Wednesday, 04 July 2001

Happy Fourth of July! Sorry, no time for finding US flag graphics either.

I had stayed up too late last night and hadn't done my critiques or even all my reading. We had four stories to read for this morning, and they were running a bit longer than average. I woke up around 6:30 and read them all. I had hoped to grab a quick breakfast after that, but it was getting late, so I just took a shower, typed up my critiques, and got to class with five minutes to spare. At the first break I went over and got some pop tarts and orange juice for my breakfast.

Only one story was turned in this morning. Because of that, and because the cafeteria was closing early for the Fourth, we decided to postpone one of the mss to critique tomorrow instead of today. But, since we all had that one ready to go today, we have an easy evening preparing for tomorrow.

Geoff and Mary cooked burgers out on the grill and served beer, ice cream bars, and gummy sharks. A lot of people were either away or working too hard to want to take an hour for a group dinner, though, so there wasn't a big turn out. Which worked out great, since there was a limited supply of food (mostly leftovers from previous cookouts).

I've finished my "Sestina on Alien Invasion." Although I'm not sure whether or not writing the sestina was time well spent (it is a long enough and complex enough form that it took a good bit of writing time), I think I buy in to the idea that writing sf poetry is a good idea. Still, I haven't made any headway on fiction since Monday. I think, in the future, I'll just stay way from the sestina form.

After too little sleep for too many days, I'm going to go to bed early this evening. I've read the story and typed up my critique.

It's so nice to have my sweety back home! (Nice even though I'm not yet home myself.)