1st Intro: Dinosaurs in the 21st Century

New to the world of blogging (I learned about it in my Non-Fiction Writing class this semester at Boise State University) I am a dinosaur…computer-not-so-illiterate-but-still-have-a-lot-to-learn…writer-to-be.

I will from time to time be posting poetry, short stories, and comments on the news from my own weird perspective on life.  As a graduating senior at college and just turning 60 years old today (ugh!) I think anyone considering attending college should go for it! I have loved every second and my only regret is that it will soon be over.

I started my college romp in 2003, for I’d never had the opportunity (insert funding here) before then to go to college. My best friend and long-time partner in grime, Sam, and I wrote a column in BSU’s student newspaper, the Arbiter, for our internship. It was a humor column entitled “Notes from the Doghouse” and some of those old articles will appear here when I have the time. BSU decided, after two semesters, that it didn’t want a humor column in its paper, (their loss, your gain, hopefully) and so we were looking for another format to post it in. If you can’t wait to read some of them, you can go to www.arbiteronline.com and click on Archives, then type in Doghouse in the search bar. If you still can’t find them, you can drop me a note and I’ll try to get them here sooner. In fact, if enough of y’all nice people go there and read it and like it enough to comment on them, they might realize that a humor column is popular, after all. And you would have the eternal gratitude of Sam and I. Er, Sam and me. Oh well, you get the gist. (I just came from there and saw other items mixed in with ours. And I noticed they are in reverse order: the last one is first. So, go to the last page and read them in reverse order if you want the original feel of how they evolved.)

     Since my interests in life are (but in no particular order yet) music, poetry, fiction, and games of all types including chess and cribbage and Spades (I am hooked on that game), and religious thinking, this blog will turn into a potpourri of stuff. Hopefully I can figure out how to arrange things so you all don’t get confused. Remember, I am a dinosaur when it comes to this sort of thing and am still learning.

Thanks for reading this far. As a starting point, I had most my poetry in the post on this page because I hadn’t firgured out how to link the pages until a short while ago. Now, since I figured out how to do pages, everything its own page with links and stuff.

Second Intro

I have always loved fantasy novels and poetry; but the poetry I’ve been reading in college has me scratching my head. When did poetry stop being poetry and cutesy-prose or word art is now poetry? I think it is because real poetry is so hard to write, people are becoming too lazy to bother with it. Some of the stuff I’ve read isn’t worth printing, and most of what I’ve read would receive a grade of “F” if I wrote it for my classes (and that goes for the fiction I’ve read lately, too). It makes one wonder what happened. I wrote a poem about it called “The Death of Rhyme” and will be posting it soon.

   This blog site is free and relatively easy to use. I had originally added ”except for one thing: The posts show up in reverse order of what I wanted and when you make more pages, they don’t show up anywhere. Anyone know of a blog site that lets you arrange posts and pages the way you want them to appear?” Well, like I said earlier, I am learning and figured it out. But don’t expect me to explain it ’cause I stumbled onto the answer by accident, thank goodness.

Third Intro

Things have a way of building up fast and then going on to something else. It is already the middle of Feb almost and I have graduated BSU with my Bachelor’s degree. It came in the mail yesterday so it’s official. I have found out that since I have turned 60, (and I am now an official senior citizen – and that doesn’t make sense because I can’t even speak Spanish at all) my graduate classes are only going to cost me $5 per credit hour from here on out. Now just how awesome is this? Looks like I am going to be a college student for a looooong time to come…because also, as long as I take six credit hours per semester, my student loans are in deferrment.

My stories are coming along nicely, and I have started a third one. Actually it has been on a back burner in my mind for years and I am just now getting around to doing something with it. I thought that writing three stories simultaneously would be hard, but they are different enough from each other that so far it is no problem at all. I just write on one til I’m tired of it, and pick up another one and keep plugging away for a while. Eventually I will have three completed stories to find publishers for. Well, I gotta run now, it’s getting late and I need to go home and eat…my home computer went kapooey and I have to wait til I am at BSU to get online. That’s one reason why I am so tardy in keeping this thing up to date.

Ciao 4 niao, Kermit

3/6/09  Wow, the time flies by fast around here. I am tutoring six students and might pick up a seventh one, all but one in math. I am without transportation for a while…van overheats and scooter has flat back tire. I should have the scooter running this weekend, if it stops snowing long enough to remove the exhaust so I can get to the bolt that holds the rear wheel on. (Carl’s Cycle Sales told me last Fall they wanted $80 for a tire, now it’s down to $37.95 so I guess procrastination pays off once in a while, huh?

One of my novels, the full-fledged Fantasy one, is coming right along. I haven’t donw much with the other two because I am waiting for inspiration. When it hits, I’ll probably be involved in writing them so much I will have to force myself to come up for air occasionally. So, other than that there’s nothing much new around here. Still not too many people reading this stuff so I don’t even know how long I will keep it up. Probably till one of my books sells, then I yank everything and become a authentic author.
06/12/2009
Looks like I will have to archive the original intro to this as it is getting very long. I am no longer tutoring through the college program…I signed up for a senior job-search company that pays me to look for work.  Now just how cool is that?  In the meantime, I am playing four chess games at www.chessbymessage.com which is an e-mail based chess site. It works really well. And, I am in a chess tournament online at www.chess.com I hope I am not over stretching things but I love chess. Maybe I can post a game or to with comments here…hmmm.  Also, I am about ready to send a story or two off to the publishers.  Here’s hoping.

BCS NCAA Football Rankings

Okay, the first BCS ranking came out and, whoa baby, Boise State is 4th in the nation? As a BSU alumni, which makes me a fan for life, I do not know how to react to this.
First off, I do not think my Broncos are playing at their top level. They struggled against UC Davis and Tulsa, two teams that, although they played really well, we shouldn’t have had such a hard time against them. The reason for that, I feel, is our own fault. We made way too many mistakes, and couldn’t convert in the red zone they way a #4 team ought to.
Second, some of the polls have us in 5th or 6th place, a more reasonable placing considering the past tw games we played. But as I look at who is in the two spots immediately below us on the BCS ranking, I see Cincinnati and TCU. I know we can beat Cincinnati, for they struggled against a team or two that either we trounced or those we beat trounced. But TCU beat us last year, so I do not know if we could beat them this year or not, the way we have been playing. But, if the Broncos could somehow put things behind them and play smart, and hard like they did against OU a few years back, I am confident that we could beat anyone. The problem is, they are not playing at that level right now.
Things could get really interesting this season, especially if Texas, Florida or Alabama stub their toes and loose a game.

Puzzlers

If you give up the answer can be found somewhere on my blog, in one of the posts. Sorry, but you’ll just have to read ’til you find it. Or, you can e-mail me a query at: 12_string@chess.com

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12_string@chess.com and I will e-mail you the solution.

Thankfulness

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It amazes me how much I have to be thankful for this year. Two years ago I was in the twentieth year of my separation, my back ached, I still had two  semesters of college left, we lived in a noisy apartment building, my mother of 94 years of age had just passed away (but since she had been a Christian since the age of thirteen that wasn’t as bad as it could have been), and lots of other things were going on to keep me from being as thankful last year as I should have been. Last year, I received my divorce, I graduated college,in December two days after I quit smoking, we moved into a house, my back does not hurt at all nor does anything else for the first time in years…I have a lot to be thankful for.

I especially am thankful for the love of my life, and for a gracious, merciful, loving, and awesome God whose patience with us is beyond comprehension. And I am thankful for those little things in life that smooth the bumps a bit: the courteous driver who lets you merge or change lanes when he/she didn’t have to and no one else wants to let you; the week off school; the mild weather; and the wonderful folks at WordPress.com who allow us to amuse ourselves with this business of blogging; the ability to post silly things like a guitar puzzle (the answer can be found in Poetry Corner); and part time work to get me by.

I hope everyone’s holiday season this year brings more joy and happy surprises than were expected.