Ramblings from the 'goblinn

I'm just posting this to say that I'm moving my online presence to Dreamwidth. As soon as I figure out how to move my content over there, I will, probably after Nanowrimo is over (and finals.) I have created an account as hobgoblinn over there, same as here, although there is as yet no post in it. Maybe I'll rectify that this weekend.

I think some of you crosspost here from Dreamwidth, so if anyone would like to share advice or experiences, please do.

My main reason for this is I'm getting tired of all the spam comments on my old posts, and the taking away of paid accounts and other actions by the PTB just seem like things I don't want to tolerate when I don't have to.

So, I will still check in from time to time here until my account reverts to a free one next Spring, I think. I will give plenty of advance notice if I decide to completely pull the plug on this account.

In hobgoblinn news, my job continues to be wonderful, and I have taken both the GRE general and subject (English Lit) tests. Other than math being as expected horrible, I think I did quite well on the others, enough that I probably don't have to retake any of them to get into a doc program if I want to fill my summers with that in a year or two.

And Wee Hob is being a Senior. At least his Senior moments involve lack of homework and nothing more serious. And my beloved is still wonderful.

I better get back to my write in. Can any of this count for word count, do you think? I am so far behind!

Love to all.

Perhaps if I describe my current situation, it will both explain and excuse my long silence. My school is closing (not a shock) and I find myself unemployed. My Husband's mother passed away just before my last week, and as a result I ended up taking all the personal time I would have lost to be with him and help make arrangements. So I ended up working only 1 day my last week. I went in today and cleaned out my belongings and tied up all loose ends.

If I can navigate the Unemployment Maze, I will not be opposed by the Company, of which I am not allowed to speak any ill, per my severance agreement. And, scariest of all: I'm enrolled in graduate classes at NKU starting Monday.

( Cut for What Was I Thinking? )
Anyway, I'm likely to be here at least once a week. One can only read theory, or check Facebook, or look at pictures of Cats so many hours a day. Will now go off to check the last few weeks/ months of the F-list.

Oh-- And Wee Hob is a Senior! I will have lots more time to redirect him now. He's being pretty tolerant so far of his crazy mom.

Friday was the Boy Scout Fish Fry. As a veteran of Troop 8's Epic Turkey Dinner fundraiser, I was actually looking forward to a much shorter time of work. Wasn't prepared for how badly organized this event was with the new troop. Part of the problem is that it's a Church function, with different groups manning each night during Lent and taking the proceeds. So they do it "the way we've always done it." Probably works when the nearest competing Church Fish Fry doesn't take the week off. The overflow crowd was a mess.

Anyway, long afternoon. Saturday was much better, as my Beloved and I went for a hike in the local arboretum. It's been neat to go the past few weeks and see the changes. Can't believe we're getting this kind of weather and plant growth in mid March.

Today was a hike in the hilltop cemetery a few blocks away. It contains one of the batteries that were built to defend Cincinnati in the Civil War, along with several graves from the early 1800s. Lots of flowering trees all over.

And tonight after mass, I was listening to Krista Tippet's "On Being" on my way home. Her guest, Kevin Kilng, made a statement about there being two trips "The one we plan, and the one we take," but I heard it differently. With regard to the end of things, the afterlife (which he was also talking about earlier, hence the connection) it occurred to me that for that trip, the trip you plan, is the trip you take. How you live now affects how that ending goes. Or maybe planning your life to appreciate things now affects the quality of your current life/ trip. It seemed very profound when I was thinking it.

I need to download the podcast version and listen to the whole thing. I did that a few weeks ago with the John O'Donohue interview, and it was lovely. If you haven't read his Anam Cara or other stuff, well, some of it sounds like nonsense at times, but it's beautiful nonsense. And some of it is quite sensible as well as poetic. Here's a link to a slideshow featuring O'Donohue reciting a lovely poem written for his mother: http://being.publicradio.org/programs/2012/inner-landscape-of-beauty/ss_beannacht/ss-beannacht.shtml#slideshow

And in a few minutes, Wee Hob should be home from scouts, and we shall see if he earned his next rank. I'll update with that, I guess.

Edit: He made Star Scout. He's been stuck at 1st Class for about 4 years now, so this is cool. Still has only a year to get to Life, then Eagle, so unlikely he will make it before he ages out. Still, many adult leaders encouraged him (or threatened to kick his butt if he didn't try.)

Wee Hob might actually pass German. Thanks to all who commented, even with a "I have no idea." He had fun reading the comments and using the info to make this file, which he has titled "Awesomeness."

( Awesomeness )

Yes, this is the sweet child who currently lives in my household, and may someday live in our basement.

In other news, I'm thinking of adapting the Book of Job to a script for Script Frenzy this year. I'd have to write a new story for it kind of, but the why things happen aspect is what I've been struggling with for a good number of years now. I think I can get 100 pages out of it.

Let's post this and see if the cut works. If not, sorry for the pic spam.

I'm waiting up just now to see if my beloved will chat with me before the end of the night. He's in Houston dealing with family decisions about his mom and dad. I wish I could be there for moral support, but I'd be useless otherwise, and I've been sick for over a week now. Not liking this shortness of breath when I haven't done anything and it's just a Cold.

Hope you all are well, and again, thanks from Wee Hob to all.

Gallileo Was Wrong

SP found this on slashdot. I was sure it was a hoax, but looking around, I couldn't find any evidence that it is. We're already changing the liturgy in 2011 to be more faithful to the original Vulgate (that's sarcasm, btw), and given the behavior of the Church in general these days, it doesn't seem like such a stretch for them to jettison years of scholarship and intellectual tradition to go back to a different, simpler tradition.

Still, I hope I'm wrong, and I'm sure my faithful f-list will be able to tell me. Feel free to point and laugh. My nightmares involved this situation.

In other news, Wee Hob attended the Homecoming dance with the girl his quasi girlfriend told him to invite, and -- he now has a new girlfriend. I could not begin to navigate his strange social life. But he seems perfectly content.

And I am still playing a piano a day until the 17th. I already have played all 42. Will post more stuff about that later. Probably in a couple of weeks after finals, when I have time off. Hugs to all.

1. Beer imbibed in sufficient quantities before a diagnostic mammogram makes the process MUCH more comfortable. Will have to try this next year for the routine one. I always forget how bad they are.

2. Due to said beer, I can't tell you exactly what they saw that they needed a second look at, but part of it was "calcification." I think. At any rate, when they took the extra pictures of my poor squashed breast, they found nothing of note. I will not get the "come right away for a biopsy" card in the mail-- in fact, they held me there this time until it was read and gave me the results right then so I wouldn't go home and worry.

3. Group work is great for my students. And those who only come once in a while are hating the extra work they have to do at home to make it up. Very cool. Will probably have more drops this term from people who are realizing much sooner that coming once every couple of weeks and enduring a lecture will not in fact earn them a D. But those who are left will benefit.

4. I actually learned this a while ago, but reading in the fandom is a good way to get back into it.

Arsinoe de Blassenville's "The Best Revenge" is a great retelling of the books with some welcome changes. A little too perfect at times, but a neat "might have been" exploration.

I also really enjoyed a great EWE story last night: The Lost Chamber. Of course, there's a lot of stuff out there that holds no interest for me (PWP for instance.) But these two are raising new issues for me; probably more than rereading the books would at this point.

5. Rereading fic I've already read is not as helpful, but maybe as I get back into it, it may be. I'm still up for recs, if anyone wants to make them. I haven't read anything new in over 2 years, so feel free to go back to some outstanding things in that time span if you think of something.

Going to watch "Brother, Where Art Thou?" tonight as a treat. I've never seen it, but Beloved tells me I will love it. There may also be Ice Cream, as today was Traumatic.

( New School Term Update )
( Wee Hob Update )
( General Writing and Doubts Update )

More on Doubt:

Most people on my f-list have already seen it on sahiya's journal, but if you missed it, she recently posted a link to a very helpful article: Too Much Self Doubt? Try Thinking Like a Creator. I posted a link on my school blog. Some students assume they're the only ones who have ever been paralyzed by self doubt and feelings of inadequacy when they are trying to write. I hope they are helped to know the feelings are normal and that I've been there, too.

Sitting by the lake tonight with my Beloved gave me an idea of something I might be able to write. He teasingly told me I loved the green growing things because I am a wood elf. It struck me that I have always felt an outsider, a changeling in my world. That's a theme I think I could explore in fiction. A lot of what passes for modern "literature" leaves me cold-- even if well written, why do I really want to read about 2 couples having dinner where the husband of one and the wife of the other are having an affair and they all know it? Bleh. I hope never to have anything in common with that.

The foregoing example came from Francine Prose's How to Read as a Writer, which is excellent, even if her examples make me despair a bit of having anything literary to say. Ever. Also of knowing enough to say anything not stupid, which is why the other article was so timely for me.

Thus ends the State of the Hobgoblinn Address for this week. Stay cool, everyone.

Wee Hob just got back from the Great Lakes Region South Basic Encampment (Civil Air Patrol). He spent a week in a highly militarized and structured environment, and not only did he do okay, his flight (cadets in his little company of 10) was selected as the honor flight - best at the encampment. He has been regaling us nonstop since his return with tales of the great week he had and all the cool things he did. We can only hope he will begin to apply all the organizational skills to his own bedroom. (He did just cut his shower time from over 30 minutes to less than 2-- cool.)

He is not a little boy anymore, and while I am proud of him, it also makes me sad. I had the past brought home to me a little yesterday when one of my students had her little granddaughters with her, and the 2 year old decided she loved me. She and I conversed very gravely about matters of import to her, and at the end, she gave me a hug, and I remembered what it was like when I used to see my little birth daughter, or what it was like when Wee Hob was small. I don't know what it will do to me, honestly, when I am a grandmother myself. I missed so much. And those small kids I hold in memory now, are nothing like that now. And I won't ever get that back, even if they come looking for me.

I bought this Joseph Curiale CD last night; I heard "Wind River (I am)" on WGUC Cincinnati, and the only way to get it was to download the whole album, which is wonderful. It's not on iTunes: I had to buy it from CDBaby. Great writing music, and Wind River itself is reminiscent of both Copland and some of the Star Trek music (DS9 especially)-- the trumpet solo is reflective of that ideal of the West and of the Star Trek universe, of beings, human or not, who rise above. Who overcome with dignity and grace. I don't know if I can explain it.

But I will issue, not a fic rec, but a short story rec: James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues," which I love even more every time I teach it. This time I realized: the Blues is born of sadness, but people who are defeated do not sing them. The Blues is a type of music for survivors-- for people who are going on. I pointed out to students, when I asked them to describe the blues for me, how many of them were smiling as they remembered some blues music they knew. The Blues is not about wallowing in the depression, but about living through the pain and rising up again in spite of it. They got it. Some of them.

I need to start writing again now. I have the week off, my grades are all in but one class (where some irregularities require input by the Powers that Be), and I don't set foot in a classroom again until July 6.

Have a good night, everyone.

( It is really different, being back in LJ land.... )

( On the writing front... )

There's also the existential angst I'm dealing with just now, which I will not go into at present. Except to note, that this, too saps one's strength. Or maybe that's just the cold.

Hugs to all.

First, hello friends. I've often thought of you, longingly, as I have been grading papers, planning lessons, and making a new life with my Beloved and Wee Hob. Term is over and it went pretty well-- I just have a handful of ungraded papers I set aside for the end so I could check them for Plagiarism.

Below the cut, I have a draft FAQ I'm thinking about putting into my syllabi next term. I'd appreciate comments, especially from teachers past or present. It discusses plagiarism, among other things.

Hope everyone's well. I'll try to skim back through the past 3 months or so on this planning week before the next term starts-- I should have more time as I've taught these classes a time or two now and know what to expect. May even have some time to write, or at least apply beta comments on No Malicious Haunting, something I've been doing in my head the past month or so.
( FAQs for Hobgoblinn's Classes )