A Life For Itself

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Blog Entries

  • Goodson: Not Guilty on All Charges

    You can follow @baltimoresun or @wbaltv11 or any Baltimore news source or their reporters. They’re all covering it.

    I pretty much figured this was coming when the judge admonished the prosecution on their conduct concerning evidence.

    What now?

    If the State could not secure a conviction on the most serious charges against any of the officers, what does this mean for the trials for the rest of them?

    What does this mean for Marilyn Mosby? There’s talk that she should drop the charges against the rest of the officers, that getting a conviction against them may be harder now; there’s even talk online that she should resign.

    And what does this mean for the community, the neighborhoods, the City? At this hour, there is protest outside the courthouse, born of all of the hurt and fear and anger from the relationship of the police and the criminal justice system to people in Baltimore. How will this be addressed? Will it be addressed?

    Presumptive mayoral-elect Catherine Pugh has already issued a statement, but what will she do as the City’s next leader, in the wake of this verdict and the others?

  • Chesapeake Writers Conference – Day 4 1/3

    One third of day four is in the books down here at the Chesapeake Writers Conference. I’m dividing the day into 3rds as we’ve only had the craft talk portion of the day, even if it wasn’t exactly that. That and why I’m posting early will be explained …

    Craft Talk

    Instead of the usual craft talks we’ve had the other few days, we had an editor and a literary agent discuss the business of publishing.

    I won’t print their names since they’re not in the official schedule online, but it was an insightful talk. I learned that a lot of what I’ve heard about publishing is pretty accurate.

    I asked about how to structure a submission for a piece of creative nonfiction –memoir, full length essay, etc– since it’s not necessarily general nonfiction (like how-to’s, history, science, etc) or fiction.

    The answer was, in general, what I expected, that it will probably be treated closer to fiction and to follow submissions guidelines, whatever those are.

    Another participant asked why so many poets don’t have agents and the answer was that publishers like to work with poets directly.

    #

    Participants who signed up, are able to have one-on-one meetings with the two. I’m over here writing because I went to the sign-up document late and none of the earlier slots were open; but still, I’m not necessarily ready to send a book out, so there’s little reason for me to go and talk to either of them. Even the editor who was there, while he’s a writer and has worked in several different roles in publishing, he’s an editor at a fiction mag and aside from getting ideas for where to send my work, I’m not sure what else I’d talk to him about.

    The best thing for me during this time was to come back here and write. Even if it’s blogging, I’m getting the practice and habit of being back in front of this computer and putting down words. There’s certainly value in that, especially given where I am. I need to work. When I’m ready, the doors will open.

    Besides, I’ll probably try to get a response from Angela since she’s doing the kind of work I want to do, has had a book published, and is working on another right now, I believe. Jerry was on the panel to give perspective as a writer, but I wish Angela had been up there to give the perspective as a nonfiction writer as Jerry writes fiction. Again, largely the same, it seems, but not exactly.

    Kids and Food

    Went off campus again for breakfast. No other comment.

    Workshop

    Very much looking forward to it. One of my fellow participants wrote a really good essay that we read last night for workshop today.

    Plus, we’re covering lyric essay today. Also assigned were Girl by Jamaica Kincaid, Things To Do Today by Joe Wenderoth, and Captivity by Sherman Alexie. All really good, lyric essays. I can’t wait to discuss them.

    One of my own lyric essays will be workshopped tomorrow. Probably best that I procrastinated until last night to submit it for critique.

  • Chesapeake Writers Conference – Day 3

    Day three is in the books down here at the Chesapeake Writers Conference.

    Kids and Food

    I avoided the kids again this morning, as I went to another unnamed fast food restaurant to enjoy a quality breakfast sandwich of some type. This also allowed me to get a little more welcome sleep. Always appreciated.

    I skipped lunch to go on my brief excursion around the County, so didn’t see the kids there, either.

    At dinner, I showed up just before the dining hall opened at 5:30. I was hungry after not eating much for lunch, plus I wanted to beat the boys there, which I did. By the time they arrived around 5:45 or so, I was pretty much done eating.

    My co-participants had begun streaming in around that time and the retired teacher I described the other day, told me that the boys would be singing at 6. I waited until after to get oatmeal raisin cookies so I could get a video of them singing. I won’t be posting it here, but take my word for it — they’re really good.

    Craft Talk

    No craft talk today. Workshops were done in the morning and in the afternoon, there was an organized hike up to Calvert Cliffs State Park. Of course, you’re not surprised I didn’t go.

    I heard some folks went kayaking. You’re not surprised I didn’t want any of that action, either. That kayaking action. No thanks.

    Workshop

    Today, Angela gave us a brief lesson about the New Journalism. One of my favorite terms in literature and writing. That and “Creative Nonpoetry,” a term I incorrectly attributed in class. That was the idea of Patricia Hempl.

    We had a great discussion about form and truth in nonfiction and discussed Joan Didion’s Goodbye to All That. What a great essay. Prose like this and James Baldwin’s Letter from a Region of My Mind energized me when I was younger; I wanted to write like that. I still do. I almost felt like I was back home and doing my summer reading for 9th grade English class, like I was in class marveling over how people could write such prose. I was rediscovering both a piece of writing I admire as well as some part of my own passion for writing.

    I needed it because the freewrite at the beginning of workshop and the prompted write at the end both followed Natalie Goldberg’s 7th rule of writing practice. Those were painful. I won’t rehash them here, nor did I read the first one in class (the second, Angela described as intense). The content may eventually show up in more formal pieces of writing down the line. Still, I needed the pick-me-up that the discussion gave me.

    Lecture

    Angela and Jerry Gabriel both read. Not surprisingly, I was drawn more to Angela’s lyric essay. I love those. And we just so happen to be covering those in class tomorrow. That’s going to be a good time.

    On Friday, I’m going to ask her about doubt, whether she has any (don’t all writers?) and how she overcomes it. The artist-teachers have covered much technical and artistic ground in their lessons thus far, but still have not covered something that affects many writers, myself included: how to keep yourself coming back over and over again.

    Yes, I’ve read books by Julia Cameron and Natalie Goldberg and I’m a huge believer in habit as a driving force for getting yourself there, but sometimes it’s hard to face that page. I’d like to know how Angela (and even the other writers there) face it down and still manage to get their work done. Moreover, how they manage to hit the send button for their agent, editor(s), or whomever. That’s what I want to know.

    Other good stuff …

    The parking situation has become comical in how much it’s changing. Public Safety came calling last night, asking where I was parked. They wanted to be totally sure this time nobody was parked behind the townhouses. I was out in the lot where I was told we could park. However, this morning, we received an email telling us we could park at DPC, right near where we’re staying, like within a hundred feet, if we could find a spot there.

    So this afternoon, I got a really good spot. But I gave it up before dinner. However, there was another good spot afterwards, which I gladly took. Weather Channel app says it’s supposed to be raining/storming in the morning and being able to walk a short distance and grab the car is a much more desirable choice than having to walk across campus to dining.

    Hopefully they won’t change their minds again.

    #

    After the reading, the young lady participant I previously described (the Improv thing) and I chatted in the dining hall parking lot. She says she’s convinced now that she wants to write and will be changing her major from psychology. She said she thought she could just go and get a Ph.D. and go practice, but what she really wants to do is write (she does want to write about the mind of serial killers, so the classes she’s taken in psych should help in some way towards her goal).

    Her father, she said, had wanted her to major in computer science because of the number of jobs in technology –growing in the area, as I’ve said– and she’d taken several classes in the major, finding them boring.

    She said she was glad to find out that the kind of writing she did in grade school wasn’t the kind of writing she would have to do in the “real world.”

    I was so happy for her. I told her, yes! (and I rarely use exclamation points), write. Please write. If that’s what you want to do, please. Don’t be like me and allow the voices of others to steer you away from something that’s your passion, I told her. She probably didn’t need to hear me say it, but I’m sure I saw myself at her age with that kind of pressure and needed to say it to the 17, 18 year old me, the 22 year old me. Even the 38 year old me. Definitely in this place.

    Pictures

    I took over 200 pictures between campus, Historic St. Mary’s City, and Point Lookout and before I could get them uploaded into Google Drive, I ran out of space. I’ll figure it out and get a few online.

  • Five Things – 22 June 2016

    1.

    Mets took down the two-game series vs. the Royals on the latter’s first trip back to Citi Field since last year’s World Series.

    Despite the pyrrhic victory, some getback from last year feels good, but the Mets’ issues weren’t solved in this series with the Royals. They need to keep hitting. It might help to go out and get a bat.

    I’m ignoring Murph’s Nats stats … ignoring them … ignoring them … wow he’s really cooled off. Batting just .352 now. Whew.

    O’s beat the visiting Padres to sweep their two game series.

    Nothing much going on in Ravenstown. That’s good news.

    2.

    Tomorrow, Judge Barry G. Williams will read his verdict in the trial of Caesar Goodson, one of the six Baltimore Police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray. The trial didn’t start out well with the judge excoriating the prosecution concerning some of the evidence. Since then, my feeling has been that Goodson will be found not guilty. Actually, before that point, since the moment that Goodson requested a bench trial, that’s been my feeling.

    We’ll see what happens tomorrow, 10 AM.

    I hope, in the event of a not guilty verdict, if there are protests, the rights of individuals to protest the decision are respected. I’ll leave that there.

    3.

    It’s tough coming up with things when 95% of my time is taken up by writing, being taught about writing, and talking about writing. This is a good problem to have, though, so no complaints. Still, I’m paying minimal attention to the O’s, Mets, Ravens, everything outside of here.

    4.

    Aside from the fact that I watched last night’s episode of Major Crimes, which was really good. Maybe they’ll give Rusty a better arc this year with his still-shaky relationship with Gus and now his mother’s revelation that she’s pregnant.

    I’m really looking forward to Murder in the First’s season premiere Sunday night. I’ll be back home watching it, so I need to leave really early to get home and write so that I’m not up writing late instead of watching.

    5.

    I’m not thinking too much of going home. I’m enjoying myself and worked through the issues that plagued Sunday and part of Monday. The writing activities and process have really helped.

    I think I’m going to resolve to do even more writing in the mornings. Like getting up earlier, like 6, and getting it in, before work. And perhaps hiding with my notebook more. Not eating lunch at my desk. Maybe I’ll haul a desk into the big network closet to be a writing desk for myself.

  • Five Things (St. Mary’s Edition) – 22 June 2016

    1.

    Maybe it’s because summer session is going, but the college used to be much more strict about where people could park their vroom vrooms.

    Yeah, they don’t want the workshop participants parking behind the townhouses at night, but as Public Safety explained to me, that was because the grounds people couldn’t get back there easily last time (which I saw first hand).

    Still, I parked right outside of the circle at DPC to walk around the “central” part of campus and take pictures. Then I went a couple other places and just parked wherever I wanted while I took more. I had a good time just putting the vroom vroom any place I could.

    I did get a bunch of pictures, even a few from Historic St. Mary’s City (I never went over there as a student). They’re not uploading from my phone, so I transferred them to my Chromebook to upload to Google Drive. If they’ll upload from my Chromebook or Google Drive (via my Chromebook) into the site later, we’ll be in business.

    2.

    I decided after my campus picture taking to drive down to Point Lookout and get a few shots down that way.

    The drive was much shorter than it seemed the last time I was there. The Confederate Cemetery also seemed much further from the state park last time. And the huge Confederate battle flag was absent this time. However, I got a couple of shots of the flag being flown elsewhere along the road.

    I didn’t feel like paying to enter the state park for just a few minutes of picture taking, so I turned around. Maybe I’ll come back down here one day for at least a few hours, perhaps to fish, and get some pictures of it there. The confluence of the Bay and the Potomac is really beautiful.

    More on this in a future essay, I think.

    3.

    After my quick jaunt down to Point Lookout, I needed to go to CVS and I wanted to get a quick, small bite to eat since I’d skipped lunch in the dining hall to go out and get pictures.

    Halfway between campus and Lexington Park, I figured I’d make the left onto Great Mills Road and see what new I might find there, whether it had become as built up as the rest of the county I’d seen thus far (save everything south of campus along Route 5).

    And it was. More gas stations, shopping plazas, all that stuff. There was even a place selling ox tail and curry chicken, as well as a Latino market further down back towards Leonardtown Road. Even a car dealership. Way different than I remember.

    4.

    Back here on campus, I noticed that with one of the newer buildings there, vehicular access from the back of campus near Mattapany Road to the Dorchester Circle (which I’m not even sure that area is even called that anymore — and that’s weird because so many areas on campus are named circle or quadrangle or something). There were a couple of young, student looking guys on a Club Cadet (seriously, where do they get those from; they weren’t the only two people using one that looked like students) riding around the still-paved driveway near Dorchester and Prince George’s dorms, but I have no clue how they got there other than driving across the grass.

    I do have pics of all this.

    5.

    I kinda wish I had the time to drive to Leonardtown and back and see how things have changed out that way. Unfortunately, no time, and I wasn’t planning on going that way when I leave out of here on Saturday. If I do come back down this way again (perhaps, next year for the conference), I’ll go all the way down Route 5 that time. Hopefully it won’t be the 6th Borough by the time I get there.

  • Chesapeake Writers Conference – Day 2

    Day two is in the books down here at the Chesapeake Writers Conference.

    Kids and Food

    I did NOT beat the kids to the dining hall this morning. In fact, I didn’t go to the dining hall for breakfast. I woke up feeling like I had a cold or something coming on, so I decided to get some vitamin C.

    I also got a breakfast sandwich from a well-known fast food chain whose name I will not mention so as to avoid the inevitable shaming from my girlfriend. Suffice it to say, the sandwich was really good and I don’t regret the decision in the least.

    I went to lunch as quickly as I could after craft talk and I beat the kids. After workshop, I did the same and beat the kids. One of the student staff members sat next to me towards the end of dinner and informed all of us workshop participants at the table that if we wanted seconds, to go now; the rumor was that “the boys” would be there in five minutes.

    He was right, too. Fortunately, I didn’t want seconds. I’d gotten all the protein (again) that I wanted. So I went and got a couple of cookies to see how those were. The oatmeal raisin ones were really good.

    Craft Talk

    We had two. The poet Liz Arnold and the all-around writer Matthew Hall both presented.

    Liz presented on poems using Germanic and Latinate words in English. I thoroughly enjoyed this. Not just because I love poetry, but because during the presentation, she asked us to identify roots of words in the poems and I did pretty well. More importantly, I took some great notes, especially concerning going and exploring how I use sound and the physicality of words in my writing work. All of it, not just my own poetry (whenever I work it, but that’s neither here nor there). I think I want to come back next year, but for poetry.

    Matthew Hall’s presentation was about using Improv theatre skills to help develop characters.

    The participation in his lecture involved several groups of students getting up and doing Improv and then afterwards, all of us discussing how that particular game could inform character.

    One of the participants, who’s also in workshop with me, was urging me to go, but I refused at every turn. I’ve never been good at Improv and it’s never been fun. Whenever I’ve tried, I’ve never just gone along with the scene partner; my writerly instincts kick in and I want to write the scene instead of being in the scene and allowing the creation of it to be collaborative. I’ve also had apparently, the same problem in my conventional (with a script) acting. So I wasn’t going.

    Still, this sort of thing is good for creating and fleshing out characters. Sometimes, it’s the stuff around the goals your character has, that you need to make the characters truly three dimensional and believable.

    Workshop

    We talked about the personal essay. I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation as I’m a huge fan of the form. We read and discussed The Invitation by Barry Lopez and a fabulous essay, The Death of the Moth by Virginia Woolf.

    One of the things we discussed was staying in the moment and being present to experiences unfolding in front of you and delaying thinking about writing about them until later. Whether that’s a good thing. If it is, are you able to do that. It was a fun conversation. I’m enjoying still thinking about it.

    Afterwards, Angela had us to choose a color, then go outside and walk around campus for 15 minutes, looking for all the things of that color, then using something you found outside as the starter for an essay.

    I chose red and I was going to write about the red in the many bricks used to build the buildings and walking paths on campus and how they remind me of Fort McHenry in Baltimore, but I decided to instead write about the Flag of Maryland. I’m working on that essay after I leave here, so I will not be talking about any of it in this blog.

    Still, the beginning fragment of the essay started us on a pretty in-depth and fascinating conversation. I can’t talk about the conversation until I make some traction with or finish the essay. Just know it was a great conversation. Some very interesting items came up.

    Lecture

    Angela gave today’s lecture. But she didn’t speak on anything a length, so much as she gave us a short primer on film essays, then showed us several. One of them reminded me of the book Reality Hunger by David Shields with its combination of images, found video, narration, and quotes flashing on the screen.

    She told us yesterday that her husband is a filmmaker and one of the films she showed was his. She’s going to be getting into screenwriting to work with him. She’s really doing the damn thing.

    Other (somewhat) good stuff ….

    One of the dining hall employees and her mother have worked at the college since the time I was a student. The mother was there today and said she remembered me. She gave me a hug and caught up on how much things have changed at the college and in town.

    She said that some of the sort of crime you see in suburbs has crept down here into St. Mary’s. I was dismayed to hear that. Back in the day, that was pretty unheard of. She said they’re building too much down here. All of the construction I saw the other day and even the stuff I saw earlier –even more developments in Hollywood– confirms just how much the place has grown. I’m not surprised that the issue that you find in those areas have migrated south. I just hope it doesn’t become too bad. Most of the biggest development seems to have taken place in the last 15 years and that’s a really short period of time for a place to grow and learn to take on some of the problems of bigger suburbs and cities.

    Talked more O’s and Ravens with one of the student-staff members. He’s been at some classic O’s games and he knows quite a bit of O’s history, at 23. I feel so glad for the folks in his generation, now coming of age to have a winning Orioles team. When I was his age, the O’s were into a decline that wouldn’t end until I was well into my 30’s.

    I’m also happy to meet and talk to fellow O’s and Ravens fans down here. I don’t know how it is during fall and spring class sessions, but way back when, the PG folks dominated that sort of talk. But, the Ravens were just getting started and baseball wasn’t that big among my social groups.

    I’m still able to watch TV using my tablet across the Internet. Even though I’m “away” and concentrating on writing during the day, it’s good to have some part of my regular life available. That and talking to my S/O online really have helped.

    My fellow participant who was urging me to Improv is from the area and has seen all the changes around the county, too. She was describing everything that’s different from her point of view. She’s in her early 20’s, so she was growing up around the time that I was just leaving the area, so she saw all the changes first hand, just like the lady at the dining hall. They agree about how much is different.

    Weather Stuff

    Weather Service had issued a Severe Thunderstorm Watch down here for the afternoon and evening hours. I kept watch on the Weather Channel app. Skies were really dark around the time that we got out of workshop. I went straight to the dining hall and sat on the patio balcony since I was there before the start of dinner. The storm blew over, thankfully. It did rain, but I don’t think it was anything like what areas north of here received.

    Pictures

    Took a bunch today. Not uploading properly. I’m going to take a bunch more tomorrow. I’ll go off-campus and upload them and hopefully tomorrow night, the upload into the site will work. I may have to share them via Google Photos, even though I want to put them on this site.

  • Chesapeake Writers Conference – Days 0 and 1

    Greetings from the Chesapeake Writers’ Conference 2016, hosted by St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

    Lots to go into, even though I’ve only been here since yesterday and the event runs through Friday night. There’s a lot of “wow, things have really changed” going on. I haven’t been to school here in 20 years and I haven’t visited the campus in 15 years. When I was a student, I thought the place was, in some part, the land that time forgot. Time has caught up and made up for lost time, as it were.

    And there have been some cool writing things going on, too. As well as some not so good things. Here we go …

    Changes

    For the first time ever, I drove the majority of the way down Maryland Route 2. I picked up 2 off of U.S. 50. Since I hadn’t been that way before, the entirety of the road between 50 and Maryland 4 was all new to me anyway.

    Much of the multiplex Route 2-4 was really familiar even through Prince Frederick. They’ve put up a lot of new business along 2-4, but all in all, it looks the same. South of Prince Frederick, all the way through Solomons, everything looked as I remembered. I was using GPS, but I could have used my own memory as my old landmarks were all there and visible.

    Even the Governor Thomas Johnson Bridge is still the same and still a pretty intense experience, with its 2 lanes (with no shoulder) over a pretty steep incline. Maryland needs to rebuild this bridge. If I remember correctly, the state has put out questions in the area as to what they should do with the structure. I say get rid of the whole thing and build a bridge with 4 lanes and a shoulder. Same thing for the Harry W. Nice Bridge across the Potomac into Virginia (what’s up with the politicos and engineers back in the day building all these bridges over major bodies of water with just two lanes and no shoulder. The original span of the Bay Bridge was built that way.)

    Across the Patuxent, it’s different story. I couldn’t believe it when I got to Route 235. I’d heard that the area had been really built up. It was beginning when I visited the campus about 14-15 years ago.

    But instead of the somewhat still-rural Route 235 I remember, I saw strip malls all up and down the road between Route 4 and Shangri-La Drive. Hotels. Huge gas stations with mini-marts instead of the old country highway type (with an old, dingy mechanic shop) of stations.

    This 235 looked more like York Road in Timonium than Three Notch Road in St. Mary’s. There, I needed the GPS. Even if some of my old landmarks are still there, some of the names have changed, some are surrounded by new development.

    For instance, the Ledo Pizza is right there, exactly as I remember it, but there were so many new things surrounding it that I almost didn’t recognize the building at first. The gates to NAS Pax River are in the same place, but the new (albeit gorgeous) museum that commemorates the station dominates the view from the road now.

    Down closer to campus, same story.

    The road we used to take to get to town, Youngs Road, was mostly rural, aside from one or two developments; The Greens was one of those and if I remember correctly, it was a favorite among commuter students. The Greens is still there, but along the road are now newer condos and apartments and new home developments. I don’t usually use the term McMansion, but that’s the type of home being built there. From the 280s as the sign says. And many more are under construction right now.

    The campus itself has changed pretty dramatically from my time here. For one, when I drove onto campus and got to DPC, I noticed you could keep going, further into campus. This certainly didn’t used to be the case. There are more dorms and other buildings north of there. There was one inbetween Caroline and the gym and a few more behind Goodpaster that I don’t remember (I also don’t remember Goodpaster, which opened in 2007)

    I knew the old dining hall was no more, as I’d been down by the time they built the new one, but there’s a cinema and presentation room beneath it. The school store is in the same building, over from Anne Arundel Hall (though it may have been there last time I was here, but I think all of this was under construction at the time). The patio is definitely new.

    Baltimore Hall computer lab is still there in the same place (some great memories of pranks and hijinks there) as well as the library.

    They tore down the old Public Safety building. And I don’t see the post office anymore. Getting packages from home in that post office was a life saver.

    One of my fellow workshop participants was surprised to learn earlier that Dorchester Hall didn’t always have air conditioning. Nope. We used to swelter in there. These days, I guess, the kids have creature comforts. I haven’t been in there and I won’t as the writing conference also has a teen component and the teens are staying in there.

    The campus has really grown. I got lost driving. You didn’t used to get lost on this campus. At least Montgomery Hall is where I left it. And it looks largely how I left it. I strolled through the Theatre. The place where I first fell in love with the art of theatre. More on this later, perhaps.

    #

    I went to Buffalo Wild Wings last night to watch Game 7 of the NBA Finals (what a game). While there, I thought about how where I was sitting was probably a patch of land 20 years ago, along with the shopping center across the parking lot, anchored by a Kohl’s.

    When I was here, I never cared for the isolation. Having grown up in the City, this place was at first, a huge shock. Couldn’t walk to the store. Friends were far away. It was so out of my comfort zone and I was too stubborn to let it back in. So for that and other reasons, I went home on weekends as much as I could. I wished I could have a car, but that never materialized. Lots of things never materialized from the experience that could have.

    Today’s students have an exurb here with all the familiar sights from home. If they’re like me and take much to adjust to new settings, then all this new development would probably help them ease in. Being able to go to Buffalo Wild Wings or one of the several Mexican restaurants I’ve seen might go a long way to making yourself feel comfortable so far from home (and again, there were other reasons I wanted to be close to home as much as possible. I really should have taken a gap year, but unfortunately, those hadn’t been invented yet)

    I wondered if I could be a student here now and I don’t think so. I’d rather be on an urban campus. Walking through campus now, I understand those days and myself better. I’m grateful for my time here, but I might have done better in a different setting. However, there are no mistakes. I met some great people during my time here. And still, I’m back for this conference. I’ve changed a little, too.

    Kids on campus

    In addition to the teens in their own section of the writing conference, there is at least one other group of kids on campus, involved in the Maryland State Boychoir concert taking place on campus this week.

    In addition to rooting me in line several times, they have been singing at mealtime. Those kids are really good, too. One of the leaders gives a signal to get up and once they’ve all risen, they sing a 2-3 minute choral song. They were so good, I didn’t care anymore about them rooting me in line. Besides, the school wasn’t going to run out of tater tots. And if they’d run out of bacon, I wouldn’t have cared.

    I am getting up early in the morning to hopefully beat the kids to the dining hall. Wish me luck. Maybe they’ll have some non-pork meat in the dining hall, too. If not, I’m for sure going somewhere off-campus for breakfast Wednesday morning.

    Not so good things

    The Data Situation

    Not that it’s the fault of the school or the workshop –and I was forewarned about this– but the cell signal on campus really sucks and I’m very unhappy about that. Cell phones weren’t a thing when I was a student here, so it’s nothing I ever complained about back then, but right now, it’s frustrating. The replacement is public WiFi. Evil, evil public WiFi. The signal is just around campus, but still, public WiFi is of Beezlebub. Don’t trust it. Unless you’re far from a reliable cellular signal and it’s the only thing available.

    The Walking Situation

    I’d forgotten how it was walking here. Going down the hills is okay as it ever was. But going back up? Well, it’s hot and those hills are steep. And I missed a few weeks of throwing the bell and lifting, so I might have lost all kinds of my gains from those activities. Hopefully I’ll get used to it again. Being winded makes for some bad writer conversations on the way to the dining hall and back.

    The Accommodations Situation

    This didn’t happen to me, but a bunch of the folks didn’t get the bedsheets we were supposed to get. My roommate ended up fending for himself and going to some mystical laundry room that nobody else knew about.

    I’m not going to write a story about this, but I imagine someone else will one day. I hope so.

    Some other folks are having issues with wasps. So my issue with there being no hand soap is pretty low. Plus, I went and got some. Problem solved.

    The Breakfast Meat Situation

    All pork or veggie. I was a breakfast vegetarian today. Fortunately, I made up for that at dinner with burger and grilled chicken. I really went crazy on the protein. Still, there’s more to breakfast meat than pork.

    Good stuff so far

    There is a lady in my workshops who lives in Bethesda, but originally from Alabama. She’s a retired teacher who had been steered away from writing and towards being a teacher, back in the day.

    She wrote a brief essay in workshop about being a teen and the young, super-religious boys back then having issues with her skirt being too high above her knee. When they were wearing the same kind of stuff. She’s going after this body shaming and ridiculous double standards BS hard. I’m looking forward to what she’ll be writing next.

    While walking back from the dining hall with her, I told her my boss is from Louisiana and a huge LSU fan. She wouldn’t even acknowledge that I’d mentioned that. She said where she comes from, they ask you if you’re Alabama or Auburn. She even said some guy from Tennessee was asked that question there and he said he was Volunteers. They still asked him if he was Alabama or Auburn.

    If I’m ever in that part of Alabama and I have to choose between the two, I choose Alabama, only because Ozzie went there. Outside of Alabama, I’m Big 10 Maryland and ACC Miami.

    Oh and she’s been to freaking Breadloaf a few times.

    #

    My workshop leader, Angela Pelster-Wiebe, has an MFA from Iowa. And an interest in experimental essay forms. How could this be anything but good? We’ll be workshopping and writing the rest of the week. It’ll be her turn to read and lecture soon. I’m looking forward to that.

    #

    I took several pages of notes between Patricia Henley’s opening remarks yesterday and her craft talk today. I can’t even go into all of it right now without writing much more (this is up to about 7 typed pages). But suffice it to say, her ideas about using your curiosity in writing, have stirred up much in me.

    #

    The soda machine in Goodpaster is touchscreen and takes cards. I really needed that water.

    #

    A Few Pictures

    Having problems uploading. Will do that ASAP.

    #

    Conclusion

    If there’s anything I missed, I’ll cover it later. They have social stuff on campus during these post-workshop-event hours, but if we’re getting homework like the folks in the fiction and poetry workshops, I’ll be back in here writing each night. I made a commitment to blogging this experience and posting pictures of it.

    I’m so glad I have a couple of tablets I can use to watch TV on.

  • Five Things – 16 June 2016

    1.

    With iOS 10, Apple has made the phone carrier less necessary than ever

    Apple desperately wants to wrest as much control of the iPhone from the phone carriers, and with iOS 10 it has taken another important step to making those network providers into dumb pipes.

    Source: www.imore.com/apple-ios-10-goodbye-carriers?utm_medium=slider

     

    Caught this after the initial news about WWDC. The way it’s going to function, I really like. I hope this functionality reaches the iPad, since I often use mine to make and receive calls.

    But I moreso like the statement that this new functionality makes. Apple is turning their iPhone into a phone for all voice services, not just calls made over your provider’s “voice” network. If you want to use Facebook Messenger or perhaps, Viber, or some other 3rd party VoIP service, you can do that more or less the way you do now with “regular” calls over your provider’s “voice” network. Those services work now, but they’ll be more integrated into the usual ways calls are made and received.

    VoIP used over data-only plans is the future. In a world where you’re Tweeting and Facebooking, watching video on YouTube or Vimeo, and perhaps FaceTiming or Duo-ing (I really am stopping here, I promise), privileging voice “minutes” will be a ridiculous and unacceptable way to pay for the usage of a smartphone (or tablet). Voice will be just another type of data that you’re consuming, not a separate and more important usage of your device.

    I don’t expect the carriers to change overnight, but change they must. I imagine quite a few people my age and older (and perhaps some younger) consider the idea of paying for talking minutes to be perfectly reasonable, probably because we’ve done it for a long time and we’re used to it. Remember how we used to pay for long-distance calling? Do cell phone payment plans remind you of something?

    However, much younger people (and older folks who have adapted) who have grown up on first, unlimited calling to cell phones (remember that, too?) and then, pretty much unlimited minutes to any phone, and then on top of that, all manner of video and voice chat over both cell phone data and Wi-Fi, don’t have any fond memories of opening up their telephone bill and flipping to the long distance section. Or of buying calling cards. They’ll probably consider the idea of buying a certain amount of voice minutes as ridiculous as I do now because they’re not spending most of their time talking on the phone as such. The data they use to post status updates and Snapchat is what they’ll be interested in. Cell carriers will have to adjust accordingly.

    What Apple is doing now in iOS 10 is portending this future. Cell carriers will become data pipes, just like ISPs, which is probably why we see so many of them now jumping into the content generation business because soon, the real money and power will be in driving you towards their content, not just giving you the means to get online.

    Even the idea of having a telephone number is becoming anachronistic to me. I was talking to a loved one a few weeks ago about giving up telephone numbers entirely. I don’t think telephone numbers will fully go away anytime soon. How will you be able to dial 9-1-1 and how will your older relatives who know dialing telephone but not using Hangouts get in contact with you? But folks of a certain age, who may or may not even use SMS, won’t give it much importance at some point. I hardly do. I just can’t get everybody to message me on Hangouts or iMessage. Which brings me to …

    2.

    Seems I’m not the only one who wants iMessage on Android.

    An Apple exec explains why it won’t happen. And not everyone else thinks it’s a good idea.

    Apple makes a ton of money selling you hardware. And they make money selling you music subscriptions, but you can get that on Android (not that I want it, regardless of platform). The Wired article makes a business case for Apple to bring iMessage over to Android. Part of the argument is using iMessage as an enticement to come fully over to Apple. I’m not sure it would work that way –I hope it would– but I’m not sure.

    I do have an alternate thought. Apple keeps iMessage inside of their walled garden. I’m sure they’d love for me to ditch my Android devices, Chromebook, and Windows laptop and gear out with a Macbook and iPhone. I might get a Macbook, but I’m never getting an iPhone as I hate them (for whatever reason). But I’m also not giving up my iPad. I’m a sort of inbetweener, platform agnostic.

    I like to think of myself as a good case for iMessage on Android. Yes, I have an iPad and I would like to have one for the foreseeable future. I regularly communicate with folks in iMessage. But I don’t want to carry my iPad around everywhere. So it would be nice to be able to stay in communication in iMessage, regardless of which device I’m using. I know others who have just iPods and use those to iMessage and FaceTime their iPhone user friends and relatives, instead of being able to just pick up their Android phones. It seems like most of the people I know who don’t have iPhones or Macs but use iMessage still have some gateway device that’s brought them inside of Apple’s walled garden. Could Apple use iMessage on Android to keep you buying at least one Apple device even if you don’t want others? I don’t know. I just know they’re not thinking that way. They want you all the way in. And they’ve made billions doing that, so I don’t expect them to necessarily change.

    Besides, with them now giving 3rd party apps the same sort of privileges of the phone dialer, I have to wonder how much longer messaging will be important to them in any way. Even as the messenger wars heat up. It’s hard to tell right now. But if Facebook can make the kind of money some think they might make being cross-platform, maybe that’s something that will change Apple’s mind.

    3.

    I had to look up how to format a form/block letter. Might have been a brain fart, but I was drawing a blank. I should format email that way just to stay in practice. Writing formal letters might also be a fun writing exercise.

    4.

    Tough news coming out of Flushing.

    I’m still thinking about it and trying not to think that this is the end. If so, it makes losing last year’s World Series that much more painful. I’m sure I’ll have more to say on it later.

    Ravens cut Eugene Monroe. Really welcome to Baltimore, Ronnie Stanley. You’re definitely starting.

    Up off exit 16W (see, Jersey folks, I can speak your language a bit) in the swamp, Jerry Reese couldn’t see fit to do business with Ozzie and trade someone to get Monroe, so he just waited for the inevitable cut to go in and try to make a move. And that’s good for them. Their offensive line’s been trash, even if some of their fans take everything out on Eli. Two titles haven’t bought him the benefit of the doubt, unfortunately.

    And the Giants are cool with Monroe’s weed advocacy. That’s always a plus. In New Jersey.

    Back at Birdland, the O’s are still mashing dingers (baseball lingo). AJ had one tonight in Boston. It’s a good season to be an O’s fan again. My birthday gift to myself may be another O’s hat. Or perhaps this fine hat that also happens to have my initials as the logo.

    5.

    Off to a writing conference next week. My regular blog topics, aside from Five Things, are on hold until I get back, but I will be blogging from there. I have to get up everyday at like 6:30AM, so there will definitely be something to write about.

    Bonus:

    It’s been a tough stretch of days in Orlando. Even if you’re not a praying person, please continue keeping a good thought out for that area. Same for the family of this little girl killed earlier, run over by a stolen car.

  • Obsolescence?

    I’m sure by now all the iPad Pro owners, iPhone … latest … whichever one it is … and all of those folks looking to buy the new iPhones and iPads surely to be released in the near future with iOS 10 are all excited, anxious for the day that the new tech will grace their hands and pockets and desks and messenger bags.

    However, at times like these, there are also the sad moments, the end of the line for the tech that’s served us well, but might not survive much longer into the next generation.

    iOS 10 Will Make These Apple Gadgets Obsolete

    Launched in 2011 as the hardware vanguard for Siri, the iPhone 4s was a big software leap for Apple. But iOS 10, which even focused on making Siri better than ever before, will not work on the iPhone 4s. Sad!

    Source: gizmodo.com/ios-10-will-make-these-apple-gadgets-obsolete-1781949615

    Every Device Apple’s Making Obsolete with Its New Operating Systems

    Yesterday, Apple paraded out iOS 10 and the newly dubbed macOS Sierra, but what they didn’t mention was all the devices that won’t work on the new operating system.

    Source: lifehacker.com/every-device-apples-making-obsolete-with-its-new-operat-1781954431

    Last time around, my poor iPod Touch was on the list. It wouldn’t get iOS 9. It would be stuck forever with the old-style app switching and the other now-dated features of iOS 8.

    But that was okay. I’d used the thing as much as I could. I’ve cracked the screen. Twice. Fortunately, I had SquareTrade on it, so I’ve gotten it fixed. Even as more and more apps won’t work and the screen’s developed a roving dead area, I still use it. Mostly for music while I’m at work. I plan to continue until none of the apps work on it or the thing won’t turn on anymore.

    This time around, my iPad 2 falls off of Apple’s supported devices list. I’ve been more careful with my iPad than my iPod and I’ve never done it any damage. I’ve still had a good run with it. Done a ton of video chatting on Hangouts, Oovoo, and FaceTime. And Zoom, too, I think, that one time. Read my Kindle books. Even used it to do a bunch of writing, using the Apple Wireless Keyboard. I’ve gotten my money’s worth.

    And I’m sure if I felt like it, I could jailbreak either or both and get even more usage out of them.

    So even as Apple is at the point of deeming these devices obsolete and moving even further into the next generation of devices, my trusted ones are still holding on and holding up under my, sometimes harsh, usage demands.  So while some might be disappointed at the twilight of their devices’ lifetimes, I’m cool.  I’m going to keep on going as I have.

    I’m not an Apple purist (or fanboy), but I’m very happy with those purchases in years past. Much happier than I’ve been with Samsung (and T-Mobile) and their seeming abandonment of the Galaxy Note 4.  T-Mobile’s site has said for months now that the Note 4 will be receiving Marshmallow. I’ll believe it when I see it as well as regular security updates like newer phones are receiving.

    I love Android and I don’t plan to give it up anytime soon. But I do plan to get a new iPod Touch in the future and possibly a Macbook one day, if I like the newer ones and decide to save up for it. They’re quite a monetary investment. But for the time that they’re usable, they’ll probably be worth it, even after Apple says they’re disavowing these devices’ very existence they won’t be supporting them anymore.

  • WWDC 2016

    Not much of interest coming out of WWDC 2016. Now I’m not disappointed that I didn’t get to stream it earlier. No word on any new Macbook Pros, so not sure if I should start saving up.

    OS X becomes macOS

    Since I don’t own a Mac, neither the name change from OS X to macOS, nor Siri’s impending presence in the OS are really important to me. I hardly use Siri on my iPad as it is.

    Hopefully this won’t become an annoyance when I have to ask people if they’ve upgraded their Macs to macOS and they look at me as if I’ve asked the question in Klingon. The folks with whom I might have that interaction do not keep up with tech news, nor do they read this site.

    Apple Pay

    Don’t use it or any other contactless payments system. Still not sure which one I want to use, but I’m sure it won’t be Apple Pay. I’m not getting an iPhone or Apple Watch anytime soon, if ever, and I’m not about to lug around my iPad to make payments.

    Apple Pay is another one of those things that I’d probably use if it were on Android. But it won’t be.

    iOS 10

    The lock screen updates seem interesting. More like Android. I’ll probably take advantage a lot for news and weather.

    Photos

    Don’t do much with photos either way, so nothing for me here. I like Apple’s current photos app, for what it’s worth.

    Maps

    I’ll still use Google Maps, even on iOS. I quite like Google Maps for iOS.

    iMessage

    Nothing I was hoping to hear. Not that I expected it. Gizmodo thinks it’s inevitable for iMessage to open up. We’ll see.

    Don’t care about message animations or any of that stuff. Guess I’m not in their target audience.

    The rest of iOS

    Don’t use Apple Music (Amazon and Google Play) or News (Flipboard), so not interested much in their next versions of those.

    Deleting Apps

    I guess I’ll delete the Apple pre-installed apps that I don’t use. Their presence has never been much of a bother, so I guess to cut down on the number of screens on my iPad, I’ll go ahead and delete them when I can.

    Actually, I’ll probably delete Apple Music and News first.

    tvOS

    Don’t own an Apple TV. I’m a Roku guy. Live channels sound cool, though.

    watchOS

    Don’t own one. Not buying one.

    #

    So far, I’ve been disappointed by both of the major developer conferences. Nothing really much of interest earlier and not only did Google not announce a new Nexus 7 at I/O, they started the countdown on my Chromebook (it’ll still be usable by the end of the year, but won’t be having access to Android apps).

    Looks like I’ll be standing pat for a while longer, technology-wise. And that’s all good. I can save up for a while in case someone decides to put out something that I really want.