• A year and a half
• World War II
• The fourth dimension, apparently
• A horrible weather system with multiple deaths and insane property damage
• Listening to Feist music for 2-3 hours straight
• A very vocal bird
• My irrational dislike for butterflies

I have been absent from my own creative – and just barely poking out of the ground – career much more than I would have anticipated a year ago. It has been almost a year since my graduation from college, and since then I have experienced much confusion, a slow learning of what I might want to do with a great deal of my time, and the anxiety of recognizing that although I have surrendered some of the goals of my earlier youth, I remain interested in dedicating myself to a ridiculous variety of pursuits.

As someone who has not written a novel – though has always intended to, as many do – I feel this self-consciousness that the first long-form fiction I write may barely be fiction. But my best (and my worst) short-form fiction over the last few years hasn’t escaped completely from autobiography, of course not. I have an idea, and nothing at all will come of it if I do not accept the possibility that I may emerge from a literary tunnel with a thinly-veiled memoir, or that it may have the feel of a shiny-covered paperback lauded as a “beach read” instead of the emotional punch-kick-stab in the heart of The Dollmaker.

Perhaps in future I will engage in more NaNoWriMo rebellion. This year I’ve worked on short stories instead of a novel; maybe next year I’ll low-key it and stretch a 50,000 words of prose experiment over November & December instead of solely November.

Back to sifting through episodes of Classic Who! It’s a bit messy, that. Tried to start “at the beginning,” as they say, a few months ago with “An Unearthly Child,” and still haven’t watched the rest of that story – only got as far as Cave of Skulls! Skipping around may be a little unwise, but I’ll probably watch the whole of Tom Baker’s run before I see much at all of any of the other Classic-era Doctors. (Eight, I’ll get to you and that movie soon!)

“The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

– Section 1 of Amendment XIX of the U.S. Constitution

For the next 30 minutes, in my timezone, it is still 26 August 2010, making it – again, for the next 30 minutes – still the 90th anniversary of the (certification by the Secretary of State of the) nineteenth amendment of the Constitution.

Happy birthday, Amendment XIX! We love you!

According to the Wikipedia page on the amendment, this is the information for the states nearest to my little amendment-ratification-lovin’ heart:

Pennsylvania ratified on 24 June 1919.

New Hampshire ratified on 10 September 1919.

North Carolina, oddly/sadly, only ratified on 6 May 1971. I’m hoping this is a Wiki error (they are not unknown), because it is sad times.

13.  Be like a dog and be the first to greet people- it helps new people entering the room feel more comfortable and demonstrates your interest in them.

17.  Put the toilet seat down.

24.  Click the LIKE button on someone’s Facebook post- it’s an easy way to demonstrate interest.

36.  Hold in that fart- the pain will go away in less than 10 seconds.

(from http://www.littlethingsmatter.com/blog/2010/05/03/36-ways-to-make-a-positive-impression-in-less-than-10-seconds/)

Silence will fall.

The current season/series of Doctor Who features a recurring crack which tends to absorb people and things and make it as if said people and things had never existed at all. Aforementioned crack is shaped an awful lot like the pictured “ghost snake” (as the Daily Galaxy calls it) in the Sagittarius constellation. Mmm, science. Mmm, life and astronomy imitating Moffat.

Caught a preview clip of the next Doctor Who Confidential where they show the actors give bouncy-horse-riding footage on the back of a truck. And underneath this footage played the “I see you baby – shaking that ass” song. Over and over and over again. Fantastic, guys. I APPROVE.  <3

Despite my recent TV obsession, today I looked up at a shelf in my room that is devoted nigh-solely (there are 2 rogue candles there for some reason) to my collection of duckies. And I thought, “This is a waste of time.”

Granted, I haven’t actually spent a lot of time gathering these ducks – most of them are gifts from the friends who witnessed my initial descent into ducky-madness back in 2003. The giant one in the hat was a present for my 16th birthday. The only one of these duckies that I bought myself was the tiny Thanksgiving ducky dressed like a pilgrim. (He was 50 cents. Just like… never mind.)

Sometimes when you look at things in your life, you go, “Why is that even there?” But for some reason, hours upon hours of The Office (US) and Doctor Who and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Cash Cab are completely worth it, and my little friendly waterfowl just don’t cut it.

A scant thirty minutes ago, an email from Amazon.com alerted me that Rasputina’s “Sister Kinderhook” is coming out on June 15th. I had not heard of “Sister Kinderhook” before 30 minutes ago. Remiss! I have been remiss!

This is the second time this year that one of my favorite musical groups released (or will release) a new CD that I didn’t know about at all. And I was actually trying to keep up, too! Are Melora Creager and Stephin Merritt playing tricksy, tricksy games with me this spring?

The Rasputina website offers a track – “Holocaust of Giants” – from the new CD, so of course I took a listen (or 90). I realized I’d actually heard the song before – they played it at the concert I went to in April! This gave me a sense of triumph and satisfaction, that sense I get when I manage to “go out and do something,” that sense that I just might be an adult individual spinning out in this world. And that’s pretty snazzy.