Thursday, March 13, 2003
I’ve always loved the musical cadences of spoken language. I like to write prose that sounds like speech, that would sound good if it were read aloud. But as a result, I’ve tended to pay more attention to the overall rhythm of sentences than that of individual words. In Zen in the Art of Writing, Ray Bradbury has a few choice morsels of advice for aspiring writers. Among them is a suggestion that I’d […]
Wednesday, March 12, 2003
Isn’t it odd that an off-hand comment buried deep in an article can throw the doors open on your mind, while the article itself is much less meaningful? Such is the case in “Home-schooled writer’s second”, a review of Jedediah Purdy’s book Being America. The review is quite good, actually, and I appreciate reviewer Philip Gold’s bewildered honesty. Partway through the review, Gold describes Purdy’s first book: In “For Common Things,” […]
March 11, 2003
Success! My laptop is now a LAMP-ish development manchine, running Apache, MySQL, and PHP (the “L” stands for Linux; in this case, it’s running a BSD kernel, which is close enough). This means that I now have a portable development machine. I can hack away at a powerful website while sitting in the back seat of a car. Very useful. I’m nearing psychic meltdown. I’m an introvert. Introverts need a lot of time alone […]
Monday, March 10, 2003
Thank you, Brennen, for making my point more eloquently than I could have. I’ve had two responses to my defense of the Vatican quote so far, and they’ve both attacked its logical fallacy. I’m actually disappointed in one, because it seems to assume I’m an idiot. I’m not arguing that the Vatican, because of questionable past behavior, has no authority to make any moral statements ever again. I am saying […]
Saturday, March 8, 2003
Actually, I have to disagree with the disagreement. :-) The Pope is trying to argue a moral point. I think we can all agree that the Pope is relying on the church’s moral character and standing. That’s his authority for making his statements. Otherwise, who would listen and why would he feel a need to address this issue? But the Catholic church (His Holiness included) has dragged its feet on the sex-abuse scandal; […]
Friday, March 7, 2003
Gotta agree with this one: “It is appalling to watch President Bush, who has responsibility for safeguarding 280 million of us from terrorists and terror states, being lectured on his duties in that regard by a church that would not even protect children from its own rogue priests and the bishops who enabled them.”— Rod Dreher, a Catholic, March 7 2003 issue of The Wall Street Journal
March 6, 2003
I just posted a review of Argentosoma, an anime series, to Points of View. It’s the first review there in exactly a month. Sheesh. Maybe I should post a review of Hayao Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky, since that’ll be released soon. My Haibane Renmei shrine continues to grow. And, within hours of writing a whining missive about writing, I get an answer in the form of a pretty little paperback called Zen in the Art of Writing, a collection of essays by Ray Bradbury. […]
Wednesday, March 5, 2003
You know, the life of a wannabe writer can be incredibly frustrating. I’m pursuing the writing craft in the best way I know how: by writing. Right now I’m averaging about ten pages a week, though that’s dropped to a number just this side of zero over the past incredibly busy week. But no matter! I’m writing. Then I read what other writers write, and I despair. Example: “And yet there are […]
Tuesday, March 4, 2003
So, I’m moving out. I’m going to be moving to a basement apartment on April 5th. I should be able to give the woman who owns the house the first check in a couple of weeks, at which point she’ll give me a key, and then I can start hauling things over there. It’s a nice place. I have a lot of room, which is important for me, and it has a complete kitchenette plus everything else I need. […]
Monday, March 3, 2003
I had an…interesting weekend. It’s the sort of weekend that’s hard to describe, not because very little happened, but because there are so many ways in which one could approach it. There are all these little threads and unrelated major points jostling for attention. Ah well. I arrived home from an enjoyable night playing Redemption to find my parents in bed, and their reminder that Saturday was my youngest […]