All Hallows Eve
Tonight is Halloween--the ancient Celtic rituals subsumed in commercial form. Kids have been ringing my doorbell since about 6:00 PM, but I play the cranky old man and don't answer. I don't mind Halloween, but I do mind opening the door a thousand times a night.
The Toothless Old Hag, a.k.a. "Granny," has been answering the door to her apartment across the sidewalk from mine. She seems quite happy to see the children dressed up like ghouls and superheroes. After chatting up the little tykes and their parents, she tells them, "I'm sorry, but I'll have to take a rain check on that." Now it's pretty quiet. Perhaps Granny has an oven full of little Hansels and Gretels already. Gingerbread anyone?
Yesterday, Granny was dressed in a revealingly short, baby-blue sundress. Her bleached-blonde follicles were topped by a pointy witch's hat. This sight was rendered all the more enjoyable by the cigarette dangling from the corner of her mouth in the kind of snarl worthy of Dead Elvis on the can.
Horror movies are the staple on cable for the week. Last night I watched Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses. I was surprised that I found it entertaining. The film was set in 1977, the era of classic slasher-dismemberer films like 10,000 Maniacs. What is it about country bumpkins, evil clowns, dark woods and bloody axes that enthralls the public so? "You think we country folk are just stupid, dontcha?" yells the crazed clown at the beginning of the movie.
Further evidence of the link between horror and the extreme right can be found in the following recent article:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article323450.ece
An interesting quotation:
Things started getting particularly gruesome, in a Hammer horror sort of way, in the abortion scene, when cold, heartless doctor characters used an outsize pair of tweezers to pull unidentified bloody animal parts out from between a teenage girl's legs. (This trick, incidentally, is straight out of Keenan Roberts' outreach kit.) Having extracted the foetus - "America's version of the Holocaust," the devil narrators tell us - the doctors then manage to let the girl die too, through inattention. They act like it's just another day at the office.
I believe it's Red State angst, the paranoia of the damned, that haunts these shows. The gothic, guilty, weeping heart of Reverend Dimmsdale still beats in the breast of every Pat Robertson and James Dobson. When you look at them practically foaming at the mouth on the daily cable news programs, you realize they are only one moment of enlightened insanity away from sodomizing Burt Reynolds and a boatful of kayakers in the back woods of Deliverance.
Tonight, the new version of Dawn of the Dead is on cable. Zombies, Rob or otherwise, are always a heap-big pile of undead fun-o-rama.
Monday, October 31, 2005
Monday, October 24, 2005
Horror for Christ
Horror for Christ
"The horror! The horror!" -- Colonel Kurtz
The other day on the Web I came across the following Newsweek story:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9785289/site/newsweek/
It seems Anne Rice has found--gasp--GOD! As she states in the article: "I promised that from now on I would write only for the Lord." Now, I'm all in favor of people pursuing and finding their own deity. If Ms. Rice is happy with her choice--great. But what's next? Stephen King the televangelist? Will the next conference of the Horror Writers Association have to open with a prayer breakfast?
Life is starting to seem like Night of the Living Dead, with Jesus Freaks as zombies. "They're coming to get you, Barbara!"
Remember the Simpsons?
Bart: "Dad, you shot the zombie Flanders!"
Homer: "He was a zombie?"
"The horror! The horror!" -- Colonel Kurtz
The other day on the Web I came across the following Newsweek story:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9785289/site/newsweek/
It seems Anne Rice has found--gasp--GOD! As she states in the article: "I promised that from now on I would write only for the Lord." Now, I'm all in favor of people pursuing and finding their own deity. If Ms. Rice is happy with her choice--great. But what's next? Stephen King the televangelist? Will the next conference of the Horror Writers Association have to open with a prayer breakfast?
Life is starting to seem like Night of the Living Dead, with Jesus Freaks as zombies. "They're coming to get you, Barbara!"
Remember the Simpsons?
Bart: "Dad, you shot the zombie Flanders!"
Homer: "He was a zombie?"
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Some Thoughts on Writing
Some Thoughts on Writing
I attended the third class of the nine-week technical communications class on Tuesday night. I had a pretty good time with it. Bonni is an excellent lecturer. We discussed our VARK scores, and mine came out leaning towards read/write and visual. You can take the test yourself at www.vark-learn.com.
The lesson was on the writing process, and Bonni introduced us to the concept of personas. Personas are personalities the writer invents that, in the case of tech writing, should be representative of the target audience or users.
It's been fun to see the congruence between tech writing and fiction writing. The personas are a type of character. I won some points in the class by bringing up Judy's technique of "interviewing" your personas to get to know them. That's a novelist's technique, but it certainly can be used in the non-fiction realm.
Another characteristic of writing that Nancy used to bring up is that "People like to read about people." As Bonni says, "Everyone is the hero in his or her own story." Even some form as bland as technical writing still is about people--people act on things, not the other way around.
Tomorrow, I'm going to the zoo in the morning and then Jan will come visit in the afternoon. My parents will be visiting that night. Harold will be over, as usual.
By the way, I got my van back! It looks great--I just need to get it Teflon-coated before winter hits. We had a fair amount of rain this week, which I enjoyed immensely, but it does mess a car up!
I attended the third class of the nine-week technical communications class on Tuesday night. I had a pretty good time with it. Bonni is an excellent lecturer. We discussed our VARK scores, and mine came out leaning towards read/write and visual. You can take the test yourself at www.vark-learn.com.
The lesson was on the writing process, and Bonni introduced us to the concept of personas. Personas are personalities the writer invents that, in the case of tech writing, should be representative of the target audience or users.
It's been fun to see the congruence between tech writing and fiction writing. The personas are a type of character. I won some points in the class by bringing up Judy's technique of "interviewing" your personas to get to know them. That's a novelist's technique, but it certainly can be used in the non-fiction realm.
Another characteristic of writing that Nancy used to bring up is that "People like to read about people." As Bonni says, "Everyone is the hero in his or her own story." Even some form as bland as technical writing still is about people--people act on things, not the other way around.
Tomorrow, I'm going to the zoo in the morning and then Jan will come visit in the afternoon. My parents will be visiting that night. Harold will be over, as usual.
By the way, I got my van back! It looks great--I just need to get it Teflon-coated before winter hits. We had a fair amount of rain this week, which I enjoyed immensely, but it does mess a car up!
Friday, October 14, 2005
A Conspiracy of Dunces
A Conspiracy of Dunces
It looks like I was not the only one to notice the correlation between terror alerts and crises within the administration. Just check out this article by Keith Olbermann of MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/ .
On Tuesday night I went to my second Technical Communications class. I had a good time, even though the topic--basic grammar--was a little (OK a lot!) beneath my educational level and disposition. I congratulated Bonni on making it interesting enough that I didn't walk out at the half. Now I need to force myself to do the homework and find a topic and genre for my final project.
Today the weather continues the Santa Ana season. It's 94 at Miramar right now. And the damn Air Show ("America's favorite waste of taxpayer money" according to the Simpsons) will rock the house this weekend.
My parents will not be over tonight; they are attending a play at the La Jolla Playhouse.
It looks like I was not the only one to notice the correlation between terror alerts and crises within the administration. Just check out this article by Keith Olbermann of MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/ .
On Tuesday night I went to my second Technical Communications class. I had a good time, even though the topic--basic grammar--was a little (OK a lot!) beneath my educational level and disposition. I congratulated Bonni on making it interesting enough that I didn't walk out at the half. Now I need to force myself to do the homework and find a topic and genre for my final project.
Today the weather continues the Santa Ana season. It's 94 at Miramar right now. And the damn Air Show ("America's favorite waste of taxpayer money" according to the Simpsons) will rock the house this weekend.
My parents will not be over tonight; they are attending a play at the La Jolla Playhouse.
Friday, October 07, 2005
A Series of Unfortunate Coincidences
Doesn't it seem strange that, just about the time Karl Rove's fecal matter is about to splatter against rotating blades, there come a series of suspicious "terror attack" warnings? First, the New York subway scare, then the Washington Monument, and a Coke can in another city's subway station. Could the bomb threats be emanating from Rove's office, like the outing of Valerie Plame?
Rove's the master of dirty tricks in the most corrupt, secretive and paranoid administration in history. They are arguably the most incompetent as well, but that's another subject. If Rove could make up lies to assassinate the character of John McCain, it's not a great leap of the imagination to envision him stirring up trouble to keep his name off Page 1. Last night, for example, the Rove story had descended to third place in the CBS Evening News.
How convenient!
Rove's the master of dirty tricks in the most corrupt, secretive and paranoid administration in history. They are arguably the most incompetent as well, but that's another subject. If Rove could make up lies to assassinate the character of John McCain, it's not a great leap of the imagination to envision him stirring up trouble to keep his name off Page 1. Last night, for example, the Rove story had descended to third place in the CBS Evening News.
How convenient!
Thursday, October 06, 2005
The Hatch, the Button and the Cage
This week's episode of LOST continued the plot developments of the first two weeks. The main premise seems to be the metaphysical connection to the outside world. Locke expects Jack to make a "leap of faith" and press the button. Desmond has been stuck on the island for years, afraid the whole thing is a mind game, but also afraid to abandon his post and not "save the world." Like all of us, the LOST characters must decide for themselves if the universe has reason--if our lives have reason--or if it's all a random sequence of numbers (or worse yet, the arbitrary machinations of a perverse and manipulative deity).
What is the island? Is it even an island? Again, the references to The Prisoner abound. The whole concept of subjecting people to mind games was a major theme of The Prisoner, in which Number 6 was tested on a weekly basis.
Many fans theorize the island could be a Dyson sphere. The geodesic dome also hints at that. However, if that's the case, how did the Black Rock come ashore? Plus, the guy in Australia, Toomey, along with the crazy patient in the asylum, had heard the numbers broadcast while they were at a Navy listening post in the South Pacific. It doesn't seem likely they were receiving radio waves from space.
What is the island? Is it even an island? Again, the references to The Prisoner abound. The whole concept of subjecting people to mind games was a major theme of The Prisoner, in which Number 6 was tested on a weekly basis.
Many fans theorize the island could be a Dyson sphere. The geodesic dome also hints at that. However, if that's the case, how did the Black Rock come ashore? Plus, the guy in Australia, Toomey, along with the crazy patient in the asylum, had heard the numbers broadcast while they were at a Navy listening post in the South Pacific. It doesn't seem likely they were receiving radio waves from space.
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
About Last Night...
Last night I went to my first class for Technical Communication I. It's taught on Tuesday nights at UCSD Extension from 6:30-9:30. I must admit I attended the class with a degree of trepidation, as the previous course I took, Document Design, finished by being rather a washout.
To my pleasant surprise, the class was actually fun! Bonnie Graham, the instructor, is clearly a writer--she has an ironic sense of humor and talks a mile a minute. She doesn't waste time, and keeps things on track. In fact, she kept the beats of the session rolling so efficiently we wrapped up the night at 8:45. I didn't even have time to open my snack! (Coffee was still vital, however.)
Quite a bit of the class is available online, including quizzes. Assignments can also be turned in via the Internet. It seems UCSD is moving more in the direction of online learning, which makes sense especially for professional-development classes, which are frequently attended by folks who work during the day and don't have a lot of time to spare. Plus, with today's gas prices, who wants to spend more time in traffic?
The textbook, I have to say, is a yawner. It's pleasantly enough written, but why does this subject have to be rendered in lifeless hues? And I think the author put it at about 10th grade reading level, which might be great for engineers, but appears condescending to the literati among us.
It was good to see a few people from the document design course in the class, also. So, we shall all suffer, or succeed, together. And there were only 12 students in the class, which made it nice and congenial. The document design course, by contrast, was way overcrowded.
To my pleasant surprise, the class was actually fun! Bonnie Graham, the instructor, is clearly a writer--she has an ironic sense of humor and talks a mile a minute. She doesn't waste time, and keeps things on track. In fact, she kept the beats of the session rolling so efficiently we wrapped up the night at 8:45. I didn't even have time to open my snack! (Coffee was still vital, however.)
Quite a bit of the class is available online, including quizzes. Assignments can also be turned in via the Internet. It seems UCSD is moving more in the direction of online learning, which makes sense especially for professional-development classes, which are frequently attended by folks who work during the day and don't have a lot of time to spare. Plus, with today's gas prices, who wants to spend more time in traffic?
The textbook, I have to say, is a yawner. It's pleasantly enough written, but why does this subject have to be rendered in lifeless hues? And I think the author put it at about 10th grade reading level, which might be great for engineers, but appears condescending to the literati among us.
It was good to see a few people from the document design course in the class, also. So, we shall all suffer, or succeed, together. And there were only 12 students in the class, which made it nice and congenial. The document design course, by contrast, was way overcrowded.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)