NaNo 2010

Awesome Archival!

This blog is awesome: How to be a Retronaut. It showcases cool historical materials (most recent is Eiffel Tower blueprints) and weird stuff from the past. Very neat.

And in the news: The National Library in India has a Secret Chamber. No one knows what is in the secret chamber, since there is no way to enter it, not even a trap door, but some are predicting skeletons, or maybe even a treasure horde. They're going to bore a hole through the building and see.

I occurs to me that being hot, sweaty and uncomfortable in the middle of fall might indicate that I'm sick. That would also explain the lethargy and inability to get out of bed at a decent hour. I guess it's time to start drowning in tea.

Estes Park

A few weekends ago I went up to Estes Park with my uncle. It's most famous for being home to the Stanly Hotel, a haunted building that inspired Steven King's the Shining, but the best part of it for me was the trip there and back through winding mountain roads.

Last week I went back to Estes for a NaNo write in. I am sorely behind, so I figured going an hour and a half out of my way to sit and write was a good way to force my butt into action. It worked rather well. I got something like 10k out of that one day.

I opted to drive back that night instead of staying over and risk driving while exhausted. Turns out being the only car driving down dark, winding, steep roads with the music blasting is a ton of fun. I also ended up having to wait for a herd of caribou  Elk to cross the street right as I was leaving town, which was awesome. Caribou Elk are huge, and I was very glad that they were only interested in crossing the street and not in inspecting and/or starting a fight with the bright metal things in their way. Needless to say, I was very careful for the rest of the drive. Running into one of those things would not be pleasant at all.

Awesome Archival

Anatomy of an Auction by Bonhams.

The first two episodes (the last two videos) are the really interesting once. Provenance is inspected in a number of very rare books recently brought in for auction.

End of Fall Semester

PHEW. Fall semester is over. My last class was last night and I just have a few finishing touches to put on a project before the whole thing is behind me. But somehow, even though I have a two month break ahead of me, I feel like I'm busier than ever. It might be because:

• I've still got that internship and now I'm volunteering weekly
• I got a job (FINALLY) at an awesome place but it's 45 minutes away
• There's a NaNo novel looming over my head
• And a fantasy world project I committed to that must be finished by December
• I'm starting to take Chinese lessons
• It's time to go trolling for scholarships and internships
• And I have some work to do for the LIS publishing group that I have been putting off with the excuse of "I'll do it when the semester ends."
• Oh yeah, and two book reviews are over due. =x

So now that the essential schoolwork is out of the way all of the little stuff is bubbling to the surface. 

The last few weeks have been a little hairy. I continue to ignore my limits and attempt to take on much more than is humanly possible to fit into a 24 hour day, and the result was a few papers typed out franticly that barely made it to the deadline. Luckily, I also have a habit of researching deeply and throughout the semester, so I already had all of the information I needed, but had to scramble to organize it properly.

When I submitted my paper I was very disappointed with it. I realized early on that my intended paper would have to be 30 pages or so to fill it with the information I gathered, but the assignment called for 10. I cheated and made it 14, simply because I didn't have the time to streamline it any more than that, and submitted it with a wince. 

I just got the results back and apparently my professor was impressed, because I got 35 out of 30 possible points and was told to seek publication. My face as I read that e-mail probably looked something like this:

 

Definitely a happy surprise.

Inception

I have been on an Inception binge lately. Because I've had the soundtrack on infinite loop and have been scrounging around for clips and screenshots, I inevitably checked to see if there was any theater still showing it. Apparently it's running in dollar theaters now (Which are now $2.50 theaters, but still) so for a study break I drove down and watched again. 

A second viewing confirms my initial impression of Inception. It's a great movie, and all the details are all fucked up. The great thing about it is that it doesn't matter that a few moments of objective questioning will point out hundreds of places where the movie defied its own logic. The logic was not the important part of the movie. The story was. And the story was why the Inception was so good. It was psychologically driven, where every scene had a storytelling purpose, even if it didn't all mesh into a cohesive 'universe'. When I watch, there's a part of me that's going, "Wait a second..." but it's drowned out by the part that REALLY wants to know what's going to happen next, even though I've seen it before.

And of course there's also the part about it being fucking sharp style wise.

Inception: Badass men doing badass things in badass ways.

$2.50 well spent. Inception will probably be the next movie I buy, which is saying something, since I rarely buy movies. I think Shoot 'em Up was the last one I picked up, which was almost three years ago, and before that was Rajio no Jikan, which I bought in 2004. So yeah.

So... Damn... busy!

I'm rushing this out in the 10 minutes or so between all of the upkeep I've been doing for various project and rushing out the door to interview for the first 'real' job that has called me back in all of my eager searching.

First, not so awesome Archives:

US Loses Archival Matrial - Kind of lame.

Second, the 'capstone' speech at the Rally to Restore Sanity, by Jon Stewart.

"And now I thought we might have a moment, however brief, for some sincerity, if that’s ok; I know there are boundaries for a comedian, pundit, talker guy, and I’m sure I’ll find out tomorrow how I have violated them.

I’m really happy you guys are here, even if none of us are really quite sure why we are here. Some of you may have seen today as a clarion call for action, or some of the hipper, more ironic cats as a clarion call for ‘action.’ Clearly, some of you just wanted to see the Air and Space Museum and got royally screwed. And I’m sure a lot of you are here to have a nice time, and I hope you did. I know that many of you made a great effort to be here today, and I want you to know that everyone involved with this project worked incredibly hard to make sure that we honor the effort that you put in and gave you the best show we could possibly do. We know your time is valuable, and we didn’t want to waste it. And we are all extremely honored to have had a chance to perform for you on this beautiful space, on The Mall in Washington, D.C.

So, uh, what exactly was this? I can’t control what people think this was, I can only tell you my intentions. This was not a rally to ridicule people of faith, or people of activism, or to look down our noses at the heartland, or passionate argument, or to suggest that times are not difficult and that we have nothing to fear. They are and we do. But we live now in hard times, not end times. And we can have animus and not be enemies. But, unfortunately, one of our main tools in delineating the two broke. The country’s 24-hour, politico, pundit, perpetual, panic conflictanator did not cause our problems, but its existence makes solving them that much harder. The press can hold its magnifying glass up to our problems, bringing them into focus, illuminating issues heretofore unseen. Or they can use that magnifying glass to light ants on fire, and then perhaps host a week of shows on the sudden, unexpected, dangerous flaming ant epidemic. If we amplify everything, we hear nothing.

There are terrorists and racists and Stalinists and theocrats, but those titles that must earned; you must have the resume. Not being able to be able to distinguish between real racists and Tea Partiers, or real bigots and Juan Williams or Rick Sanchez is an insult, not only to those people, but to the racists themselves, who have put in the exhausting effort it takes to hate. Just as the inability to distinguish terrorists from Muslims makes us less safe, not more. The press is our immune system. If it overreacts to everything, we actually get sicker, and perhaps eczema. And yet, with that being said, I feel good: strangely, calmly good. Because the image of Americans that is reflected back to us by our political and media process is false. It is us through a fun-house mirror, and not the good kind that makes you look slim in the waist and maybe taller, but the kind where you have a giant forehead and an ass shaped like a month-old pumpkin with one eyeball.

So why would we work together? Why would you reach across the aisle to a pumpkin-assed, forehead, eyeball monster? If the picture of us were true, of course our inabilities to solve problems would actually be quite sane and reasonable. Why would you work with Marxists actively subverting our Constitution, or racists and homophobes who see no one’s humanity but their own? We hear every damn day about how fragile our country is, on the brink of catastrophe torn by polarizing hate. And how it’s a shame that we can’t work together to get things done. But the truth is, we do. We work together to get things done every damn day. The only place we don’t is here or on cable TV. But Americans don’t live here or on cable TV. Where we live, our values and principles form the foundation that sustains us while we get things done, not the barriers that prevent us from getting things done.

Most Americans don’t live their lives solely as Democrats, Republicans, Liberals, or Conservatives. Americans live their lives more as people that are just a little bit late for something they have to do. Often, something they do not want to do, but they do it. Impossible things every day, that are only made possible through the little reasonable compromises we all make.

Look. Look on the screen. This is where we are; this is who we are: these cars. That’s a schoolteacher who probably thinks his taxes are too high. He’s going to work. There’s another car. A woman with two small kids, can’t really think about anything else right now. There’s another car, swaying, I don’t even know if you can see it. The lady’s in the NRA and loves Oprah. There’s another car. An investment banker: gay, also likes Oprah. Another car’s a Latino carpenter. Another car a fundamentalist vacuum salesman. Atheist obstetrician. Mormon Jay-Z fan. But this is us. Every one of the cars you see is filled with individuals of strong beliefs and principles they hold dear. Often, principles and beliefs in direct opposition to their fellow travelers. And yet these millions of cars must somehow find a way to squeeze one by one into a mile-long, thirty-foot wide tunnel carved underneath a mighty river. Carved by people who by the way I’m sure had their differences. And they do it. Concession by concession. You go, then I’ll go. You go, then I’ll go. You go, then I’ll go. Oh my God, is that an NRA sticker on your car? Is that an Obama sticker on your car? Ah, well that’s okay, you go, then I’ll go. And sure, at some point there will be a selfish jerk who zips up the shoulder and cuts in at the last minute. But that individual is rare, and he is scorned not hired as an analyst.

Because we know instinctively as a people that if we are to get through the darkness and back into the light, we have to work together. And the truth is, there will always be darkness. And sometimes, the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t the promised land. Sometimes, it’s just New Jersey. But we do it anyway, together. If you want to know why I’m here and what I want from you, I can only assure you this: you have already given it to me. Your presence was what I wanted. Sanity will always be and has always been in the eye of the beholder. And to see you here today and the kind of people that you are has restored mine. Thank you.”

Jon Stewart at The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, October 30, 2010

There was a satellite rally in Denver, but I was busy training to volunteer at the local animal shelter and only managed to get there when everyone had already left. Oh well.

Today is NaNoWriMo kickoff. I went to a kickoff party, which was an excellent choice, as at midnight some 30 people went utterly silent and started getting to work. I wrote for an hour and a half, almost making the mark for the day, and then drove home before I felt like I would be too tired to do so. I don't know if this NaNo will be a success, but I'm already off to a better start than usual.

A -lot- more happened this week, but I don't have the time to talk about it. I'm very much looking forward to the winter break, where I can catch up on things and maybe even clean my room.