10 Things That Annoy Me

1. People who have no idea how the education job market works giving me
"advice" that makes no sense.

2. Students who love to tell me how intelligent they are--but never turn in their work.

3. Parents who want to blame complex issues on one stupid offhanded remark.

4. Teachers who keep telling me how sorry they are that I'm being surplused.

5. Teachers who bitch about the former administration but ignore the problems in the current administration team.

6. People who ask me questions not because they need or want the answer, but because they're looking for something to lecture me about.

7. Anti-Union Newspapers pretending their claims are balanced and well-researched.

8. Students who think they already know as much as they will when they graduate college.

9. Students who proclaim things "suck" because it's not to their personal tastes.

10. Weepy teenagers who think being dumped is the end of their lives.

Apparently, I'm back.

So, I haven't written much for a few weeks, mostly because I've been wiped
out and not really able to concentrate. Having to work a full-time job that
is both stressful and extra-time consuming, as well as being Dad, has left
me with no energy for fiction. I envy those who can write full-time.
Hopefully I'll join them in a few years. Not likely, but maybe.

But last night an idea popped into my head for a post-apocalyptic
"walkabout" adventure, with a main character who is NOT a mage (though there
are mages in it), and I wrote a quick treatment that explored at least some
of the plot and background.

This morning, faced with the fact that my grades are completely entered and
I have nothing else to do for this quarter (which ends today), I spent my
prep period writing more in the Wardens of Andari novel. Hopefully I
can get this thing written in a non-trite manner and get it ready for
submission before the end of the summer. Because I'm pretty certain that
grad school isn't going to leave me much time for writing fiction.

Anyway, chapter 2 is nearly complete. Alphas, you'll likely get it by
Monday.

Friday Five

1.What was your favorite cartoon as a child?
Um... probably Transformers. But I like those early-80s Saturday-morning live action shows better, such as Jason of Star Command or Shazam and Isis. Or maybe that was the late 70s; it all blends together.

2. Do you read comic books? Why or why not?
Yes, though these days I read them (mostly) sporadically. I've always liked superheroes, and as an undergrad I did some research on the literary merits of comics. While many so-called intelligentsia love to spout off about how comics are "boring" or "intellectually vacant," actual research shows otherwise. Krashen's studies show that the vocabulary alone is well above the level you'd expect. Kids who read comics tend to also read more "traditional" novels than kids who don't read comics. And--far from being intellectually bankrupt--comics use literary devices such as foreshadowing,
flashback, extended metaphor, imagery (both visual and linguistic), personification, allusion, and allegory. And the comics of various nations exhibit particular tendencies and common elements, just like the accepted canonical literature of those regions.

Yeah, can you tell I wrote my senior thesis on this stuff?

These are a modern mythology, full of sacrifice and hope and the need to fight for what is right, not what is convenient. My favorite, Nova, is about a young man forced by tragedy to both grow up Fast and to safeguard entire galaxies virtually alone. His journey of self-discovery and the pains--and joys--of his situation is compelling reading.

I'm partial to Marvel's emotionally nuanced and . . . well, in my opinion, better thought out, stories and characters. I have little use for Superman or Batman in the comics, though I recognize they have great stories. I'm much more into the X-Men, Avengers, etc. Give me alcoholic, conflicted
heroes over Boy Scouts like Kal-El any day. Maybe that's why I love Green Lantern more than any other DC book.

Curiously, I love the DC-based movies just fine.

Anyway, I used to collect several different series in a $50/month habit. But comics are so expensive now, and I have so little disposable income these days, that I only read Nova monthly, and about once a year I splurge all my christmas money on a bunch of those trade paperback collections of the other books I love. If I buy them used from Amazon, I can usually get about ten of them from my Aunt's christmas gift alone, and that keeps me caught up.

So, yes. I'm a 39 year old comics fan. And I teach literature. Take that.

3. Have you read a book and thought it should be turned into a movie? If so, which book?
Hmm. Not really. Now, I've read many books I thought would look amazing as a movie, but that's not really the same thing. Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series, for example, has many moments, both personal and in battles, that would look simply incredible on film given the capability of today's film-makers to create other worlds and non-human characters. But should Codex Alera be turned into a movie? I don't know about that. It's a novel. It works great as a novel. I'm ok with it staying as "just" a novel.

That said, if I really love a book, and a movie of it is made, I'm very likely to see it.

4. Do you watch cartoons now if you are a teenager/adult?
Not generally. I'll occasionally watch one of those animated superhero straight-to-dvd films, but the only cartoons I see these days are the ones my two year-old watches on PBS.

5. What is your favorite quote from a television show?
Oh, there are so many... but here's one I've always loved:

"We'll bring you the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, and because we have soccer highlights, the sheer pointlessness of a zero-zero tie." - Dan, Sports Night