Writer's (Butcher) Block

You know what I hate? When there's something you know that you need to do, but for the life of you can't remember. Last night I set my alarm for about 30 minutes early so that I could do something, but now that I'm awake, I have absolutely no idea as to what that something was. I think it may have been laundry, in which case I'm all set since I just put it in, but I'm still not positive. Oh well, hopefully it wasn't anything too important.

Remember how earlier I talked about how summer in Ithaca goes straight to winter? That may have been a bit of a hyperbole. Right now is what I would refer to as autumn. It is, and has been (minus yesterday's outlandish weather) around 50 degrees, which is prime fall temperature. And it only snowed once in October. Normally we'd be walking to class in the snow by now. I blame global warming.

I hate writer's block. And because I can't think of anything to talk about, I think that is precisely what I will focus my post on.

Writer's block is an
Issue for all real writers.
Unless they're seven.


You ever think about that? I remember being a little kid and writing about absolutely anything, be it dinosaurs, dinosaurs fighting ninjas, dinosaurs with jetpacks, robot dinosaurs, dinosaurs debating healthcare reform, dinosaurs making sandwiches (which is especially hard for t-rexes), or dinosaurs building a rocket ship to save their species. I just never ran out of ideas, and could write for hours upon hours. Now a days I struggle to come up with an idea for the simplest blog post. I often wish I could go back to those good ol' days. It's like all of those avant-garde artists who try to seem like kids: By which I mean people such as William Faulkner, who, like a kid could not string two sentences together; Ornette Coleman, whose "Free Jazz" sounds like a 5 year old on a piano; or Jackson Pollack, whose art looks like a 3 year old who had a little too much fun with a paint brush. Of course, this is precisely what the artists intended, and why people like them (and yes, I do like them... 1 of the 3 at least).

Back to my point: I feel like if I had my writing abilities that I do now and my ability to come up with endless ideas when I was a kid, I would be the juggernaut of blog writing. It would be like if McCain and Palin combined to form the ultimate presidential ticket, with experience and good ol' Alaskan know-how. Wait....

The Future of the Complicated Series of Tubes We know as the Internet

I have something to say. Something specific! Without stopping to think of a topic!

In the news, I came across this article.

It's about Rupert Murdoch, and his plans for the future of the internet we all know and love.

Here's a sentence from the article which pretty much sums it up:

"He is planning to make newspapers like The Times and Sunday Times chargeable online."

So now on to my haiku:

Murdoch's use of
The internet really must
Not be extensive


First of all, take a look a the handsome feller here:

http://lanceturner.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/rupert_murdoch.jpg

There you go. Now with that image in mind, here he is, planning to make the New York Times Online and such chargeable (to clarify, he does not own the NYTimes, so he's merely speaking about his plans for world domination starting with the highly successful newspaper industry). Let me think of what this reminds me of... perhaps actual newspapers today? Well, those are doing absolutely great, right? I can imagine that applying the principles that are causing physical newspapers' downfalls will do wonders for the online market... in opposite land.

It's a good think that the NYTimes has a monopoly on online news, or else they would just completely fall into oblivion. Wait a minute? What's that you say? There are other places to get news? Google? Wikipedia? CNN? Yahoo? AOL? BBC? MSN? ABC? FOX? NBC? Bing? Ask.com? Twitter? Facebook? MySpace? Boston Globe? LATimes? Chicago Tribute? Or almost any site one could find with a quick Google search (or already set as one's homepage)? Wow, who knew.

So, let's think about this for a minute. Murdoch's strategy for one of a thousand different free news sites (which, might I add, is not even one of the most popular) is to make its users PAY for content they can find anywhere else for free? Which begs my earlier question:

Has Rupert Murdoch used the internet before?

A Fishy Tradition

Well. I just took my sociology exam (the reason for this late post), and I must say: I don't think I failed that badly this time around. And by failed I mean do worse than the median grade.

Now, on to more important topics, which I have yet to think of.

In the news for the weekend, the Maroon 5 show was a success. They showed up and gave a good performance, without being too out of it. They were actually surprisingly fit. They came to Ithaca, went golfing, went to play tennis, and did some of that sweaty yoga stuff (that you do in really hot rooms). I also got to wheel Adam Levine's wardrobe, if you know what I mean.

On Saturday, Cornell destroyed Harvard in a fantastic hockey game that I was not in attendance at. And now that hockey season is upon us, I think that's where I'll start.

To throw fish at a
Rink of Bostonians seems
Counterproductive.


Think about it. If the rink reeks with the smell of fish, all of those Harvard kids are probably used to it by now. Whereas the Cornell people won't be. In theory this might affect performance, except that it doesn't really matter, since Cornell schools them anyways. And it's funny. What's possibly more funny is that there are threats up about people being kicked out who bring fish, and their tickets being revoked. Until the police do full cavity searches, fish will still be brought in, is all I have to say.

Also, here's an interesting article about the history of fish-throwing traditions here: http://onfrozenblog.com/2008/11/22/cornell-hockey-traditions-include-throwing-fish.html

"Sunday, Bloody Sunday!"

New vlog post up!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYWKWDhsN4A


Hope you enjoy. I'm up today at this ungodly hour to work the Maroon 5 show. The love I show Concert Commission...

The title is from a U2 song (which you should recognize), and is representative of the fact that I am up this early.

Sexual-Story-Saturday!

Today is an absolutely beautiful Saturday afternoon. About an hour ago our female-only dorm residents filed out of the dorm for a fire alarm. You can tell it was the female only dorm because people actually responded to a noise at 11 AM. Were there a men's only dorm, the residents would probably be burned alive on a Saturday morning before 2 PM.

I have decided that each Saturday, I should change thing up. So here's my official unveiling of:

Sexual-Story-Saturday! By which I mean Limerick-Saturday, but that doesn't have as nice a ring to it. I have come to the conclusion that each and every Saturday I will post a limerick instead of a haiku. So here you go!

Oh there once was a woman from Crete
And oh so many a man she did meet
She lived in a hut
And kept the door shut
For her real home was between the sheets.


There you go. And look for a vlog post today or tomorrow maybe.

NaSiWoShoStoMo

I look like an idiot. The weatherman said that it would be sunny today, and as a result I decided to bring my sunglasses with me, hanging from my neck. But, of course, the weatherman lied! It has been cloudy and gross all day, and here I am with my shades. You might ask "why don't you just take them off and put them in your bag?" My answer: that would be accepting defeat. I prefer to deny and defy defeat by carrying my sunglasses with me. That way the statement I send is "it's supposed to be sunny, and it damn well had better be sunny" as opposed to "it was supposed to be sunny, but it's not so I'm putting my sunglasses away."

Now that I got that out of the way, I had something to talk about, but I forgot. I really need to write down and/or tweet haikus as soon as I think of them. Here's something I randomly thought of just now.

One thing that a large number of people tend to do in November is the NaNoWriMo. The challenge is to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. That equates to a little less than 2000 words per day. There is no reward other than self-satisfaction and being able to accomplish something huge. Sadly, quantity is valued over quality though, and as a result- the novels are likely not very good from many people (no offense). It's still a large accomplish, but if you want to write a novel you should not need a competition to inspire you to do it, and you certainly shouldn't rush to finish it. John Updike, a professional writer (well, he's dead now), used to write 3 pages a day. For this competition, one would be writing more pages per day than someone who made his living writing. This is not to say that I'm against the competition, no- I just feel that if you are serious about writing a novel you should not need a competition as such. I would also like to suggest a competition for those who are not as Carpal-Tunnel-y inclined:

50,000 words?
Why not try to write for "Six
Word Short Story Month"?


That's right. I suggest that rather than writing a 50,000 word novel, you put that effort into writing a super epic, high-quality six-word short story. It would equate to writing about a letter every day or two. There would be such suspense to it: You sit down at your computer, and you have to choose. What will it be for today? A vowel? A consonant? Perhaps both?! (crazy talk, I know). This option is much more suitable for someone who favors quality over quantity, or who is lazy, or has a really short attention span. And trust me, when the month is through- you would probably be much more proud of an absolutely unmatchable short story than you would for 50,000 lukewarm words.

Surefire Way to Make Research Papers More Fun (Exclamation Point)

I didn't really plan on a post, seeing as I gave you a song last night, but I figured that I would humor you with a short post.

Ripping apart those
Cocky scholars' arguments
Makes papers more fun


Yep, my paper that I'm working on right now for Survey of Jazz does just that. It's supposed to be a research paper, and you know you're doing a good job when your primary source is that scholar's book (as in "here he says A," "here he says B, which directly contradicts A, and therefore he's wrong and I'm right). It makes the entire writing experience significantly more enjoyable.

Now to go watch The Daily Show, which I have restarted as a morning tradition.