XoLeIn GaEpRuXoMyRuEp

so.... much.... of tired....

looking for an apt is very stressful, and I'm winding back at the same two places I was thinking of before. The only super cheap place has underground parking. And I'm not sure of the area. Nor of living in a 3 story apt building, tottering over a parking lot, so make it a 4 story apt bldg, and I live in the bay area, near a faultline. Not to mention going up and down in an elevator with strangers twice a day. That seems really dangerous to me.

Clearly, I've lived in the suburbs too long.

bettielee said:

so.... much.... of tired....

looking for an apt is very stressful, and I'm winding back at the same two places I was thinking of before. The only super cheap place has underground parking. And I'm not sure of the area. Nor of living in a 3 story apt building, tottering over a parking lot, so make it a 4 story apt bldg, and I live in the bay area, near a faultline. Not to mention going up and down in an elevator with strangers twice a day. That seems really dangerous to me.

Clearly, I've lived in the suburbs too long.

Click to expand...

Debio hates the movings. Debio hates the thinking about movings.

Bettielee needs the hugzies?

amergina said:

Moving sucks.

Click to expand...

Tell me about it. I had to move from Singapore to eastern Canada a few years back. With two cats. Cats do not handle a 9300+ mile trip very well.

zanzjan said:

In a fit of I-dunno-what-I-was-thinking, I posted something for critique over on the poetry board. I don't know which is worse, dreading the shredding I'm surely going to get, or dreading the wait until the shredding begins...

I should not have posted.

Click to expand...

Eh, the poetry folks can be pretty forgiving. (Honestly, too forgiving some of the time, I think.)

I've posted a number of poems over the years and usually done ok.

slcboston said:

Eh, the poetry folks can be pretty forgiving. (Honestly, too forgiving some of the time, I think.)

I've posted a number of poems over the years and usually done ok.

Click to expand...

BRB

*Goes diving into the poetry board box cutter and red pen in hand*

*returns, sheepishly hiding box cutter and red pen*

*sniff*

*HONK*

*hides tissue in back pocket*

zanzjan said:

That helps to hear, actually. I am insecure about my poetry (I mean, even more than I am insecure about everything else.)

Click to expand...

I understand this completely. Poetry makes you bare yourself for abuse more than fiction. Its more personal. I'm afraid to try it, and use the excuse that I don't have anything particular to say at the moment.

zanzjan said:

Yeah, and that poem goes deep into the personal for me.

I'm taking a poetry class and I turned in a poem last time that was entirely based on the ingredients of coca-cola (Can you say "lacking time and inspiration"? Yes we can!) The instructor felt it was "not appropriate material". Humph.

Click to expand...

1. I thought it may be. I'm still digesting. It's still filtering down to the deeper levels.

2.Oh, well, if you ever try that one again, my advice is to make it either humorous or an attack on the right wing corporate oligarchy. Those types of poems go over pretty well in poetry classes.*

*Debio was an English lit major with creative writing classes on the side.(Japanese minor, and a boatload of science/math/etc classes cause they were cool. I can snark on the Lit folk, I was wunnuvem.)

Debio said:

*Debio was an English lit major with creative writing classes on the side.(Japanese minor, and a boatload of science/math/etc classes cause they were cool. I can snark on the Lit folk, I was wunnuvem.)

Click to expand...

Fellow English major here, slashed with Art.

Okay, question to the masses. For those of you that took creative writing at a college or university level, did you find it helpful? I've attended them at two different universities at my time, both introductory and advanced, and had nothing but frustration (possibly because they were treated as elective classes instead of essential to a major).

UrbanAmazon said:

Fellow English major here, slashed with Art.

Okay, question to the masses. For those of you that took creative writing at a college or university level, did you find it helpful? I've attended them at two different universities at my time, both introductory and advanced, and had nothing but frustration (possibly because they were treated as elective classes instead of essential to a major).

Click to expand...

The only helpful thing I found with them, to tell the truth, was adding credits to my schedule. Sucks huh?

First, even if the prof was willing none, and I mean none of the other students in the particular classes I took would give genre the time of day. The prof was cool with it, though.

Second, our goals were different. I wanted to tell a story that the reader would enjoy. The reader could finish and say, "cool" then get on with their life. I didn't want tears, or heart rending, or anger, or world changing events, unless it made the story "cool."

They on the other hand all wanted to show off how brilliant they were. To paraphrase John Scalzi, "The failure mode of brilliant is idiot."

I spent most of my time entertaining the professor writing my genre but putting my classmates in the story in not so subtle ways. But because it was genre and they were all caught up in dissing genre they never caught on.

*disclaimer - it was one of those expensive private liberal arts colleges that put me in debt to my ears. So, use your own imagination for the student body.

Debio said:

Debio hates the movings. Debio hates the thinking about movings.

Bettielee needs the hugzies?

Click to expand...

yeah.... pretty much!

amergina said:

Moving sucks.

Click to expand...

it does, indeed, and you should see the state of my apt

zanzjan said:

Moving definitely sucks, esp. when you're not sure where to. I'm in dire need of a bigger place, but even *thinking* about moving is overwhelming and stressful, and I'm not actually trying to DO it.

Click to expand...

me, too's. It's hard to juggle all the amenities, vs. the pros and the cons, and then the cons start to fight, and I can't live without a dishwasher - I cannot go through all this trouble of moving and not have a dishwasher.

Shoeless said:

Tell me about it. I had to move from Singapore to eastern Canada a few years back. With two cats. Cats do not handle a 9300+ mile trip very well.

Click to expand...

oh... I could not imagine having to do that! Just to get kitty across town is stressful enough.

bettielee said:

oh... I could not imagine having to do that! Just to get kitty across town is stressful enough.

Click to expand...

Yeah, no kidding. Do you guys have any idea how difficult it is to get a terrified, half blind, full grown adult male cat out from under the front seat of a station wagon?

The next time I moved he got the sleepy pills. Sorry bud.

amergina said:

*has two CW degrees, a BA and an MFA*

I found them all helpful. Undergrad was more lit and poetry focused, to the point of genre getting the big old stink-eye, but I learned to handle critique and learned a lot about character development.

Grad was utterly genre-focused, and I learned how much you could learn from genres not your own and that good writing is good writing. Oh, and how to critique. And how important a community of writers is.

Click to expand...

I will agree with the community thing. 'Tis why I love AW so much. And my experience, in my school, as an undergrad may have been unusual.

I would love to see a crossover of the standard lit classes and creative writing classes. Have someone teach the lit class from a writers perspective. How do things work, did they work, what may have worked better, kind of thing.

I'd take that.

Debio said:

I will agree with the community thing. 'Tis why I love AW so much. And my experience, in my school, as an undergrad may have been unusual.

I would love to see a crossover of the standard lit classes and creative writing classes. Have someone teach the lit class from a writers perspective. How do things work, did they work, what may have worked better, kind of thing.

I'd take that.

Click to expand...

Seconded, in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, what I got were classes that felt, for lack of a better description, high-school. While I did have, finally, a community to try sharing ideas and writing samples with, the class was way too large to have anything approaching a constructive response, and didn't even glance at creative writing as a craft with potential toward industry.

Fortunately, I also have AW... to slowly chip away at that adamantium slouch of shyness that I have yet to ditch on my own. In theory.

Debio said:

Yeah, no kidding. Do you guys have any idea how difficult it is to get a terrified, half blind, full grown adult male cat out from under the front seat of a station wagon?

The next time I moved he got the sleepy pills. Sorry bud.

Click to expand...

I'm sure it was a blessing for him... and for anyone at the end of his claws.

bettielee said:

I'm sure it was a blessing for him... and for anyone at the end of his claws.

Click to expand...

Do you guys have any idea how difficult it is to get a terrified, half blind, full grown adult male cat to take his sleepy pills....


Oh, I think we did that one already.

I loved that cat, be he had his issues.

Debio said:

OMG!, the DOUBLE FISTED KITTY ATTACK OF CUTE! there is no defence.

Click to expand...

I know! I'm dooooomed!

AbielleRose said:

D'awwwwwwwwww! <3 They're such manipulative little things, aren't they? Severus, the little boy kitty (his sister is named Lily and they have Hogwarts house collars- Slytherin for Sev and Gryffendor for Lily ), likes to do something naughty, not listen when I say 'no' so I have to get up and move him or bat him away and then he'll meow sadly and curl up on my lap like he's in time-out. Every time.

Click to expand...

First: omg, total name wins! Second: I want collars like that for Sophie and Fez! Third: yeah... That's familiar. Except my kitties aren't cuddlers, so they just give me that hurt look, like I've just taken their favourite toy and ripped its head off in front of them...

UrbanAmazon said:

Okay, question to the masses. For those of you that took creative writing at a college or university level, did you find it helpful?

Click to expand...

I had three CW classes at university level and I found them extremely useful. The short story class was a good intro to discussing my work in a group setting, which helped me develop thick skin. It also meant I spent butt in chair time at least once a week for a new story. Very few of my fellow students liked the fantasy genre and they weren't very kind, but to be fair, I disliked their pretentious 'literary' stuff, too. Who wants to read 10 pages of stream of consciousness about sunlight dappled leaves? I don't, especially if it's a vehicle for author ego.

The poetry class showed me how much I suck at poetry. I don't enjoy reading or writing it, for the most part. I never found a way to tell a good story with it. I've come around a bit after hearing (editing...) some very good readings of Tennyson's work a few years ago, but it's still not my bag, really.

Debio said:

I spent most of my time entertaining the professor writing my genre but putting my classmates in the story in not so subtle ways. But because it was genre and they were all caught up in dissing genre they never caught on.

*disclaimer - it was one of those expensive private liberal arts colleges that put me in debt to my ears. So, use your own imagination for the student body.

Click to expand...

I so wish I'd thought of that! My short story profs were very encouraging, actually. One of them was the first to recommend I submit something. I did and got a rejection postcard, but it was an interesting experience.

My uni was like that, too (private out of state was cheaper than paying out of state fees, though, by about 10 grand a year). It was big on theatre arts and communications, too, so lots of drama.

UrbanAmazon said:

For those of you that took creative writing at a college or university level, did you find it helpful?

Click to expand...

Also an English major, minor in film. I took some kind of Creative Writing class for three of my years at school. I was incredibly lucky though. Even though I can't say I fit in the other students (classic case of an interest in genre fiction while everyone else had literary aspirations) my professors were incredibly supportive. I think they were amused about me being unapologetic about my non-literariness.

My creative writing prof told me that she wasn't interested in turning us into better writers according to some standard, she was interested in helping us become the writers we wanted to become. So I actually learned a lot from her about just believing in my own interests and pursuing them. I know a lot of people had horror stories about Creative Writing classes, but my experience was incredibly valuable.

Okay. I have a suggestion. So far, I don't think any folks here will need it, but it's the ones who surprise you that really need it most.

I have just read through the entire Immortal Ink thread over in bewares. Classic example of a meltdown, if you haven't been there. I have no interest in saying anything about the specifics or even generalities of that thread. This is a meta-comment.

I propose that here in the Cantina, we make a code phrase. Something, weird and obscure, that we can give to other cantinaites who are in danger of, or god forbid, in the process of going through such a meltdown. Hopefully this codeword will help to pull said person back from the abyss of self destruction long enough for them to think about what they are doing.

It needs to be something innocuous so when we use it, if said person is in the middle of meltdown-mode, they won't see it as an attack.

So no, "Hey, lighten up asshole" just won't work.

With it we can look out for one another.