Inukshuk

Turns out the test for middle east history is tomorrow, along with my test for grammar. I hope I put enough notes on that one allowed sheet of paper. We're going to be studying rock art next week in archeology, which prompted me to look into inukshuks. I figured 'hey, they're rocks, the're art, they might be worth a show and tell'. I remember how we used to see them all the time on our Canada fishing/camping trips, on the sides of roads, in the woods, on the rocky shores of deserted islands, etc. My dad has even built a few up at the shack. I was going to look up some information online so I called him and asked how to spell inukshuk. He e-mailed me a picture of Chuck(y) the inukshuk on the picnic table. I found out that inukshuks were built by native inuit peoples as markers and signpost for trails, sacred sights, and landmarks.

Test?

I decided to stay in my dorm instead of going home this weekend intending, as it were, to do some homework. Turns out I was too lazy to do anything but sleep and watch movies. I did finish reading King's Shield by Sherwood Smith. It only took me three days to finish while the first one took me four months and the second four weeks. Either I'm becoming a faster reader or the author is becoming a better writer. Though I must say I missed all the nautical pirate adventure that was so very prevalent in the second book. I made up for it by watching the second Horatio Hornblower movie, The Fire Ship. I'd watch the third now but it's nearly ten already and too late. I did manage to make a wall mart run for some frozen Chinese, ice cream cups, and a twelve pack of diet Dr. pepper cherry. Maybe I should have gotten some fresh fruit? Anyway, I should at least try and get some sleep for tomorrow. I think I might have a test in middle east history. Here's hoping it's easy.

The Fox and the Crow

I found this little animation while tooling around on the internet and thought it was worth sharing. It's called The Fox and the Crow. I'm sure most people already know the story and if not, now's as good a time as any to learn it. Enjoy.

Free Plant and a Story

I got a free boston fern plant from the greenhouse today. It's kind of cute. I hope it doesn't die. I discovered a new online comic last night about foxes. I believe it was called Crimson Flag. If I find it again I'll post a link. Meanwhile, I did some homework, went to class, and generally lazed about doing not much of anything. I did come up with a couple of interesting paragraphs for a short story about a fox. Check it out at White Foxx: Silver Crow. I might or might not continue the story. Posted comments could influence my decision so if anyone reads it leave a comment.I'm just watching the end of the Adventures of Robin Hood on TCM. Witty dialog never gets old, even though the costumes get more dated by the second.

Something About Carnivals

I finished reading The Road to Home for my middle east class today. It was interesting but not very exciting. I don't usually read based on a true story novels, especially holocaust memoirs, but this one was O.K. I met P.S. for lunch. We went to this little cafe down the street and got pancakes. Watched a movie on the Arminian holocaust for class. Went back to my room and watched the premier of Heroes and House. I can't be absolutely certain but I'm pretty sure that the guy who plays the new carnival leader guy in Heroes is the same guy who played one of the sicko bad guys in Prison Break. Also, I noticed that while I was flipping channels both shows wound up taking place in carnivals and had similar type situations. It's almost like the time Psych, Leverage, and Monk all had episodes where the main character gets trapped in a bank while it's being robbed. You'd think, what with them all being fairly recent new shows and all, that they would be able to come up with more original ideas. I guess that Writer's strike thing isn't as resolved as they said it was. Also, my president poem If I Were President made the featured writers gallery at Fifteen Minutes of Fiction and I forgot to mention yesterday that J.F. and I visited the ferrets at the petco. I'm so getting a ferret for my future pet.

White Fox

The rest of my week was pretty boring. I did some homework and went to class. I stopped at Barnes and Noble on my way home Friday where I finally got a copy of the third book in the Inda series. I also got the first two books of a new series I've been meaning to get for ages now. They didn't have the third one so I'll probably wait to start on it till I get the third one. They didn't have Tuck though, so I'll have to wait to find out how that one ends. I went fishing with my dad over the weekend. I caught a nineteen and a half inch walleye. We also caught seven nice keepers which we fried up in beer batter and had with sweet potato fries ( I should say my mom fried them). It was delicious. I watched 300 again, Troy, running man, and one other goofy movie that I can't quite remember the name of. I did a four loads of laundry and washed my dishes. My mom helped me die my hair a very light auburn and then I went to great clips for a trim. We stopped at the dollar store and I got Whales (offbrand goldfish) and ginger snaps for school. I finished packing up and came back to school this morning. I went with J.F. and let her drag me to Enger Tower. She thought it was really cool and I suppose it would be for someone who's never been in a real castle or climbed up a real mountain before. Compared to Scotland it was o.k. but it wasn't as awesome as she seems to think it was. I just agreed with her 'cuz I didn't want to spoil it for her and make her think I was really whiney. After that we went to the mall and I got the complete Horatio Hornblower series on DVD for 40% off. I also got a white fox stuffed animal that's really cute and fuzzy. When we got back to the dorm J.F. watched the first Horatio Hornblower movie with me. I remember how much I enjoyed watching them with my dad when they were first on t.v. I might re-wrap the box and give it to him for Christmas (or not since I really love those movies so much myself). I did finish my grammar homework. Mostly I just looked up the answers in the back of the book and in the answer key on D2L. I know I shouldn't have though because I'll never learn it for the test that way. Oh well, if the professor really wanted us to learn it the hard way she'd make it harder to get the answers. Meanwhile, me and my white fox are going to sleep.

Instead of Homework

First off, that nice guy from Trafford never did call me back today like he said he would and besides, it looks like J.F. and I are going to put the publishing thing on hold until all the pictures are finished and we've had time to explore our options more fully. I was doing some looking online at lulu yesterday and found out that I could probably self publish my own book of poems very cheaply. Aside from that, I have been putting off my homework reading in favor of other books. I finished reading Scarlet and now I really want to get Tuck so I can find out how it all ends (even though I have a sneaking suspicion that it will end like most of the other Robin Hood tales, that is, happily; unless you count the original in which maid marien took sick and died, robin hood got shot by the sherif and died when his cousin bled him, and the merry men were killed off one by one).

I also finsished reading this book called Ratha's Creature about a prehistoric cat (related to the sabertooth s what the back of the book said) named Ratha who lives with her intelligent kind by herding deer and horses. She is driven out when she tames the creature fire and is forced to live among the un-named who appeare to be the same species but for the most part they are unable to talk and are not intelligent like her people. There was a very sad bit in the middle where she turns on her mate (who is intelligent but whose father was dumb) and her cubs because she finds out her cubs will never become smart or speak. There is sort of a happy ending when Ratha returns to her people after they have been scatered by the un-named and teached them how to use fire. Very interesting book but, like I said, a few very sad bits and a lukewarm ending.

I also wrote two psuedo political poems that wind up criticizing Obama. Called The President and Me they can be found on my page at White Fox: Silver Crow. I think I'll turn in early tonight as I'm not feeling too well (I knew I shouldn't have eaten that chilli cheese dog for supper).

Too Good to Be True?

I was sitting in the library today reading a book when I got a phone call. Not just any phone call. A phone call from a publisher. It was a representative from Trafford publishing, one of the people I sent an e-mail to about submissions on Friday. Traffrod is like a self publisher with a ton of benefits, they format everything for you, edit everything for you, market everything for you, you get an ISBN, a library of congress number, a deal with barnes and noble for see inside the book, amazon marketing and sales, the ability to set your own book selling price and royalty rate, and personal publishing counslor to guide you through every step of the process. The catch is, with evey thing included it will cost 1,084.10.

Even though that seems like a very reasonable rate considering all you get for the money you know what they say, "if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is." I talked to my mom and she said that a person could probably do a lot of that stuff themselves and not have to pay as much for it. Anyone can sell anything on Amazon, ISBN numbers and Library of congress numbers are usually dirt cheap if not free, and retired english teachers make great editors who don't expect to be paid. Besides, can I really afford a thousand dollars right now what with school, and loans, and cost of living without a job? (technically, since the book is a colaboration I would only have to come up with half the money but five hundred is still a lot.) I guess I'll take J.F.'s advice and sleep on it. Besides, her mom might agree with my mom and then where would we be?

When Poe Said

I did some more reading for school the past few days. There really wasn't much to do around town. I did go and hang out at the library today and I discovered a random book that looked interesting so I checked it out. I might not have time to read it but it was nice to check something out that wasn't particularly school related. I'm still reading Scarlet and so far it's pretty good. I do, however, have to agree with Poe when he said that novels lose much of their power if they cannot be enjoyed in one sitting. After all that homework reading by the time I finally got back around to reading it again I had to re-read the last few pages just so I knew where I was in the story. It's still an excellent book though and I would highly recomend the series to anyone interested in a re-telling of Robin Hood with a unique and new twist. I'm still trying to find Tuck, the third book, in paperback.

Remember Remember 11 September

If I could figure out how to post a Copy of Darryl Worley's Have You Forgotten? I would. I haven't forgotten. Apparrently some of the people in charge have. I was just watching Fox news. If it only took us 400 days to build the empire state building in the 1930's, why has it been eight years and all we have to show for it is a hole in the ground where they said they were gonna build the Freedom Tower?

Enough politics, I just took my first steps toward getting my book project published. I talked to M.S. today and showed her the project, then I talked to B.S., who gave me this book called Poet's market with 1,800 places to publish poetry. He also told me he has a friend who's getting something published with Raven press in Ely, so I looked them up online and sent them a line. I also found this other publisher online who does consulting and marketing that I might look into and one other local Ely publisher called Scenic River that takes manuscript submissions. I sure hope I hear something back soon.

Other than that the past few days have been pretty slow. Reading, watching t.v., hanging out in the library (man, those couches are comfortable), etc. I did go and see that Time Traveler's Wife movie with J.F. She didn't get it but I thought it was great. It's a wonderful movie if you want to go and have a good cry, touching and sad and happy all at the same time. (J.F. wanted to see inglorious basterds. Jeez, does idiocy know no bounds?) Also, I finally got around to downloading those full moon pictures I took when I was home last Saturday. Enjoy.

What?

After class today I ran into M.S. the professor I had in Scotland. I told her about the possible book of poems and illustrations I've got going with J.F. and she's very interested in taking a look at it and trying to help us get it published. Aside from that there was nothing eventful in my day, or I didn't think so anyway. I watched Cool Hand Luke with J.F. and now I'm trying to finish my readings for class tomorrow. It's just so Borning! At least for African Archeology there were plenty of pictures and for Grammar the chapter was only ten pages, even in Major Author at least I get to read poems and short stories. But Middle East History? Dryer than the desert it takes place in and twice as likely to melt my brain. At least I got promoted another level in Mafia Wars. That's something anyway. And did I forget to mention the fire and brimstone preacher out front of the student center? Apparently one guy with a bible warrents four security guards, a squad car, and a video camera crew. A little overkill if you aks me. And while we're on the subject of overkill, I went into the greenhouse today and talked to the greenhouse lady. Apparently there's a plant in there of the pitcher variety that eats whole mice. Who knew?

I Miss BBC!

Yesterday was quite eventful. While heading to the shack to help my dad haul firewood me and my mom hit a doe. We broke her back but there was no damage to the truck at all. We went back to the house for a rifle to put the deer out of her misery but wound up waiting for my dad to get there and take care of it himself. It was so sad. Me and mom cried. Dad wasn't happy. My folks got into a huge fight during wich threats were made about lawyers and movings out. Nothing came of it and they seemed to have forgotten the whole thing before dinner. I guess death makes people a little volatile.

I watched a little t.v. this moring before heading back to school. BBC America was showing a Torchwood marathon. I hated to leave before it was over but I had to get back to school. It's too bad the basic cable package here doesn't include BBC, or any movie channels for that matter. I did some reading for school (the first three chapters of human origins for my african archeology class, you'd be surprised how often they managed to fit the evils of loggin and man made polution in a book that's really about nothing but some old bones that were burried millions of years ago). After that I watched the first half of Robin Hood Prince of Theives with Kevin Costner while eating that chinese I got from Walmart last week. I played Mafia Wars on Facebook and now I think I'd better get to bed. I doubt I'll be able to sleep though (that's what you get for downing a bottle of mountain dew just before bed).

Boredom, Music, and Looms

I made it home for the weekend and discovered that there really wasn't much of a reason to come home. Things are just about as boring here as they likely would have been had I stayed at school. I went with my mom to wish my grandpa a happy birthday yesterday. I was going to look up the tinwhistle sheet music for happy birthday online but I got sidetracked by a video of a girl playing galway girl on the whistle. It made me look up sheet music for galway girl instead. I'm just not sure if it's the version I wanted. Maybe I'm just not playing it right.

Grandpa gave us one of the small looms he made to take home. I really want to weave something on it but it's in pieces right now. Besides, my mother is under the impresstion that we have noplace to put it anyway. On the way home we stopped at the wooden table inn for burgers and onion rings. Then it was home, lay about watching scifi channel (sorry, ScyFy, they changed the spelling for some reason) and then go to bed and sleep till eleven. At least I still have one more day before school starts again.

Libraries Rock!

After enduring the same usual speil on class policies for my new classes I got bored. Me and J.F. decided to wander over to the library building and found out that it was finally finished. We went in and it was Awesome! Three whole floors, fireplaces, couches, a section of tables for eating lunch, and all the books I could ever read in the basement. Ah, the smell of old paper in the afternoon. I found a copy of a book that is a collection of all the old original poems, songs, and stories of Robin Hood and just had to check it out. I'm a little obsessed with Robin Hood right now. After reading more of that Hood book this morning I had to call my dad and remind him that I wanted that Longbow for x-mas. I also found that they had the English Majors prairie home companion cd and checked that out too. Libraries Rock!

Must Have Longbow

I woke up early today (around nine). I printed off my class schedule and found out I don't actually have class until tomorrow. I walked down to the student center and got a new ID card to replace the one I had because it didn't swipe anymore. The new one was free of charge. I went back to my room and read more of Hood. Later I went with J.F. and her guy friend R. to the mall. I got some new shoes (now if only I could get the song on my iPod). We had sborro for lunch. Me and R. went in on a buy one get one hats at spencers. We saved barnes and noble for the last stop. I wound up getting two books. One was a continue for dog days called New Tricks and the other is the continue for Hood called Scarlet. We stopped at cub foods and they got soda and this japanese soft drink called... I forget, but it had a really funky bottle with a glass marble in it and tasted like bubble gum. I got to try one while we watched this goofy anime called Save my Earth. All the guys were sissies and not nearly enough stuff exploded. Besides, it defeates the purpose of blowing stuff up if the guy starts crying. All the guys kept crying and there was even a sappy embarrassing two guys kiss scene. So glad it's over.

I had to go back to my room and read more of Hood to balance out my adventure/action ratio (and make up for all those effeminate crying every three seconds kissing each other men).I'm so hooked on that Hood book now. I can't sleep because everytime I close my eyes I keep seeing an epicly dressed Robin Hood with a longbow in this Awesome forest pulling off impossible shots. Also, I can't stop thinking about that left handed longbow I saw in the cabella's catalouge. I MUST HAVE IT!!! If I don't get it for christmas I think I'll cry. If I do get it for christmas I think I'll cry (but for an entirely different reason). If my folks won't get if for me I'll buy it myself with that leftover money I have on my traveller's visa. Anyway, I best try and get some sleep, though how I'll be able to stop picturing myself with that longbow long enough is beyond me. Here's to trying.