Geekery & Other Subjects

[eredien]

Does anyone know why the following things would happen? Any help would be appreciated.

a.) Why the computer would crash in the middle of burning a CD and then insist that it didn't have the CD burner drive anymore until I went into Setup (the old DOS version of last resort) and changed the drive designation from "Auto" to "CD"?

b.) Why any DVD which has over 20 "chapters" or sections on it would have a hard time running on a computer, but works fine on a regular DVD player? I didn't hear that this was a common problem until I invited my friend Becky over here to watch Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which has more than 20 chapters. It froze at chapter 20(like that time I watched it with you, IW, but earlier on in the film) and Becky then said that she'd often seen this problem with DVDs over 20 chapters being played on a computer.

The first problem was irking, but easily fix-able. The second one is downright annoying - I mean, I bought the DVD and should be able to watch all of the movie no matter how long it is or what it's playing on. Right?

I am terrified of grad school after having talked to a co-worker and fellow BMC English major who says that all the schools are either theory or teaching - which I'm not interested in - or creative writing, which I suspect frowns on writing in the SF genre - and I have my own philosophical reasons for not wanting to go to grad school to 'learn how to write', anyway. On the other hand, she reassured me that I'd picked a great major advisor and gave me tips on how to pitch your thesis so the only profs who are interested in it are the ones that you wanted to be interested in it.

I got my hair cut at a new place today and read the fourth volume of Clover at Showcase, which had a few nice surprises. I also noticed they had the first volume of Planet Ladder, done back-to-front in the Japanese format, but didn't read it.

In other news: the Bryn Mawr public library has decided that they're going to be annoying. They moved all the hardcover science fiction books into the regular fiction shelves, so now you can't browse and have to know what you're looking for first. A pity, as browsing is the way I've found many good books. The softcover SF books still have their own shelves, which I find odd to say the least.

I am currently church-shopping. Again. Oddly enough, a conversation with Randal about traditional New Zealand creation mythology and Christian theology poked me into it again. I walked by a church (the one by Acme) to see if they had hours posted up, but decided that since they didn't, Our Lady of the Immaculately Clean Stained Glass Windows could just do without my presence. I'm probably going to go back to the Methodist Church of the Tiny Desperate Congregation instead. It's better than the Presbyterian Church of People as Stony as the Outside of the Building. There's nowhere else within walking distance, which says interesting things about the demographics of the population (says the little Cities-minor section of my brain). They are either a.) almost Godless or b.) commute into Philly for church, like they do for everything else except dry-cleaning and Ferraris.

Comments

[weirdquark]

What do you want out of grad school? or a church?

What an interesting way to phrase that.

[eredien]

What I want out of grad school: a learning experience that lets me plunge as deeply as I'd ever care to go into the topic of my choice, and brings me out the other side with a new perspective.
Also, I have a hunch that I'm going to need a master's degree sooner or later for job-related reasons, and for personal reasons which I won't get into on livejournal (interested parties may feel free to email me) I would rather go to grad school sooner than later on in my life.

What I want out of a church, honestly, is to have my old church back, but here instead of back in NY.

Since that's not possible, here's what else I want out of a church, and what my old church gave me that I haven't found yet while I've been at college:

1.) A christian-supportive environment. In case you haven't noticed, the college itself isn't swarming with Christians, and the few that are there tend to be afraid to speak up about it in classes because their beliefs are sometimes ridiculed, and mostly just misunderstood. It's hard to continue believing in something where everyone else around you, even if they're personally supportive of your religious choices, don't personally support your religious choices.

2.) A place where it's not only okay to ask questions of God and the beauracracy of the church's inner mechanisims and yourself, but expected.

3.) A place where being a Chrisitan is not viewed as a liscence to act pious, but as a duty to try and be the best person that one is capable of.

Additions

[eredien]

Also, number one under "what I want from a church" includes people that act friendly when one walks in the door.

Re: What an interesting way to phrase that.

[thespooniest.livejournal.com]

I've found that among the academic literature community, there's a pretty strong distaste for science-fiction. I found it in my own professors too. You can overcome it, but it won't be easy. The trick is that you'll have to give your characters emotion, intelligence, and heart, and you'll have to do it so well that it completely overwhelms them. Doing it that well is not an easy thing to do in any genre, and most science-fiction authors can't do it at all. Some can, but enough can't that the stereotype has stuck. I can show you some examples of pieces I've done that they liked, but I'm not sure how much it would help.

Sadly, as the world and the various Christian sects become increasingly polarized, places such as what you want are becoming harder and harder to find. In many cases, you'll be able to get any two of your three requests, but only two. I'm sorry. I know all too well what it means to feel as though you have to be a closet Christian. I wish I could make it easier. But the pendulum could well be on its backswing for us, and there isn't really much we can do about it.

Re: What an interesting way to phrase that.

[eredien]

I know. I was lucky in that my professor for the creative-writing class didn't care that I wrote SF most of the time. She didn't know how to read SF correctly, which is another matter and one that I suspect is somewhat at the root of the grad-school snobbishness towards it, but she at least let me write it. And I was pleased with the stories, all of 'em, that I wrote in that class. And plan to do more with them.

I want to give all my characters those things anyway. One reason why I don't want to do the "New Yorker" Style of Fiction (though I probably could if I put my mind to it) is that I find it completely lacking in any emotion. The story is flat, flat, flat. And boring. It's pretty, but that's all I've found. Now, this is also a problem in SF and other writing in general. But I have, at certain times, come across books in the SF genre that made me think, or cry, or do both at once. A "New Yorker" story never made me cry.

Well, that's hopeful. *sigh* But at least perceptive. I am thinking that maybe if I find the last two the first will come with time.

[gaudior.livejournal.com]

Okay, but Eredian, why in heaven's name do you want to go to grad school in English if you don't want to teach? I mean, it's not as if you can learn how to write that way. (In my opinion, the only way to learn to write is to write. And read. And write. Which you do already.) What DO you want to do jobwise, inquiring minds wish to know?

Good luck with church-finding.

--R

[eredien]

I mean, it's not as if you can learn how to write that way.

Yes, and I know this...and probably implied it in the entry above, though I may not have stated it outright.

What do I want to do jobwise? Write; tell stories. You can see how this isn't good when college loans are having to get paid off.

I also like a lot of other stuff, but they're not mostly valid career options. Except maybe doing web design, and the market for that is tanking right now.

*kicks her philosophy of life in the head for its insistance that money really isn't important*

Writing

[theheretic.livejournal.com]

If you want to write, write. I've got novels to my name. They're web published and I'm fulfilled. You can do the same. I recommend avoiding grad school in english for the simple reason that it teaches you to have peer approved opinions of writing, not writing itself. It will make you INSUFFERABLE. The kind of person who turns up their nose at Gibson, Banks, or Bear. Reading the good stuff, then writing your own, and sharing in a decent writing group where people will provide useful criticism is key. I've been in one of those groups for a decade on Usenet. Its where I met Desu. Grad school for english is like walking school for athletes. What's the point?
Never worry about getting the approval of those insufferable idiots in publishing. They're buggy whips: obsolete. Write for yourself, and if you can swing it, a general audience. If you want to write literary scifi and need some examples, try reading some good examples. I recommend "Neuromancer" by William Gibson to start with. That's an excellent example right there. Excellent use of language. Next up is Iain Banks, probably "Consider Phlebas" would be a good start, but most of his Scifi is very well written. Then write a short story of your own, go for 20 pages. Write it first, complete with errors till you fill out the story. Then edit it later. Editing is less important. People who focus on spelling errors need to get laid more often, imho.

Key thing is write if you want to be a writer. If you need to understand people better, get a part time job where you meet lots of different people and study them. Its not so uncommon to find a waitress who writes after hours. I know one. She's my editor, the only editor I know who's worth a damn. Anyway, write. Grad school is for sissies.

Re: Writing

[eredien]

I think the "write for yourself" idea is good, Cym. And I'd like to think that that's what I'm trying to do. But then on the other hand, I think that writing, like any other form of storytelling, can only be what it's supposed to be when it's shared with others. If your stories only tell you about yourself, all well and good, but no one will want to read them, and the stories die with you.

Three points: I have met some "of those insufferable idiots in publishing." They are quite very nice people, most of them, and wouldn't be in publishing if they didn't like reading and finding good stuff. Most of them know their job isn't to crush the writer's soul.

Another point - if your story is filled with spelling errors, it shows you don't give a damn about your work. Would you listen to a concert if the song's lyrics had impossible-to-understand syntax, even if the music itself was great? I think not. I do think that it's good to write first and nitpick over punctuation later...but your phrasing of it could have been better handled.

Please cut out the generalizations about grad school, okay? It might not be for everyone, but some people actually do need it to get where they're going. Thank you.