Yes, I’m being lazy again and doing the blog post here at WordPress instead of making my own html page. That’s fine. This semester’s class is a web development class, so I’m going to be practicing my html quite a bit elsewhere.
Speaking of the class, it looks like it is WAAAYYY more organized than my class last semester. The professor has everything (or most everything, by my quick initial glance) already uploaded to the online platform. That’s good, because it also looks like there is a lot of material to cover and work involved. Week 1 involves reading an 80 page chapter, watching four or five different videos, installing software, and writing some code. It looks like he puts his due dates as Wednesdays and Fridays, which means I need to work ahead a bit. I mostly only have time to work on assignments (etc.) on the weekends, so mid-week and end-of-week due dates aren’t ideal. It means I have to complete stuff in advance, but as long as am aware of the deadlines and stay on top of things, it should work out fine.
I have to admit, I’m enthusiastic in spite of what seems like a tremendous amount of work. It looks like the class is very organized and structured. I like that. It makes it much easier for me to fit class into my life when the assignments and lessons aren’t all random and constantly shifting. Plus, I love doing HTML and CSS, so I think it might be fun.
More and more, I’m starting to think I should switch my major back to computer science. And by “back to,” I mean, “back to the nineties.” That’s the last time I was a computer science major. I ended up not earning my degree in CSci because I left to pursue an opportunity working in the software industry. I did that for several years, but I didn’t like the volatility of the work. Everyone I knew ended up moving around quite a bit, either from company to company due to the rise and fall of funding/investment in projects and technology, or from location to location servicing different branches of a single company. And I didn’t want to be a nomad, so I left the industry and never went back for my degree.
But, I never lost my love of programming and tech, either. And now I’m in a position to be more creative with how I use the skills. I have a good full time job, so there’s no pressure to “find a job” in the industry. I can use the skills for a hobby or for a side gig on my own terms. So more and more, I’m leaning to switching to a computer science major. Maybe I’ll switch communication to a minor and double minor in communication and information systems.
(PS: wondering about the difference between computer science and information systems programs at my university? Computer science is part of the College of Engineering; Information systems is part of the College of Business and many of the professors are part of the accounting program).
This winter, we have had the weirdest weather ever.
Some years are snowy, like last year, and some aren’t, but the constant here is always cold. Almost always, by the end of November, have at least one or two snaps of twenty to forty below. By December, lows at night are regularly below zero.
Not this year.
At the beginning of December, we had a day where the temperature was above 50 degrees. We’ve not dropped below zero, not even at night, at all! If not for a storm that dropped around six inches a week or two before Christmas, we would not have had a white Christmas, either. We’ve had fog—lots of fog—which isn’t typical. We had so many foggy days in a row that it became the talk everywhere around town because it was starting to creep people out. An occasional weird weather event doesn’t bother people too much; but when it stays “abnormal,” people start getting unnerved. The monkey brain starts to kick in and we turn into a bunch of superstitious cavemen looking for signs.
The weather has been so warm, they had to cancel the annual ice festival in Minneapolis. And ice rescues are constantly in the news. If you’ve seen the movie Grumpier Old Men, you’ve seen what Minnesota ice fishing looks like (practically cities on ice). This year, people are still trying it, but the ice isn’t good. People and vehicles have gone through, and several times, a “sheet” has broken away and drifted. The biggest one I heard of was an ice sheet that broke off with 75 people that had to be rescued from it.
Here in my town, we had an e ice storm like I’ve never seen before. It was bananas. Half an inch of ice on everything. The garbage truck couldn’t pick up. I watched as it would try to pull up to a garbage can, stop, and then slide from the road up against the curb. I wonder how much tire wear/damage the trucks suffered from sliding into the curbs all morning! You couldn’t walk anywhere. The entire town sold out of ice melt chemicals, and people were on social media trying to find it. As soon as anyplace would get some in, they would get swarmed and sell out.
Then it warmed up again. It got up to 40 degrees outside and the ice fell out of the trees and off the buildings in thundering avalanches. In spite of almost a week’s worth of above freezing temperatures, a few of my trees still have their ice coatings in places.
As a result of the freezing rain, for the first time in the history that anyone can remember, we had river flood warnings. . . in December!
I like warmer winters, but not like this.
On the writing front, I’m still working on the short stories. Progress has been slow, but it is progress! The main short story I’ve been working on is practically at novella size, so it’s going to require a lot of cutting in the editing stage.
I was also struck with inspiration for another short, but I’m allowing myself to jot enough notes about it to not lose the story. If I keep getting “struck by the muse,” I might just keep starting stories and abandoning them when the next great idea comes along. Since I am still making progress on the other stories, I want to stay focused on them until I either get them finished or hit an actual wall with them.
As for the poetry challenge, I have been keeping up with it so far (yeah, yeah; only three days in, but it’s still a win in my book, lol). Technically, the challenge doesn’t start until the 17th, but I decided to go ahead and start on January 1.
Most of these poems will never see the light of day, lol, because I have no delusions about my ability to write poetry. But I thought I would include my first poem, a (non-traditional) haiku written Jan 1:
***
Auld Lang Syne
This New Year’s morning
More life behind than ahead
This New Year’s, mourning.
***
One thing I’ve discovered is that I apparently never left the angsty-poet stage, lol. Every single poem so far has been full of sadness and melancholy. If I’m still writing poetry when camping season comes, maybe then they will be lighter and more full of happiness, lol.
Speaking of poetry . . .
One of my favorite poems was recently the “poem of the day” at the Poetry Foundation site.
You can read the poem at the Poetry Foundation here: A Blessing, by James Wright, or click on the YouTube shortcut and listen to the poet read it himself.
I first encountered this poem in the mid-90s, in a poetry class being taught by the legendary Jim Mackenzie.
Hubby even made me one of his wood projects in honor of my love for the poem.
Also, one of my watercolor instruction books recommends using a favorite poem as inspiration and painting some of the images or moods evoked from the poem, so I’ll be doing that and likely posting it in a later blog post.
In case you are interested, here are some places to explore the various interpretations of this poem.
https://poemanalysis.com/james-wright/a-blessing/
https://owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis-of-Poem-A-Blessing-by-James-Wright
https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/blessing
I love this note on the webpage: “Think I can count on my fingers how many times I have stepped over the barbed wire of my life and into the beyond, where happiness has come to meet me. When I was much younger, I thought myself the purveyor of the spontaneous, but now I am more cautious about approaching joy as if it is a creature about to bolt away from me.” Absolutely beautiful description.
My experience is a little different, though. I’ve jumped over the barbed wire of my life very, very frequently and have found that happiness often rushes to meet me when I do. Only occasionally have I jumped the barbed wire and been trampled by a metaphoric bull, lol.
But I love the blogger’s take on this.
On a related note, the UND Writers Conference has released a preliminary list of authors and artists who will be at this year’s conference. I’m on the ball this year, and I’ve already put in my first book order based on the authors. This year, I might just get some of the author’s read before I see them speak at the conference!
The 55th Annual UND Writers Conference
As with every year, I’m SOOOOO looking forward to it! The people who run the conference are such an awesome bunch, and they put together an amazing event, every year. Thanks to this conference, I’ve experienced a wide literary world much broader than my little town. I’ve
YouTube Music made me a “Recap” playlist for my 2023, so I’m sharing that rather than the list of 10 songs I’m listening to on repeat. This gives a little more of a deep dive into my musical tastes, lol.
That’s it for this month! Until next month, stay spooky!
Brenda Kezar 