Visual of Nemesis

My nemesis was fictional: I wrote my narrative from the point of view of someone who cannot encode his short-term memories into long-term memories (a disorder that some people actually suffer with). However, I chose to do this subject because I do often times have trouble remembering things. Usually, it's the little things, like taking out the trash or printing an article. Although they are problematic, nothing cataclysmic results from the error. Occasionally though, I forget something huge, let's say to write a paper for school, which is obviously a colossal error. Imagining the life of someone who couldn't remember anything past a few moments reflected my situation, but also made me feel grateful for the memory that I do possess.

Here is a visual representation of what it can feel like when I forget things. It conveys the absolute power of the forgetfulness, while demonstrating how easy yet frustrating the situation can be.

Ira Glass

The more interesting part of Ira's discussion was the fact that one must "kill" the inferior parts of one's work. Now, Mr. Glass was referring to this idea from the perspective of radio broadcasting, but it is a notion that everyone can relate to, but one that only the most adept succeed in implementing.

At the beginning of any creative process, one will inevitably end up with "crap", as Ira so honestly put it. From my own experience, I can say that whether I am writing a poem, drafting a Magic deck, or composing a piece of music, only a miracle will result in a consummate first copy. The hardest part of revising this crap is weeding out certain lines, cards, notes, or phrases to add to the overall meaning or efficiency of the piece. This task becomes particularly daunting when I must remove a fragment of the work that I have taken a particularly intimate liking to, let's say it's a line in a poem. I may know very well that it needs to be removed for the overall success of the piece, though when I remove that single line, it feels as if part of me has contracted a terrible disease and died a gruesome death. So, Ira is right--in order to be successful, one must be willing to murder the crap he or she creates for the good of his or her work. Unfortunately, just identifying this fact isn't enough, and the real struggle is actually getting rid of some part of your work that you have grown attached to.

Open Mic Night

I thought the open night mic went fairly well. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, and although not too many more people outside of our class attended, students in the UC were turning and listening to us, which I found to be cool. Sure, there were a few distractions, and the microphone can be a bit difficult to speak into if one is not comfortable with it, but overall, it was a great experience.
My performance went better than I imagined also--it wasn't perfect, but I thought I did well both with my speaking and playing, so I hope that people enjoyed it. Everyone's works were quite outstanding actually--I was surprised at the unbelievable talent of those in our class.
When we talked about the event on Monday night, people believed that it would be better to have it in a more theatre-like auditorium or classroom--an opinion that I disagreed (and still disagree) with. Even though only one person outside of Engl 223 presented, many people walked by and were introduced to the event. If it was at a more isolated location, people would have to know about it ahead of time, and locate the specified meeting area on campus. I will be honest--I wouldn't go through all that trouble, unless it was at a convenient time for me. However, if I just saw some people presenting in the UC while eating my lunch, I would be much more inclined to participate and listen.
That being said, I do believe that the time needs to be a bit earlier. For people who live farther away and who don't stay on campus very late, the event was quite inconvenient. If we just moved it up a couple hours (to maybe 4 or 5 o'clock), people would be much more inclined to stay and share the experience with us.
Overall, I would like to do the open mic night again, and although we could have had a better turn-out, I do not think that a different location would resolve that issue.

Klosterman Review

For the most part, I found this book, "Killing Yourself to Live" by Chuck Klosterman, to be thoroughly enjoyable. The best aspect of the book is its perpetual humor--I never had to read long before having a hearty laugh over Chuck's drug addictions and women problems. Though most of the book is merely Chuck rambling about his journey across the country, he offers some clever and, in my opinion, prophetic insight into humanity's psychology.

My only (yes, ONLY) complaint about the travelogue is Chuck's references to rock songs, 97% of which I have never heard of. This seemed to alienate me at certain points in the text, though Chuck quickly drew me back in with his witty humor.

I have already recommended this book to several of my friends, providing quotes from it that put us both in stitches. And don't worry--one doesn't need to be a drunk marijuana fiend to enjoy the hours of humor encapsulated in this pseudo-stream-of-consciousness book.

Overall: A-

Killing Yourself to Live III

Well, first of all, I was relieved to find the quite extensive Fleetwood Mac reference at the beginning of this section. I personally love this book and think it is hilarious, but my lack of knowledge regarding Chuck's kinds of music has been a slight turn-off from the start. My mom is the one who sparked my interest in this band, and I even went to one of their live concerts last year (yes, they are, in fact, still alive).

The whole twelfth day involving Chuck's Nemesis was pretty amusing--just because most people, I'm assuming, have that one person whom they are friends with, yet consider a type of rival or even enemy. Throughout this chapter, Chuck also eludes to the "something" that is going to happen tonight. At the end, the reader can have a good, disappointed laugh when it is discovered that nothing happens. I actually have that thought a lot too--that either something really good or extremely terrible is going to happen based on the circumstances, but.....it never does.

Life

Life has been treating me well lately. I've been working pretty intensely on setting up a club, called the Japanese Manga and Cosplay Club. This organization is meant to be a place where UMD students can go and have meaningful discussions on different aspects of Japanese manga while befriending others with similar interests. Once we get going, we will also try to participate in local events revolving around manga and cosplay. Presently, I am only a few signatures away from submitting my petition to the SAO, so I am excited.
Other than that, nothing too interesting has happened--I had a pretty mellow break, but appreciated being able to see my friends (over the last few weeks, since the schools decided to plot against the students and make our breaks at different times). I have also been beefing up my Magic the Gathering decks, hoping to find some people to play with around campus and at home.
A couple weekends ago, my orchestra played Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, which even got aired on the radio. We actually did incredibly well--especially considering that the piece has been deemed the hardest composition of the 20th century. Thanks goes to my conductor and all my fellow musicians for making such an extraordinary event possible.

After scanning the recent posts on Postsecret, this one stood out at me the most because of its emotional profundity. A lot of people may think that they are the only ones who harbor a certain secret, and see themselves as inferior to others because of their deed. It doesn't matter what the act is itself--that is made clear by this postcard. What does matter is to know that others, even random people on a bus, may carry around your same guilt, your same negative emotions so no one should ever feel like they are a 'bad' person or that they are all alone in the world. Like a piece of poetry, these posts are able to concisely and often figuratively have a strong emotional impact on the reader. Most of them have very appropriate artwork, which adds to the overall meaning of the secret. And like a poem, these can be either humorous, or very serious and emotional like this one. The ambiguity in this example shows that, like many poems, these cards can have different meanings for a wide variety of people. I think that a website like this is a very good way to divulge and expel one's inner guilt, while providing others with hope for the future.