want to go to high school!" Feh, I'd forgotten how early I had to get up for school. Damned 45 minute bus ride. Notice the pity for the "poor 7th graders" - wordly wise 8th grader that I was. My dread of high school proved to be apt foreshadowing... it was, well, dreadful. I'm not brave enough to write about the epic I referred to in October 16th's entry. It's just awful. Really, truly bad. But here's another interesting one... Writing Assignment - Current Issue"The issue I am most concerned about in the world today is: why are there so many people out on the streets when the U.S. has so much money they could use to help?The U.S. spends millions of dollars every year making bombs and guns and all the other things that they say "will bring peace", and they NEVER use them! Why can't they see that they could help more people by building community centers and shelters for the people that have no food and no place to go? This would be a better answer to our problems than using that millions of dollars on useless war materials! So many people would lose their lives from the war materials, and so many people would live if the U.S. used its money for the poor. Doesn't that make better sense than a war?" Note the judicious use of exclamation points. Grade: A. I would also like to point out that all these papers were written in very loopy cursive, with little circles to dot the i's. Good God. I wrote a paper called "The Day The School Burned Down" (what kid hasn't?). Grade: B+. I also wrote a pretentious little number called... Watch Me Become What I Can Become"I would become a professional horse person. I would train horses, give riding lessons, and win 1st place in ALL shows. I would have a barn and a big white farm house and board horses. I would ride well in jumping, dressage, and cross-country on a horse that I trained by myself."Grade: C. No explanation as to why. I think it was that aforementioned pretentiousness. Now, here's one that just cracks me up. No title... "Many people try putting people down to make themselves feel better. Mostly, those people are insecure about where they fit in in life. For instance, my next door neighbor (you know him, Ms. Eames, he's in your home room) is always insulting me in one way or another. I just ignore him, because I am confident in myself and I have no need to feel badly about what he says or does to me. I know that even though he may look like "Mister Cool", he's just a puny little egotistical twerp inside. I try not to do things to other people to make me look and feel better, because then I'd be stooping to my neighbor's level. (Man! Do I sound like Mr. Rogers!!) Hint: The Egotistical Twerp on your Home Room Chart is "For Color" BWWAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!! Oh, that one just cracks me up. Ms. Eames had a chart of all her home room students, and each one was represented by "color" or "life" or "humor" or "wisdom"... you get the idea. My next door neighbor was "color". As I remember, I had a particularly fraught bus ride with him that morning. "Laura, who did your hair?" "Shut up, Chris." "Laura, do you think you're cool?" "Shut up, Chris." "Laura, nobody will go out with you ever because you're ugly." "Shut up, Chris." I hated that kid. I was also rather full of myself, though, so no wonder he picked on me. Here's a foray into poetry. Creative use of negative space only partially reproduced here. A Well Of Boredom"The first class of the day. Science.Chin in hand, I watch the teacher stride back and forth, discussing the homework I forgot to do. Whap! A book dropped on the floor snaps me back to attention. A huge yawn almost splits my head and I again slip into a well of boredom." Does that not *kill* you? Why on earth I chose to break the lines the way I did is beyond me. No grade. For all I know, it wasn't an assignment, just a blurb I did because I was bored. Write about anything, indeed. Here's another good one, about a childhood memory. Aside: Weren't we still children, though? Hmmm... FEAR"Oh Ma, why can't you change the radio station? I've had all I can take of Anne Murray! (click!) Well, you didn't have to turn it off! Even Anne Murray is better than nothing. Oh, well. Maybe I can concentrate on the way you're driving. Ma! The speed limit's 50 and you're going 53! Slow down. Hey! You don't have to pass that guy, he's going fast enough! Oh, Ma! No, Mom, don't! There is a car coming in the other lane! Don't pass! (screech, honk honk) Oh, gawd! You could have killed us! I thought you knew better than to... (slap!) Well, you didn't have to hit me! After all, I'm only five! (sniff, sniff)"Heh. Got an A- on that one. There you have it, folks, one of my earliest examples of writing in a stream of consciousness. And I still use "gawd" and "God" interchangeably. It's an interesting thing to take a trip back and remember yourself as you were as a child. I wish I had saved earlier stuff. I think I did, actually, but I left it in a box in X(m)'s possession, so I'm sure it's all been burned by now. I wonder what my perception of the things I write in ~Snerkology~ will be five, ten, twenty years from now. I wonder. |
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Your Mission, should you choose to accept it...
How long has it been since you've climbed a tree? There was a Poplar in front of my grandmother's house that I would be up in all the time. From it I could see the main road ("main" = "tarred" or "non-dirt") and would watch for impending company. I'd investigate nests. I would break off dead branches. I would hang upside down. I'm not kidding, I was up in that thing all the time. One cannot live surrounded by trees and not be called up into their branches. At least, I couldn't. So! Go climb a tree. You're not too old. It's *not* a waste of time. It's not foolish. Trust me. You'll love it. Just don't go falling out of it and blaming *me*, okay?
Results From Yesterday's Mission See above! Viv of First Person Particular gives the following feedback from November 30th's mission: "We used to do that hands in the doorway thing all the time, it invariably made my sisters and me shriek with laughter for some reason." Also, pursuant to my question of that same day... "Catch-22" is from the Joseph Heller book of the same name. The phrase describes the situation in which a fighter pilot can't be declared insane and taken off duty because if he want to be taken off such deadly duty, Rule 22 says he can't be insane so he has to go back out and fight. There was a deeply flawed but still cool movie made of that book in the sixties, I think. Thanks, Viv! Speaking of movies, continuing with November 20th's mission to see an old movie, I watched "Funny Face" with Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart this weekend. I just love that movie! I adored "My Fair Lady", too. I'm just a Hepburn freak, I guess. I grabbed the design idea for the box thingy from Anna.
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