Season's End

Last week, sweaters and jackets ruled the town. Crisp breezes blew through trees and tossed around leaves. This week, the sweat-inducing sun looms overhead while I come to realize that a three quarter sleeved shirt may not have been the wisest choice this morning. Every year it seems like we go through phases of cold snaps that become a few days of cold, a few days of hot, a few more days of cold, a few more days of hot, until finally you rage at how you can't just enjoy opening the windows without one extreme dramatically altering the temperature of your home. The electric company must enjoy sitting, watching the meters tick faster, rubbing their hands together with the knowledge that soon they'll own a higher percentage of your paycheck. People always talk about how wonderful it must be to live in Florida -- the same people only come here on vacations to theme parks and beaches. The concept of sweltering, sticky heat between March and October doesn't quite seem to register. All that registers in their minds are our warmer temperatures when they're shoveling snow. Enjoy that lovely, glittery snow, my friends -- it'll keep you cool when that mercury starts to rise. In fact, I'm sitting here right now brooding about how I'd prefer not to be sweaty and disgusting, envious that other parts of the country enjoy a gradual season change.

To each his own, right?

Longing

Staring blankly out the window, I wonder what I should say. Where does one go from here? As I gaze sullenly out the window, I realize I’d much rather be napping in a hammock this afternoon. All of my energy seems to have waned indefinitely, and I feel heavy and weak. The clear blue sky looks so warm and comforting. The trees sway in a lovely breeze, the leaves flapping as the wind brushes against them. People begin to disperse – that daily grind coming to an end for them. Yet here I am, agonizing over my lack of inspiration. It must be the absence of caffeine. Oh how I miss the sweet morning nectar that injects life into my soul – liquid motivation. I glaze over, contemplating how I’m ever going to manage the next adventure life has presented to me. I sip the room temperature water and brush the hair out of my eyes. A small voice insides nags, “show, don’t tell!” I cringe. How can you not see what I’m trying to convey to you?! I cry out indignantly. Perhaps if I were Hemingway, I would immediately grasp the concept of showing versus telling. My mind drifts again, picking apart the many faults I own. Isn’t it wonderful when the mind plays this game? That negative self-talk that consistently arises at the worse possible moments – we really need to muster the motivation to do whatever it is we’re doing, and that wretched little voice comes along to remind us of our flaws. Just who does it think it is to tell me I’m not good enough?

I adjust myself in my chair, remembering I’ve agreed to lock the other building this evening. My reminder hasn’t popped up in a while. I check to see if I perhaps dismissed the alarm – indeed I did. I click snooze again, knowing I still have ample time left in my day. The blue sky looks quite inviting again. If only unbridled energy fell from the sky, then I would harness it for my personal gain. Of course, this is the real world we live in. Perhaps a lovely dinner will recharge my empty reserves.

Make Over Time!

(Preface: This entry will be entirely about my sister blog.)


I have become dissatisfied with the appearance of my blog. The purple background seemed quite appealing at the time, but it longer seems suitable for my professional blog. I'm unsure as to what I'd like my layout to look like just yet, though. Should I go the path of choosing a premade theme again? Should I take iniative to create my own? If I create my own, what should I do? Should I use an image? Should it be simple? Designing usually takes quite a bit of effort on my part simply because I consider all the finer details, no matter how simple or trivial they may be. I really probably agonize over this much more than I should.

Writing Prompts

Writing prompts can be helpful and confining at the same time. On a daily basis, I might not necessarily have a clear writing subject, so I search for a writing prompt. Of course, most writing prompts I find seem to be of a personal nature -- not quite what I'd choose to publish in my professional blog. Herein lies my dilemma. I click the button to regenerate the prompts until I find something suitable. When I find something suitable, half the time I don't really have any good ideas to follow up with a good string of words. Rather than choosing a prompt to stumble through, I click again only to find the same chain of privacy invading prompts -- sometimes an already generated prompt, even! I suppose this should serve as a sign to use more creativity, shouldn't it? Writers are expected to be creative, regardless of whether or not they are "creative writers." Perhaps tomorrow I'll think of an excellent topic.

Eyes

Blue. Green. Brown. Hazel. Blood-shot. Bright. Glassy. Many words describe the appearance of one's eyes. In some cultures, we look into each other's eyes to instill fear, intimidation, feelings of love, trust, attention, etc. We count the number of times a politician blinks to see who's the more honest of the two debating issues of healthcare, military, and taxes. We use eye color to identify ourselves. We use the eyes to identify underlying diseases. Some even call eyes "the window to the soul." Eyes can vary in shades, flecked with several colors unique to each individual. Eyes show the world when we are tired, sad, happy, angry, drunk, on drugs, healthy, or just plain existing. People flirt by winking at a prospective mate. We take in our surroundings with our eyes. We find pleasant sights and horrific sights. We survey danger in order to flee or protect. The eyes are an incredible pair of organs.

Food Review: PizzaVito

Recently, a little pizzeria called PizzaVito opened up here in town. It was my mission to taste their pizza upon learning that we were getting a new pizza place, but reading an article claiming they use geniune NYC water gave me a new purpose: to prove or disprove this information. So on Friday we ordered the best thing to test whether or not a pizzeria really can claim to sell "New York Pizza" -- a cheese pizza, specifically the 18" "giant" variety.

Upon inspection, the cheese looked superbly melted and shiny, the crust was golden and crisp. I absolutely adore how the mozzarella stretching when you bite into a fresh slice of pizza, and I was not disappointed in the least. The sauce had the distinct flavor of a sauce I vaguely remember from my days as a New Yorker -- not too spicy, not too tart, just smooth tomato sauce thinly applied to the crust. As for the crust, it was a bit chewier than I would have liked, but I'll chalk it up to transit time (all wonderful things become soggy after a bit of time). However, I'm pleased to say I did NOT taste the awful sulfuric water of Gainesville in the crust! Nor was I met with the typical frozen, factory-made nonsense you'll find at most fast food pizza chains. Seeing as how I've not been back to NYC since August of 2000, I really couldn't say with 100% certainty that it was the real deal, but I will say that PizzaVito's makes the best pizza I've had outside of NYC.

I give PizzaVito 5 out of 5 stars. I've got a new favorite pizzeria!

This might be mostly local...

...but that doesn't mean people can't check out the site at least. A hotel here in town is hosting a wedding cake competition to raise money for the St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital.

http://www.letseatcakefundraiser.com/

Obviously, it's for a great cause. I'm thinking about shelling out the $25 for a ticket to go see some lovely cakes and enjoy samples. We shall see! ;D

"But What Can I Do?"

How many times do you find yourself lamenting over the social injustices you see in the world, yet you quickly ask yourself the title question? All too often, I hear people utter this question before they return to their daily activities. Do you know what happens next? Nothing changes. The same problem continues, people think that one person can't make a difference, lather, rinse, repeat. I find this horribly depressing, especially seeing as how the globally economy has spiraled into a dark, scary pit.


But what CAN you do? Simple -- get off your hands, open your mouth, and fight. I'm not talking about fighting with your fists. On the contrary, I'm asking you to fight with your words. For starters, did you know that our government is in place to do our bidding? If you've been sitting at home on election day, you haven't been exercising your right to tell the government what you'd like them to do. Constituents like you and I can write and/ or call our representatives on every level -- local, county, state, even federal government is within your reach. Asides from contacting our representatives, we can also join forces with like-minded people. The ASPCA is an entire group of people working to ensure that animals are treated well. The AARP functions as a group to help better the 50+ crowd. Mothers Against Drunk Driver obviously are a group of mothers fighting against drunk driving. The point is that you can find a group of like-minded people to further your cause.


Obviously, things won't change overnight -- but wouldn't it be worth the effort to see the world become a better place?

Continuing Education Sans the Institution

I must agree with Mark Twain: "Don't let schooling interfere with your education." In my case, it's not so much my current school so much as my lack of schooling. I'm not entirely sure what I plan to do about graduate school at this stage of my life, but I do know I want to learn all I can about electracy. With the consent of Dr. Ulmer, I've chosen to "take" his courses on my own free time without concern for the technicalities of acceptance and admission into a graduate school.


For my first order of business, I intend to read and review Dr. Ulmer's sites and blog. Reading what he has done will prove to be enriching, educating, inspiring, and above all telling of the projects I'll be updated and/ or undertaking. Secondly, I need to locate the books -- a few are actually in the on campus libraries. Luckily, I enjoy the benefit of the UF libraries as a UF employee, so it would appear that I have the luxury of reading these books for free. As I have a... "discrepancy" with the county library, I'll have to wait to clear that up before utilizing it for the remaining books I can't find on campus. Suffice it to say I need to stop forgetting to drop off that book to the book mobile. Next, I'll take notes from the books much like I did in Ulmer's classes. Finally, I'll revisit my projects from Internet Literature and Hypermedia to either update what I currently have or build from scratch.


As it stands, I have much to read and so much more to learn. And with that, I realize my auto-time has already been set back an hour. Didn't WP get the memo that we won't get our hour back until November 9th?

Blog Neglect

Regrettably, I am 100% guilty of blog neglect. It would seem I work in phases of writing activity. Perhaps I could blame an increase in my work load between mid-August and late-September, but I'm merely grasping for a scapegoat when I should only blame myself.

While directing a professor to the chair of the English department to find technical writing students to edit papers, I decided to check in on Dr. Ulmer, my favorite English professor. Okay, let's be honest -- my all-around favorite professor. I discovered that he's created a blog, of course in typical fashion as well. I've been inspired to sit down, review his course syllabi, start revamping my MyStory, and taking on new projects. I certainly could use the direction, and Dr. Ulmer is a pioneer on the subject matter. After all, he did coin the term "electracy." I consider myself extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to take his classes.

I've been inspired to sit and write a bit more after reviewing a couple pages of his blog, so hopefully I will manage to be more productive with my writing in the coming days and weeks.