The Planning Stage

Originally, I had planned on writing this entry from the Cellar, so that I could comment on how once-upon-a-time I frequently (okay, occasionally) posted from there but according to my archives, the last time I did was December of 2007.  But the wireless internet there hated me, so instead, I'm coming to you live from an empty auditorium where I'll be taking an exam in about an hour.

Things are changing.  In just over a year, I'll be married.  Yesterday I reconnected with a friend who bought a house a year ago.  My primary mode of communication with many of my friends is Facebook.

I'm still in school.  That doesn't seem like it'll ever be changing.

This summer I'll be starting up another writing project.  But this too, will be different.  Mostly because I'll be going through with it (and this will largely be due to the fact that I will be doing it for class credits as an independent project).  I'm not going to go over the details here, but it'll essentially be a human interest column that I'll be writing, editing, and publishing online.  Most importantly of all, it'll be a nice test to see if I really could be cut out for the writerly life.

I have two smaller projects that I hope to finish by the time summer hits--nothing quite so far-reaching as my silly idea to write a novel last summer.  The first is the War on Procrastination saga I've been putting up on Facebook; I try to update it at least every two weeks, and another one will be going up tonight or tomorrow.  The second is a short story that I would like to finish and submit to a podcast.  At this point with my writing, I'm more concerned with getting my writing to a level that it could be published (in some form) than getting payment for it.  If I'm lucky, that part will come later. 

In closing, blah blah changing blah blah write more blah blah more posting blah blah blah.

Where Tech Meets Take Your Own Advice

Author/podcaster extraordinaire Mur Lafferty just posted a video podcast about the tools every writer should have, and one of the things she mentioned was an external backup drive.  A flash drive, external hard drive, Google Docs--it's not important what you use, so long as you're backing up everything.  Most writers know this, and all techies know it.  But here's the dirty little secret:

Most of us don't do it.

It's simple.  It doesn't take long.  But we don't do it.

And now the obligatory horror story:  It's the Fall 2007 semester.  Midterm week.  I'm almost finished with my final projects.  My hard drive has been flaky for about a week, but I keep putting off backing it up until after midterms when I have more time.  I'm in the middle of copying the files onto a flash drive so I can print them off in a computer lab, and that's when the computer blue screens and dies.  Shit.

Figuring that not all is lost, I buy an adapter and hook it up to Melissa's computer.  The hard drive is detected!  Fantastic.  Maybe it'll be okay.

File type: RAW.  As far as Windows is concerned, this means: "oh man, there sure are a lot of ones and zeroes on this thing.  But what does it all mean?"  In other words, all is lost.

Luckily, I was saved by a small miracle--the drive was partitioned, and all my music was on the D: partition, which I was able to rescue through the magic of chkdsk.  I found a program called Zero Authority Recovery that claimed to be able to recover the gibberish in the other partition, and it was able to save only one folder--Documents and Settings.  It didn't get everything, but it got most of the important stuff.  I made it through the wreck with some minor cuts and bruises, but I was okay.

The experience was an awakening.  I have an external 80 gig drive that's just been sitting around, so I pledged to back up religiously when I got my new laptop.  Take a guess at how many times I've updated my backup since I got this one over a year ago.

That's right.  Not-a-once.  A mistake I plan to remedy.

And for the rest of you: if you haven't already started keeping a backup, start.  And if the words of Mur, myself, and the countless others who have suffered hard drive crashes (chances are, you know a few of them) fail to get through to you, you're a hopeless case.  Which is probably okay.  Hard drive crashes are pretty rare to begin with, and with storage tech getting more and more reliable (some flash drives are nigh indestructible) it's possible that you'll never deal with a crash that will destroy everything you've worked on.

If you're okay with the risk, fair enough.  But fellow writers--and especially fellow college students--I beg you.  Back up your files.

Because I won't feel sorry for you later if you lose everything.  And I won't fix your computer, either.

I've Been Waiting For Something...

I'm challenging myself to post daily, so that I'm at least writing -something- every day. Slowly but surely I'm trying to work back into writing. It's funny how over the past few years it turned from something I seemed to remember genuinely enjoying to a chore. I stopped writing for myself entirely and so everything turned into an excuse--why write in my blog if everyone has stopped reading it? Why put work into this assignment when I can BS my way to an A no problem? Why work on a story that isn't -for- anything?

And I've been realizing more and more lately that I want more than anything just to create. I've had the ideas all along but I've been lacking any kind of ambition. But I think I'm beginning to ease into it. Also, I've sort of given myself a kick to get started, because I've changed my mind yet again--and I'm taking the year off from school. Ultimately, the next year serves as a test for me. The majority of my friends will be either in school or working full-time so I'll have days to myself, and what I do with them will determine, really, the rest of my life. If it turns out that I really am so terminally lazy [or such a terrible writer] then I'll head back to college and throw myself upon the mercy of computer science. Which, by the way, isn't to say that I'm not still interested in it. But when I picture a career in computer science, it bores me. Technology, in small doses, still thrills me sometimes, I'll admit it. And there are some kick-ass jobs in the computer science industry. And with them come thousands and thousands of boring programming gigs. I could do it, yeah. And I'd make more money, and I'd probably have an easier life. But it's not for me.

If I could make a living just creating the things I want to create, that's what I want to do. Is it likely to happen? Not terribly. But I don't think I can possibly give up on it without even trying. [Don't worry, I'm not quitting my job too. I'm being naive, not stupid.] In addition to writing I want to put some time into music as well, songwriting and arranging and recording if it gets that far.

So this is where it begins. They say journaling on a daily basis is important for writers, and I figure blogging is close enough.

Oh, and anyone curious about that last post: Elizabeth Mohl was a sixteen-year-old girl who died at Lifest, a Christian rock festival in Osh Kosh that most of you know I go to every year. There was a bungee ride there and she fell from the top of it, about 50-60 feet and died that night of the resulting injuries. The fest continued [but everything was late; apparantly the staff had to make the difficult decision of whether or not to cancel the fest] but we were all pretty shaken up over the whole thing. I had actually been writing about Lifest while I was there and had planned to type up everything as blog entries when I got back, but it seemed a lot less important after what happened. I'm alright, now, but I was pretty freaked out at the time and I'm pretty sure that the friends I went with came as close as they may ever be to seeing me break down. That being said, Lifest was for the most part another positive experience and I'll more than likely end up going again next year--but if I ever feel as helpless as I did when I saw her body it'll be too soon.

No Excuses Will Pass These Lips

Today is the last day to file for a tax return, and I'm trying to decide if it's worth doing for my $7.62 refund. Yes, yes I think it is.

So I've been putting in a lot of thinking about whether or not I want to keep on following the college path. The only situation I can think to compare this to is when I was debating on transferring from Knox to (okay, I admit it) live closer to Melissa. And I think I've reached my decision.

I'm not dropping out. (I'm sorry if I disappointed you, Ang. =( )

So I'm sorry to put you guys through all this back-and-forthing and pity-the-poor-indecisive-Chris-ing. But I think now that I've had time to analyze and reanalyze and seriously consider the alternatives, I think I'm finally at a place where I actually do -want- to go to college and I wouldn't be here if I hadn't gone through all this messy stuff.

Anyway! This is the last you will here of that. Starting tomorrow, my blog returns to its usual format of being about nothing in particular and not making our conversations all awkwardlike.

Life is Passing Him By So Fast

And sometimes I think I'm the only one
That feels like going nowhere is like giving up,
Whoa, I'm not giving up...

Who'd have thought the answer I've spent the summer looking for would come form a Less Than Jake song?

(I get the feeling that there's no way I can make this entry not look like the 'ol cliche blog/livejournal entry with the lyrics 'n all. Blah.)

I've been torn all year wondering what I should choose. Stay here and go to UW, staying close with all the friends I've gotten so close to over all these years...or leaving everyone behind so that I can reach a little higher.

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with La Crosse. I've been to the campus, and it's a really nice place. It's just that it's so close. I'd feel like I was just settling for it if I went there.

Lately, I've been looking a lot at Knox College. I don't know exactly what it is, but I'm really interested in this one. It's a smaller liberal arts college. It's private, meaning a huge tuition, but it's also ranked number one in financial aid, so I think I'd be alright. Plus, I actually got a call from this one after I asked for information, which was kind of interesting. But I keep putting too much faith in rankings and looking at all of the colleges that are rated "higher" than Knox that really offer about the same things.

But I keep neglecting the fact that there are also a lot "lower" than it. And regardless of position, every one is going to be a little different and going to one doesn't mean you'll come out any worse or any better than another. Even U.S. News, the one I happened to catch the list of, agreed on that note.

So I think I'm going to visit Knox this month. And maybe apply. I dunno for sure, and I'm going to try to find some other ones too, so I can get the applications sent out early enough that I don't have to know for sure which one I want.

As for what I'm going for, I still haven't got a clue.

Anyway. Enough thoughts of the future. Here's a bit about the future that's coming sooner than the future from before. My schedule is a bitch this year.

First Hour: Advanced Writing
Second Hour: Calculs
Third Hour: Spanish 2
Fourth Hour: Advanced Biology
Fifth Hour: Band
(Lunch)
Sixth Hour: Journalism
Seventh Hour: Study Hall
Eight Hour: Vocational English

Two classes that contain the word 'advanced' and one containing 'calculus' are enough to make me want to go back to fourth grade. I'm thinking this year, I might actually get stuck taking homework home.

Ah, well. I'll survive, one way or another. I always have.

This post brought to you in part by Boredom Industries. Promoting posts that make no sense since 1999.

What to Do - OK Go
Krwing - Linkin Park
One Week - Barenaked Ladies
Jefferson Aero Plane - Relient K