Blurred Line

Finished off my last two exams this week - so now, barring any failures (which might happen in one course), I'm a university graduate. Sweet.

What was my first act as a member of the adult world, you ask? Well, clearly, it was to eat raw cookie dough. I'd made a joke earlier in the week about how I wanted to do something massively productive in my initiation into the post-graduate world. Something like eating an entire tube of cookie dough. My roommate, of course, went to the grocery store and brought home said tube of cookie dough. And no, I didn't eat the whole thing. Well, not in one sitting, anyway. So, yeah, I'm going to be a real productive member of society.

Secondly, I'm back at work pretty much full time and I've been prepping for a roommate change (my current roommate is moving out at the end of the month to take off for a ridiculously cool job in Ireland). So, much business, as you can imagine.

Hopefully, I'll have something worthwhile to say next week.

Yes, I know it's only 9:30, but I feel myself about to be overtaken by sleepiness, so I thought it best to get a few words in beforehand.

Spent most of the day finishing my last essay. My last essay EVER, no less. Very happy about that. Interestingly, since it was a hot day I had my windows wide open all day and heard sirens close by for a pretty significant portion of the afternoon. When I left to head off to campus to hand in my paper at 5:30, I saw a bunch of fire trucks and police cars about a block and a half away, with parts of the road taped off. We were getting pretty strong gusts of wind here and apparently one of the high rises had its roof blown off and scattered all over the road below. Bet the people on the top floor had a good day.

Spent Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at my roommate's cottage. I'm pretty sure it's one of the best places on Earth. I was sitting on the back porch on Sunday morning, basking in the sunshine, looking out over the water, listening to the birds chirp, and felt happier about life than I had in quite some time.

Also, I plan to participate in the new flash contest over at The Clarity of Night. Last time, I wrote a very grim, very abstract science fiction story. This time...well, my entry's called "Wherein the Author Massages His Ego By Inserting Himself into an Imaginary Scene from Mark Leyner's Et Tu, Babe". Obviously, I'm taking it very seriously this time around.

Lastly, a story I feel desperately needs to be written. I have no ideas yet...just a title - "Scenes From an Epic Space Battle, In Watercolours".

It's a beautiful warm, sunny summer's day outside. Seems like everyone's in a good mood, but how couldn't you be after your home team's won a playoff series and the city is just brimming with attractive girls flaunting their scanty summer clothes (yes, clearly I haven't had a date in a while...what's it to you?). Anyway, I headed out early this afternoon to hand in my Medieval Literature exam (another reason to be in a good mood). The prof gave me back my essays from the class (and A and a B, so yet another reason for a good mood). I'd taken a large haul of books down to a used book store in the market (that's Ottawa downtown recreation district, I guess you'd call it - it's where all the restaurants, pubs and nightclubs are). Anyway, they took all of them, which cleared up some bookshelf space for me and gave me enough cash to buy three hardcovers. I came home with copies of:

The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen. I know there's a blogger who's mentioned it several times, but I can't for the life of me remember who it was.
Excessive Joy Injures the Heart - Elisabeth Harvor. I read an incredible short story by Harvor last semester in one of my classes, so I had to grab a copy of her first novel when I saw it on the shelf.
Brahma's Dream - Shree Ghatage. I always make a point of picking up a novel I've never heard of when I go into a used bookstore. I'm pretty sure it's good karma, somehow.

Anyway, after the trip to the bookstore, it was so nice out that I decided I didn't want to go home quite yet. So, I bummed around in the Market for a while and ate lunch at Milano's (a giant slice of Ottawa's best pizza, a Caesar salad and a bottle of water for $5). So, I'm sitting on the patio finishing off my salad when a CTV (that's one of the national channels here in Canada) reporter and his cameraman lean over the railing and ask me if they can ask a question. In the good mood that I am, I tell them to go ahead. The question: Would you be in favour of a city-wide ban of trans fats? Seriously? That's ridiculous. If we let the city's government start making stupid decisions like that, they might start doing really stupid things, like setting up video cameras that scold people or robotic falcons that scare away pigeons. Anyhow, I'm hoping it doesn't get on the news tonight, because I'm pretty sure that although I was well-spoken, I was speaking while I still had a bunch of croutons in my mouth. Not sexy.

Hopefully the rest of the day will be as enjoyable.

Email from Clarion West this morning, saying my application had been rejected. Only marginal disappointment, compared to last year.

Also, if I see another person who spells definitely with an a, I might just fly into a murderous rage. Come on people, it doesn't even sound like there should be an a there.

File this under Things That Suck: Writing an exam with freezing cold, wet feet. The weather outside is bad today. Very cold rain and, since it snowed last night, a couple of inches of very, very wet slush. My footwear isn't exactly designed for this kind of weather, so of course my shoes were soaked through. And not, "Oh my goodness, my sock's damp" kind of wet, but "Every time I take a damn step, I can feel the water sloshing around under the soles of my feet and between my toes" kind of wet.

Besides the wet feet, the exam went decently enough, though. Not least because the prof handed back our term papers and mine had a big A stamped on it. So, I plan to spend the rest of the day relaxing since tomorrow I've got to get a start on the barrage of papers I have to finish by Friday.

A few notes, in brief, as I take a short break from studying (exam #1, which happens to be the most difficult of all of them, goes tomorrow at 9:30 in the morning).

I happened to notice that "Between Eternities" is sitting at 999 reads over at Speculative.ca. Come on, you know you want to be reader number 1000.
News of even more acceptances over at the Clarion West forum. One poster was offering replacement fingernails to those still waiting to hear. Another day or two like this and I may need a replacement arm.
From my studying I realize that I don't really think much of John Keats as a poet.
International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day. I'm all for offering fiction for free, so I approve wholeheartedly.
Warp Drive, explained. Finally. And all we need to do is figure out how to do stuff like "Harness Dark Energy". What's the hold up?

My attention over the past couple of days has been taken up with the fact that I was recently barred from writing one of my exams, due to my attendance record. I'll be the first to admit, it's not great, but it's not horrible. I've had more than one course where I've shown up to about three lectures and still managed to pass and this case is nowhere near as extreme. Guess, the prof just really doesn't like it when people don't show. Anyhow, I'm talking to various people in the faculty at the moment and am going in to talk with the prof early next week. Hopefully, that'll clear things up. If not, though, I'm in a bit of a tough spot, since the course isn't offered again until the January-April semester next year.

In other news: The gauntlet has been thrown down! My Sens are up against Struggling Writer's Pens in the NHL playoffs. If the Sens lose the series, I'll be donning Pittsburgh colours and providing photographic evidence of my cheering for the Pens. Ottawa won the first game pretty decisively, while game #2 ended in a Pittsburgh win (though, if you ask my opinion, Ottawa still outplayed Pittsburgh). The third game of the series goes tomorrow night. The playoff atmosphere in Ottawa is generally upbeat, if a little subdued. In past seasons, the town has been hockey-mad, but calling the team "chokers". I've not seen any of that negativity this year (I think it just might be Ottawa's year, finally) but it's taking people a little while to get into the playoff spirit.

Also, there have been quite a few notices of acceptances to Clarion West. I still haven't heard anything yet, so I'm officially ultra-anxious.

While I procrastinate on my essay (about the nature and role of literary authority in The Clerk's Tale...doesn't that just sound like something everyone would jump at the chance to write about?), a few brief notes:

Finished reading Lolita. Was just as good as expected.
Completely forgot to mention it, but the start of April was this blog's second anniversary. I didn't get it anything.
NHL playoffs start Wednesday for my Ottawa Senators. I'm very excited. We're taking on the Pittsburgh Penguins which, unless I'm mistaken, are Struggling Writer's team. I foresee some sort of bet that results in blogosphere-wide humiliation for the loser.
At least one acceptance for Clarion West is already in the books. Time to start getting nervous.
I badly burned my esophagus today on a forkful of mashed potatoes while eating leftover turkey dinner. Now it hurts to swallow.
At this point of the night (slash morning) I realize that I no longer care about parallels between Petrarch, Walter and God. How will this paper ever get finished?
I haven't shaved since Saturday morning. I look like a hobo.
At the building where I do my laundry (a friend's place down the street, mine has no laundry room), there are a bunch of signs posted about a suspect who keeps coming in and stealing stuff from the machines. I am afraid for my shirts.
16 days and I'm done university. Surreal.
I would give pretty much anything for a bowl of ice cream right now.
Sunday night I stayed up till 3 AM with my roommate watching a show called Brat Camp. You know how on shows like Survivor, when a person's speaking to the camera, they'll put up a bar displaying the person's name and their tribe, or maybe where they're from, or what their occupation is? Well, on this show, they have that bar with the kid's name, age, and what their problem is. Stuff like "Hostile Outcast", "Angry Punk", and "Stabbed His Twin Brother". At that point in the morning, I thought it was hilarious.
Also, if you've been living under some sort of viral video rock and haven't seen this yet...well, for shame.

The shame is so intense that I just have to admit the following: I just spent the last hour watching a show called When Good Pets Go Bad. I think my IQ's been cut in half.

That is all.

Went to see a concert on Wednesday night, and so for the new song here on the blog I thought I'd put up one by the headline act, Sam Roberts, who happens to be one of my absolute favourites. The show was excellent - not only was it free, but it boasted three acts and we were there from 7:30 (halfway through the first act) to 11:00. I was particularly impressed with the second band that played, The Dears (who, like Roberts, hail from Montreal). A couple of my friends are fans of them, but this is the first time I'd heard their stuff...now I have to run out and buy their albums.

As always, to listen, just press ZAP on the player.

Because I'm a) procrastinating on an essay and b) a mindless bandwagon jumper-on.

Four Jobs I’ve Had:
1. Data Entry
2. Sales Assistant
3. Destroyer of old grout, filler of water buckets, cutter of tiles (Helped lay ceramic tiles in a giant house over the course of one summer).
4. Door-to-door sales guy, signing people up for student painters (I did this for a grand total of eight hours)

Four Movies I Can Watch Over And Over:
1. Ocean's Eleven
2. Fight Club
3. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
4. Serenity

Four Places I’ve Lived:
1. Ottawa, Ontario
2. Cochrane, Alberta
3. Sackville, New Brunswick
4. Small Rural Town With Only Gravel Roads and No Stop Lights That You Won't Have Heard Of, Ontario

Four TV Shows I Love:
1. Firefly (Blessed be my DVD box set)
2. Entourage
3. Friends
4. The Colbert Report

Four Places I’ve Vacationed:
1. New York City
2. Vancouver Island
3. Ummm...Toronto? (But let's face it, that's not a real vacation.)
4. Fitzroy Harbour (it's got a great campground, a liquor store inside the convenience store, and it's only 45 minutes from home)

Four Of My Favourite Dishes:
1. Pizza
2. Oven Roasted Chicken sub from Subway (with lettuce, cucumbers, green peppers and a lot of Southwest sauce)
3. Pretty much any variety of ice cream.
4. The Mountain Burger from Montana's (it has a really tasty BBQ sauce, mushrooms, and a slice of freaking ham on it)

Four Sites I Visit Daily:
1. Facebook (a hell of a lot more than once a day)
2. Bloglines
3. Scalzi's Whatever
4. Boing Boing

Four Places I Would Rather Be Right Now:
1. On a beach
2. In bed, sleeping
3. Sleeping on a beach
4. In bed with Jessica Alba in a five-star resort that backs onto the beach (not sleeping)

Four Books I’ve Read Lately:
1. Mirrorshades - ed. Bruce Sterling
2. The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner - James Hogg (for the record, blech!)
3. Fugitive Pieces - Anne Michaels
4. The Rent Collector - B. Glen Rotchin

I'd been having a pretty crummy day. Actually, yesterday wasn't so hot, either. Anyhow, sitting at work today, I was feeling a bit depressed. Since I work a really tedious data entry job, my mind tends to wander while I work. Today, it was wandering over the usual topics that have been the source of my anxiety lately (mostly money, or the lack thereof, for the curious readers). Then, while grooving to KT Tunstall and paying the lowest possible amount of attention to my work, the opening lines to a story started forming in my head.

Now, this is a pretty common occurrence for a writer, but I haven't been randomly struck by inspiration in...oh, I don't know, around six months. So, on my break, I grabbed the only available piece of paper (the back of a vacation request form) and covered the thing with the opening paragraphs of a story.

And then I felt great. Really, genuinely happy.

I'm not certain it'll go anywhere, because when I start a project without having an ending in mind, things tend to fizzle out at some point. Still, it's just the fact of inspiration that's got me in such a good mood.

When you're in a funk, especially an extended one, it's easy to forget how much fun writing can be.

Oh, and I also started reading Lolita. I'm only on page 50, but holy crap, does Nabokov ever rock.