Now With Greater Range!

Yes; greater range because I've bought an iPad. I suppose that every blogger who buys one must right a similar post. The truth is it merits a post--not the specific Apple product, but the new stratum of technology: the tablet. Having a giant, portable, app/net/home pc-syncable gadget is a thousand times a boon to productivity. This first photo is a picture I took as I began writing this post in a cafe. I was writing in the minutes before the Seoul Writer's Workshop meeting began (1/28) and continued as my students were taking an exam (the photo below shows them relaxing after they finished--1/30).


I have to admit that I'm one of the last on this bandwagon. From this perspective I can say that not everyone needs to get on the bandwagon. But for those who need to do reading and writing tasks at a professional level, I would say that you cannot decline the advantages tablet productivity and connectivity have to offer.

Truthfully, it is not even the highest of the high-tech features (syncing, multi-tasking swipe gestures, apps talking to each other) that matter the most. It is the shape and the size of the thing. A pure screen that minimizes distractions, of the multi-tab, multi-window sort or of any other kind.
The biggest advantage for someone of my peculiarities is the ability to simultaneously have ONE device that acts like all the separate books, notebooks and other devices I used to carry around. As a result, I'm ready to do whatever work most needs to be done or, in my free time, whatever work appeals to me at the moment. All the excuses like "I don't have anything to take notes with" or "I don't have the right notebook" have vanished.

In an unrelated piece of news: I got an unofficial acceptance email from Purdue's Philosophy and Literature PhD program yesterday. The catch is they don't have funding for me for the first year...so I'm not sure what will develop there. But this result is an encouraging forecast for the responses of the other schools, as Purdue was the 'long shot' among my applications this time around.

Writing, actually

It's National Novel Writing Month again, the time of year when I feel crappy about all the writing I haven't done in the preceding year and do penance by writing unreasonable amounts for a period of about 30 days.

NaNoWriMo also ends with my birthday, which is kind of cool.

I started late this year with my novel and so as of day 5/6 (international dateline issues, you know?) I have only about 2,000 words.  But I'm optimistic as those 2,000 only took about half an hour last night.  Meaning: I have a pretty good idea.  Here's the rough synopsis:

Why did Jeff disappear? And where did he go? By all indication he disappeared via airplane. The only problem is no one knows where he actually went. Jeff's supposedly best friend, Grant, tries to sort through his memories, his prejudices, and his worldviews to figure out exactly where his hauntingly similar best friend has disappeared to, and why.

Pretty crappy, right?  I'm not at the polishing stage yet, so this blurb is really just a snapshot so I can remember what I'm writing.  The working title is 'Mutatis Mutandis.'  The basic idea is to write about the post-millenial tension of the washed up suburbanite.

Like me...

...and this is my cue to talk about the other things I'm writing these days.  Let's list them in order of time spent.

1. This blog.  I won't get meta.  If you are reading this you know all about it.  So enjoy, instead this pic of my workspace at home.

2. Personal Statements.  The big secret is I'm getting ready to apply to PhD programs.  Five of them.  And naturally each department has its own formula for the application essay.  Sometimes they even ask for separate 'intellectual' and 'teaching' statements.

I have been spending four or five hours a week finding a sleek and sexy way of explaining that I want to read 19th century American literature and think about it and also think about French theory, but not in a bad way.  If you are unfamiliar with the terrain of the contemporary American English department, this is actually quite a trick, due mainly to the reigning school of that that has, among other tricks convinced itself and many others that it is NOT a school of thought.

COUGH, COUGH!--New Historicism--COUGH!

I will be devoting more time to this assignment in the next two weeks, as submission deadlines are fast approaching.

3. Short Stories.  Last weekend, a draft of a piece called "A Fun Birthday Thing" was workshopped by the fine people at the Seoul Writer's Workshop.  It was characterized as 'a sad, asymmetrical love story.  I'm gonna let it rest for awhile as I build up my portfolio of short stories.  Perhaps, sometime within the next year, I will attempt publication.  But I am wary and lazy--a bad combination.

I always want to do more writing.  For some reason, these days I'm really enjoying reading--like binge drinking levels of enjoyment.  So reading and writing are currently sitting across the table (in my brain) eying each other like a wife and a mistress who have just learned of their triangular entanglement.

The only solution is to spend plenty of time sitting still and being quiet.