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Frenchification  Soooooooooo... it's been quite awhile hasn't it. Yes it has. (clears throat... unpleasant silence follows) Sorry. I do this too often, no? Anyway, I'm finished with the editing process and am moving on to other parts of the bookmaking process... namely the making of the books. With the binding and the stapling or gluing or sewing or whatever else might need to be done to make the book into a book. That's where you come in again. I've been handmaking the books that I've given out so far to be edited and read and used and auctioned. It's a nifty process and I bought supplies for it and have gotten pretty good at it (if I do say so myself), but it's slow and steady and time consuming. Yet, it is the cheapest way to do this kind of thing. I'm talking with a printing company here in Columbus and finding out details on pricing and binding etc... but I'm still not convinced that it's worth the money to go with a printer. So what do you think? Is it worth it to cut and staple and tape by hand, or should I just bite the bullet, hope that I have 500 people who would be willing to purchase a book from me, and try to see what the best price point would be? Let me know? Alright... It was a good idea for me to put out the call for people interested in reviewing, because it really got me moving on putting together physical copies, re-editing some things, making up title pages and back covers, getting some input and good ideas... so I'm going to be printing up some physical copies (already have a few) and getting them out there circulating. If you're on that list of people I've talked to already, expect another e-mail with some updated pdf files, and as always, let me know if you want a physical print out... I'll do what I can! Project: not at all the same Page count: 97 (counting front and back covers) Purchased: Cover stock, big ol stapler (not too expensive at staples), strapping tape (which looks a lot cooler than I thought it would) Produced: 4 so far, of which 1 has gone out to inlaws, one to wildgoose, one will go to parents, one I'm going to hold on to. Producing: at least one for all my reviewers when I make some final edits Questionnaire: working on it, so that I'll actually have some specific type questions for people to answer instead of just the basic "so... um... what do you think...?" I'm actually feeling like this is a project that might go somewhere. A Again... poetry has been in the works over the last year or so, much of which has been prose form. I've decided to take all of the prose poetry I've done over the last year or so (plus 7 or 8 of my favorite versified pieces) and assemble them into a volume of semi-considerable length (at the moment 58 pieces, I believe... I've forgotten to count, that is to say around 80 pages when put into a document 8.5 x 8.5, which I think is pretty nifty). In addition to this volume, I've added an index of sorts that lists subjects found within the pieces in case a certain subject strikes your fancy and you wish to read a poem about an elf (i.e. elf - which resides in closet, 4; which has been mangled in a die cast car machine, 54). Here's where you come in. I'm going to be posting this same thing to facebook and to this livejournal page, and I would appreciate your feedback if you'd like to do a sort of preview/review/editing sort of thing. I'm hoping to get about 10 people to review this volume with the intent of getting feedback on poems/format/ease of use, and also just to see if this sort of volume would fly if I tried to self publish (oooh... a dirty word there). Feel free to pass this on to whoever you'd like as well. SO... what do you get as a part of this? I'll acknowledge you in the "liner notes", you get a free copy of the book even if I decide not to publish it, I promise to write a poem for you within the next 6 months. OH... and I'll give you a cd copy of whatever recordings I do from this volume. I know it's not a whole lot, but I'd love to get feedback from people. Let me know! I think I may have managed 15 poems or so... which makes me unnervingly happy. Here's a list of subjects I may have covered during the month. Film making Standing in a field of soybeans Vengeful Sea Gods Dodo birds and hernia surgery Johannes Gutenberg Randomly Appearing Furniture Angry Fog Presidents and quiz shows Being chased by a clown car Useless spies Fictional version of the Charleston (dance move) Volcanoes in your living room And I'm sure there are others I'm not thinking of at the moment. Perhaps all a result of having more time to think and less classwork to prepare. Whatever it is, I'm sure Amanda has some mixed feelings about it :) Back to work... and I mean work, not poetry... Well, maybe a little poetry. First, a giant congratulations to Scott Woods on his 4th (yeah, you read that correctly) 24 hour poetry reading. And about the repetition... none of that. All stuff he'd never read before, again. That's... well, let's tally it up, 24 X 4 hours of poetry. 96 hours people. Of poetry. Without repetition. The man is a monster. Stay out of his way (actually, don't, come to Writers Block or any of the poetry events in town). In other news, I'm 24 hours (less now) from the Oral. Feeling underprepared. But that's good. It just means I'll be on my best behavior tomorrow. And finally, great turnout at the Hills Market Cheese Tasting last night. Very good food, wine, and presentation. We couldn't have asked for more, really Alright. Back into my hole to study for at least another 12 hours. Perhaps you'll see me around tomorrow. A I'm very tired. As the sun continues to shine more and more frequently, I hope that this will change. As I fix my Vitamin D problem, I hope to also be more able to concentrate and not fall asleep at random moments during the day. This quarter should be a marked improvement over last, as I don't have nearly as much classwork to do (as in Teaching work and also My own). I have to write and have my Prospectus approved by the end of this quarter (goal number two). Goal number one is to finish my exams on the 7th when I take my Orals. That will conceivably be the last "Exam" that I will really ever have to take. Ever. Yes ever. A note on this. This doesn't mean that I won't take tests from time to time, because the dissertation defense that I will undertake in a year to a year and a half from now (God willing I can write it that fast) is nothing if not a comprehensive exam. But it's one of those pre-agreed upon formalities that you'll never get to if you really aren't ready for it. A note on this. This doesn't mean that people don't fail their dissertation defense. They do, but that generally means that both the candidate and their advisor fell asleep at the wheel and woke up only after they arrived at their destination. In otherwords, two people screwed it up and not just one. The advisor's main job (if I've understood it correctly) is to make sure his or her student is ready for the defense. If they don't think he/she is ready, they will likely not allow this student to waste the committee's time on a defense. It looks bad for both parties when a student fails the dissertation defense. Back to the previous comments. SO in essence, on the 7th, I will take the last very very important exam of... possibly my life. That is unless I go back for a second masters. In which case I will be killed by my wife. And rightfully so. That said. I hope to get back out into public soon. I need the sun, the vitimin D and the company of things that are animate. One weekend down and one to go. I'm seeing light... or maybe just seeing spots. I can't really tell Stats : 20th century exam (in French) - 15 pages (double spaced) Francophone/Music exam (in English) - 26 pages (double spaced... yes... 26. Not fun because the longer it got, the less certain I was about anything) Packs of Alka Seltzer Used - 5 Number of Sudafed taken - 4 Amount of time spend writing - a guesstimate would put me at... um... 36 hours (Amanda, confirmation on this?) References to NWA (yes, the music group featuring Ice Cube et al.) - 1, more specifically their infamous 1988 album Straight Outta Compton. And you thought I didn't have any culture. AND for all of you who really wanted to know Clothing - Just a bathrobe, thank you very much. And I mean JUST a bathrobe. The clock is counting down to this Friday for Absurdist Theatre Exam Writing Fest 2009. The event is bring your own Absurdist. Both literally and figuratively at the moment. Last Thursday, I woke to the sound and feeling of my knee popping out of joint. This happens occasionally, and through the assistance of my Father In Law, I've been able to put it back in through stretching and relaxation techniques. This time, they didn't work. Although I'm relatively certain that my knee went back into its proper place within two or three days, my knee swelled up and became unstable, and I've been limping around since. Perhaps this is a message that once more, I need to slow down and take time to relax a bit. But still, I could do without the limp. Figuratively, I'm moving forward slowly with my exams. This weekend and next weekend I'll be writing a total of around 60 pages worth of work. If I can cut it down to 50 that would be great. I'll try that. Quality not quantity right? Weekend one is French Music and Culture, and 20th Century French lit. Weekend two is Absurdist Theater. Moving slowly but writing at 100mph. We'll see how it goes. Double spacing is a good thing. After this, I'll have until the 3rd of April to fret over what I've written and formulate some sort of dignified response to the errors I make... and there will be errors, I've been assured by everyone who has come before that horrendous errors are always made that are not caught because it's 3am and the internal editor has long since gone to bed. I'm fine with that. Like Beckett said, "Try again. Fail Again. Fail Better" (From "worstword ho"). Onward!!! So Amanda wants me to get physical... hmm... no... wait... ...get A physical. That's it. That's it. She thinks it would be a good idea if I went to the doctor and got A physical as I haven't actually been to a doctor for anything other than necessary visits in the last... oh... say 6 years perhaps. This amount of time is juuuust slightly over the amount of time it has been since my last dentist visit. Not a big fan of either of those. They're perfectly nice people and all, but they have pointy things in their offices that I do not like. They say words that I don't like, words like "sick" and "take better care of yourself" and "cut back on X Y and Z" and "blood sample." They surprise me with medical type devices that I'm supposed to be perfectly comfortable with because I'm in their office and "it's just routine!" But... Amanda may actually be right at the moment. I've been having some not-so-healthy-feeling days lately that I prefer to attribute to stress and lack of good sleep (oh I do sleep... but as Amanda likes to say, "You try to stop breathing when you sleep, and then you try to suffocate yourself with the pillow, and then you flail about." Honesty has always been something she's enforced.) I prefer to think of myself as temporarily health impaired due to work. Thus, if I don't go to the doctor right now, and then go after the stress is over, they won't find anything wrong with me, and then I wouldn't have needed to go in the first place, so I can just not go at all. Right? Right? Any takers on this? no? well... I suppose I'll call... tomorrow... maybe... Or for posteriors... I'm not yet sure which... If you are reading this note, it's either because it's still around the 6th of February, 2009 and not enough other people have posted stuff to bump this note down below the place where most people are willing to scroll, because you have my LiveJournal friended and I haven't yet posted enough stuff to bump this down below where most people are willing to scroll, or because you are one of the people who has purchased a chapbook and are looking for the table of contents that was promised to you... somewhere. I'm not yet sure where... but I'm sure it was promised to you somewhere. Or not. Hmm... On we go. Chapbook 1 A question of hemispheres To know for sure Not at all the same Chapbook 2 A career in advertising For want of a hard hat Eureka! With alarming regularity When in Rome Chapbook 3 And a side of bacon The main course Puzzle pieces Dictation Successful Marketing Chapbook 4 A little bird told me Lesser known appearances of Gabriel : Chicago 1957 It goes without saying The right floor Chapbook 5 Welcome This too Midnight giraffe Chapbook 6 29 Haiku There you go. Enjoy. I think. |
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