What I learned from my friend Cameron, the electrician. "Check stupid first."

The pendant light he installed in my dining room this summer quit working about two weeks ago. I finally got around to calling him yesterday. While I was talking to him, I pushed the light switch again...and turned up the dimmer. Lo and behold, my light magically worked again.

I should have learned this a few weeks ago when the package scale in my office seemed to be weighing everything incorrectly. That feels like 3 lbs. to me, I would think, but it's only registering about 1.4. Hmmm. Several days went by before I realized the switch had been bumped to kilograms.

Check stupid first, indeed. Oh, and trust yourself every now and then.

After all of my academic reading for this semester, for both classes, I am left with the burning question, "What do British writers have against commas?!"

And the letter "z" for that matter.

I have a postcard with a single word on it tacked to the small bulletin board above my computer. The word is ANGST, and it is rarely more appropriate than when the end of a semester is nigh.

One moment I'm euphoric: this research paper/project/essay is going so well! I'm an academic genius! The next, I'm in the depths: this research paper/project/essay is an utter failure. Who do I think I'm kidding?

It is altogether energizing, frustrating, stimulating, intriguing, maddening and gratifying.

Monday's peer review and individual meeting with Dr. Amidon was most useful in helping me with project clarification. Michael, fellow student, asked thought-provoking questions about the direction the biographical piece would take. He made some suggestions, which we discussed: a chronological progression? Thematic? Where does my voice come in?

I came to the conclusion (I think) that MJ's story might best be laid out story to story. It was her many interesting anecdotes over the years that inspired the idea to write about her life. Each chapter can begin with one of her amusing, outlandish, thoughtful stories and be fleshed out with factual, historical information of the corresponding time period, where applicable.

Talking with the prof similarly affirmed my project choice and encouraged me to take it from the literal transcription that I currently have to a fully realized work.

RUBBER
_ _ _ _

Hose! said player 1
Duck! said player 2
Rope! said player 3 (rubber rope? really?)
Ball, thought I.

MASK, was the answer revealed
whereupon Pat, in his inimitable fashion, exclaimed, "Hey! We saved $1,000!"

Oh, Wheel of Fortune, so many laughs you have brought me.

It has been a somber week in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. The Katrina-esque scope of the damage is hard to take in. Unless one has been through such a devastating event, it is impossible to comprehend. As "onlookers" we can pray, remember those who are suffering and will be for some time to come, and give to relief efforts as we are able.

As my friend Debbie said this evening, such circumstances can also spark natural and stimulating conversation starters such as, "If you knew your home would face the potential of being destroyed, what items would you save from it?" and progress from there to talk about what is most important to people--things that are of eternal significance.

These massive natural disasters bind us together as we measure the depth of human suffering, sympathize with those who are angry and frustrated, mourn with those who have experienced immeasurable loss, and think about how we  might respond in a similar situation. We watch the news, knowing that it can only scrape the surface in depicting the scope of the loss, yet weeping with those who weep. We wake in the night and utter a prayer, grateful to be in a warm bed, safe in our homes when so very many are not.

I like the book that Dr. Amidon is having us read for class: Inside Creative Writing, Graeme Harper, ed. With 15 cr hrs to go on my Master's degree after this semester, the academic angst is morphing into career angst: will this degree have any practical application? Will it get me where I want to go? Where exactly do I want to go? Yikes.

This book is a description of the process of creative writing as explained by several writers who were asked a series of thought-provoking questions. The authors interviewed are "people who in some way see creative writing as their profession; or, at very least, something they do with some form of human exchange in mind." p. 17

Without going into great detail on the questions asked or who wrote the responses, here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:

...great writing doesn't just descend in one burst of genius, it evolves over long periods of time. p.22

Childhood plays a considerable role in creative writing beginnings. p.26 (I explored this with my initial piece for the class, "Frosty the Snowflake")

Creative writers take a high degree of personal responsibility for deciding to begin to write, and for continuing to do so. p. 38

and my favorite to date:

What we often don't understand when we start out writing is that writing is re-writing is re-writing is re-writing. p. 44

Tru dat! Good thing I so enjoy the re-writing process.

I trust that my skills will continue to develop and, I hope, bring personal satisfaction and enjoyment to my readers. Whether I will ever be privileged to make a living at it remains to be seen. Inside Creative Writing serves to remind me to enjoy and appreciate being a writer.

I had a service tech from Current Mechanical here today to determine why my furnace was blowing warm, then cold air. An amiable fellow, we chatted periodically while he worked. About an hour into his ministrations, which included two trips to my roof, he determined that I needed....a new filter. We agreed it was a little embarrassing that neither of us had thought to check the obvious first. But the 4-year old furnace got a good look over, cleaning, and diagnosing. And I promised I wouldn't tell anyone.

Current is one block from Deister and at one point he asked, "Do you take Maumee to work?" But I heard "Do you take mommy to work?" We both had a good laugh over that one.

I know this is a few months late, but I just found where I had jotted these down. Favorite commentator quotes from the Olympics:

"And once again, it was that damned pommel horse." -Al Trautwig, after yet another epic fail on this most treacherous apparatus

"It doesn't matter who stands before a 6'5" Hooker." -Announcer, following a kill by U.S. volleyball player Destinee Hooker

In my initial blog post I talked about my research project being ethnographical. In last Monday's class I realized that it is, more acurately, a learning history. I was previously unfamiliar with this term, but should have been able to intuit it. By interviewing my subject, drawing out her narrative, listening to and recording her stories, we are constructing the story of her life. We are, in effect, learning the history together.

The five salient points about a learning history that Dr. Amidon mentioned describe perfectly what I am learning while undergoing this process:

1.      Storytelling can be valuable.

2.      Different voices can join together to tell a complete narrative.

3.      Research doesn’t end with the final project, but can be reviewed with the participants.

4.      Researchers and subjects come together in a continuing process. (this is currently my favorite part.)

5.      It’s not just studying a culture, but aims to change it for the better.

Okay, I'll admit that I haven't exactly figured out how number 5 comes into play, but am sure it will become clear as my project continues.

There is a scene in the 1981 movie Arthur where he is sitting quietly in the back of his limo, then suddenly says, “Oh!”, throws back his head and begins laughing hysterically. His lady friend asks what’s so funny, to which he replies,"I sometimes just think funny things."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUiCFk2HB94

Sometimes if there isn’t enough laughter in my day, I’ll conjure up a humorous memory and make like Arthur. For instance, the other day I was remembering one very cold winter day on the IU campus when my friend and I came upon a dead squirrel. I picked up its stiff form in my gloved hands and carefully positioned it, in an active pose, in the crook of a tree. That poor thing remained there “running up the tree” until the spring thaw, which gave me the giggles every time I walked by.

Heard from the team's sideline at Soe Moe's soccer game: "I'm beginning to question the validity of those calls!" That has to be the politest way I've ever heard a coach issue a challenge. Then again, this is a sport where they call the officials "sir".

To announce my new blog I sent certain people--the privileged few--an email with the subject line "I blog, therefore I am," to which Russ Eplett replied:

I blog, therefore I am. Translated to Ciceronian or Caesarian Latin this, of course, becomes – Bloggo ergo sum – as "seize the blog" becomes carpe bloggo – and "I came, I saw, I blogged" becomes – veni, vidi, Bloggi. Of course, there is Caesar’s now famous commentaries on the Gallic Blog that opens with "Omnia Bloggia in Partes tres divisa est." (All blogs are divided into three parts). Latin is so revealing!

Russ, non sum dignus!

The project I plan to pursue for my ENG C625 course is to help someone who I believe has had a very interesting life tell her story, as either a biographical work or an assisted memoir. This is an idea I've had for quite some time, and am grateful for this impetus to pursue it now.

For this week, we are to lay some groundwork for our project. I don't know if these qualify as research questions, but they are issues I've wrestled with while determining whether to pursue this project:

> How do we decide whether a person's life story is "worthy" of being told?
> Who deems whether or not a life is "interesting enough" to record?
> Must a writing project necessarily be potentially publishable or of commercial interest in order to be pursued?
> Will readers only care about a person's story if he/she a celebrity, or can the uniqueness of a life generate others' interest?
> How can I best help my friend elucidate her story while keeping the writing uniquely mine?

> Will this in-depth ethnography stand alone with its qualitative aspect? In such a project where might I find quantitative aspects? (Perhaps the latter will come from accompanying genealogical research.)

I dozed repeatedly during the 3rd quarter of Colts/Vikings today. A Sunday afternoon football game snooze would not be remarkable, but for the fact that I was AT the game. Yesiree, high up in section 637 of the engineering marvel that is Lucas Oil Stadium, in a hard seat, in person at a live NFL game for only the second time in my life, and I kept nodding off.

I was rudely awakened at one point when a groan moved through the crowd like the wave--not a reaction to something that happened on the field, but nearby patrons commiserating with the guy who tripped while coming back up the stairs with a beer in each hand. At $7.50 a pop, they were very sympathetic. Only one person asked if he was okay, the rest were counting how few drops he spilled and congratulating him on a remarkable save.

Okay, so, HumorMeDaily because I love to laugh. Laughter is vital to our overall well being. I'm always on the lookout for humorous comments and situations. I hunt for them, listen for them, and, more often than not, instigate them. Each time I post I'll try to include a funny, in the hopes that you will be able to share the mirth. 

Today one of my laugh-out-louds was courtesy of Charlie Pierce during the final "Prediction" round on Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! (the NPR news quiz). The question: What will be the next You Tube video to cause protests? The answer: Catholics protest as Clint Eastwood reenacts the Council of Trent with an entire dining room set.

Having a new, first-time blog is the 21^st century equivalent to sitting down with an empty sheet of paper and a pen, or a blank page in a typewriter. What to write? 

This blog was launched as a result of the IPFW course Research Methods for Professional Writers, so my first post will be an homage to the short assignment that got the proverbial ball rolling: "When did creative writing begin in your life?" And my response was...

One of my early literary offerings, at age eight:

FROSTY THE SNOWFLAKE

Once upon a time, I came from a sky. I blew and blew until I almost blew into a church. Wow that was a close one! Then I started to fall. “Oo now I’m falling again! Wow! A church steeple with a cross on top!” It’s pointed, o know! I better turn, o know, I forgot. I can’t turn! O help, help help. O thank you wind! I have had a scary day, I better go down and stick to the ground. Good-by.

I still have this because, like my father, I loathe to discard anything sentimental, which is just about everything. Items that sprang from my creative self are especially difficult to part with, which explains the walrus head of yarn glued to cardboard that is probably still lurking in a drawer somewhere. 

Drawing, painting, crafts, ceramics, calligraphy, jewelry making, and other art projects have come and gone through the years. But always there was, and still is, writing. Diaries, journals, notebooks, poems, devotions, stories, essays, interviews, research papers, letters…a lifetime supply of words scattered across the pages of my life.

My creative writing began with, or probably even before, that first snowflake fell.

An aside: I speculate that the use of "O" instead of "Oh" was directly related to the fact that I was frequently in The Lutheran Hymnal (TLH) at age 8.