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The Writing Front
A Knitter’s Day (soon to be retitled A Knitter’s Love) is up to 3600 which means I wrote another 1000 words today.
I want to keep it under 5000 if I can. We’ll see how it goes.
Now I’m off. Trinity’s youngest son is due to leave for Camp Pendleton today. We’re having lunch before he flies out. In March he is off to Afghanistan. For his mother’s sake, he needs to keep his head down.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
The Writing Front
I got a thousand words in today.
Here are the stats for the short story challenge.
A Bicycle for Kyle
Fourth Draft
WC: 3,600
Free Range Humans
First Draft
WC: 800
A Knitter’s Day (likely to be changed to A Knitter’s Love)
First Draft
WC: 2,600
Now I just need to come up with one more story for the final week. I doubt I’ll finish these to submission quality, but I’ve been more productive over the last three weeks than I have since I started teaching.
Again, a tip of the beanie for Rachel Swirsky for the challenge.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
That is a mouthful of a header isn’t it.
In the YouTube clip above you can witness the first flight test of the Ares I rocket. It is projected to be the replacement for the Space Shuttle Program and the first tier in a redevelopment of America’s human space flight capability. Part of Project Constellation included the development of a heavy lift vehicle capable of carrying heavy payloads to low orbit or sending missions to the Moon.
The Obama Administration is planning on killing it. You can check that out here at the Orlando Sentinel.
We don’t need to go to the moon again.
In my American History 120 classes this week we arrived at the moment where the English would make their way to the Eastern Seaboard. This after engaging in a test run of sorts in Ireland. They weren’t the best and the brightest. They weren’t government finance operations. England did not set up the 1600s equivalent of NASA or Starfleet to go to North America. These were private ventures funded by joint stock companies with one simple goal.
Profit.
To emphasize this point I asked students this question.
“The year is 2010. Why aren’t we on the Moon or Mars?”
Some said we lacked the know how, which I don’t buy. If we wanted to get there, we could get there. Some of the sharper ones said there was nothing there to visit. The Moon and Mars are both desolate places which require you to bring all of your goodies with you. Finally, it was pointed out that the expense of the trip was not worth the investment.
In other words, there are no Martian Canals, no ruins, no Moon Bunnies and green cheese. There is no unobtainum or handwavium to justify the effort.
The sad fact is that this exercise allowed me to hammer a point home to my students. The reverse is opposite with English Colonization. They are coming for profit. Initially it was all about finding gold and silver. That is what the Spanish found after all. Once that option dried up, they found other ways to make money while terrorizing the local Native American populations. In Virginia it would be tobacco, in New England it would be timber, naval stores, rum and their participation in the slave trade. If you wanted a hamburger chances are it was made with cattle raised in New England (not that you could get a hamburger back then). In the Carolinas it would be rice (which would make slavery a profitable investment in terms of labor versus return).
The Obama Administration, much like every Democrat who has either come to office or in the case of Walter Mondale, tried to get into office, feels pretty much the same way my students do.
The money is better spent elsewhere. Something has to be cut. We can’t cut defense like we normally do because the American electorate will not tolerate that (they finally learned something, too bad it is a decade late) so we’ll cut the human spaceflight program.
Again, I think the administration made a bad call. If they wanted to create jobs, high paying jobs with benefits that will provide tax revenues for the communities that will provide our space hardware, then investing in NASA is a sure bet. These are government jobs in many cases with some of the best benefits packages in the country.
Instead, I get the impression that the Obama Administration wants to boost job numbers pretty much the same way the Clinton Administration did. That is create a whole bunch of minimum wage part time jobs (which is what happened in the late 1990s) and then have those of us at the lower rungs go and try and patch two or three part time jobs together to make one half ass full time job. So we’ll slash NASA’s budget, retire the shuttle anyway, rely upon the Russians to ferry us up to the International Space Station and fund the station to 2020.
Given this attitude, I’ve got to wonder, why even bother to fund the ISS? Why not just deorbit it and bring everyone home? Never mind that we are just about finished building it. Never mind that the Chinese, the Indians and a number of other powers are looking to develop their own human space flight programs.
Two ironic points to consider.
1. Democrats and American Liberals in general are usually the first to complain about the capitalist issue whereby profit is the bottom line justification for any action. Yet the lack of profit in the human space flight program will be one justification for killing it.
So much for knowledge for the sake of knowledge.
2. Democrats and American Liberals frequently rail against our tendency to return to our Isolationist nature. It is a global society, they frequently point out. And yet, rather than look beyond the atmosphere, they would prefer to focus only on that part of the universe which provides free oxygen.
It is an attitude that reminds me of my students who are furiously texting their lives away while I lecture. The thing that kills me is that they think I do not see the texting activity. This is not much different. Better to focus on Davos than to shoot for the Moon. Better to focus on wind turbines rather than orbital power sats.
I can’t remember the title of the story but a few years back I read a story that featured a world in ruins. The protag was one of the few remaining humans left, picking through the ruins, living his life. Was he alone? No, it turns out that everyone else pretty much turned inward toward virtual reality. By now the idea is somewhat cliche but the scary truth is that more and more human beings in the first world are doing just that, tunning into the idiot boxes, the net, and their text message devices.
And they are tunning out just about everything else.
Then again, what do you expect out of a President who didn’t want to part with his Blackberry?
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
One Year Ago Trinity and I made the trip to New York City. It was partly business and partly pleasure. We were going to meet John Birmingham, usually referred to as The Client around here, but he is also our friend. Birmo was in NYC as part of his Without Warning book tour. I was there to meet him, do a bit of research for After America and meet some of the other Burgers.
I always meant to post more photos and blog entries but the crush of teaching and the head cold scotched those plans.
Still, I’ve got a few pictures at flickr. Here they are.
Other Fronts
Killed Custer, updated rosters and did a lot of scut work today. I may get a bit of writing done today but I suspect not. Later tonight Trinity and I will head down to the Nelson to wander around for a bit.
We’ll see how it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
The Teaching Front
Take a few minutes to write down what you know about George Washington. Do not consult the net, don’t go grab that book off the shelf, just do it from memory.
I did a little impromptu exercise in my classes today because we are on the edge of the French-Indian War in my American History One classes. So often the problem with history is the same problem many stories have.
Lack of character development. It is just a name the students are expected to remember and not much more.
For giggles, I got some pretty decent answers. First President of the US. Commanding General of the Continental Army. Slave owner from Virginia and from one student the mention that his wife’s name was Martha.
Not much else after that. I went around the classroom and sampled what they had then went to fill in the blanks.
That worked in my 0800 but not so much in my 0930 which was in some sort of funk today. More to the point, I’ve noticed a trend.
No one is taking notes. I can count note takers on one hand, maybe five maximum per each class. Which astonishes me. I understand that perhaps history is not a favorite subject, everyone has a subject they don’t like. I understand that it might be boring, in spite of my histrionics in the classroom. Yet when I had classes I didn’t like, felt like were boring, whatever, I made it a point to take notes. If nothing else, taking the notes kept me from tuning completely out.
Now it could be that some of them are recording the lecture but that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Why record a lecture and listen to it again? Especially if you didn’t like the lecture the first time? It could be that they are distracted by my delivery, but then that explains only a third of the students. I have other students which are tuned out no matter what.
The latest theory in education is that we are supposed to adapt to the students and that I am supposed to bring a great deal of discussion, multimedia and powerpoint into the classroom. Frankly I rebel against this notion on the simple principle that the student is supposed to adapt to me, not the other way around. And I find powerpoint to be too rigid, too much like a strait jacket and of course, the students will write down every word you put on a powerpoint because if it is on the powerpoint, it must be on the test, right?
So I predict a lot of pain, woe and agony for the upcoming test. It could be that they are sharp and will do okay but I tend to judge my classes last semester’s Western Civ kids. They took notes even though many of them probably didn’t have to. They asked questions, dialed into the lecture and focused.
They didn’t wait for the first test to come along and kick them in the head, like these kids are.
Fitness Front
Four cardio workouts down this week bringing the total time on the elliptical to 110 minutes. I put in a thirty minute session today. The body fat continues to drop alongside the weight on the scale.
Next week I’ll start a new weight training program.
The Writing Front: The Short Story Challenge Week Three
I have three projects.
A Bicycle for Kyle
Fourth Draft
3600 words
Free Range Humans
First Draft in progress
800 words
A Knitter’s Day (likely to be changed to A Knitter’s Love)
First Draft
1000 words
So I have three stories, one for each week. I suspect Free Range Humans is going to fall by the wayside. I need to think about A Bicycle. I know how it ends I just need to figure out the middle of the story a bit better. If I play it right, I think Bicycle will come in under 5000.
A Knitter’s Day is set in The Limb Knitter/Forces Velaysia universe. It is not a sequel or a prequel but a stand alone story in that universe. For some reason, this story is pretty clear in my head. I’ve been writing it in five hundred word spurts.
In fact, here in a bit I’ll see if I can’t get another five hundred, or perhaps a thousand words down. I want to write the ending while I have it fresh in my head.
Again, I’m plugging along.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
The Writing Front
A Knitter’s Day
Status: First Draft
Word Count: 1,000 approximate
Well, I’m having a bit of luck on the writing front.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Hmm, I think this will make up for the jetpack and the flying car I’m still waiting on.
If I can use this as a word processor, and I suspect I can, then this will be my next computer.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
The Fitness Front
So far this week, yours truly has managed to get on the elliptical three days so far for a combined total of 80 minutes. I plan to do this five times a week for the next couple of weeks in order to strip down some of this extra weight. I’ve already dropped from 208 to 204, which is a good thing.
After week two I’ll get back into weight training with an eye toward increasing strength. If that works out over the following weeks I will work in swimming after the cardio. The swimming is important because I need to find a job for the upcoming summer gap. Lifeguard work seems to be the best bet.
The Teaching Front
We started the Battle of Little Big Horn today in my American History 121 class and my students were, for the most part, mightily bored. I suspect maybe thirty of them were tuned out, focused on something else, not paying attention. The trendy types in education would argue that it is my fault because I dare to lecture to them for more than ten minutes. Short attention span, demands something other than verbal input, etc.
On the other hand, for the most part, your profs at the colleges higher up the chain are still giving lectures longer than ten minutes so as far as I’m concerned the little darlings can suck it up.
I’ve got maybe five, perhaps seven students in there who are dialed in and participating. The rest? Meh.
It is a living.
The Upcoming Summer Gap
Once upon a time I looked forward to summer. Good things happened in the summer. Stories were written, romances blossomed, adventures experienced, books read, time spent basking under the sun.
Now? Well, the last three summers have been motherfuckers of the first order. 2007? Will he get the teaching job or not? 2008? Working a depressing third shift security job while watching a relationship slowly fall apart. 2009? Not working at all due to the economy while watching another relationship go off the deep end.
The summers have been wet, humid, cloudy and fucking miserable. They have featured moments of terror and aggravation spiced with long spasms of boredom and depression.
It can’t happen again. So I’ve already started looking for a summer job for 2010. I can’t count on getting a class to teach this summer and planning on substitute hours is the road to ruin.
What am I finding?
It isn’t looking too good. I am trying to avoid security work again if I can help it. If I can get trained as a lifeguard, I think that might provide a solution to my semester gap woes.
Everything else? It looks pretty grim. I suspect I should probably suck it up and get ready for security work.
Blah.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
The Writing Front: A Knitter’s Day
I got five hundred words down for a new story that came to me today. That gives me at least one story per week so far on the short story challenge. Now if I can just finish the three projects up and get a fourth one in the bag, I just might be getting somewhere.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
The Teaching Front
Common Task: Lecture through a headache
Standards: Complete a lecture of two hours and fifty minutes on a topic of American History (to be determined by one’s location on the course timeline) in a logical, coherent manner without giving away the fact that you do, indeed, have a headache.
Well, that is what I did. I went from 1910 hours to the end of class covering a summary of European History, setting up English Colonization, talking about the test run against the Irish, then making our way to the New World. Then I covered tobacco, rice, sugar, naval stores, slavery (slavery and racism came up repeatedly and they will again) before moving off to talk about the Quaker Religion.
You know, if you had to find something positive to talk about, I think the Quakers are a good place to start. So I spent thirty minutes on that.
Tomorrow for my Tuesday-Thursday classes we’ll go over the same material. That should bring everyone up on line with French Colonization and the French-Indian War.
We seem to be moving pretty fast this time around. Or maybe it is just the headache.
The Fitness Front
Headcold bedamned, I put in my cardio today. Thirty minutes at the target heart rate of 150 per minute. The scale says I lost two pounds and the body fat scanner says I’m down from 26 percent to 24.5 percent. Maybe the illness is the cause, who knows.
Or cares. My Body Building coach figures that for every hour additional I taught last semester, I gained a pound.
Which might be part of why I turned down a substitute opportunity earlier today. I really needed that two hour nap.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Those that done said stuff