I Just Don't Have the Words, and Neither Did They

It's that time of year again, time for the National Spelling Bee.  I usually try and catch it every year, but this year I forgot all about it.  I remembered a week beforehand.  I remembered it the day before.  I even remembered it that morning, but I forgot it by the time it was actually airing.  In any case, I am kind of glad I missed it this year, especially considering that it didn't end until after midnight.  Keeping junior high students up that late is not really all that acceptable.  Furthermore, the competition ended in an eight-way tie.  When there are that many in a tie, it is not longer a competition.  While some recent bees ended with co-champions, having eight tied for first is not fun.  That had to be a better way to end this than just having all eight 'win.'  How can any of them say they won it all, when seven others can say the same thing?  At least the words were somewhat better this year, but not by much.  I could only find two of the eight winning words in my store's main dictionary:  erysipelas, a bacterial skin infection; and bougainvillea, a tropical woody vine.  [Note:  My Mac's spell check feature caught both words.] I found two more on my computer's dictionary:  aiguillette, the braiding found on military-style uniforms; and pendeloque, a type of faceting used on certain gemstones, particularly diamonds. [Note:  My Mac recognized the first, but not the second.]  I had to search for three more words on the internet:  auslaut, the consonant sound at the end of a syllable; palama, the webbing between the toes of aquatic fowl; and cernunous, droopy when pertaining to plants.  [Note:  My Mac didn't recognize any of these words.]. While I did look it up, I already kind of knew the eighth and final word, probably from my love of CCGs and/or RPGs.  That word is odylic.  It pertains to the vibrant life force found in some individuals, that is sometimes strong enough to bend others to their will.  Strangely enough, it is archaic and somewhat obsolete, but it was the only one I knew.  My computer didn't know it either, possibly because of the possible other spellings of the word when used in different situations other than the one used in the Bee.  I am not sure how to work many of these words into everyday conversations.  I am pretty sure it would be impossible to work more than two into any regular one, and even that could be awkward.  The best I can come up with would be "The duck's palama got caught in the cernunous vines of the bougainvillea while it was chasing me due to the odylic attraction from the aiguillettes on my jacket."  Well, I tried and it doesn't sound too weird.  I mean, it theoretically could make sense.  Barely could happen, but it could.  Maybe the duck thought they were food?  Hey, the Bee is known for wild example sentences.  It could almost be a dream job of mine to come up with similar sentences.  Almost every competitor asks for one, even when one isn't necessary.  Those sentences are the only reason why I am sad I missed out.

Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, . . . Eighteen?!?

As many of you know, I also have a literary blog, The T. H. Weingarten Miscellany.  Almost from the start, I would post weekly installments of a book I had been thinking about for a long time.  In fact, I may have been near the age of the protagonist when I came up with the idea, if not younger.  Every few installments would make up a chapter.  Each one was basically a rough draft.  Originally, I thought I would revise them on the go, but that has yet to be the case.  For the last month or so, I haven't been posting new installments to the book.  Many weeks, I would have no installments.  Other times, I have posted my assignments from my graduate school fiction workshop class.  Technically, I had been writing the next chapter, seventeen; I just didn't post any installments.  Here's the thing.  One night, many years ago, I had this weird dream.  I was in a movie theater, which I never do in real life.  It was so hot and the movie was so dull, that I fell asleep.  Yes, I dreamed I was sleeping.  When I woke up, in the dream, I noticed that the audience was acting strangely.  Although the movie was fairly tame, the audience was treating it as 'adult.'  And the men and women were acting in a way many people would while watching such 'adult' material.  I was so disgusted, I stood up and said something that included the phrase 'getting your jollies off.'  I knew I had to include it in the book.  A major part of the plot would involve the main character's father having made movies, especially at home.  This dream would be perfect in establishing that fact.  It also meant I had to remove a scene where the main character would go on a date with a woman he just meets when getting to New York.  It wasn't working, especially after I gave him a younger brother to take care of. I just had to change one thing about the dream.  Instead of being a completely tame movie, I made it slightly risqué instead.  In doing so, I needed to include some sophomoric language, well-known to anyone who had ever been a teenage boy.  I was afraid to post the installments because of the language.  I hadn't even used the real words, just the first letter followed by an underscore the same length as the rest of the real word.  So instead of including the real chapter seventeen on the blog, Just posted a short synopsis of the movie's plot and the audience's reactions to it, including those of the main character.  Even that seemed somewhat mature, at least more mature than what I feel most others would think I write.  Still, it sets up many further plot points, as well as the climax.    Of course, the final product will include the full chapter.  I am just conflicted about showing it now.  I want people to see it, but maybe not just yet.  It is so graphic in what happens.  Not fully so, but more PG-13 than R, if barely.

And Here I Thought I Was a Pepper, Too

In the post few months, the major soft drink makers have com out with a bevy of new flavors.  First was Coke.  It came out with a blueberry-açai flavored version of Diet Coke.  I usually don't drink Coke, but since I love blueberries, I tried it.  Didn't really like it, and I am not sure if it was the flavoring or the Coke part.  (They also came out with a strawberry-guava flavor as well, but I didn't want to try that one.). Coke quickly followed that up with an orange-vanilla variety across all of their regular lines.  This time, I almost liked it.  I was always somewhat partial to that flavor combination, but I didn't like it enough to have it again.  Next, while walking through the store one day, I found berry flavored Pepsi, along with lime and mango varieties.  What sets Pepsi off from the new Coke products is the inclusion of actual fruit juice into the mix.  Unlike the Coke experiments, I actually got a case of the Pepsi berry, only because of the inclusion of blueberry juice.  Well, it does have a berry flavor, raspberry.  It is especially prominent when I take my first sips, but the blueberry comes out more as you drink it.  I am not sure if I would get another case.  I first heard about both the Coke and Pepsi drinks though the news.  This past weekend, while shopping, I though I saw a bottle of Dr. Pepper with a purple/dark bluish label in a dispenser.  I didn't get a close look at it, for I was running behind schedule, so I didn't check to see what was going on.  I thought it might have just been a special promotion or a trick of the colored light upon it.  Yet, something still irked me.  I checked online as soon as I got home.  The official Dr. Pepper site didn't list anything, but I did find something when I did a search.  It turns out that there is a special limited-edition flavor tied to the new Spider-Man movie.  It is called dark berry.  It is a mix of blackberry, black cherry, and black currant flavors.  I love the first two, but I am not sure I have ever tried the third.  (It is supposedly a favorite in Europe.) I have yet to find any more of it, but I can't wait to try it.  I would never have ever thought to search for it, if it wasn't for that unusual label.  I don't even think that is that actual label they will be using.  Strange enough, the movie has a tie in with Doritos, which is part of the large Pepsi corporation, so I don't see why they chose Dr. Pepper as a tie-in for a new drink.  This is the first new flavor from Dr. Pepper since the limited edition vanilla float from a few years ago.  I tried it a few times the summer it was out.  I would even mix it with some cans of regular cherry Dr. Pepper to get a hint of my all-time favorite cherry vanilla Dr. Pepper back.  Still being made, but not sold locally.  The easiest way for me to get that flavor is to go to a Dairy Queen and mix it straight from their soda dispenser.  It's not the same, but it's close.  I'm somewhat apprehensive about this new flavor.  I know I will get it, but I'm not sure how I will like it, especially with these other new flavors about.  Now, all I have to do is find it again.  Be the Pepper!

The Pencil Is Iconic with the Sword

Well, since the semester ended, I have had time to do a few things, like work on my icon for this blog.  I have made a second model icon to try out for this page.  If it doesn't show up at the start, it will appear below as well.  For comparison's sake, I have also included my previous attempt at an icon.  I used the Pages drawing tool to get a sharp angle at the bottom.  I also redesigned the so it would look more like a broadsword.  Pay particular attention to the gleam in the sapphire in the hilt.  I found how to get more points on the star, so it would look more authentic.  I kept the background as white, partially because I forgot how to change it.  Besides, I think this looks a little better this way.

 One thing I did forget to do was add a border around the second icon.  In hindsight, I really should have done that.  Until the words wrap around the image, no one can tell just where the icon ends.  The main problem with this attempt is the "T" in the sword.  It is way too thin.  It should be a little thicker, maybe one size more.  I really like how the sword also mimics a pencil now.  Totally non-intentional, honest.  I just hope that Facebook starts picking up at least one of these images a the design for the link.  For some reason, it has started to pick up an image back from February as the link image.  Unfortunately, it is a rather dorky one of me wearing my newest pair of jeans.  The sort of brown ones that I got on sale for $10.  You got to admit, when you find a pair of Levi's for that cost, and they fit with almost no need for altering, you have to buy them.  Even if they are not in the best of colors.  Still, I have a wide range of shirts that I can wear with them, in both long- and short-sleeves.  I literally have shirts in every color. I'm kind of a clothes hog when it comes to shirts.  And socks.  But that is another topic.  If this new icon doesn't work, I will probably have to break down and get an art app.  So, if anyone out there has any suggestions, send them to me.

I Second That Semester

Yesterday, I turned in my last assignment for grad school, which I hope will finish my work for this semester.  I'll explain shortly.  I only took two classes this time around.  I should have taken three, but I just barely made it through last semester taking three.  Although, each one was a literary criticism course.  This time, neither course was literary.  The first was syntax, the science of language.  The majority of my time was spent making diagrams of fairly simple sentences.  These were not the type of diagrams we once did in grade and high school.  Or college if you took a linguistics class.  No, these were much more thorough and complicated.  Every word took at least two lines and multiple descriptors just to get done.  While the actual reading for class was a manageable half hour or so a week, it would take an hour just to get the diagramming done for one of the harder sentences once every detail was introduced.  By contrast, it took me about six hours minimum for each of my classes' reading material last semester per week, plus another hour or two to do the lessons related to that material.  Things would have been easier if I could have written the diagrams down on paper so I could turn them in, but I couldn't because it was an online class.  That would have cut my work time by half.  As it was, I had to figure out how to use the simple graphic features of my MacBook's word processing program, Pages, without any training or manual to help me out.  It was a very sharp learning curve, especially when I started to use the more complicated details in my diagrams.  Things could have been made easier if I had found the freehand drawing tool before I was finishing up on my final paper.  Seriously, it would have made things so much easier if I had found it sooner.  It might help me out with my icon, once I get back around to it.  My other class was a fiction writers' workshop.  I had to read a chapter from a book, then take a one hour open book test over what I had read.  That should have been one a week, but there was a month long gap where there weren't any chapters.  I also had to submit two short works of non-genre fiction, then respond to the stories of everyone else in class.  That amounted to fourteen other stories I wound up reading.  So many of them were depressing, and even violent at times.  By comparison, my stories were rather simple and connected.  In fact, they were the start of a second book I had been thinking about.  Look at my literary blog, The T. H. Weingarten Miscellany, for those.  The strange thing is that I don't think I had to turn in any revised works.  I just took everyone else's ideas and work with them on my own schedule, and possibly never do anything else with the stories again.  I will, but not for this class.  As least I don't think so, and I have yet to find anywhere on the site where I could do that anyway.  So, the semester is over.  I won't know for a while when, or where, I will take more classes.  I am on a conditional status that might not allow me to take any more courses until it gets resolved.  Also, there are two summer courses, Modern Drama and a Poetry Workshop, that I could take if I get the chance. As to fall, I might have some different plans.  More on that later.

I Think Icon, I Think Icon

What you see above is an early draft of what I hope will become the icon for his blog.  Let me tell you about it.  When I first started this blog, I didn't own a computer.  I had to use the computers at public libraries for all my blogging purposes.  I was therefore limited in my time online.  My original blogs were limited by the twenty or so minutes that I could spare after work or on special trips, while still dealing with other online duties.  This is one of the main reasons why many of the features of this blog have not been fully used, such as ads.  Even after I finally got a computer last year, I still had trouble setting up some features.  For instance, I need to verify my blog via a text message or phone call.  Since I still don't have smart phone (I'm working on it) and I can't always use the weak wi-fi at work to use my work number, the one I use for most of my computer needs, this has been hard.  Another problem has been in creating my blog's icon.  My Mac does not come with an art app installed.  No Macs do anymore.  I have yet to find a free one with good reviews and the type of features I might need.  Still, for this early version, the graphics portion of Pages, Apple's word processing app, worked just fine.  Note how I incorporated my initials into the downward facing sword, which also vaguely looks like a pen or pencil.  I would have already put it into my blog, except for one problem.  It doesn't fit.  Although I have a square frame around the pic and I used an apparently square aperture to take the screenshot of the logo, Blogger doesn't think the pic is square enough.  In fact, it is approximately a pixel or so off from a perfect square, just enough to make it unacceptable.  I probably won't be able to do any better until I get used to the recently added Screenshot app, or I get a graphics app that can get a perfectly square image of a size that Blogger finds acceptable.  The final logo might have the sword piercing something, as well as being more swordlike, pointier you know.  Anyway, tell me what you think of this early draft.  While I admit it was just a few minutes of messing around, it shows off just what I want to do.

How Darkness Brought Me Back into the Light

Back in 1996, I was a wreck, mostly due to the panic attack and realizations that I suffered soon after my birthday that year.  I was so bad off.  I barely did anything.  By that summer, I was starting to make changes.  One of those, as I have mentioned in earlier posts, would be weightlifting.  I know, it was a radical change for me, but it has improved both my health and my mode ever since.  Another change was getting into role-playing games.  While I never did join up with any others to actually play with, I still enjoyed learning how and imagining myself as a designer for such a world.  My primary interest was in the World of Darkness lines from the original While Wolf studios.  I knew much about them from gaming magazines, as well as the very short-lived television series Kindred: the Embraced that was based off of one of their lines.  Well, there were some other outlets of information that I won't go into.  That September, I decided to actually get into the games by buying the first core book.  The store was out of stock, but they did have the fairly recently released historical game line core booklet.  It had the same basic rules set, just set in the Dark Ages instead of modern times.  I got it, and I was hooked.  Sure, I really wasn't interested in history, but just knowing about the world was enough to brighten my world, so to speak.  A few days later, I purchased the companion book, which expanded on the material covered in the core and allowed for more possibilities in game play and function.  A month later, on Halloween, I finally got the actual modern setting core book.  I then went back to the store later that day to pick up the player's guide.  I just had to have it.  I would wind up getting the other core books a quickly as I could, getting supplements that caught my eye.  I was even getting new products, sometimes as soon as they came out.  I was ordering them from my local shop, as well as searching them out at other stores whenever I could.  I passed over a few, that in hindsight I wish I had gotten.  One of the reasons why I chose/forced to open a book store was so I could get these books directly, without having to worry about having my local shop missing my order.  Turns out, the store's primary distributor didn't carry that company, but I still would get some through our secondary distributor.  In 2003, I lost well love half of my collection, as well as so many other things, to a flood.  Two months later, I found out the company was ending the current games and replacing them with new lines, ones where a definitive ending wasn't so guaranteed.  That meant not only that I had lost so much, but there would be no way for me to ever easily get them back.  I managed to replace a dozen or so immediately, mostly core books, and a few more in the decades since.  I got much of the new games as they came out, a mix of from the local game store and well as my own (our new primary distributor was carrying the books).  While I liked them, I never got into them as much as I did the originals.  Things changed in 2010.  The company changed its business model, part of the numerous corporate shake-ups it was experiencing.  It was going to a print-on-demand/download model.  Since I didn't have a computer or a credit card at the time, this meant I was our of luck getting their new books.  I even missed out on getting the one last book that I really wanted for my collection.  My distributors never got it in when I was placing orders.  This led to another minor panic attack, nowhere near the big one or the one I had when I realized the original lines were ending.  I would keep track over the years, finding out about new products, while occasionally working on my own games, trying to perfect them enough to warrant trying to see if they could be good enough to join theirs.  Corporate conditions kept changing, as properties and companies changed hands.  Books were still being online only, but a new company now owned the intellectual property, while another company founded by the original crew made new books, both for the new games but the originals as well, as special "anniversary" style products featuring both old and revised/new information.  Almost the entirety of the old books were also available again in this format.  As I mentioned in the last post, everything game together for me to finally purchase the six core rule books as PDF downloads, at a price less than getting just one of them as a POD hardcover.  I still would prefer physical copies, as well as some of the other new/updated books, but they can come later.  I am still pouring over the details in the books, but the old joy is returning.  Having these games as an interest helped bring me out of the funk as was in, at least enough so I could continue living, if not fully back into the world.  Connecting online would be the start of that, but this has helped me become who I am now, a person I much prefer to how I was back then,