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This is my blog which I intend to use for the new group that I am joining |
| I November 2012, I decided that I would like to join a blogging community on WDC. It basically required that we write blog entries according to specific prompts. Here is the result. . . |
| Well, the queston for the day is, "Are you a dog or cat person?" Honestly, I think that the premise of this question is something of a myth. I know we talk about dog people and cat people, but in my personal experience, it's easier to classify people as, "animal people" or "not animal people". Seriously, most everyone I meet either loves animals (both dogs and cats) or hates animals (both dogs and cats). I am in the former category. I mean when I was a child we had cats, but not because anyone in my family disliked dogs, we just thought that cats were easier to care for. This has made me feel a little bit closer to cats, but I like dogs a lot too. Just saying.   |
| Okay. I finally have a free day after a few busy days at the school. Last night, I decided to write another poem in order to earn my next car in the "I Write in December, January. . ." contest (which, in a way, feels like cheating):
It's strange. It just got a good review. One of the side effects of my involvement in that contest is that I am writing considerably more poetry then I otherwise would have bothered with. But the poetry gets a mostly good reaction. Oh well. I do hope to start writing stories again next week. Some interesting contests are shaping up to begin then. As for my New Year's Resolutions, they're a little informal, but I guess my first one is to finish the "I Write in December, January. . ." contest. That actually shouldn't be too difficult. I suppose you could also say that I resolve to be a good king here in the Blogging group, but I'm not sure what the standard is for that, yet. Plus, would it be too crazy if I made a resolution to sell more stories or even a book this year? Well, maybe. |
| Wow! I am the new king of the blogging group. That doesn't have anything to do with the entry topic, but I thought I should mention it just in case someone who didn't already know was actually reading this. Anyway, the longest I waited in line for something. . . Well, when I was thirteen years old, The Phantom of the Opera had just opened on Broadway. It was almost legendary, in that there were no ads for it (there didn't need to be because it was selling out months in advance), the music wasn't played anywhere. The only people who knew about it were those who had read the reviews and talked about it. But there was one little-known way to see it inexpensively. You see, every show had a small number of "standing room" tickets which were not for sale until the morning of the show. (Furthermore, there was a limit of two tickets per person.) One Saturday morning, my father went into town at around 7 a.m. to see if he could get a pair him and my mother. He failed. He asked the people in line what time they had arrived that morning. They told him about 5:00. He decided to try that the following week. This time he asked me if I wanted to come. "You're welcome to come", he said, but since they won't let one person by more then two tickets, you'll have to come with me and pick up a ticket yourself." I decided why not. Thus at around 5 a.m. Saturday morning, while it was still dark, my father and I were standing outside the Majestic Theatre in Manhattan. We were there for approximately five hours, but we got the tickets. I remember walking back to the car afterwards my father was waving the tickets in the air, "These things are made of gold!" he exclaimed. So was it worth it? Sure the show turned out to be pretty amazing, and besides, as you may know, it has gone on to become the longest running show in Broadway history. I feel kind of smug knowing that I saw it back then. |
| Wow, with 2013 just a few hours away. (In China, that is.) I am asked to talk about my biggest accomplishments of 2012. The truth is that I haven't accomplished much. I don't feel that the year has been a waste by any means, but I feel that it's been more because of experiences then accomplishments. One year ago, I toasted in the New Year with my Ecuadorian girlfriend, Johanna, on her family's farm in Machala. I wondered if 2012 would be the year that I got married. Well, it wasn't. In May of 2012, she left me. Then in June of 2012, I learned that my contract with the school was not being renewed. I was not prepared for this financially, so I ended up flying home to my parents' place in Florida on their dime. Then, I got a job teaching in Saudi Arabia. I flew to Riyadh in August. I started teaching there in September. My contract contained a clause that I could be let go within the first 90 days, but they assured us that the school hardly ever did that. Well, guess what? They did it fo me. I never learned the reason. But then I got this job in China, and I've been back here since October. Like I said, I've had quite a few experiences in this year, but I wouldn't really call them accomplishments. You know what, I think my greatest accomplishment, may have been the one that happened a few months ago when I became a WDC preferred author. It doesn't seem like much, but it was definitely one of my prouder moments. Alex |
| Now they want to know what Christmas means to me. Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you what Christmas is all about. Sorry I couldn't resist that. Believe it or not, I think I figured out the answer to this question a few Christmases ago, while I was looking at a manger. No really, this is going to be more then just a Christian cliche,(at least a little bit more) Not long ago, one person wrote to an advice column complaining that she hated Christmas because, among other things, it meant seeing relatives that she hates. (The columnist didn't have much advice for her except spend the day partying with a group of atheists.) I believe that the purpose of Christmas is to remember each other and (maybe even ourselves) "in the manger" so to speak. By that I don't necessarily mean as infants. I mean, that manger in Bethlehem was a very humble place considering everything that began there in the coming two thousand years. Some of it was good, and, yes, some of it was not so good. But on Christmas, I think it's best to go back to the begining. You've probably had a great deal of grief in the past year, and you've probably even caused some grief in the past year. The really sad part is that more grief is almost cetrtainly coming. But then more was coming for the people in that manger; Just 33 years after the first Christmas, we got the first Good Friday. But on Christmas, just put all that grief aside, look at your relationship with God, look at your relationship with the other people that you're spending Christmas with and see if you can start over. Merry Christmas! |
| What a week! I went to the Chinese Consulate on Wednesday. They told me that I would have to get a medical exam to get my visa. They gave me a form and sent me to a medical center. The medical center told me that the exam would cost about 2,000 Hong Kong Dollars. (Roughly 260 American dollars). Then they made me come back on Thursday afternoon for the results. It was all good, but by then it was too late to go back to the Visa office that day, so I had to wait until Friday morning to apply for the visa. This means that the visa can't be ready until Monday even with rush service, (and if I didn't get rush service, I'd have worse problems, because Tuesday and Wednesday are public holidays in Hong Kong so the visa wouldn't be ready until Thursday. I calculated that the extra fee for rush service was less then the cost of another three nights in my hostel.) So here I am. I normally would like having an excuse to stay in Hong Kong, but I'm starting to run out of money. Oh well. On a happier WDC note, I finished this story a few days ago and entered it in a contest. It's pretty cool, if I do say so myself.
Last I checked, the contest only had one other entry, but it's open until December, so we'll see happens. I'm also kind of in withdrawal creativity wise. I don't know what WDC contest, I'm going to enter next week for the "I Write in December, January. . ." thing. I see I still haven't said anything about today's prompt. Well, why don't I just put it this way. I want to be remembered as a person so talented, he wrote many things like the story above. Alex |
First of all, today's prompt didn't really do anything for me, so if you want to know which ten items, I would rescue in a fire, you're going to have to find out some other way.  Second, a thank you to all of the people who read my last entry, and were inspired to write words of encouragement. I am writing this from a hostel in Hong Kong. I love Hong Kong for so many reasons. Some of them are reasons that I'm proud of like the great museums and centers of culture. Some of them are more like guilty pleasures: For example, I can get a Mcdonald's hamburger much more easily then I can in mainland China. Also, I have discovered that the so called "great firewall of China" does not cover Hong Kong, so while I'm here, I can acess my facebook page and watch Youtube videos. Anyway, one site that I don't have a problem accessing in China is cracked.com. Cracked is a great comedy site, but it's also kind of strange. It seems like they're often begging for writers, and at times desperately. (Actually, now that I think about it, I may have first heard about the site from an ad which they posted on WDC some time ago.) Why is it hard for them to get writers. Well, one thing is that almost every article has to be a list. (e.g. 5 celebrities who did x. 6 U.S. presidents who were y.) Indeed, some of the articles, if you read them carefully, seem to have been squeazed into that framework. I don't know why Cracked insists on this, and I hestitate to say that it's the reason they beg for writers, but I can't help thinking that there are a lot of talented aspiring writers (myself included) who just don't see whatever it is they have to say in that format. Anyway, I just read a good article in cracked. Not only was it funny, but it inspired me. I don't normally recommend other people's work in this blog, but here's a link to the article. (One Warning: It contains some "adult language") Interestingly, there's also a plea for more writers to write for cracked hidden at the very end. See what I mean about them being desperate. http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-you-better-person/ |
| So now they want to know if I'm an optimist or a pessimist. Let me put it this way: I believe that I can one day be a full time professional writer. If that is not incurable optimism, what is? Actually, no. I have an answer to my own question. An incurable optimist would have probably submitted more things for publications, by now. But I'm such a pessimist that my fear of rejection sometimes stops me. It's sort of like Schrodinger's cat. As long as you don't look in the box to observe whether the cat is alive or dead, the cat is not dead, but it's also not alive. If you want it to be alive, you have to take a chance and look in the box. That's sort of the unfotunate attitude that I've locked myself into. By not having to experience rejection, I keep myself optimistic that I won't be. Oh well. In a few hours I depart for Hong Kong. Hopefully, I'll find time to blog and write while there. |
| Well, there's no prompt at the moment, but I've got some confessions and some news. Currently, I am in the "I Write in December, January, February. . ." contest which requires that I enter at least one writing contest every week for the winter. The story that I wanted to enter last week was not quite ready in time, so I had the sneaky idea of entering a poetry contest just to earn my little train car for the week. I hardly ever write poetry, but I hacked out this poem
Well maybe, but guess what? I just found out that it won third prize. I must be doing something right. |
| Today was quite a day! First of all, my water is back on so I just took a long hot shower which I hope my students appreciate tomorrow. (On a slightly grosser note, I also spent a good ten minutes sitting in the toilet, just luxuriating in the fact that I would not have to worry about not being able to flush when I was done.) I also found out that I have to go to Hong Kong to work things out with my visa. Hong Kong is a great city. Sort of an Oriental Orlando. It's particularly great if you've been living in Mainland China for a few months. Not to mention, it's so much warmer there. As far as things pertaining to WDC, I just found out that I am now a "preferred author". I didn't even know there was such a thing until I saw the e-mail informing me of it today. I don't know exactly how I got this, but I can't help wondering if someone in this blogging circle was somehow involved. Oh Well, I still haven't said anything about the prompt which is, "What I want for my last meal." Would you think less of me if I said a good pizza? Hong Kong is a great city for pizza. I know you wouldn't think that, but compared to any city in China, I've seen it may as well be Rome. Alex |
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