10th March, 2010 by Christina - No Comments
I was going to leave the online dating thing alone after yesterday’s post, but a friend brought up a good point–Stacked is about good writing, mostly in the form of books, but good writing nonetheless.
There was a reason I included those emails as failures–they all missed the mark on good writing and knowing the target reader. Trying to determine what a person is like through email is hard enough–tone of voice, sarcasm, etc. don’t always come through well. When you add in run-on ungrammatical sentences and text speak, what the viewer sees is just a bunch of noise.
As I told a friend, I don’t think my photo makes me come across as a freaky one-night-stand-let’s-do-body-shots kind of girl–so what made these guys think that’s what I wanted to hear? And more to the point, what made them think I’d actually contact them?
The good emails were few and far between and nothing has come of them–a few exchanged emails here and there–but I did write back because of something in their original email. They told me about themselves, they were respectful, and they asked me about something in my initial profile. Sadly, some emails I never responded to after managing to lock myself out of the email account and not receiving the re-set password for three weeks. I apologize to the poor fellow who heard back very belatedly from me.
This one was short, but effective. He told me about as much as was included in my profile but enough that I have something to continue the conversation with and to let me know a little about the kind of person he is. His photo also looked to be pretty recent.
I’m all about new experiences, new people and new adventures. I just got back from vacation in Brazil on Monday, and I already miss the sun. Let’s grab lunch/coffee/tea sometime. I’d love to hear how one sells a freight train.
After a lovely list that included favorite museums, authors, foods, and other interests, I pegged this guy as the well-traveled, intelligent, and laid back type. He admitted to not being good at describing himself but his eclectic list intrigued me. The best part of the email was his self-deprecating and funny closer:
I’m sure your inbox is inundated with all kinds of guys–hunky, chunky, creepy, crazy, cooky and questionable–but don’t worry I assure you…I’m all of those things in one. Not really. Well, maybe one of them, but only a little.
He and I did manage to exchange a few emails where we got to know one another better and learned that we both loved our trips to Italy and that neither of us own a television. The whole “forgot my password” thing ended the conversation however. I did remember his email address and wrote to him from my personal email but never heard back.
Finally, this guy had promise after a well written email that let me decipher quite a bit about what kind of person he is:
A little about myself, I’m a 32-year-old lover of the arts that grew up in DC, but spent part of my summers and Christmases in MAJOR FOREIGN CITY (my parents were very proud REFERANCE TO COUNTRY OF ORIGIN) and am now living in Brooklyn (and fortunate enough to literally have 7 close friends from every major period in my life living within 2 blocks of my apartment). I kind of dislike talking about what I do since it has nothing to do with who I am (I’ve been a JOB TITLE by day, but definitely don’t have the personality of one). I guess I’ve always thought of work to be like school: something that I have to do in order to be able to spend time with my friends and family, which is all that really matters to me.
It was nice to receive such a well thought out note. I didn’t hesitate to write back, but we received details of our email access after our photos went live on the TONY website and he had written to me right away. Apparently that lag in time was too long for him and he was no longer interested by the time I did respond.
Everyone has their quirks and deal breakers when it comes to initial interaction and whether or not they are willing to pursue getting to know someone–be it for friendship or romance. The key with any type of writing is to know your audience and put some thought in to what you have to say.
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9th March, 2010 by Christina - 10 Comments
There’s so much I’m working on behind the scenes for Stacked that I forgot to post today!
So, with the day coming to an end, I thought I’d share some “entertaining” results I got from Time Out New York’s Singles Edition that I earlier wrote about. Sure there were some nice guys and response-worthy emails, but they aren’t nearly as fun for you all to read. The results reconfirm my disinclination to try Internet dating.
Some were a little misguided, like the college student (who is by far too young for me) who didn’t divulge anything about himself other than that, “I am also an up and coming Hip-Hop/R&B producer.” I think he still has a ways to go before that happens. You know, he still needs to graduate.
Then there were the rather confident emails that, again, said nothing about the sender. But man, that confidence, such a turn-on. ”Hey there hun and why go though all the trouble of looking when a dude is here waiting on ya to come claim me.” Even better was the switch into text-speak halfway through the email, “how u gonna see me even if u wanted to give a dude a chance cos i bet since u r a cutie, all these horndogs r trying to crowd ya.”
Hardly anyone included a photo–which I don’t think is fair seeing as mine was available in a magazine and online. One guy did send a very nice photo. He was rather cute…seeing as he was three years old in the photo.
A few folks sent me emails with subject lines like “feel free to check me out” and then immediately went on to pimp their website. Even better was the guy who insisted in calling me “Lovely” in the same manner someone might call their significant other ”Babe” or “Sweetie”) and gave me a resume…of his family members before an extended discription of the company of which he is ”prez:”
My 2 siblings, by the way, have big involvement in theater, improv., acting, & writing: both write for T.V. now, XX works for XYZ TELEVISION NETWORK, XX played Carnegie Hall recently, Writes for TELEVISION SHOW too…They had a comedy show together for 6 years. Mom had Freelanced for years before becoming a renowned Romance author (website.com).
He now spams my inbox weekly with updates of his company. On the dating side, he included a random list of twenty-some things he’s interested in: social services, sales, natural weightlifting, exploring round ‘hoods, not to mention his “acute sense of absurd & sublime”. Oh, and he’s looking for a “(com)passionate lady.” I’m not quite sure what that means. From what I hear, a few other women featured in the issue also heard from this guy.
One guy clearly didn’t read my profile as he sent me back this great line: ”I have over one thousand dvds and 700 cds…you and I won’t be bored.” I enjoy movies, but if that’s the extent of what you do, then yes, I would be bored. Very bored. He just keeps digging a hole by telling me about himself, “I am like Jerry Seinfeld …always meeting a woman who seems great at first but THEN you find out something that just causes it to cease developing.” Can someone explain why I might want to date a guy who says that? I can’t think of a single reason.
And finally. The euphamism guys who clearly just want to meet up for sex: “Nice sexy picture. Well I don’t know what space camp is but I be glad to take you.. :)”
The best of course of these (and of all the emails actually) is the one that I can’t make heads or tails of. I’m guessing he wants a mistress and that the euphemisms are all double entendres, but they don’t really make sense.
Subj: Interested In Pullman Bread…And You
Sorry for the obvious and heady subject line, but it just so happens that my Grandfather worked out of the yards in Queens. I’m not sure if we’re talking about the same thing, but more importantly, I think you are absolutely beautiful. Please respect my privacy and call me at 867-5309. My name is Vincent. I would be surely glad to meet you in a public place and see where it goes from there.
If anyone can translate that one, please do!
I’ll be back soon with all sorts of bookish posts and details on all my secretive news.
10 Comments
3rd March, 2010 by Christina - 3 Comments
“
Let’s talk about you and me. Let’s talk about all the good things and the bad things that may be. Let’s talk about sex.”
No, really, lets talk about sex and you and me.
Sort of.
Basically, there is so much new and exciting stuff going on at Stacked Headquarters AND I CAN’T TELL YOU ANYTHING ABOUT ANY OF IT! I’m just itching to share with you all, but until details are finalized and in place and ready to go–basically once everything is in motion and pretty much already happening–then you’ll know.
HOWEVER!
There is always a “however,” and this is where talking about you and me and sex comes in. There are some projects that I’m working on that require your help. Therefore, I need to share. As regular readers know, I love to talk about how the books I read apply to real life. So I’m now working on three series. No, you don’t get to know when they’ll run, only that they are happening.
And I want you to write for me. My experiences aren’t the only ones out there–I want to share your stories too. Each series will run over the course of a few weeks, breaking up the regular content here and will also feature guest posts. You don’t need to be a book blogger, you don’t even need to be a blogger at all. You just need to leave me a comment telling me you might be interested. We’ll get into the nitty-gritty over email.
Here are the topics we’re going to be covering:
- SEXXX! (obviously) - Okay, maybe with two less X’s. Romance novels, erotica, burlesque–anything goes
- FOOD! the yummy series – Chef bios, cultural studies, cookbooks, foodie memoirs
- Space & Math/Physics – This might be my favorite of the bunch because I cannot wait to share what I’m doing…
So…I’m not just looking for you to review a book. I want your personal stories–how a book about these subjects changed your life or inspired you, even little anecdotes about that time your lover read about incorporating food into your sex life and you ended up with a strawberry stuck in your ear. In fact, so long as your story relates to books in some way I’ll be happy (like how in college you got caught making out in the library, or when you drooled all over a cookbook looking at food porn in Barnes & Noble and just put the book back on the shelf without telling anyone, or that physics professor who gave you extra reading which made you a shoe-in for that job at NASA).
Just whisper a sweet nothing via the comments or email to let me know you’re interested and we’ll talk a little more…privately.
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10th February, 2010 by Christina - 4 Comments
Well, folks, it’s official. Last week I opened an email asking me to be a panelist at the 2010 Book Blogger Convention (BBC) here in New York.
Truth be told, I was originally not planning on going. Book Expo America (BEA), the main event, recently moved from being a weekend event to being held during the week and BBC was scheduled to fall on the final day of BEA–a Friday. Despite living here, taking time off of work to attend the events just didn’t work too well for me. It’s not that I didn’t want to go, it just didn’t seem practical.
Michelle from GalleySmith contacted me to ask if I’d be interested in joining the “Writing and Building Content” panel. So I told my boss that I’d be taking a day off on May 28th and then sat down to reply to Michelle that I’d be thrilled to participate.
Regardless of niche, there are some absolutely incredible amazing bloggers out there–people who have fine-tuned a voice and style to their writing. Reading their works, I often feel humbled. It’s so flattering to be asked to share my process and advice. We’ll be discussing how we found our voice, developing unique content, technical aspects of writing, focusing content, and other writing related topics.
I’ve been writing since 1996 when I covered high school sports for the local newspaper and blogging in some format or another since 2000. Yup, I was one of those early bloggers who remembers the scandal of Dooce being fired when it happened and not when she reminds us of it. Through blogging I worked up the nerve to enter a short story contest and won second place.* Eventually, the various iterations of blog became a magazine for swing dancers after a lengthy article I wrote on the use of technology as an educational tool had no home (the only publication at the time having recently closed its doors).
Over the recent Christmas holiday, I went through a number of boxes in my parents basement filled with various bits of junk and papers from high school and college. Among everything else, I found two papers that had completely changed my perspective on what writing could be versus what we were taught it had to be.
The first was from my senior year English class in high school–an empowered rant about the parallel feminism in Antigone and A Doll’s House. For the first time I realized the power of expressing yourself through writing rather than the formal and formulaic style of essay taught in classrooms. The teacher wrote the following at the end:
This was a super paper, Christina; you’ve definitely saved the best for last. The content of this is exemplary. Would you mind if I made a copy of it as an example?
The second was the essay portion of a final exam in college. At the beginning of the semester, we’d been assigned a book each on a different historical figure and had to write up a brief account of their life for this essay in class. It was a surprise too, most people hadn’t bothered to read their book or had long forgotten the contents. Being in class at the end of the exam, there was no last minute reading crunch or scan through as we wrote. I lucked out in being assigned Queen Elizabeth, who I was mildly obsessed with at the time. When it came time to write the essay, I adopted a very informal tone, wrote in the third person as an obnoxious ”valley girl.” Most people bombed the essay portion while I pissed most of them off by throwing off the curve. What struck me was the professor’s note stating that while doing the same in other classes would not fly, he appreciated reading something unique among a number of bland samey-samey essays.
Neither essay was particularly well written. They were by no means bad, but looking back on them both, I realize they could use a vast amount of improvement. What is important was the confidence the reactions to them both garnered. Those essays and the guidance of an inspiring creative writing teacher have gone a long way in how I’ve approached developing my own writing over the past decade.
*If you have a moment to grab me at BBC, the story is hilarious–sort of my go-to party story because it’s funnier in person. Slightly horrifying too since it really happened to me.
4 Comments
3rd February, 2010 by Christina - 3 Comments
Do you follow Stacked on Twitter? Yes?
You many have noticed a link I recently include to the ever popular Time Out New York Singles Issue that is put out every February. Yours truly has been included this year. As I’m not particularly a fan of online dating and matchmaking services, writing a profile (three simple questions) was not at all easy!
The most difficult was: ”What makes you a great catch?” Say what? I know why I like me–but what is it that makes guys like me? I asked a number of male friends and they had some awesome responses that I almost used (Rik–who was featured in the issue last year: “I’m cute, I’m smart, I’ve got my shit together,” Ryan: ”Brains, Boobs, Brass”), but my favorite conversation came from Matt as we tried to put that special something into words:
You are a catch because you are constantly trying to figure out ways to be even geekier.
I need to word that better but what I think is so awesome about you is that it seems like every time I talk to you, you’re like, “OMG, so I decided I am going to learn ancient Macedonian this weekend” or “I saw a picture of Leonard Nimoy on the subway today so I decided to start watching Star Trek.”
With Valentine’s Day approaching and my single status plastered in a magazine all over New York, I’ve ended up with dating on the brain. You may recall that I did a series last year called Love & Books wherein I surveyed people to find out how books play a role in dating, sex, and relationships. The series started with a post about Word’s new matchmaking services–a literary-based personals board. Actually, that board was the inspiration for the series. The board has been up for a year now, and while I didn’t get any responses (rather than feeling bad about my book preferences, we’re going to blame my handwriting), some regulars in the shop have been a little luckier. Time Out New York wrote up an article that featured a few of the success stories (Russ Marshalek and Marley Magaziner) and still singles (Sherry Wasserman, who was the inspiration for the board) two weeks ago.*
Over the course of the year, I’ve seen a few articles on the subject of reading and its impact on relationship in magazines, newspapers, and other blogs. Love and relationship are a regular “go-to” topic, and people who are passionate about their books often hope to find the same in a partner.
So, from now until Valentine’s Day, in between reviews and rants about books, there will be the return of LOVE & BOOKS!!!! It was a popular series and things change over time, so I’ll showcase some of my favorite passages and links and would love to hear how people feel about the subjects covered a year later.
*I’ve met Russ briefly, but I am a fan of his on Twitter. His tweets are obnoxiously awesome. I had a chance to chat with Sherry at the Word/TONY singles mixer, and she is adorably fantastic.
** I’d also like to note that in the picture, the upper right is a photo of Rachel Kramer Bussel of the In The Flesh reading series fame.
3 Comments
17th December, 2009 by Christina - 4 Comments
Welcome to the holidays here on Stacked, where the office parties and end of year work explode leaving no time for anything else.
It’s annoying because there’s a back-log of about eight books waiting to be reviewed here. But all I have time for is this short little note telling to tell you, “DON’T PANIC!!”*
We’ll be back in due time.
The big news is that after the “SERVER FAIL OF ‘09,” we’re moving to a dedicated server where we will (fingers crossed) have no more bad luck when an overload causes us to lose a year’s worth of content. So, starting tomorrow evening, the comments will be going down for the weekend as we complete the move.
Following on the heels of that will be an abbreviated week due to travel and family obligations. Counting how many presents under the tree are for me is much more important that providing you with book reviews.
In other loosely related news, one of the reasons things have slowed down is that Amnesia of the Future now has its own website. Offical viewing of Star Trek: The Original Series starts late next week, and new posts will begin with the New Year. The site looks a little rough and is a part of why things are so hectic here these days. There’s been a lot of back-end work going on getting a searchable review directory in place among other things. We are hoping that you’re out celebrating the season and bemoaning just how FRICKIN’ COLD it is out there that you will forgive us our negligence, which is actually behind-the-scenes work to make you happier in the long run.
There will be a few reviews over the next two weeks, but for the most part, don’t expect to hear too much until the New Year, after the champagne bubble headache has worn off.
*Cake walk “contest”–first comment to correctly tell me what book is notorious for the phrase ”Don’t panic” and where the words first show up in said book gets a holiday card. Excited, right?
4 Comments
7th December, 2009 by Christina - 3 Comments
If you’ve attempted to visit Stacked earlier today, you might have noticed some lagging loading times or a note that there was not content available. Thanks for being patient while we got everything squared away. I thought you might like to hear a little about what was going on today.
Shortly after writing today’s post, the back end of Stacked slowed down enough to make me a little nervous that something was wrong with the site and not my annoyingly slow computer. It turns out that on a shared server, my and my friend Matt’s site had been affected by some sort of server overload.
At the time, he was out running errands with his “very pregnant with twins” wife and was sending notes to the server host to get things fixed via his iPhone. So we breathed a sigh of relief when the sites returned after about two hours. Except there was a problem–Stacked was FRIED! All the content was missing, but I wasn’t too worried as a back-up had been run last night (particularly good as I was doing a lot of work yesterday setting up the initial steps of the new Reviews Directory).
When he got home, Matt set to work seeing if he could recover any of the missing data before installing the back-up. No luck. Then the back-up failed! The posts and pages were missing 90% of the text.
I should mention that it’s Matt’s birthday today and he had taken the day off but was still awesome enough to be spending his time on all this. Eventually he found all the missing data and got everything bandaged up. Apparently there will need to be multiple back-ups running daily so that we don’t run into this problem again.
So Matt, this Bud’s for you for being a completely awesome friend and web guru. You rock, sir, and I hope the rest of your birthday is full of fun celebrating and glittery unicorns.
3 Comments
9th November, 2009 by Christina - 6 Comments
Wow–I suck big time. Last night I wrote up my reactions to the first four hours of Star Trek: The Next Generation and the matching chapters in Wil Wheaton’s book Memories of the Future. And then proceeded to forget to transfer the posts to a disk drive so that I could upload them first thing this morning at work. I was very excited to share my thoughts on Encounter at Farpoint. What a letdown.
Sooooooo…
Instead, you get a mini-summary of Saturday’s Star Trek-a-thon and we’ll start with the reviews tomorrow. Sorry! There will be also be two posts a day over the next few weeks as I don’t want this to become the “All Star Trek, All the Time” blog. Neglecting actual book reviews will result in a glut of backlogging to take care of.
I should start by mentioning for those of you new here that I don’t own a television. No interest in purchasing one. However, an offer was made to bring over a 17″ screen laptop because, to quote Rik’s Twitter:
@rikomatic Friends don’t let friends watch Star Trek TNG season 1 on a 14″ laptop
Imagine my surprise when, while pulling cupcakes out of the oven, Rik shows up not with his laptop, but with a 26″ computer monitor. My friends are awesome and continued to prove so when Heather and Ryan showed up with a pair of speakers.
The cupcakes were a big hit and CAT makes a lovely feline Vulcan (view photos here). If you’ve ever been to my house for a party, you’re aware of the fact that I take themes way too far. Like that road trip to Hell, Michigan where I wanted to name the car “Handbasket” and create a Hell/Devil soundtrack. Or the Mermaid Parade crafting party with Esther Williams movies and Swedish Fish. So yes, Star Trek-a-thon had glitter badges (only Rik didn’t ”need no stinkin’ badges” because he already had his own…what a nerd) and themed cupcakes.
Four hours were spent watching Star Trek. It was pretty cool listening to my friends talk about why certain things that I thought were kind of cool were considered “like totally, incredibly, awesome” back in 1987 when the series first came out. Like how the ceiling of the transporter in TNG is the floor from the original series, or that to transport people the effect was created by superimposing images of the people with glitter in water (yes, we tried it out, the glitter in swirly water part at least, and you can watch the long, boring, sparkly video here–and yes, my kitchen and living room look like a glitter bomb exploded; it’s going to take months to clean), and of course, the big cheer-raising moment when the saucer separated from the rest of ship. There was also much heckling about banana clips, bad ’80s hair, and Wil Wheaton’s Cosby-esque sweaters.
I did have a great time watching the episodes, and while unlikely to become a full on Trekkie based on what I’ve seen so far, I was rather disappointed when the disk was finished. Posts about the episodes and their counterpart chapters in Memories of the Future will be split in two–my reaction to the episode (NOT a summary, Wil Wheaton has that part covered in the book), followed by a mini-review of the corresponding chapter.
In the meantime–enjoy the photos and video. I’ll be back tomorrow with my first recap….if I don’t forget again.
Oh, and to everyone that has been or is considering telling me that I should Internet-stalk Wil Wheaton and let him know what I’m doing…already ahead of you. He is aware of my blogging about what it’s like to watch Star Trek: TNG for the first time EVER. My knowledge of his knowledge led to a minor freakout reaction similar to a cat on catnip during my watercolor class last week. It was not a very productive class. Whether or not he’ll be reading along, I have no clue. But regardless, Wil Wheaton responded to me and that makes me cooler than you. Sort of. Except that I’m rather intimidated knowing he’s out there. Maybe reading.
6 Comments
3rd November, 2009 by Christina - 12 Comments
Back in June, I mentioned how my friend Ryan was introducing me to the world of comics and let me tag along to MoCCA. While there we had to stop by Richard Steven’s table to buy socks for Ryan’s girlfriend, Heather…who then showed up and bought more socks. Yay socks!
Anyway, Ryan mentioned to me how Stevens had worked Wil Wheaton* wearing the clown sweater (picture) into his comic, Diesel Sweeties.
And I was all, “…………………………..who’s Will Weton?”
So, fast forward to now. I follow the RSS feed of Wil Wheaton’s blog and on Twitter (@wilw). I agreed to water a friend’s plants so that I could use her TV to watch The Big Bang Theory when Wil Wheaton guest starred. There was also that incident of learning he was guest staring on The Guild, which I’d also never seen and ended up staying very late at the office one night in order to watch the first two seasons.
But my Wil Wheaton experience is pretty recent and I don’t have the full scope of why this guy is a geek hero. As a latch-key kid, one of my first things to do upon getting home from school was to turn on the TV where I watched a lot of Mathnet, 3-2-1 Contact, and The Muppet Show (the second thing I’d do would be pretend no one would notice an entire row of Oreos was now missing from the bag…) and on very rare occasions Star Trek would be the only thing on. The thing was, I was busy trying to make swords out of my Legos or cutting my Barbie’s hair and didn’t pay much attention; the television was just noise to keep me company. Plus, we were a Star Wars family and had no room for other space travel cultish behavior. Oh, and when I got older there was SeaQuest DSV. Which had a talking dolphin.
TALKING DOLPHIN!
Anyway, I sort of feel like I’ve missed out. I mean, I did see The Secret of NIMH, but that was a cartoon and voice-over. None of his movies. No Star Trek. Zip. So I’ve done the only logical thing possible–I purchased Wil Wheaton’s Memories of the Future and lined up Star Trek: The Next Generation in my Netflix queue. That’s right, I’m going to do a marathon of sorts and I’m going to record my brand new experience for your entertainment. It will sort of be like watching your kid get really excited for the first time about something that’s fairly common to us as adults.
What makes me look forward to this project (besides the fact that I’m totally making a little Star Trek communicator badgey-thing to wear. With glitter.) is that I get to present a completely different take on the book and the television series than the average geek. Because they’ve seen it all. They’ve been there and done that. They have memories and things they loved or hated about the show. I have no nostalgia, no bias, no gilded memories of my own that will shape my point of view. My lack of experience with Star Trek means that I can’t just review the book and say what I think because I have no frame of reference to go off of, and even if I watch the shows, it’s going to be a completely different sort of review from anyone who is already a fan. I’m going to go where plenty of geeks have gone before but with a fresh and unjaded pair of eyes.
The plan is to watch an episode and then read the corresponding entry in Memories of the Future. The book is a reflection of Wil Wheaton’s experience on set through the episodes of the first season. Thinking more about it, it seems sort of meta, no? Reflecting on someone else’s reflections? But like I said, I don’t have the background of remembrance. This is my own discovery of new lands. Sure, someone beat me there, but it is unique to me. I finally get to understand all the inside jokes. And I’ve been practicing my Spock “live long and prosper” hand thing-a-ma-bob.** Did anyone else know about all those muscles between the middle and ring finger? I think I sprained something.
How this will all unfold is up to you, my readers. We’re doing this in a few parts, 5-6 episodes at a time.
1) Do you want a marathon of posts for each set? A Saturday of updates as I go along for each disk?
- or-
2) Would you prefer a post per episode over the course of thirteen days with no breaks short of the weekends?
I leave the decision in your hands as I’m feeling a bit indecisive at the moment. But you only have until Thursday because if you want one-day updates, I’m going to have to crash someone’s apartment so I can use their Internet. Drop a note into the comments, send me a note on Twitter, let me know what you think about what approach to take. Not about the show. I will cover my ears and go LALALALALA if you try to tell me anything about the show.
*Ever notice how you can’t just refer to him as “Wil” or “Wheaton” – it’s always “WilWheaton?”–Really fast, like his entire name is one word. Also, spell check doesn’t like his name.
**Yes, I get that the hand thing-a-ma-bob was a previous incarnation of the show. Whatever. IT’S ALL I KNOW! That and wearing a red shirt is never a good idea if you want to live.
12 Comments
26th October, 2009 by Christina - 1 Comment
There’s a theory when you hit writer’s block, the best thing you can do is not step away, but to keep writing. Eventually whatever nonsense you start out with will spark an idea or develop into something more concrete.
I just can’t get motivated to write the two posts that sparked my interest this weekend nor am I excited about any of the book reviews I have lined up. So instead I am here just typing away, waiting for something to click and provide you with riveting reading. So far it’s not working out so well.
What news I do have to tell you is this:
- I did not participate in this go-round of the read-a-thon. When the dates were first announced I debated joining in, but 24-hours of reading really screws with my sleep schedule. As the date got closer, I did consider doing a partial attempt, but as you can see in the notes below big things were going on and they involved coordinating with other people’s schedules.
- Despite not doing the read-a-thon, I ended up in my own mini-version on Sunday. All major errands had been completed, so I had a free day to do my own thing that wasn’t work, blog, or class-related. Word to the wise–when doubtful about your library’s hours, look it up. All I could remember about Sundays was “1 pm” and, thinking they closed at that time, arrived half an hour befrore they actually opened. Luckily it was a nice day for some sun soaking while waiting and I came home with a few books I’d reserved with which to spend the day lounging. What was really cool was that I eventually decided to continue my relaxing day with a bubble bath and was impressed with how much light the candles gave off. Turns out my upstairs neighbor is a saxophone player and was practicing a bit of jazz–which suited the 1930s setting of the book I was reading.
- I’ve been talking of a big project for Stacked and each week it gets a little closer to fruition. And truth be told, I’m scared to death as I have no clue what I’m doing. But at the same time, it’s one grand old adventure and I’m having a blast. This weekend saw the start of progressing from the paper stage and actually taking shape. I’m hoping to have something complete before the year is out, but seeing as deadlines are meant to be broken…you just may have to wait until January!
- Because of all that was going on, I also missed the Grand Opening of Greenlight Bookstore in Fort Greene. After my project work was done, some friends were using my living room to film a video podcast and I followed all the tweets from the attendees longingly. Rik, one of the friends, made it over to Bergen Street Comics on Sunday where owners Tom and Amy mentioned how crowded the party had been with people waiting outside to get in. So a huge CONGRATULATIONS to Greenlight–what an awesome way to start off on the right foot! I’ll definitely be stopping by as soon as I get a moment.
Now that I’ve started typing, it’s definitely easier to keep going and I might share some thoughts on the role of the library or finally catch up on reviews tomorrow.
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