Big plans, changes underway

Obligatory statement that I have been terrible at updates here. Excuse for such behavior: school.

The Two Towers Liveblog Session 3

9:45PM: LIVEBLOGGING HAS ENDED. I didn’t make it all the way through this chapter (because it’s fairly long), so I found an appropriate stopping point to take a break and will pick up there for the next session. Treebeard just finished telling Merry and Pippin about the loss of the Entwives, and everyone went to sleep after one of Tolkien’s 9000 songs.

8:00PM: LIVEBLOG SESSION IS UNDERWAY. All updates will be made in comments on this post. Refresh regularly or you’re going to miss shit. Also, I may be a bit slow at first because I’m also eating dinner after a late trip to the gym but you don’t care about that so let’s get starteeeeed

Curious as to what the hell this is about? Find out more here.

The Two Towers Liveblog Session 2

9:07PM: LIVEBLOGGING HAS ENDED. Thanks for tuning in for this miserably boring chapter that rehashed the conclusions we were pretty much able to draw from the previous chapter.

8:04PM: LIVEBLOG SESSION HAPPENING NOW. All blogging/commentary will be made as comments in response to this post.

After an overhyped football game and a Hallmark holiday about love interfering with my reading schedule, I’ll be back at you tonight at 8pm with more of The Two Towers liveblog experience. Needless to say, this liveblog is going to be a hell of a lot funnier if you participate, so join me right here at 8pm for a dose of high fantasy and total nonsense.

First time hearing about this? You must be filtering my inane postings out of your Facebook feed! But you can still get the scoop on why I’m doing this and what it’s about right here.

As foolish as four Hobbits leaving the Shire: live-blogging The Two Towers

In December I decided I was going to give the Lord of the Rings trilogy another shot, so I brought Fellowship of the Ring home to read through January. Then I started posting commentary about the book while I was reading, which people seemed to find relatively amusing. This, unfortunately for the internet, contributed to my personal delusion that I’m funny, and got me thinking that perhaps I should step up the ridiculousness in my first-ever complete reading of this fantasy epic. Instead of just making the occasional offhanded comment, why not live-blog the whole thing like some sort of culturally significant current event?

So, as I read The Two Towers, I will be live-blogging jokes, thoughts, and the like on What the Fidd as they occur to me. Ideally, I’ll notify you guys far enough in advance of each live-blog session that people can be engaging with me while I’m reading, trading comments back and forth. Needless to say, this is going to be slow going. Given how long it took me to do the first two chapters, I’m only going to do this a chapter at a time, which  means this may continue for a while, depending on the rest of my schedule (not every day is the Snowpocalypse, after all).

I hope you’ll join me in this completely silly venture and continue to support my egregiously incorrect belief that I am hilarious.

How to start a trip to Boston

Working on story revisions and listening to music after enjoying some dinner at a hotel near the airport.
Yes, that is a brick wall behind me. And yes, I am wearing a Kate Beaton shirt.

Oh yes well

For those of you who don’t know:

1. Sorry, no nanonovels this week. I’m revising stories (gasp!) for writing samples for grad school applications (double gasp!). Oh yeah, I’m applying to grad school or something.
2. Didn’t see anything on Twitter already about surprise not-vegetarian foods (I probably just didn’t look hard enough). #Vegwarning seemed too long and potentially confusing, so I opted for #notveg. If you notice anything that surprisingly isn’t  vegetarian (like some miso soup, much to my chagrin), take my hashtag for a whirl.
3. Going to Boston on Saturday. Expect some posts about it. Other things to expect in the near future: photopost and recipes for successful seitan tikka masala, and a discussion about writing in a digital age.

Well, now I have to go enjoy the unseasonable warmth.

A new project: nanonovels

Ladies and gentlemen, get all the information about my latest writing project, the nanonovel, at their new page on Drawing Coffee. I posted the first nanonovel today on my Twitter (which you can read the to right of this post, in the sidebar beneath my photo), as well as a link to the appropriate comments page. Read! Discuss!

I’m trying to decide how often to post these nanonovels; what are your thoughts? Twice a week? Three days a week?

The dark(ly humorous) side of origami

I posted some new writing up at Drawing Coffee. Go check it out, it’s called “The Art of Forgetting: Making an Origami Lotus”.

I don't make mistakes

I’ve done a lot of things I thought weren’t very good ideas at the time, but I have a hard time classifying anything as a mistake. A mistake, to me, is a time when I messed up and didn’t make it a learning opportunity, that is, something worthwhile. I’ve gotten something wonderful out of all my little screw-ups.

Art and Food: Unlimited Resources, Unlimited Creation

It would have to be a combination of two things, I guess–an institute that would work globally to provide people with access to creative outlets as a means of empowering them in their own lives and to reach out to change the lives of other people. It would be totally free of monetary cost and offer classes on everything from learning a new creative outlet (guitar lessons, photography, creative writing instruction, etc.) to networking with others to host exhibitions or perform, to helping set up new branches or organizations altogether to enrich the lives of others and teach them about relevant sociocultural issues going on in the world. The only “payment” required of anyone would be to volunteer a certain number of hours in exchange for the services they use or receive, helping to teach people in turn and work with the institute to make a difference.

On top of this (here’s where the combination part comes in), the institute would also provide classes and information on food, food justice, and health as well as varied and nutritious meals to people. The institute would help to financially sponsor independent, environmentally sustainable, ethical farming in order to provide its food.