The October 1 Shuffle

The Personal:
Ten weeks to go in the academic horse race. This is a pleasant and terrifying thing. But the flywheels are all spinning and things are getting done, a little more slowly than I might want, but I'm hitting most targets. That said? Big capstone writing weekend.

Capstone shares the stage with the arrival of the Army Ten Miler. Last weekend saw the ten mile training run, so I know I can do it. I just need to avoid my own psychology. Wheels up on Sunday, 8am.

Also still finessing Lucy Kerr's story arc. She and I had a disagreement. She isn't taking her fate well.

The News of the World:
I had what wanted to be poignancy about Roman Polanski, but the moment has passed in the wake of Iran's sudden desire to ship their nuclear material to other countries for enrichment. I have perhaps listened to the media for too long, or read one too many Kennedy Assassination texts, but am I the only one who thinks Iran is making this play because they already have something enriched enough to make a bomb and they're just buying time to iron out some kinks?

Yankees:
Yeah baby!

Renaissance-ing

The class on Wednesday (7:50pm in Georgetown) affords me a little slack time after work - about three and a half hours - especially when I pack a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner and skip the table service, the bakery at Dean and Deluca, the line at Georgetown Cupcake, et cetera.

Of course, slack time gets chewed up quickly with irons in fires. All the reading done for my class, I realize (insert Homer Simpson brand "D'OH!" here) that I failed to print off MY piece for tonight's workshop. Thank the maker for the Kinkos on M Street.

In addition, the outline for my Capstone is done and questions for my intended victims - er, interview subjects - are drafted. A couple have already been approached for their commentary and candor. This weekend will be a big push, while I have a little time before the next memoir piece is due.

In the midst of all of this, the editor over at TOTU provided line edits for my story appearing in issue #30. Put simply, they were 95% embarrassing typos that got past myself and a couple of readers. Shameful. No points off this time. Lesson learned: speed kills. But I will say they've been incorporated and turned around, and TOTU #30 is targeted for this fall. Ten more and I have a collection. :)

So with an hour and forty to go, the battery on the laptop is getting low - I may need to relocate from the Barnes & Noble (with its free internet) to the Starbucks (with its free electricity) to hammer out final questions.

Nine mile run on Saturday. I've decided Memoir class piece two will be on training for and running in the Army Ten Miler. As a former fat kid who didn't run, I think it has some human interest. Well, at least eight pages worth.

Been firing on all cylinders the last couple of days. I like it. :)

Run Dougie Run

With three weeks to go until the Army Ten Miler (I said four yesterday; Not so good with the maths), today was the Eight Mile training run. Eminem did not participate, sadly - a little rap might have offered wicked rhythm over on the W&OD trail. But even in the absence of Em, it was a great run, solid pace (12:34), felt fine all the way. I'm now enjoying a quiet afternoon, surfing and catching up with people while taking in ECU / West Virginia online, to be followed by...

SCHOOLWORK! I've got five sharp pages of my piece due on Monday night in the books after last night, and will finish the first draft this evening, which will leave tomorrow for rewrite and finalization. This is all according to the plan, as it will allow me to take in "9" tomorrow (which I've been eyeballing with interest since the first trailer.)

I succumbed to 21st Century Beatlemania, mingled with curiosity, and picked up a copy of the remastered Rubber Soul. I've only given it one spin; I need to put it side by side with the original CD release to hear what I can hear in the remaster - it's too easy to listen more attentively and hear 'new' things that are actually things that have always been there, especially when you consider that the master used in the remaster was the stereo version created by George Martin in 1987 for the first CD release. I'd love to slap it up against the original LP, but I'm a turntable short for that.

I can say, though, that the bit of feedback in "I'm Looking Through You" is still there, so there's been no monkeying with the imperfections.

What? :)

Grammatical Chainsaw Juggling

The day begins with a Toffee Nut Latte from the mermaid. I’ve been off morning coffee – iced tea is my summer ritual – but with temps in the sixties and the pissing-down rain flowing freely from a dank sky, it was a TGIF coffee morning. Having under 400 calories in the lunch bag was also a contributing factor. On the plus side, I won’t need to run out for a salad to go with my soup at lunch time.

The 41 Year Old Hoya hits the ground running – first assignment is due for the Reported Memoir by Monday night, which means an intensive writing session this weekend. I freely cop to volunteering. One, I was in a position to do it. Two, it gets 1/3 of the longer writing in the books early, giving me more time later, when I may need it.

It’s hard to believe I’m already in my last semester. Where did two years go? I have not yet decorated the last day of the semester in fourteen bright colors in my day planner (which I have an ugly habit of, um, not opening. I suck at birthdays for a reason, kids…) but I’m thinking that a big red Sharpie circle around the date just isn’t going to do it this time. Now, a graduation party? Definitely mulling that over.

Capstone also got some work on Wednesday, but I need to get some interviews going. I have draft questions. Baby steps on the way to a partial draft deadline in October.

The new short story, which is nearing a first-draft completion, has received the working title “Between Zenith and Nadir With Lucy Kerr”. This may or may not be its actual final title, but for what the story is, it works. Aiming for a first draft by next weekend. Deadline on that is mid-October.

And thus is life a three-chainsaw juggling act between Memoir, Capstone, and Fiction. There’s a queasy joy of creativity in here somewhere… but October is going to be a busy row.

Eight mile training run tomorrow – the other deadline - the actual Army Ten Miler - is four weeks away this Sunday. But the seven miles this past Saturday, along the lake in Chicago, was smooth, well-paced and successful. All I’m doing is adding a mile to the next plateau. Easy, peasy.

* * *

This morning, while the iPod recharges, I’m knuckles deep in my favorite Bruce Springsteen bootleg: the 1979 unreleased-and-then-reconfigured-into-The-River album The Ties That Bind. Aside from being a much better produced and mixed version of material that was officially released in 1980 (ever wonder why Bruce doesn’t sound like Bruce on “Hungry Heart”? It’s at the correct speed here) and outtakes that later surfaced on Tracks, the disc touts a couple of solid alternate versions (a longer “The Price You Pay” and the rockabilly version of “You Can Look…”) and boasts a better overall flow. As a follow-up to 1978’s Darkness On The Edge of Town, it may be the best Springsteen album that never was.

And speaking of music, The Beatles are hot once more. To riff on Tommy Lee Jones in Men In Black, now I’ll have to buy the White Album again…

Song of the moment:
“The Price You Pay” – Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

Moved From Tumblr, The Phoenix Does His Thing...

Okay - this all began on Tumblr, which was nice and reachable from my Blackberry for photo posts and all that good stuff. But Tumblr has been... twitchy lately. It's not liking my photo posts anymore. It's not allowing me to make mobile updates. This morning, it's not loading at all. Now, I don't want to say the power of Google compels me, but if you have a slot, you might as well leverage it, and so... new address. Same old smartass.

Welcome to the start of the final semester of my Masters career, if all goes according to the plan of the Jade Monkey. First class for The Reported Memoir isn't until next Wednesday, but I need to turn the flame up under my Capstone and get to stepping on that. Some good thoughts, some research down, some contacts to make and some questions to write - mayhap some travel involved (dunno yet). But it comes down to that ol' debbil Dougie hurdle: Sit and Do.

I have a short story to draft this week for an anthology; call it Summer's Last Creative Hurrah (the effort, not the story; the story has no title yet). But it's a sweet idea if I can execute it, and I've done about as much research as I need to craft 4000 words or less, so we'll see what we see. And I still have all those submissions I got sidetracked on. SIGH. My life needs a new transmission. The existing gears are stripped from all the switching.

Speaking of transmissions, a week into the new car - a sporty blue Mazda 3 hatchback, in case you missed it - and I'm quite pleased with the decision. Watch this space for mo' better pictures.

Training continues in earnest for the Army Ten Miler - a successful six mile run was put in the books on Saturday; new Nikes (running shoes that fit = a good investment) adorn the feet, three three-mile maintenance runs are planned for this week, and Saturday brings the seven mile run - which will be a solo without Cousin Melanie because I'm going to be in Chicago with my lady love - summer's other Last Hurrah. But I've already got a tentative route mapped out, criss-crossing Grant Park north/south before turning towards Soldier Field and the museum complex. I just need to be ahead of the jazz festival crowds. And nice weather would help.