Archive for October 2006
Slam! Da-duh-dum…
So one of the things that I’ve neglected posting about is the story slam that my writing group will be -> is -> has -> had hosted tonight at the Standard Tap.
Story Slam: a lot like a poetry slam. Ten contestants sign up to read an original piece. They have to read a five-minute excerpt (half a point deduction for every 15 seconds over the time limit). Five judges are chosen at random to grade out of ten points on content and delivery. Given the season, an extra point and a half for any story that’s scary.
It was great. We had a full house listening in; there were even people standing on the fringes because we ran out of seats. People ate and drank, which was good for our host, the legendary Standard Tap. I highly recommend the Sly Fox Pub Ale.
We only had nine readers, though, which made us a little short on prize money. Each reader donates $5 to the pot, so we could award $25 to first plaze, $15 to second, and $10 to third place = $50 total. So we were short $5. Not a big problem, though.
I won second place! I’d have to say it was probably more for my delivery than for the story itself, though. First place went to a humor piece about zombies, a well deserving Daniel, who has a touch of the Sedaris charm in him.
Actually, first place would have gone to Jeff Bender, another Penn Charter teach, had he not gone two minutes over the time limit. Bender can write, dudes. He’s a funny guy.
So it’s pretty sweet that minus the five we swallowed and the five for the Sly Fox I swallowed, I still came home with five extra singles in my pocket. Home as a hero to my sugar mama, who’s studying organic chemistry so she can be a rich dentist. Nice to proffer a little sump’n sump’n up to my muse.
All Apologies
Okay, okay, I know I’m doing several things that I’ve set myself not to do:
- Posting only sporadically
- Not finishing series of posts
- Not reflecting on my teaching experience
- Being lazy
- More but see above…
The thing is, my life is in major tumult right now, and it’s not the kind of thing that I feel I can share about. Even if I felt it was within the comfort zone of my own and others’ privacy, I’m not sure if I’d be able to talk about it either, since I’m having a hard time processing everything that’s going on. I’m kind of going through a major Men Are From Mars thing right now.
In fact, I’m kind of facing a mental blue-screen-of-death kind of thing, and I’m having a hard time posting about even the trivia of my life, since it all kind of seems annoying and insignificant right now.
Yeah, my kids (in school) must think I’m grouchy, too.
Anyhoo, I’m feeling a little better tonight so I thought I’d slowly get back to this, starting with this apology. Sorry, dear silent readers. You may not be out there anymore, but it’s hard to tell.
Popular Science Blogs
Fifty Popular Science Blogs and their Technorati rating.
Analysis Then Nap
If I finish grading this weekend, I’m going to see Michel Gondry’s Science of Sleep:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind currently ranks number one on my personal movie favorites. Mike, the drama teacher at my school who typically heads up the stage crew, freaked out when I told him there were hardly any computer-generated effects in that movie; Gondry is a big fan of elaborate visual illusions using old-fashioned stage tricks. I myself watched long sequences of ESOSM frame-by-frame to try to wrap my head around some of what he did.
So Science of Sleep maybe on Sunday. Anyone care to join me? Holla, Philly.
Blogroll: Philly
I thought I’d give some props to the feeds I read on a regular basis. I’ll be listing them by the way I’ve categorized them, including a link and short description of each site, along with a link to the feed for that site. Start clicking!
The following fall under the tag “philly”; they’re generally sites that feature current events and issues local to Philadelphia. I also subscribe to the mailing list of the Philadelphia Weekly (get a feed guys!)
- Philly Future: “In many ways, you can consider Philly Future, Philadelphia’s very own Slashdot (not affiliated – but inspired by), with the important addition of our regional aggregator.”
http://feeds.feedburner.com/PhillyFuture - Free Library Free Author Events: I really want to attend more of these, but I always miss them.
http://libwww.library.phila.gov/rss/eventsrss.cfm?&series=Free%20Author%20Events - Free Library Lectures: Most of these lectures are not free, but a few of them are worth it nonetheless.
http://libwww.library.phila.gov/rss/eventsrss.cfm?&series=PFLL
Any other suggestions?
