another day. today, i conferenced with several of my students, and had a brief meeting with the grade 5 team. after, and in between, i checked on some of my plants. i noticed that the bitter melon died pretty quickly, i believe because i overfertilized it, and basically burned it. i also noticed that the lima bean bush is starting to exhibit signs of burning as well, with leaves taking on this dry yellow color. i'm hoping that the plant is established enough to survive my "good intentions." the rest of the plants seem to be doing well (cross my fingers and hide by [black] thumbs).
i also worked on my routines: exercises alternating with activities that are more "cognitive", and meant to stretch my capacities. things like reading a chapter of a good book, drawing something, learning my kanji, learning how to program, and other things... right now, i'm kind of tired, worn out from some of the workouts that i've done, piecemeal, throughout the day. things like the ab ripper x exercises (i do about 3 every rotation) and the legs and backs stuff (i do about 6 of those). i'm no spring chicken, and i feel i have to respect my limitations, or i'll end up incapacitated for a month. :)
the writing has been- hard. i have a good idea for how to proceed with the story, but the execution of it- well, it's been slow going. i think part of the problem is that, for a while, i've been using the word count to motivate me, to just blindly accumulate words words words. but when i realized things weren't exactly working, or there were some deep inconsistencies, then i had to cut things down. so i went from almost 14000 words to something above 12000. not exactly motivating when you edit your work down. but again, i've got a better sense of direction. and i hope the motivations of the characters will make more sense. i also had a good idea for a device (or explanation). the main character of the kappa noodle story has a lament, that he basically feels he has no soul. the kappa explains that he must have a hole, a leak, or something, through which all the "water" drains out. and he needs to find where that hole is to plug it up... i just realized that the main character could be this rare individual who is born without a soul. in the world of old japanese culture, this would be explained by his lack of a shirikodama, a sort of ball (physical) that holds your soul, located somewhere within your anus (i believe it's a delicacy of the kappa, and they love to pull it out of your ass and swallow it whole, essentially killing you). the main character's lack of a shirikodama would explain why there's no "plug" in him, resulting in the perpetual drain of his self- his motivation, his drive, his feelings of anger... this problem isn't necessarily "solved." it's just explained. the main drive of the story is the return of the boy to his own home, supported by his progressive recollections of his brother.
(i think this makes for a better story than my original, in which the kappa was attempting to relive a memory of a fictitious brother, through vicariously experiencing the main character's memories of his problematic relationship with his brother).
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i despair of our country. behind everything is this internal frustration that we have essentially elected an asshole, the king of a party of assholes, with an inconsistent philosophy hiding (barely) greed and corruption and hypocrisy. i can't understand the people who still support this idiot, who IS going to bring our country down to the bottom of the shithole.
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oh well, nothing much else to report.
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