Monday, February 26, 2007

I feel so rejected!!!

Got my first real rejection today. Here it is in all of its glory. One down and many hundreds to go!

"Dear Mr. Moya,

Thank you for your submission. Although this particular piece does
not meet our current needs, we wish you the best in your work and hope
you will continue to enjoy 971 MENU.

Sincerely,
Gregory Napp"



Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Imitation of Lance Olsen

Went to the Lance Olsen reading last night @ ND with 401 class. I was interested in what he had to say about experimental fiction and I found his writing to be strong and completely accessible. In other words, I was expecting some kind of crazy free form jazz thing but instead found a nice little Miles Davis Kinda of Blue vibe instead. Of course I really did know better, for class we had to read an excerpt (dig around until you find the excerpts link) of his work from nietzsche's kisses, and i was surprised by how easy it was to comprehend even if he did play with POV.

Lance was very approachable and was very easy to talk to. After the reading a small group of us including Neil and Kelcey headed over to Steve Tomasula's house to hang out. Steve and his wife Maria were excellent hosts and even though most of the crowd was composed of Domers it was a great experience and I'm glad I didn't pass it up.

Below is the assignment from class to imitate the excerpt we read for class, no title yet, but the more I read it the more it grows on me.

************************************************************************************

You stand there and try to register politeness and interest on your face as you mask your disdain and try to ignore the pain in your lower back. The Patron talks down to you like a child. You smile and nod and repeat:

“Sir, I’m not sure I understand-“

But he cuts you off. Be nice you remind yourself. Keep smiling. The pain in your cheeks and back equal a 5% raise. You need this money. Your future self needs all of the money you can make now. It’s evaluation time and the boss is watching this transaction from his office. Your eyes begin to wander and you notice just how flammable this Patron is. His breathe is stinging vodka, his hair is matted grease, his skin is white flakes. The heat from the LCD screen that now stares blankly at you would be enough for this Patron to immolate himself. You hope that he will step closer; he would make an interesting sacrifice to the Library Gods.

“Sir, I believe you’ve been misinformed. What you are looking for is on the 3rd floor. Ask the information desk.”

You can’t help but notice he is now wavering. He is now falling. He is now bleeding from the head and peeing in his pants. The liquids run in opposite directions from one another. The security guard rushes over to the Patron while other Patrons gather. Some Juvenile Patrons point and laugh. You stand there with that smile on your face. It is now genuine. You marvel at how wonderful it feels to be honest.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

2007 Chicago Auto Show





It was a boys day out and we had a ton of fun. Above you'll find some pics of a couple of concept cars that really caught my eye. There were a ton of cars and spent nearly 3 hours wandering around the place. Jeep had this great setup where people could get a ride in a new Jeep on their indoor track- but the wait was over an hour so we didn't do it. Didn't get to see all of the cars, but there is alway next year.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Fender Bender

I don't want to get too deep into the story, but on Tuesday morning I was involved in a harmless fender bender, in fact the guy that hit me didn't even knock the snow off of my bumper (he did smash up his hood though), but my ANGER was stirred up. Apparently, the young IUSB student driving ahead of me decided she needed to pull over, in the middle of the street, to get out of her car and yell at me. "Stop tailgating me, you're tailgating!" I was dumbfounded, how the hell could I be tailgating her if we had just left the light! We were in the middle of the intersection! We drove no more than 30 feet in bad weather! TAILGATING!

Having been in one other fender bender before, I knew that the guy behind me was financially responsible, however, I was so pissed off I told her that if she left the scene I would accuse her of leaving the scene of an accident. As we waited for the police, she approached my window with her cell phone and said "He wants to talk to you." I asked who. She said "my dad". MY DAD. Are you friggin kidding me! Your DAD!

So anyway, what has me the most pissed off is that she can pull crap like this all day and never be held responsible. Just because we don't have a law against stupidity doesn't mean people can act as they wish. Whatever happened to accountability, responsibility, maturity?? Just because the law says that the person who hit me is at fault doesn't mean that young lady is completely w/o fault . She, and her ridiculous, dangerous behavior are directly at fault.

Working where I do, I notice the public (which means all of us) more and more everyday is doing what it can to shirk responsibility for its actions.

Pitiful, pitiful, pitiful!