Writing a website

What started as a simple school project has become an all-consuming problem. The original assignment was to make a website. The teacher assumed that we would use something like Dreamweaver or Frontpage to do the bulk of the work. That would be the easy way. That would be the way of the rational person. That would not be my way.

So I've started learning how HTML, and CSS, and Javascript work. These are the scripting languages that make webpages so shiny today. I remember back in the days of yore when webpages were basically just a bunch of text and links that were jumbled together. None of this fancy-pantsy graphics stuff. It was brute information and long loading times. Now it's all about design, layout, menu tabs, pretty pictures, and advertisements that you can't shut up.

Such is the price of progress I suppose.

Learning this stuff is a pain. I content myself with the hope that I'm learning something that I'll be able to apply in the future. The internet is not going away, so the more comfortable I become with the parts of it, the better. It is, however, a headache and far less tempting that going out and playing in the snow.

Right, back to work.
Progress will be posted when it is achieved!

A new start!

I greatly enjoy writing. As long as I can remember, I've enjoyed telling stories and am blessed with an imagination that is much more colourful than the world around me. I've always had a desire to put my ideas down on paper and to develop them more fully. Unfortunately, my desire to write has always been two steps behind my ability to procrastinate and be utterly unproductive. Generally, my university papers are written in a flurry of last minute activity that starts 11 o'clock in the evening before my paper is due and ends five minutes after I need to hand in my work. I know this is not the recommended way of completing a university paper (though it seems to be the most popular way), and I've tried to change my ways but with little success as of yet. I've examined the problem a number of times and have concluded that one needs three things to write.

1)Time to write.

2)An clear idea of what you are going to write about.

3)A lack of distractions that would prevent productivity.

In general, I have no shortage of the first thing and I generally fake the second. The problem tends to be the third criteria, as have the attention span of a gnat on a sugar rush. I can't count the number of times I've said to myself, “alright, you will work from now until dinner time on such and such a project” and ended up reading page after page of material that has less than no relevance to the work at hand. Personally, I blame the internet. It's such a diverse source of utterly random information! And stupid internet games! To hell with solitaire, people publish all sorts of games for free that keep me amused and productivity free for hours! Unfortunately, I generally need the internet for general research and all the useful bits of the internet are just two clicks away from the utterly useless. I feel like a magpie rooting through a junkyard, there is plenty of usable material but so many shiny objects to peck at!

And here I am, throwing yet another thing out onto the internet and possibly helping other people procrastinate. The circle is complete.

All that rambling to introduce my newest project. I am starting this blog as my writing blog, though it's not actually about writing. It will be a practice space where I can work on developing my writing skills; this will be my studio. I will practice and hopefully master the art of writing in a way that entertains and informs. It's a good excuse to spend a little more time looking at what goes on in the world around me. Which means looking things up on the internet. Well, I suppose I can forward to wasting many a happy moment being sidetracked.

. . .

Sorry about that. I wanted to look up something about penguins.

Anyway, this is going to be my pet writing project. I realize that normally people spend a great deal of time and effort to make sure that only their best work becomes available to the public. In fact, many authors hide behind a pen name when they are writing something that they feel is below their usual standard. Not everything an artist creates successfully fulfils its creators hopes, but this doesn't worry me. I actually feel that I'm writing something quite private since, well, this is just one more blog on the internet. Like Poe's purloined letter, my writing will be hidden in plain sight, and hopefully, those who do read it will be to some extent entertained, informed, and only minimally offended.

My plan is to write daily, in both English and French. I will be putting it through all the steps, planning, revising, etc. Hopefully with practice this will become quality writing. My goal is to write a minimum of 500 words in English and then translate it into French the next day. If I miss a day, I have to do both parts on the next. If everything works out, I'll be writing over 3000 words a week, in my spare time. I understand that this ambitious but I like to set high goals, fail, lower them a touch, succeed and jump right back up crush my original goals. It's a loft ideal, but if I want to become writer, I shall have to write.

Translating all of this into French will be the largest challenge. I've never actually translated into written French and this will hopefully help me improve my French composition skills. In general, it takes me twice as long to compose something in French from scratch, so my hopes are that this will help me speed things up. The advantage in this is that since I'm the original author of the English text, I don't have to worry about not understanding some point of the work to be translated. While the works will remain analogous, I'm hoping that eventually I'll be able to taking more liberties in the French versions. My final goal will be to be able to become as comfortable in written French as I am in spoken French.

I will also be posting my short works of fiction. This is fairly important since this is the form and style that I like best and dream of eventually mastering. As poor Vero can attest, I have many collections of short fiction and love to read them to both study the style and enjoy the work. With time, I hope to be able to put more and more stories out so that they are no longer just cobbled together constructions hiding in the recesses of my laptop's hard-drive. I will take these stories, cut out the bits I don't like, polish the bits that work, and add anything that is missing until they become striking examples of the genre.

What more can be said about this? Nothing! This is only the introduction after all, so there is no point in dragging it out needlessly. Which may or may not be what I have already done.

Onwards!

Late again

It may simply become more efficient for me to write in the morning, but I don't really want to worry about that at the moment.

Yesterday, was kind of typical for me. I started out with the best intentions and then ended up dicking around for entirely too long. Finally, I ended up rushing off to class, arriving with five minutes to spare, and nothing really accomplished. Unless I can get a job playing flash games. Or setting up tower defences. Man, why don't these flash games teach me anything that I can apply?

And so I bitch, and I'm bitching about being lazy.

Public speaking was interesting. We saw the first half of the presentations. I noted alot of stuff, but what struck me the most was a) get some cue cards, b) use powerpoint, c) use humour. It's the last that is probably the most important, since there was just one that really had both humour and content. Christian did an excellent one on laughing, but it's not really something that we need to be convinced to do. So, my topic, we are not nearly as informed as we imagine, which I need to figure out how I can make it engaging, informative, and entertaining.

I talked with my cousin Sam yesterday, it was funny. It felt like I connected more with him in that moment more than, well, a long time. Maybe I've always had difficulty with this sort of thing. Dunno, I guess I'll see when I get to BC.

I'm going to sign off and get on with my day. I'm kind of procrastinating at the moment. Tomorrow I try to make a Vblog!

Missed a wednesday

And so thurday will be a double header.

Not that I did anything particular last night, but I'll get to that.

My psycho-pedagogy course is winding up. I've managed to struggle my way through it without really reading the required material. In all honesty, I'm kind of ashamed of my performance as a student. Ah well, I'm going to have to pay for it now. I'm setting up my final study sessions for the upcoming END OF ALL TIME! Or end of session if you don't feel like being so terribly dramatic. Anyway, psycho-pedagogy. For the final exam, they allow you one page of notes, double sided, written however you want. For the mid-term it was single sided and I filled a double columned page with 6 point text with virtually everything that I could think might possibly show up on the test. And then . . . I barely used it in the test.

This time, I've learned! This time, I'm going to review the material multiple times, to make sure I have a firm understanding of the principles! This time . . . I'm probably going to use a magnifying glass because 4 point text is REALLY hard to read.

Then there was discussions after class, reflections on the upcoming Canadian Prose test, and I helped Janie work on her presentation. I've still got to do mine, though I've had a breakthrough in what I'm going to do. I'm staying with convincing people that they know less than they think they do. The salent point is that people don't use analytical/critical thinking. They just take other people's opinions and adopt them. Natural? Yes, but not particularly advantaging in the long run. This is an example of how as a society we have grown beyond the simple survivalistic life style and need work towards creating ways that a social equilibrium can be reached. 

In other news, I was reminded how rich Canada is. I think as Canadians we have a bit of an inferiority complex living next to the Vespugians (United Statesians). I was recently flipping through some world facts (comparing our national produce and whatnot to other countries; sort of a way of checking the national pissing contests) and it became quite evident that Canada is actually doing pretty well for itself. As a friend of mine (Shannon) recently remarked, "Of course we're rich, I'm working on becoming a career counciler. They don't have that in poor countries, people are happy to be able to just get food on the table." In a way, I have grown up surrounded by affluence, but been unaware of it. Huh. 

Did anything else happen worth noting? I'm terribly behind on my speaq quest, but an idea is starting to blossom. I don't want to talk about it now for fear of crushing the poor thing. I'm still addicted to flash games and really need to study this a bit more. I'm still more or less lost in linguistics and so have to read a couple chapters on it per day for the next week. Herm. Alright, let's get rolling.

On this Tuesday

Back in the saddle! I'd like to say that I was bursting at my creative seams and seems and finally caved in and decided to write here once again. In reality, it's part of a larger plan. See, I spent the morning watching Loading Ready Run videos, (specifically phailhaus, Graham is dreamy . . .) and became inspired to create a VBlog. Video Blog. Video Web Log. Right.

So the point of this is that I need to set my ideas down somewhere, and where better than some backwards blog that nobody looks at. Ah, anonymity, you make my life so easy, and quiet. So I shall segue (pronounced seg-way . . . weird) into what happened today.

The short version: wasted morning watching LRR (or invested?), got up and headed off to Canadian Prose, found I was accepted in my new program, found the site writing world, and afterwards linguistics where I dicked around and then told jokes to the teacher after class.

In greater detail:
Canadian Prose was a bout Hope something something by David Richard Adams. Grr, now I have to look that up. "Hope in the Desperate Hour". I'm looking forward to reading it. I know I was supposed to read it before I went to class, but alot of things were supposed to happen that never finally did, like Y2K. So I'll be organized and ontime when society collapses because of some piddly computer error.

The class was pretty much about the book. It's fiction, mostly realist, though I'd be willing to argue that it has post-modern elements . . . but I'm obstreperous. Anyway I shouldn't talk too much about the book since I haven't read it, and I'm due for bed.

During class (when the teacher was telling us something important, like where we can pick up our marked essays) I found out that I have been unconditionally accepted in the English Cultural Studies program. YAY! ME! YAY ME! Who knows where this will take me, but I'm betting I'll enjoy the ride.

Other important notes? Not so much. I discovered a wealth of resources on the writing-world website, so I'll have something to latch onto when I finish my entirely uninspired SPEAQ quest. Sigh, and I was so looking forward to that course. Ah well, I might pass it anyway.

But I should be off to bed. I have much PSP tomorrow morning to contend with.

My study program

I've now started almost all my courses. I say almost for the obvious reason that they haven't all started, but for the less obvious reason that three of my courses have been bumped forward a week, so I'm still waiting to get two of them rolling. So far the courses that have managed to bump their way into first gear have been interesting. I've got a French course that will happily beat my brain into submission with the convoluted rules and exceptions that make up the normal workings of this language. I'm looking forward to it with a sort of masochistic glee, without any real hopes of passing it. I keep telling myself that I like the challenge, and one day I may just start to believe it. I've got English courses as well, which look to be fun, and are the major reason that I and blugeoning myself back into writing. I'm especially looking forwards to the grammar course, where the teacher keeps saying, "Ok, class, remember the first rule . . . Don't Panic." I'll have to ask him if he's read hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. The teacher himself seems to be quite the character, soft voiced, hyperactive, and with a tendancy to wander off in his jokes. In short, my sort of chap.

Of course, I'm still working to take this all in. It's a bit of a shock to think that I will one day hold down a respectable job, that will make respectable money, and (here's the one from bizzaro world) actually be respectable. This is an odd prospect, since I've always sort of gone out of my way to be a twit. I mean, given the choice between popularity and notoriety I will always take the latter. You get to be the central part of such entertaining stories later! Of course, this far from disqualifies me from teaching. In fact if I'm aiming to become an eccentric coot, I'll fit right in working at public schools. I'm shooting for secondary education, with all those tender spirits to crush . . . I mean young minds to shape. We shall see I suppose. 

Though I guess one of the reasons I want to get into teaching is that it seems like it can open so many opportunities to me later in life. I can teach English internationally, and get a chance to see the world and live in it. I can take some extra courses and get a bachelors in English studies, which would allow me to write, and the experience gained with teaching can only give me a plethora of rich anecedotes. Heck, I didn't even phase my teachers, so they much have dealt with people like me before. Either that or they had become so jaded that even my zany antics bounced off their thick teacher carapaces. That's a depressing thought.

Well, here we are up to date with the news on school. I suppose from here on in, I'll focus on writing whatever I think during the day, and so my writing can in some way serve as a journal and possibly be less dull that be rambling on about my school. For the moment though, this is what I've written and I'm sticking to it. I suppose that I have a major advantage when it comes to chosing content with this, since I'm not actually trying to attract readers. As I said to my brother Knoll yesterday, I don't actually expect anyone to schlog through my blog and consequently haven't actually told anyone that it exists. If anyone actually has the bad taste to read this, they has be mercilessly booed and hooted at. You've been warned!

University begins

I've started university. This may seem like a fairly bland statement for the majority of the population, but for me it's big. People who haven't or aren't going to university will probably shrug a little as if to say, good for him. Those who have or are going to university would nod a bit as a manner of saying approximately the same thing. For me though, this is the first step onto a path that will carry me to being what and where I want. For me, this is a frightening prospect. To me, I'm looking into the void of my future. I'm coping by not thinking about it.

Of course, with University comes schoolwork, which is good. I'm the sort of proactive procrastinator who can spend a day just letting my brain percolate. University and its unbending schedules and workloads is a kick in the ass in the right direction. It's getting me back into reading and analyzing what I'm reading. I've once again had to start beating my head against the brick wall of the french language, hoping that the language gives way before my skull. Most importantly though, it brings me back to writing, and hopefully once again wielding the English language like a rapier; fluidly and precisely with jabs towards my opponents squishy bits. 

Which brings us to this blog. No, the point of it isn't to stab people's squishy bits. At least, it's principle point isn't. I'll keep my options open for now. The point is more for me to express myself is a semi-stream of conciousness style on whatever topic I have picked. The end goal of all this is to get back to writing in English. I will be limiting myself so that I don't fall into the same trap of my earlier attempts, which devolved into alot of hot air gargling.

So here we are. About three times a week, I set myself the challenge of writing at least 300 words in the beautiful English language, and at least once a week they have to make some sort of sense. Next entry: My program.