Shorts, Work Woes, and Possible Relatives

So, I'm doing five little shorts for a contest on the Young Writers Society. I've already gotten two of them done, and am working on the other three.

Work is going well. One of the managers says that I'm probably going to stick around as long as I need to, which will be sometime in August. Hopefully then I'll get to go see my girlfriend. She lives in New York, so this job is paying for a lot of that.

Work is also taking a lot of time out of my writing/internet time. I've been writing during school, so I've not been out of that too much. But it's been detracting from my activities on the Young Writers Society. Thankfully, next week I'll have more time off, so I'll be able to focus more. But for now, I feel rather useless.

I told my girlfriend that a friend of mine from Young Writers Society shares the same last name as me. She asked, "Well, are you two actually related?" I don't think we are. My dad says he doesn't think we have any family in Oregon, where my friend lives. I do intend to ask my grandma though. She's more knowledgeable about that sort of thing, since she's done the family genealogy twice. It would be interesting. I still don't think we're actually related, but if we were, it would be one of those mind-bending things. Being related to this guy would be fairly awesome, since he's a stellar writer and has better taste than me in many things,

New Work and Flash

So, I have to work today, when I previously did not. I'm really freaking bummed about that. I was looking forward to just going home and goofing off tonight. Not so much now.

I'm working on some shorts for a contest that someone on the Young Writers Society is doing. We need to write five stories influenced by random songs. One of mine is Under the Lighthouse by Big Wreck. That's the only one I've gotten so far. I'll get to the others at some point. :P

Moneyz and Laptop

So, new job's been going well. The manager that hired me is rather hard assed, but she'll be gone for all of this week on vacation, so that's good for me. The job pays 7.25 an hour, so I really can't complain, since I need that kind of money. And I get an employee discount, which is nice too. I'm going to use it to buy Resident Evil 5. I played the demo with my sister, and she really likes it, so I'm going to get the whole game and we'll play it together.

And, I'm currently typing this from my new Macbook. It's a pretty sweet little setup. I'm pumped that I finally have a laptop, and one as awesome as this. :) Perhaps now I can hang out with the family instead of being cooped up in my room all day, haha.

Job

I got hired at Alco. I start work today, right after school. I don't really know what time I'll get home. Since today will probably be training and whatnot, it may be somewhat late, perhaps until closing time. I'll take my iTouch, so that I have something to listen to on the way there and on the way home. :P

This does mean I won't have as much time to write my stories and be on the Young Writers Society in the evenings, though I will make an effort to be on as much as I can. I really need the money. Though Worldcon isn't happening anymore, college still is, and every bit of money will help with that. :P

Movie Scenes, Rejection, and Vignettes

So, I think I have two additions for the list of "Coolest scenes in movies ever." The first one is from the Two Towers, and it's the scene where the Ents, big tree people, march on a wizard's fortress to rip it apart. It's awesome because, not only is it basically a huge forest going to war, but it's the last battle this race will ever fight, since there haven't been any baby Ents for ages. So it's all the Ents period, showing up to kick some serious ass.

The other one is from Return of the King. It's when Frodo and Sam are trying to climb Mt. Doom, to finally get rid of the Ring. They've already come across most of Mordor, and if that isn't bad enough, the Ring is weighing down on Frodo. They make it to the base of the volcano and fall down. Frodo says he can't go on anymore, because the Ring is so heavy on him. Then Sam says "Then let us be rid of it, once and for all. I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you." And then he picks up Frodo and carries him on his shoulders all the way up the freaking huge volcano. It's awesome.

Another rejection notice came in for one of my stories. I've still got three or four out there though, so I'm still not terribly worried.

I finally turned in my research paper for English IV, my high school class. I've decided to forgo writing a new essay for my college class and simply turn this one in for that class too. These papers are all too much work for me. I hate nonfiction. Fiction is so much better.

Speaking of fiction, I've decided to put together a bunch of the little monologue vignettes I've been writing into a little chapbook or something. Of course, I'll need a few more before I can do that. I have some ideas though, so we'll see how that goes.

Job Interview and Prom

I'm going to a job interview at Alco today. Hopefully I'll get the job. I need money in order to pay for going to Worldcon in August.

Prom and After-Prom were all right. I had a lot of fun seeing people getting hypnotized and stuff, and I got a 125 dollar gift certificate to Wal-Mart, so it was a win for me.

The Completed Renga

Here is the renga that I did with the folks from the Young Writers Society. We didn't quite follow all of the rules, and we goofed up with the syllables a couple of times, but overall I'm pleased with the result. :)

slow embrace, plunging:
tentacles and flotsam lull --
we collect the shells.
fish tails under broken hulls
fell voices in the currents
coral dances with
the movements of the sea waves;
fishes swim blindly.
tight-mouthed shells, settled, scuttled
on the beach like hulled warships
and we are the deep
beautiful; wild
since the sea was born
we hide treasures that
no man's eyes have ever touched
secluded in peace.
lantern skinned, studded
gills flapping like skirts; we sleep –
boneless, deep folktales
what god can match our splendour,
our revelry in the waters?
secretive meetings
held within the depths of seas
plighting a plot unheard.
friendless silence, plucked eardrums
sockets in the fogged slumber
we will not breathe air
our lungs fill with the cold water
Dark sea shapes we take
shut-mouthed, fastened down
like selfish little lockets,
we hoard our drowned tunes
the choir of transfigured souls
sweet voices among fins and scales
bodies once belonged
to land, now claimed by the sea,
brainwashed, lost and dead.
the sick girls, the yellow boys,
belly-up, they speak nonsense
but the sea takes them
it takes us and remakes us
we are its children
sculpting, remodeling us,
like clay, into something new
made to live our life
by rules foreign to our hearts;
confused, outraged we.
seek the comforts of the water
writhing in our new wonder
pollinate their dreams,
fat and ugly, like rough tongues,
stealing their rhymes, notes
succumbing to the soft touch
of waves and rolling currents
and purge them with oil, black salt –
monacled with sucker wounds
a drawling timepiece,
needled, trolled machinery,
like insect mouthparts
draining them of sanity,
replacing with misery
no longer human
skin changed for scales now
emotions far and gone
dolphins suckle at us
but it does not concern us
we are the new gods
we'll rule in our ignorance,
as if we own the untouched.
nothing holds us back
no man nor deity is our lord
we are beyond them
we are free, to wreck and ruin
who will punish for actions?
apocalypse here
from the depths of the blue sea
we have come to rule
to terrorize, overtake
the sea-lands we inhabit
let the sea rise up
trade in your legs for fish tails
become as we are
indifferent to those who
lived here centuries before
who stole, unrighteous
and died ignorant, with weight
of sins upon their hands.