Catching up, frantically

April 30, 2005


Here’s my predicament.

I’m currently working on four different projects right now: stories of my worst boss ever, a bad hotel stay (both to be submitted), the My Very Own Polysyllabic Spree for April, and an article for work about closing at the relay center. Because of this, I’ve been slacking on daily(ish) updates on the site.

This, though, has been my main focus. I really enjoy writing for whoever reads this, even if it’s just Kerrie and myself, because I find I actually enjoy writing just for writing’s sake. I’ve been studying the AP style, I’ve read books on grammar… I think I might even enjoy taking a grammar class for the sole purpose of improving my craft.

Still, there’s no deadline for the site, and there are deadlines on everything else I’m working on, aside from The Polysyllabic Spree, which is for the site, but I’d like to have it out by May 1st. So I’m trapped; I’m letting things build up and fearing that I’ll leave the site festering for a few weeks, at which time I’ll return and find it crying in the corner with all it’s regular viewers moving on to bigger and better blogs, like the Google Sightseeing blog.

Anyway, I’m sure that won’t happen. And since I’m just writing for writing’s sake right now, I’ll put an end to it. If desertion does happen, though, and you all flock to Google Sightseeing, tell them hello for me. And tell them that I love their site.

Tags: Writing, Black Marks on Wood Pulp, Blogging |

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Independence!

April 29, 2005


Bound to be Read, a great independent book store in St. Paul, is closing. The store, which carries a diverse amount of product – books, cooking supplies, games, music – was completely off of our radar until our last trip to the Cities, where we discovered a store that served as a breath of fresh air from the stuffy confines of Barnes and Noble.

However, now we can bid farewell to another independent bookstore. In a time of Wal-Mart and Barnes and Noble, people are just too indifferent to the lure of the independents, choosing the convenience of buying another copy of The Lonely Bones over the mystery of finding a similar title at a place like Bound to be Read. Independent bookstores, for the most part, hold a mystique and charm that can not be found at the “big box” stores and chains, and typically shopping at these stores helps support local business, or at least it helps support small business.

According to an article in the Star Tribune, the site of Bound to be Read will filled with an EQ-Life, which is apparently a division of Best Buy dealing with health and fitness. That could be the most depressing fact of all. The age old antiquity of books being replaced by a new fitness craze.

Independent bookstores are endangered. It seems to be a business model that will not succeed in our current television-saturated age. Who has time for books anymore? Why waste money on something that will be in theatres eventually anyway?

It’s frustrating to realize that, just as a point is being reached in my life where I’m ditching the television and spending less time on the internet in an effort to read more, everyone else is doing the opposite, throwing smaller bookstores to the side and frequenting Barnes and Noble, a store with a great variety of books but no charm, and Wal-Mart, a store with no variety of books but lots of copies of The Da Vinci code.

My solution? I will no longer buy a book at Barnes and Noble. I will frequent the smaller independent book stores. I will still browse the larger stores, but I will write the books down, run to Zandbroz, or some other little book shop, and buy it there. Or order it there. Or hop online and go to Powells.com, an independent bookstore on the web.

Seeing Bound to be Read go down like a burning library has forced me to realize that it’s not only important what I read, but where I get the books.

Tags: Books, Annoyances |

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The greatest game ever

April 28, 2005


Fire Pro RULZ D00D!

It is. Go check it out.

Austin vs. Vampiro! AWESOME DOODER!

I’m serious. Fire Pro Wrestling D is a great game. Google it NOW!

Tags: Random |

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A dollar for your thoughts

April 28, 2005


Well, it looks like we’re ready to hear another round of rock vs. paper.

Or in this case, silver vs. paper.

*rimshot!*

According to this CNN.com article, Congress, who apparently has nothing better to do, has voted to begin circulation of new dollar coins. The two previous incarnations, the Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea, were met with an air of indifference, forced to sit in bowling alley cash registers and collector’s tubes untouched.

I actually liked the idea of a dollar coin – an acceptance that led back to my short time in England, where they had not only £1 coins, but £2 coins as well. In fact, the £2 coin was a larger gold coin with a silver coin in the center – very classy. I enjoy having loose change jangling in my pocket, and Sacagawea dollars were heavy and meaty – they felt like an entire dollars worth of change.

The House of Reps voted this new coin into the mint with a 422 to 6 margin, and production is supposed to start in 2007, and will be much like the state quarters – except each dollar coin will be released with a different president on it. Four a year, until finished.

An interesting bit in the article talks about how the US Mint and Treasury actually makes money on each hoarded state quarter. To quote:

After the 50 State series launched in the late 1990s, the government discovered that an astonishing number of people were collecting each new quarter as it rolled out of the U.S. Mint, taking the pieces out of circulation.

It costs the Mint less than five cents for each 25-cent piece it produces. So in a process called seignorage, the government makes money whenever someone “buys” a coin then chooses not to spend it.

The Treasury estimates that it has earned about $5 billion in seignorage profits from the quarters so far.

That’s a lot of money being made on silly quarter designs.

Though I really shouldn’t say anything. I’ve got all of them so far. *sigh*

Tags: Random |

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It’s worth a try

April 26, 2005


Writing can be more difficult than it seems, at times. This is always surprising to me, especially if the subject is something that I’ve already experienced before – non-fiction instead of fiction. I already know the ending, the beginning, the order of events and the main points I want to expound upon. I’m pretty sure, usually, that I know where the piece is going to go. The difficult thing is making your experience seem like something that the average reader is going to give a damn about. You can tell the story as well as you can, but unless you make it interesting, who’s going to care?

Kerrie pointed something out in the newspaper this past Sunday that brews these thoughts inside my head again. Apparently, there’s a series of books on vacation mishaps, called I Should Have Stayed Home, published by RDR Books. Currently they are looking for stories to include in their I Should Have Stayed Home: Food and I Should Have Stayed Home: Hotels collections. My wife, who is forever coaxing me to actually do something with this writing hobby, suggested I should send something in. I, who am forever pushing myself away from anything that would gain myself any notoriety, figured that I should actually give this a chance. Kerrie would like to see me succeed in something that I enjoy. I guess I would too.

According to the Argus Leader, “The story must be true, should be between 500 and 2000 words, and should describe an awful experience about a hotel stay of rood consumed on the road – although it’s fine to have a humorous perspective on your ordeal.” The winner’s story will be published in the corresponding collection, a series that has held the words of Paul Theroux and Rick Steeves, and will recieve either a $150 hotel stay or $100 in restaraunt gift certificates. Seems like a pretty cheap way to get a great story, Kerrie thought.

“Sounds easy!” I said to myself.

Then I started to write.

And I stopped.

And I started again.

Yup — Stopped again.

I chose the Hotel Radnor in London, and while it wasn’t a horrible hotel, it was a weird, poorly run, cramped and slightly run down hotel. The problem, though, is that I don’t remember much about it. It’s been six years since I stayed there, and all I really have to go on is our memory and one picture. I can’t seem to find it anywhere on the internet (there is a Hyde Park-Radnor Hotel, but while it’s in the same area, it certainly is not the same hotel) and I’m guessing that it’s probably no longer a hotel.

Without these few details, I’m afraid that my story may not be “true.” I’ve already conceded that there will be some major embellishments, but I’m struggling with some of the details. I’d like it to be as truthful as possible, but my mental image may not coincide with the actual hotel.

Additionally, this has to be well written. That takes time – a far cry from the stuff I jam out onto this page daily. This is a new experience for me. I have never written anything that could possibly be released to the purchasing public, so I want it to be perfect. I want it to be good.

Still, I have until June 15th to email my submission. I have written part of the opening, which I present to you now:

We stepped into the front foyer of a building much like every other building on the block. Telling this hotel apart from any other random establishment on the street was difficult; every building was white, crumbling slightly from generations of English history, with identical steps and railings, each front door similar enough to create panic after a drunken night on the town. Inside we encountered a hallway, narrow and cramped, lined on the left by a series of closed wooden doors, each leading to what we assumed was a hotel room, and on the right by a dining room door and an opening not unlike those seen in theatre lobbies. The floor was old, giving way under our bodies just enough to emit a low squeak, thus insuring that we could not leave undetected, if the opportunity ever arose, without first paying our bill. I immediately felt a little claustrophobic and searched around for escape routes while Kerrie spoke with the gentleman behind the desk.

How much of this is true is irrelevant, I guess. This is my first shot at being published, so I’m going to take it seriously.

Wish me luck.

Tags: Writing |

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