Britta invited me to be a guest blogger on The Elephant Speaks, the official blog of CCS' Literature Collaborative regarding the Literature major meeting with Bruce held this past Friday.
View my post here.
April 29, 2009
April 24, 2009
Show and Tell
Today was Show and Tell at school. Krista, Aimee and Laurie all brought in their My Little Pony Dolls and Mrs. Clasen let them go up together and talk about their My Little Ponies. Krista’s is blue with yellow hair and a sun on its butt. Aimee’s is purple with green hair and a clover. But Laurie! Do you know which one Laurie has? She has the best one of all. It’s pink. And it has rainbow hair. And a rainbow on its butt. I want the one with the rainbow on its butt. I’ve asked for it for my birthday and Christmas and Easter. I even showed Mom the commercial on TV. It came on and I grabbed her hand and I dragged her over and I said Mom, Mom, Mom, look. That’s the one I want. But did I get it? No, so I couldn’t go up with Krista, Aimee and Laurie even though I play with their My Little Ponies all the time. Mom, I need a My Little Pony I said when she picked me up from school. You don’t need any more toys, Becky. No, Mom, I need one. Why’s that? Because today Krista and Laurie and Aimee all brought their My Little Ponies in for Show and Tell and all I brought was my stupid stuffed dog. But you’ve had that since you were born. I’m not born anymore, Mom. I’m in the third grade and I need a My Little Pony. Well, we’ll see.
That’s what Mom always says when she knows I’ll cry if she says, No.
Week #4
IT'S WEEK FOUR ALREADY!?!
wtf.
The Dalai Lama is visiting our school today. And it's Alumni weekend. Needless to say, there are people everywhere. Too many people.
wtf.
The Dalai Lama is visiting our school today. And it's Alumni weekend. Needless to say, there are people everywhere. Too many people.
I almost ran over 3 people biking to class.
CCS' annual writing contests are now accepting submissions: http://www.ccs.ucsb.edu/award/writing_contests/
CCS' annual writing contests are now accepting submissions: http://www.ccs.ucsb.edu/award/writing_contests/
DEADLINE MAY 1ST, 2009
I need some new sunglasses.
Last night I found out that my boyfriend and I have very different tastes in women.
I tried to convince my doctor to give me a booster for my meningitis shot and she wouldn't give it to me. She said I didn't need it. What she fails to realize is that need is not my concern. I it because I do not want meningitis. It kills you within like, 24 hours, or something ridiculous like that.
I need some new sunglasses.
Last night I found out that my boyfriend and I have very different tastes in women.
I tried to convince my doctor to give me a booster for my meningitis shot and she wouldn't give it to me. She said I didn't need it. What she fails to realize is that need is not my concern. I it because I do not want meningitis. It kills you within like, 24 hours, or something ridiculous like that.
April 20, 2009
Quoth he...
some uplifting quotes about writing:
"Every great or even every very good writer makes the world over according to his own specifications." - Raymond Carver.
"In the end, the satisfaction of having done our best, and the proof of that labor, is the one thing we can take to the grave." -Raymond Carver
"Every great or even every very good writer makes the world over according to his own specifications." - Raymond Carver.
"It is possible to write a line of seemingly innocuous dialogue and have it send chills along a reader's spine.... That's the kind of writing that most interests me." -Raymond Carver.
"No cheap tricks." -Geoffrey Wolff
"No iron can pierce the heart with such force as a period put just at the right place." -Isaac Babel
"In the end, the satisfaction of having done our best, and the proof of that labor, is the one thing we can take to the grave." -Raymond Carver
April 17, 2009
Week #3
We are making headway!
Talked about the following:
Next week, we are moving on to agents and will try to get more submissions out.
Everyone has been challenged to send at least one by snail mail in order to replete my wallet of the 100 stamps + 150 large envelopes + 500 small envelopes that I bought at Costco specifically for this purpose.
I sent away two submissions today.
Talked about the following:
- Format of documents
- Cover letters
- Bios
- SASEs
- Misc. (file names, email subjects, page #s, etc.)
- Blog addresses
- Picking publications
- Every publisher has a certain way they want submissions formatted (inc. file names, email subjects, page #s, etc.)
- Big-name publishers often want you to cough up 2 or 3 bucks to have your stuff edited
- Desmond is addicted to Facebook
- It takes roughly 4 stamps to send a 10+ pg. manuscript in a large envelope
- Submitting work is a lot of work
Next week, we are moving on to agents and will try to get more submissions out.
Everyone has been challenged to send at least one by snail mail in order to replete my wallet of the 100 stamps + 150 large envelopes + 500 small envelopes that I bought at Costco specifically for this purpose.
I sent away two submissions today.
April 14, 2009
Tumble
After I spent hours transferring this blog to tumblr, the site managed to completely erase all the HTML I coded as well as the regular HTML stored for my tumblr theme. So now my tumblr is blank.
Actually, no it's not.
I had to switch it to a theme to get back the post I had made to christen my hard work.
Also, having completed my first post, I realized there was no way to allow people to comment on your blog, which is sort of the major point of a blog.
In conclusion, I am deleting my tumblr. There are too many things wrong with the website and yes, I'm a little biased considering the website erased my work.
Actually, no it's not.
I had to switch it to a theme to get back the post I had made to christen my hard work.
Also, having completed my first post, I realized there was no way to allow people to comment on your blog, which is sort of the major point of a blog.
In conclusion, I am deleting my tumblr. There are too many things wrong with the website and yes, I'm a little biased considering the website erased my work.
April 11, 2009
Colloquium Week #2
Ok well minor snafoo regarding class time began our second session and what sucked about it was that it was totally my bad.
But many good things came out of our second class, including
blogs!
I spent all day today transferring my blogspot blog to tumblr, trying to make it look exactly like the blogspot one I spent hours making. The only thing I couldn’t get to transfer was the double line border around the header. Boo.
We began submissions today!
I originally estimated that we might be able to send out 10 submissions / half hour but was proved horribly wrong when the average number for the people I polled after class was 1.2 submissions / half hour.
Although this made me look like a fool, my hope for this class is rejuvenated because I was worried that we might run out of things to do and that, apparently, is not the case. This confirms that my original idea for this colloquium was correct:
You need a set-aside time to submit your work.
Why?
Because it takes fucking forever!
I submitted to the Bellevue Literary Review and Brink Magazine a short story and some poems, so : progress =)
Jordan played some really cool music to keep the silence out of the room while we toiled away on submissions and that turned out to be a good mood-maker.
I have yet to decide which blog I will keep, this one or my blogspot. I miss the second border inside the header, but perhaps I will get over it.
April 2, 2009
American cuisine is the best.
"If you could only eat one type of cuisine for a year, what would it be?"
I would have to say American cuisine.
Why American cuisine?
Why!?! Well, because it's AMERICAN! It's barbeque! It's apple pie! It's hamburgers and hot dogs and peanuts at a baseball game, that's why! It's slushies and sundaes and mint julep!
No, really...
Though I really do enjoy these aspects of American cuisine, these aren't the major reasons why I would eat only American cuisine for an entire year (BBQ was a major deciding factor, to be fair). While some may argue that American cuisine doesn't really exist, I have to say that not only exists, but it is also my favorite. Some are of the opinion that because Americans haven't really invented their own food stuffs (cereal? Come on, people...) we can't claim our right to a national cuisine since our cuisine would be made up of stolen foods.
What's not more American than that, right!?! We invaded other countries, yes, but in the meantime, something good came out of it!
Take Germany for example: beer, sausage, schnitzel, pancakes (origins could be traced to surrounding nations as well, I grant you), veil!
In fact, all cuisines have been shaped in these same ways, so it would be unfair to rob us of our right to a national cuisine just because some aspects of it may be borrowed from somewhere else
Take French cuisine: Until the 17th century when nationalism grew in France, French cuisine was thought to be "mini-Italian." Would it be correct to say that France, now the center of the culinary world, in fact doesn't actually have a cuisine because theirs evolved with many Italian influences?
Hell no. Have you ever eaten French pastries? If you have, you wouldn't be dismissing the validity of French cuisine.
Now that we've established that American cuisine does in fact exist, what exactly is it?
What is American cuisine?
It's a blend of all the different cuisines from all the different cultures of the world that have settled in the same space. Food brings people together, and the sharing of food most definitely is one of the main causes for the creation of today's American cuisine. A country's cuisine can tell you a lot about their past, their culture, and their people.
American cuisine is Japanese, African, Jewish. It's Mexican, Spanish and Greek. It's Italian, Chinese and Russian. American cuisine is Australian, it's English, it's French. It's modern, it's traditional, even medieval. It's everything that we are.
So what is America? It's a mix of everything. It's a place where people have fled to, emigrated, and struggled to get to. The amount of influence of a certain culture in our cuisine could tell you exactly how long that culture has been in America, and also could tell you something about the region in which you live, because all our cuisines are not the same.
For example, in San Francisco, the hint of Russian cuisine (whatever that is) is going to be stronger, more prevalent, than say, in Alabama. But the amount of Russian culinary influence in San Franciscan cuisine would tell you how long ago the Russians began seeking refuge in this country.
Why would I eat only American cuisine for a whole year? Because it encapsulates everything. I could, in essence, eat anything I wanted to for a year which is what I do normally anyways.
I would have to say American cuisine.
Why American cuisine?
Why!?! Well, because it's AMERICAN! It's barbeque! It's apple pie! It's hamburgers and hot dogs and peanuts at a baseball game, that's why! It's slushies and sundaes and mint julep!
No, really...
Though I really do enjoy these aspects of American cuisine, these aren't the major reasons why I would eat only American cuisine for an entire year (BBQ was a major deciding factor, to be fair). While some may argue that American cuisine doesn't really exist, I have to say that not only exists, but it is also my favorite. Some are of the opinion that because Americans haven't really invented their own food stuffs (cereal? Come on, people...) we can't claim our right to a national cuisine since our cuisine would be made up of stolen foods.
What's not more American than that, right!?! We invaded other countries, yes, but in the meantime, something good came out of it!
Take Germany for example: beer, sausage, schnitzel, pancakes (origins could be traced to surrounding nations as well, I grant you), veil!
In fact, all cuisines have been shaped in these same ways, so it would be unfair to rob us of our right to a national cuisine just because some aspects of it may be borrowed from somewhere else
Take French cuisine: Until the 17th century when nationalism grew in France, French cuisine was thought to be "mini-Italian." Would it be correct to say that France, now the center of the culinary world, in fact doesn't actually have a cuisine because theirs evolved with many Italian influences?
Hell no. Have you ever eaten French pastries? If you have, you wouldn't be dismissing the validity of French cuisine.
Now that we've established that American cuisine does in fact exist, what exactly is it?
What is American cuisine?
It's a blend of all the different cuisines from all the different cultures of the world that have settled in the same space. Food brings people together, and the sharing of food most definitely is one of the main causes for the creation of today's American cuisine. A country's cuisine can tell you a lot about their past, their culture, and their people.
American cuisine is Japanese, African, Jewish. It's Mexican, Spanish and Greek. It's Italian, Chinese and Russian. American cuisine is Australian, it's English, it's French. It's modern, it's traditional, even medieval. It's everything that we are.
So what is America? It's a mix of everything. It's a place where people have fled to, emigrated, and struggled to get to. The amount of influence of a certain culture in our cuisine could tell you exactly how long that culture has been in America, and also could tell you something about the region in which you live, because all our cuisines are not the same.
For example, in San Francisco, the hint of Russian cuisine (whatever that is) is going to be stronger, more prevalent, than say, in Alabama. But the amount of Russian culinary influence in San Franciscan cuisine would tell you how long ago the Russians began seeking refuge in this country.
Why would I eat only American cuisine for a whole year? Because it encapsulates everything. I could, in essence, eat anything I wanted to for a year which is what I do normally anyways.
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