The Teaching Front

Well, I have effectively cleared the decks of all lecture material as of today. It is all over but the screaming as far as I’m concerned. Sure, I’ve got a little bit of touch up in a Monday evening class on the American Civil War but other than that, it is all over.

I issued four take home finals this semester, leaving only two of the more traditional in class finals to deal with. Granted all of my students will be required to physically present their paper and complete a 20 point quiz but other than that, it is all on them now.

In terms of sheer energy, I found that I ran into the wall about a week or so ago. Most of that energy was spent trying to get everyone going in roughly the same direction and it sucked time and resources away from my pride and joy, Western Civilization. I am fairly certain that I was successful in my efforts. However, only time and the tests will tell.

Strangely enough I received compliments from students in one class including a student whose parent is also a history instructor. I have to admit that I am never entirely sure how to take these compliments. Sure, they were honest and heartfelt. I did not sense any effort at deception or kissing up but here is what often lingers in my head.

For six years I was pretty much blocked from teaching due to a very screwball interpretation of a hiring policy. While it was almost certainly deliberate and had no actual bearing on my ability, one can’t help but feel that their ability to do the job is being called into question.

The compliments always feel good, whether they come from students or from fellow instructors.

I’m just never entirely sure how to take them.

Insofar as next semester goes, I’m on active track toward four classes in American History 120 and 121. There will be no Western Civ on this next outing, which is fine. I need the semester to polish up my American History 120 core notes. However, I should have some time for research and writing of my own, which I am very much looking forward to getting back to.

On the Beach the 2000 remake

The other day in the middle of a notch of spare time I was noodling around on the net and came across this.

For those that do not know, On the Beach is an adaptation of a Cold War novel by Nevil Shute, a British writer who settled in Australia after World War II. The novel was published in the 1950s around the time of the Suez Canal Crisis in the Middle East. It depicts a post World War III aftermath in which, unlike most other post-nuclear war novels, there is virtually no hope for the survival of humanity.

We see the story from the perspective of the crew of the last US submarine to survive the war and various characters from Australia. It turns out that Australia survived the war itself. However a wave of radiation is encircling the globe. It is only a matter of time before the wave consumes Australia and snuffs out humanity forever. The novel is perhaps more about how some people cling to any hope whatsoever of a reprieve while others use their remaining time the best they can.

The novel was originally adapted to film in 1959 if memory serves me correctly staring Gregory Peck as the CO of the USS Scorpion. Depressingly bleak, the film doesn’t bother with sentimentalism for the most part. Further, I believe the US Navy refused to provide any technical assistance for the film. I thought well of it when I saw it and it closely matches the novel.

In 2000 or thereabouts they did a remake of On the Beach, the first part of which is available on this blog. I’ve been watching bits and pieces of it over the last couple of days. It loosely follows the novel though the story has been updated to reflect a world around the year 2007. Instead of the Soviets, the Chinese are the adversaries of the Americans in this film and the flashpoint is Taiwan.

It is an okay film, not quite as good as the 1959 original. For some reason I feel like this 2000 version tries too hard. Armand Assante is a great actor but it seems like he is really pushing himself to be too angry, too guttermouth, more like a Marine Corps Drill Sergeant and not so much like a cool, calm submariner such as the one portrayed by Gregory Peck. Thought I have to admit I did enjoy watching Assante throw a couple of slackers off of his boat.

He is in command of the USS Charleston, nominally a Los Angeles class attack sub yet there is a sence where an Australian scientist played by Bryan Brown is hammering away at the Americans for not stopping this “fucking madness.” Assante’s XO, with a smirk on his face, says, “Someone did,” implying that the Charleston’s CO didn’t fire their assigned warheads.

Now that caused me pause on two points. First, if memory serves, the Los Angeles Attack Subs do not normally carry nuclear weapons. Yes, they can fire Tomahawks and yes Tomahawks can carry W80 warheads but it seems unlikely that the Charleston would have had them.

Besides, if you wanted to make a point about nuclear weapons, why not make the Charleston an Ohio Class sub and solve the problem? Yes, that would ruin the “surprise” of the scene I’m referring to but then maybe the “surprise” needed to be at the start of the film.

The second point is that frankly, I felt it was too much of the polemical ballbat. Part in parcel the power of the original novel and film is that everyone, including the surviving Americans, pretty much own up to the fact that humanity has stuffed itself royally. The remake is driving in the same direction until we get this opportunity for Assante’s character to act somewhat smug about his decision not to fire his warheads.

Too bad.

On other points I found it interesting to watch Australian actors struggle with American accents. They are always just a notch off. I’m not entirely certain but I think the only American actors in this film are Assante and one African-American present who is playing a bad copy of Jonesy from The Hunt for Red October.

It sounds like I’m bagging on this film but I must admit that the power of the original novel is still there as loved ones struggle to find some sort of peace before it all comes to an end. There is a pretty heart wrenching scene where an Australian Naval Officer is with his wife and child. Australia’s policy is to provide suicide pills in order to spare the population of the horrors of radiation sickness. They take their pills while they are embraced together on their bed.

And to be honest, I like the ending of this film better. Assante’s character makes what I feel is the right choice chosing to stay with his love interest to the very end rather than sailing with his submarine into the ocean.

Random ponderings. Now I’ve got some work to do.

Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri

Obama, I never considered you to be my president. I made that clear when you were elected. Very clear. Didn’t vote for you so I don’t answer to you. Your party did that to my president and thus in my mind what is good for the goose is good for the gander.

But I never disliked you nor did I think you were an idiot like that fuckwad Clinton.

Until now.

Fiddle fart around in making a decision to surge in Afghanistan? That wasn’t what did it although you didn’t impress me with that. I figured you were probably catering to the Sunshine and Bunny Rabbits crowd in your party, the ones who believe it is all a deep misunderstanding.

The 18 month timetable on the other hand?

Stupid. Just fucking stupid. As a former infantryman I am here to say that I think that was probably the biggest mistake any president has made in the last ten years.

Or let me put it to you this way, Berry.

You do not ever, fucking EVER, tell the fucking enemy what you are planning on doing. Not ever.

You don’t tell them you are planning on attacking them. You don’t tell them how you will hurt them. You don’t tell them you are planning on easing up or that you are hardpressed to fight them and you damned sure don’t fucking tell the Goddamned dirtbags who cheerfully MURDERED 3,000 of your fellow citizens on September the 11th that you are planning on cutting and running in eighteen months.

You were never my president, but I did have at one point some modicum of respect for you as a man.

Now sir, I have no respect for you at all.

Not a stitch.

Steven Francis Murphy
A Veteran of Six Years of Service
North Kansas City, Missouri

The Vehicle Front

Well, the parents took the ZX-2 in for a look to see what was causing the thumpety-thump-thump-thump as it rolled down the road.

Lots of things it turns out. Nearly $900 in repairs, tire replacement, replacing a busted tie rod, etc.

Mom and I have worked out an installment plan that won’t totally suck away my final check. I’ll still be able to get some limited upgrades but for the most part, I can forget about the larger plans laid out in the previous entry.

I am getting that flatscreen though. I guess we’ll go with a 32 inch instead of a 40.

Shit. Just fucking shit. I hate cars.

The Teaching Front

This morning I covered the Pacific War in fifty minutes, which felt like a professional atrocity. This evening I got the American Civil War started. Tomorrow I’ll start the Civil War and the Pacific again for two out of three of my classes while I get through Feudalism in the third.

I’m so ready for this semester to be over.

And last but not least, turns out my bodyfat is now at 25.2% up from 22.4% at the start of the semester.

Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri

Well, we’re in the final stretch. Most of my classes have achieved terminal velocity bearing down on the end of the semester. Most of my students have achieved that speed as well. They’ll either survive it or not. The good news is that all of my classes are on the same page of the playbook respectively.

In American History 121 we’ve reached World War II, far later than normal in the 16 week classes I assumed control over. Normally by now we’d be in the Cold War and Civil Rights. In my eight week class I’m doing well if I reach the end of World War II. So it is all good there.

In American History 120 we’ve reached the American Civil War. We should finish it by the end of the semester one way or the other. I suspect that there will be no time for a military lecture on Gettysburg. Instead I’ll have to talk about the consequences of Gettysburg and Vicksburg.

In Western Civ we’re going to cover Feudalism, Manorialism and Serfdom. Their last lecture will cover The Great Plague, aka The Black Death.

It has been a hell of a semester with one disaster after another that needed patching up, triaging and dealing with. With colleagues going down for the count and personal issues on other fronts, it is a wonder I’ve made it to the end but here I am.

Hopefully next semester will be a better one.

Pod Upgrades

Trinity and I have been out window shopping, contemplating upgrades for the loft known as The Pod. I’ve already discussed redoing the office workspace we share. We’re going to get some kitchen tables which will serve as our respective desks.

Trinity’s new space will go where my current one is.

We’ll move her desk against the South Wall which should cut down on distractions for her. My desks and the reading chair will be moved to the East Windows.

I suspect it will be a work in progress for a few months.

For the living room space we’re going to upgrade the entertainment system. This, my friends, is way overdue. I’ve been trying to get a flatscreen for nearly three years now. Right now Best Buy has a pretty good Samsung forty inch which just might do the trick. It’ll go here.

The flatscreen will go where that analog set is at or we’ll put it in the corner facing toward the kitchen area. Overtime we’ll pick up either a blu-ray player or a Playstation.

One option I am considering is using my current laptop as a computer for the flatscreen. It wouldn’t be that much trouble I suspect to get a wireless keyboard and mouse. Toss in a webcam and it may well be as if I am on the bridge of the Enterprise. We’d need to see about internet access for the Pod, but I have mixed feelings about that. Trinity, on the other hand, does have some need for the net in the Pod so that may come to pass.

Other upgrades include bookshelves, which we are in desperate need of, and Trinity wants end tables for the Jabba the Hut Couch.

This will all be balanced against setting aside the rent for the Summer Gap, at least $1800 worth, which should carry us across. If I could sock the rent away then I’d have more options with regard to summer work. We’ll have to see.

The Writing Front

Over the semester break I think I’ll see about looking over a couple of projects for possible submission.

So it goes.

Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri

All Hands, Stand By For Rant.

Noise Cancelling Headphones

I’ll be fucked and bedamned if I didn’t get driven out of yet another public space by some fuckwad’s screaming, no account pathetic sperm stains.

I am tired of screaming kids. I am even more tired of the quarterwit parents who refuse to make those kids behave. I fail to understand why it is tolerated for five seconds and finally I fail to understand why I would not be well within my right to bust some worthless father upside their empty skull with a sack of hammers for failing to keep their kids in check.

I figure I have the following choices:

1. Smack offending father and go to jail for a felony offense.
2. Give up trying to get any work done at all and go dig ditches for a living.
3. Break down and buy a set of noise cancelling headphones from Bose.

Three hundred dollars is a lot to pay for some peace and god damned fucking quiet. And of course since the parents don’t do their job early I get to do it for them when these shits show up in my classroom wondering why it is Murphy throws them out of the classroom when they can’t keep their rancid, mindless, gibbering pie hole shut.

So the headphones it will be. Either that or I’m going to have that screaming child’s guts for fucking garters!

Their parents ought to be fucking chain whipped in a public square.

Steven Francis Murphy
A writer whose next story is going to feature a society where such parents are tasered until they get their kids in line.
North Kansas City, Missouri

Well, Trinity and I spent Turkey Day at Sunset Acres Bed and Breakfast outside of Odessa, Missouri. We seem to have been adopted by Bill and Brenda, the owners of the establishment. We had a first class meal featuring the usual turkey, mashed potatoes and the like. Trinity had the opportunity to play with Brenda’s grandkids and talk to adults other than yours truly. I had the opportunity to simply take it easy and forget about school for a bit, something I am not sure I’d have been able to do if we had stayed at home.

Trinity and her family are not on the best of terms, something which is an ongoing source of aggravation for me. They are not happy with her living with me. They are not happy about a lot of things which I won’t get into. Conversely, they have not treated Trinity the best (going so far as to physically threaten her on two instances). One of her sons owes her a great deal of money which he will never pay (and the temptation to turn that Marine over to his Chain of Command is awfully appealing on days when he doesn’t treat her well).

My two cents? I’ve not always gotten on with my parents. I disagree with them about a number of things and of course, our recollection of the past is wildly different respectively speaking.

That said, I have never threatened my own mother with the use of physical force and while I do not care much for my father on any given day, I am not in the habit of threatening him either.

For those that have seen me “wishing” him ill, it is true but I see that as different from threatening to do the ill myself. Besides that, I’ve reached a point where I feel like my father has paid plus interest for his misdeeds via his illnesses.

That isn’t so with Trinity’s family. I don’t think much of them and have even less to do with most of them when possible (aside from one daughter, one son and her grandkids). I don’t even care if they like me.

I do care when they hurt Trinity, which they do with disgustingly predictable regularity.

So it was nice to go somewhere away from it all. Someplace where Trinity and I are accepted without any judgement or question.

And to be perfectly honest, I really do not think anyone in that family is in any position of moral superiority to judge ANYONE, let alone the two of us.

The Weekend Thus Far

We spent yesterday napping and recovering from the gorge fest that was Thanksgiving. Last night we made a run down to The Plaza (pronounced by the hoity-toities as “Plah-zha”) for a bit of window shopping, gazing at the lights and such. It was, of course, a madhouse and we didn’t stay very long. We did have a good time looking at things we’d like to pick up with the upcoming influx of revenue. Trinity is due some money from a couple of sources which will make things easier for her. I am, of course, due some money from the additional teaching I have been engaged in.

The Teaching Front

It has been a first class superbitch keeping up with the work but I have managed to get most of the chaos under some sort of manageable control. All of the classes aside from Western Civ are roughly in the same place on their respective historical timelines, which will make teaching and testing easier on me. I’ve still got two exams to grade, something I will take care of tomorrow while I am at work.

In Western Civ we are bearing down on the Medieval Period, which I reached way too late in the semester. I’ve got time to hit Feudalism and the Black Death before it is all over. They have been given a reading take home essay to cover most of the rest of the material, which is something many of them should get used to anyway. Students who are in Western Civ almost always plan on going to four year schools so they should get used to the increased workload of the 200 and 300 level courses sooner rather than later.

I think when I get the opportunity to teach Western Civ One in the future, I will get rid of the Egyptian material and move onto the Greeks and Romans sooner. That will leave time at the end of the semester for the Middle Ages.

Also, whether I like it or not, I’m going to have to sit down and study the Catholic Church for some revised lectures on that topic. Many historians hate talking about matters military and go so far as to skip those issues when possible. For me, I have an intense dislike for religious history. As I have stated before, it isn’t that I am a burn the churches down sort of atheist (I am militantly agnostic, to be truthful) it is simply that I do not find religion to be a very interesting topic.

On the other hand, the Judea-Christian tradition shapes modern society just as surely as Ancient Greek philosophy did. I need to rectify that problem.

In my American History classes I need to sit down and see about some limited incorporation of social history (very limited). If nothing else, it would not hurt to switch up gears from what many of us consider to be “meat and potatoes history” for a bit of “dressing.” The meat and potatoes being political history, which I think should form the solid core from which all other historical understanding flows.

For the coming Winter Semester it looks like I may well have four classes to teach, which is a full load for adjuncts. That is good paycheck wise but that could always change at the last minute. I have never had a semester where the projected offering remained consistent to the first day of class. It does look like I will teach three American History 120 classes which covers the period up to 1865 and the end of the American Civil War. Since that is the class that needs the most work, that is a good thing.

I am hoping, however, that I will have more time to write fiction. More on that in a bit.

The Student Front

One good thing about Terri’s class is that I did get some work done on the following projects:

Rogue Knitter
The Tinkerin’ Woman

Neither of them are even close to complete and they are very fragmented, out of focus pieces of writing. I miss the days where I could focus on something for six hours at a stretch. Toni Morrison, I think it was her, used to go find a hotel room and lock herself inside with a bottle of her favorite adult beverage. She would stay there until she got her work done. Ernest Hemingway, in the later years of his career, used to walk a plank over to a sort of tree house type writing space and knock the plank away once he was inside.

Sometimes I think I need to do something like this (I write this in full realization that Trinity will read this and again think I am blaming everything on her, which I am not Trinity as I have told you before).

If it comes to it over the next year, I may well adapt the Morrison method to see if I can get anything done.

In the meantime, we are going to renovate the combined office space we have at the Pod. This will mean getting some new furniture, reorienting workspaces for better effect. I work better staring out a window, Trinity works better staring at a wall. I work better with sunlight, Trinity does not. I work better with silence (thus the need for a three hundred dollar pair of noise cancelling headphones) while Trinity works better with music blaring in her ears.

I don’t understand that, I might add. For anyone with radio experience, imagine the creative process as a radio transmission between yourself and your Muse. When I hear any distracting sound, to include loud music, it is as if someone else on the radio net keyed their own mike, squelching out any transmission. Screaming kids have this effect as well because I want to find out why the kid is screaming. Are they hurt or just being obnoxious? If the later is the case then my urge is to throw the little fucker through the hole in the window I made when I threw their parents through the glass.

In any case, the plan during the break is to get away and get some writing done. I will sign up for Terri’s online writing class again in order to make sure I keep my hand in the game.

Lastly, Black Matrix Publishing has four new magazines coming on line and they are accepting submissions. They are also accepting novel submissions. I plan on sending them something by the end of the year.

The Fitness Front

The additional course load has played absolute havoc with my fitness plans. I still have the additional strength I picked up from bodybuilding. I can now bench 205 pounds, which is my own bodyweight. On the other than, I’m not working out enough to keep my body fat under control, which is starting to climb again. The last body fat reading at 25.5 percent, up from 22.4 percent two months ago. That isn’t acceptable at all.

So I’ll sign up for Body Building again next semester to keep myself in the gym.

A long post but I’ve been away for a few days. Back to work for yours truly. In the meantime, see about ordering a copy of Descended from Darkness: Apex Magazine Volume One, which features my second story publication, The Limb Knitter.

Just a suggestion, no pressure.

Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri

From the Chief Bottlewasher of The Pondering Tree, have a great Turkey Day. Be sure to clean the vomitorium when you are done with it.

Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri

The Teaching Front

Tests deployed: Five
Tests recovered: Five
Tests graded: Three
Tests recorded: Three

That leaves two to grade, record and clear off my deck for the Turkey Day Weekend. If I push hard enough I can get that out of my hair providing me with some time to do these things.

1. Finish crits in Terri’s class.
2. Write a lecture on Feudalism.
3. Write a lecture on the Black Death.
4. Get to the gym.
5. Get some creative writing work done.

Then of course there is Turkey Day itself. Trinity and I have been invited to Sunset for the family feed out there. We’re looking forward to it.

So it goes.

Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri

I’m not all there.

No, seriously, that isn’t an Admiral Stockdale gaffe, I really am not all there, or here.

In fact, I am in many places. True, not physically. Just as the quote goes, “No matter where you go, there you are.” I know that at this very moment I am physically sitting in Panera Bread with my laptop in front of me, a small iced tea to the right and one of my textbooks to the left. I’m facing west toward the skywalk which connects Crown Center to the Hyatt and of course there are kids here which reminds me yet again that I need to purchase that set of Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones.

But my mind?

I’ve tried to explain this to people before and the responses are never positive. Usually there is some snide crack about one’s sanity. Right now, here is where my mind is at.

Part of my mind is listening to the YouTube track which features instrumental music from James Bond’s You Only Live Twice. I find that this calms me down a bit and allows me to focus just a notch better than normally.

Another part of my mind is wrestling with the Third Exam for my Western Civ class. I’ve got the textbook for that class to my left as I type this entry.

A third part of my mind is constantly trying to reorganize and sort the workload for eighteen hours of college courses. It isn’t easy since I didn’t start with half of this load and I have to ramp up to deal with it at the last minute.

A fourth part of my mind is off with my characters and the worlds I’ve created as a fiction writer though these days it is a regrettably small part of my mind.

A fifth part of my mind is wondering about the various relationships I am in ranging from my relationship with Trinity to that of my peers, family and such. Who is upset? Who is happy? What is working and what isn’t.

A sixth part of my mind is thinking about the last two lectures I’ll give in Western Civilization, notably on Feudal States and the Black Death.

A seventh is thinking about Terri’s Creative Writing Class.

An eighth part is thinking about Research Project Number – 04, a smaller part than I’d like on that score as well.

A ninth part is thinking about my future as a historian and how to improve my marketability so I can turn this adjunct thing into a full time gig.

Frequently when there is much on my mind I hear the comment, “You are emotionally distant,” or “I feel like you aren’t here.”

The thing is, I am THERE. I hear everything that is said to me. I process everything that is said to me. I have a level of empathy for everything that is said to me. Empathy is part in parcel of being both a good writer AND a good instructor. I identify with people more often than they realize, especially when I happen to disagree with them.

I guess the question to ponder then is this.

Regardless of my workload, heavy or light, my brain is always multiplexed like this. Even when I am focused on a specific task, my brain is still cogitating on the other issues, perhaps split into more than just nine parts. Which I suspect means that sometimes I seem like I am not emotionally available or there.

I’ve always been like this. I think it is one of the things that give me a knack for writing and teaching.

I also know this.

I am not going to change.

The Teaching Front

As I said, I’m writing exams this afternoon. Right now I have the Western Civilization exam on deck. The exams for all American History 120 classes, be they mine or my peers, are also in progress. I need to have all three ready for the copy center tomorrow. I also have an American History 121 exam to prep for my eight week class.

Since my 120s are in roughly the same place on the Timeline, I shouldn’t have too much trouble. Granted, I have to create variants of the test in order to prevent cheating (no, I won’t describe how I do this).

For the Winter Semester, I’m slated for three classes so far with the possibility of a fourth class. I’m hoping I get the fourth one as it would help on the money front. I want to get enough rent socked away for the upcoming Summer Gap.

The Student Front

Thanks to Trinity I was able to use most of yesterday to get caught up in terms of actual prose written for Creative Writing. I am still behind on critique comments but I think I can pick that up here in the next few days while I proctor my own tests in various classes. I’ll just print the stuff off and take it with me.

My karate class fell by the wayside weeks ago due to the workload and now it would be completely infeasible to continue. I’m in serious trouble in my Physical Fitness course (which simply requires me to workout at least 20 hours this semester to pass it and I have logged only ten hours). My Body Building class is stable enough but I have to get back with it before it blows up in my face.

In other words, I’ve got a mess on my hands if I don’t get with it.

I plan on taking Terri’s class again in the hopes that I will have more time to focus on it next semester. I will sign up for Body Building again and I think I’ll take CPR/AED which is two credit hours. I need to recertify and it will help if I go for lifeguard certification.

Additional Development Plans

I’ve got a list of things I mean to do over the Winter Break.

First, I want to get in for swimming lessons at Northtown as a prelude to becoming lifeguard certified. By Academic Year 2010/2011 I want to be working part time at the campus pool in order to ease some of the periodic income issues which come up as a result of living in Adjunctland.

Second, I want to get certified for Concealed Carry. No, I’m not planning on carrying a gun on a regular basis. I’m more interested as a writer in this training and as a way to ease back into regular contact with firearms.

Third, I’d like to sign up for a motorcycle riding course with an eye toward getting a license. Again, this is more for the writer than it is for actual use.

Other Fronts

I’m tired and ready for the semester to end. I’m hoping I might get a look at the revisions for RPN-04 over Turkey Day or perhaps before the end of the month.

So it goes.

Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter, soon to be republished in the Apex Book Company Anthnology Descended from Darkness: Apex Magazine Volume One.
North Kansas City, Missouri

The Writing Front

I’m slowly getting caught up in Terri Lowry’s Creative Writing course. I skipped out of the Pod early this morning to try and get some writing done. So far I’ve managed to hack out six pages of material for two different projects. One of them is a non-fiction essay which talks about ideal writing spaces. The other is a bit of science fiction which may or may not have potential. I’m not sure. I’ve almost got enough material for my portfolio so that is good.

Now I could just find something which I had never submitted to Terri’s class and submit that. I have plenty of that type of material but it seems to me that the purpose is to workshop fresh material written this semester, not some third rate drivel I wrote five years ago.

I do not hold high hopes for having anything that is actually submission ready this semester. There are endless demands on my time which suck the oxygen out of my creative spirit. I’m starting to think that my Muse got murdered and dumped into a ditch somewhere.

The Ideas are there. The Characters are there. The Worlds I created are there.

But the Energy?

Anyway, I’ll probably sign up for Terri’s class again next semester. Maybe if I am not focused on writing lecture notes for two classes I’ll be able to get something productive done.

The Teaching Front

I spent most of yesterday on test prep, either writing tests or talking to students about their essays. I am starting to think I may issue more take home finals this semester. I hate doing this as it gives the worst of my students every opportunity to plagarize, engage in shoddy work, copy off of each other, send files to me in the wrong format, etc. Then they sit there and play stupid with me when they do it.

Granted, most students do not pull this crap, but enough do to prompt me to believe that the in class essay is better.

Social Front

There is a free shindig going on over at the Northtown Community center with free goodies and access to the swimming area. I think I’ll head back that way to take Trinity to it (it is her idea, if anyone is wondering).

Tonight we’ll hit the local Relaxacon SF convention where I have free passes. I think I’ll have a beer while Trinity watches the Viva Los Vegas crowd do their thing.

Other Fronts

The ZX-2 is making some kind of thumping noise when I drive which comes from the passenger side front tire. Knowing my luck it is probably something which will suck down every extra dime I have earned over the last month. I hate pouring a thousand dollars a pop into a vehicle, especially a car I deeply hate and would love to send off a cliff.

So it goes.

Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter, soon to be republished in the Apex Book Company Anthnology Descended from Darkness: Apex Magazine Volume One.
North Kansas City, Missouri