Activities I did today:
Stretched
Ate Breakfast
Drove to provo
Worked on Thesis layout at Provo City Library
Went to Lunch with Dan
Printed out two color copies of the Thesis at Kinkos
Went to Borders and bought "9 stories" by JD Salinger(sp).
Went to the canyon and shot shotguns with Joel
Went back to the library and wrote a poem about a deer, but really about patriarchy
Drove Back up Provo Canyon to midway.
Watched a Basketball game
wrote this Blog
Human Beings I talked to today:
Nathan
Joel
Dan
Telly
James
Overbearing waiter at lunch
My dad (his 60th birthday)
My mom
my brother
Internet lady at Provo Library
Kinkos lady
Katharine
Borders Sales Clerk
Random shopper in borders who wanted my advice.
Non-humans I talked with today:
Good sir Winston (my dog, interior monologue)
Music I listened to today:
Bon Iver (skinny love, flume, stacks)
Lonely, dear (I am john)
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Eckhart Tolle (background for my ride home)
Main themes of my thoughts today:
Thesis
Shotguns
Patriarchy
How much i miss certain parts of utah
what I've learned from NYC
continuing education/PHD programs
basketball
this blog
what the perfect day would be for me
Things I felt strongly about today:
shotgun safety procedures
gratitude for Dan and his kindness
working the system
How much I love the feel of a short lyric novel
one day having a home that is comfortable (a haven) in all the little ways
Deer
reciprocal kindness/love
One overarching message delivered to me by the day:
I am a good (kind) human.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Utah Poems Project
Here is the intro to a chapbook of poems I am writing about Utah. The idea has been ruminating for a while but I started collecting/finishing pieces this week. I'm already well along and quite pleased.
"This small book about Utah was written the year after I left Utah for New York City (get the rope!). Most of the poems are drastic rewrites of material I first wrote during my seven years (one mission, two degrees) as a student at BYU. This book is, among other things, a love song, an indictment, and a valediction. Please enjoy"
One of the degrees I mention is obviously still pending, so we'll see. In the meantime, please enjoy this new poem I wrote today for the Utah project:
Hill Fire
We climbed out bedroom windows
to the roof slope of the Avenues
and watched the hill fire burn down Y mountain
alive with danger from both inclines.
Andrew was in town playing minor league baseball
with the Missoula Osprey
a water bird.
He sat on the roof crown and made jokes
about his root beer.
all the Dominicans were on steroids and the groupies
were loose.
my poor roommates, he was one hell of an ember.
The wind changed and took away one danger
my careful angled footsteps
hand on the roof at the level of my hip
carried me from another.
Andrew stayed up with his root beer alone.
That day's dual fear has seared the memory
whereas others have flown the field
like a water bird
rusted like aluminum, lonely
gone dark like the charred sage of a mountain.
Aaron Allen
"This small book about Utah was written the year after I left Utah for New York City (get the rope!). Most of the poems are drastic rewrites of material I first wrote during my seven years (one mission, two degrees) as a student at BYU. This book is, among other things, a love song, an indictment, and a valediction. Please enjoy"
One of the degrees I mention is obviously still pending, so we'll see. In the meantime, please enjoy this new poem I wrote today for the Utah project:
Hill Fire
We climbed out bedroom windows
to the roof slope of the Avenues
and watched the hill fire burn down Y mountain
alive with danger from both inclines.
Andrew was in town playing minor league baseball
with the Missoula Osprey
a water bird.
He sat on the roof crown and made jokes
about his root beer.
all the Dominicans were on steroids and the groupies
were loose.
my poor roommates, he was one hell of an ember.
The wind changed and took away one danger
my careful angled footsteps
hand on the roof at the level of my hip
carried me from another.
Andrew stayed up with his root beer alone.
That day's dual fear has seared the memory
whereas others have flown the field
like a water bird
rusted like aluminum, lonely
gone dark like the charred sage of a mountain.
Aaron Allen
Common Bloggin'
Blogs are awesome and I have a lot of thoughts on them, here are some humorous thoughts on the blogs of twentysomething americans.
Top common indicators that the blog belongs to a twentysomething american. I am guilty of all of these.
-It will change its name almost more frequently than it changes posts.
-50% of all post titles will include random ellipses... (Oh the depth of our thoughts...)
-It's always a blogspot blog. Far be it from us to figure out how to use wordpress. We are too concerned with the drama behind...ellipses...
-The author will never identify him/herself but will come tantalizingly close. Ways to accomplish the cat and mouse game of identity revelation include: Close cropped photos of everything but the author's face. Links to friend's blogs where the author of the original blog is conspicuously revealed in posted photographs. Photos of yourself on your own blog that are so thumbnail small that sometimes gender isnt even determinable. and, my all time favorite, posted photos of direct family members (often holding babies). I just love how its so heartstoppingly important to protect blog author identity but we have no problem exposing the identities of our immediate family. Awesome.
-If it's a guys blog he will have a black (brooding) background and if its a ladies blog there will be much patterned wallpaper background. seems sexist but you'd be surprised how often this is true.
-they will link to their blog on their facebook page.
-the actual content arc of a twentysomething blog is also predictable. The very first post usually starts out with an incredibly ambitious description of the solar conditions on the day the blogger was born. the blogger then tries to tell a condensed life story to lead up to the day the blog was created, but runs out of steam and resorts to...ellipses...to fill in whole decades. Here's a condensed Example:
"It was a cold and lonely Wednesday in San Mateo CA when my mother's water broke...i arrived in a house already stocked with two older brothers...and now I'm Blogging!
The whole purpose of the initial blog post of a twentysomething blog is something I like to call "Puttin' the world on notice". Its one small step for a blogger and one giant step for the internet. Oh how I love the "puttin the world on notice post"
After the 'puttin the world on notice' post a twentysomething blog usually goes one of 3 directions...you ready for this?...
1) Blog as diet. The blogger posts a bunch at the beginning and then slowly peters out. the periodic blogs that do appear always have introductory sentences that reflect the guilt of the now absentee blogger: "Ok, Ok i know its time for me to write this" or "I've been so busy but its about time I got around to telling you about my Tomatoes!" The guilt in these blogs is made even more painful by the fact that the "blog as diet" is rarely ever a well read blog. this means that your statements of guilt are usually floating around cyberspace unanswered and uncared for. My favorite part of the Blog as Diet is that it will stop for months on end, no activity at all, followed by a post that is basically a rephrasing of the original "puttin the world on notice" post but with an added element of self doubt. Awesome! This cycle will repeat itself until the Blog morphs into one of the two other blog forms.
2) Blog as Therapy. Simply put, this is anyone who knows how to blog from their mobile device. The Blog as Diet becomes a Blog as addiction, and everything is blogged about. A new guilt emerges: The guilt about not blogging interesting things. Its like the author realizes the blog is a free form of therapy but is too hooked to stop. The first sentence of a blog post (in general) is always the key. Blog as therapy guilt posts also usually use parenthesis to slip their in their insecure statements. Heres an example of a first sentence: "(Note to the world) I'm losing that fingernail I slammed in the door (like you even care)." Awesome. These are my favorite kind of blogs.
3) Blog as Hopeful monoliths of validation. Check that, these are my favorite kind of blogs, probably cause I've been guilty of this so many times. What happens is that a blog as diet blogger realizes that no one is reading and stops writing... except for maybe once every couple of months when they will post some random and awkwardly personal creative poem or photo or story. They know no one is reading but harbor a secret hope that someone will read that particular piece and recognize their blogging genius. Often, after they write this blog they will drop strange cryptic hints to X-boyfriends and X-girlfriends along the line of "Hey, I finally blogged again..." or "Did you know I'm blogging again...you should check it out...same blogspot address..."
hints like this will use...ellipses...like its going out of style. The ENTIRE purpose of a Blog as hopeful monolith of validation is to recieve reader comments. Comments are the fuel that feeds the fire and they will often use pity laced guilt trips to solicit them, ending posts like "and thats what i have to say about that...what? does no one else disagree?" The final act of a Blog as HMOV blogger is to reveal his/her identity in a cathartic draw back of the cyber-curtain, then to start another anonymous blog. Ah the cirle of Blog. Awesome.
Please enjoy (if anyone cares) and look out for (if you want to) more blogs from me (wouldnt you like to know) in the future (if you're lucky).
Aaron Allen (real name)
Top common indicators that the blog belongs to a twentysomething american. I am guilty of all of these.
-It will change its name almost more frequently than it changes posts.
-50% of all post titles will include random ellipses... (Oh the depth of our thoughts...)
-It's always a blogspot blog. Far be it from us to figure out how to use wordpress. We are too concerned with the drama behind...ellipses...
-The author will never identify him/herself but will come tantalizingly close. Ways to accomplish the cat and mouse game of identity revelation include: Close cropped photos of everything but the author's face. Links to friend's blogs where the author of the original blog is conspicuously revealed in posted photographs. Photos of yourself on your own blog that are so thumbnail small that sometimes gender isnt even determinable. and, my all time favorite, posted photos of direct family members (often holding babies). I just love how its so heartstoppingly important to protect blog author identity but we have no problem exposing the identities of our immediate family. Awesome.
-If it's a guys blog he will have a black (brooding) background and if its a ladies blog there will be much patterned wallpaper background. seems sexist but you'd be surprised how often this is true.
-they will link to their blog on their facebook page.
-the actual content arc of a twentysomething blog is also predictable. The very first post usually starts out with an incredibly ambitious description of the solar conditions on the day the blogger was born. the blogger then tries to tell a condensed life story to lead up to the day the blog was created, but runs out of steam and resorts to...ellipses...to fill in whole decades. Here's a condensed Example:
"It was a cold and lonely Wednesday in San Mateo CA when my mother's water broke...i arrived in a house already stocked with two older brothers...and now I'm Blogging!
The whole purpose of the initial blog post of a twentysomething blog is something I like to call "Puttin' the world on notice". Its one small step for a blogger and one giant step for the internet. Oh how I love the "puttin the world on notice post"
After the 'puttin the world on notice' post a twentysomething blog usually goes one of 3 directions...you ready for this?...
1) Blog as diet. The blogger posts a bunch at the beginning and then slowly peters out. the periodic blogs that do appear always have introductory sentences that reflect the guilt of the now absentee blogger: "Ok, Ok i know its time for me to write this" or "I've been so busy but its about time I got around to telling you about my Tomatoes!" The guilt in these blogs is made even more painful by the fact that the "blog as diet" is rarely ever a well read blog. this means that your statements of guilt are usually floating around cyberspace unanswered and uncared for. My favorite part of the Blog as Diet is that it will stop for months on end, no activity at all, followed by a post that is basically a rephrasing of the original "puttin the world on notice" post but with an added element of self doubt. Awesome! This cycle will repeat itself until the Blog morphs into one of the two other blog forms.
2) Blog as Therapy. Simply put, this is anyone who knows how to blog from their mobile device. The Blog as Diet becomes a Blog as addiction, and everything is blogged about. A new guilt emerges: The guilt about not blogging interesting things. Its like the author realizes the blog is a free form of therapy but is too hooked to stop. The first sentence of a blog post (in general) is always the key. Blog as therapy guilt posts also usually use parenthesis to slip their in their insecure statements. Heres an example of a first sentence: "(Note to the world) I'm losing that fingernail I slammed in the door (like you even care)." Awesome. These are my favorite kind of blogs.
3) Blog as Hopeful monoliths of validation. Check that, these are my favorite kind of blogs, probably cause I've been guilty of this so many times. What happens is that a blog as diet blogger realizes that no one is reading and stops writing... except for maybe once every couple of months when they will post some random and awkwardly personal creative poem or photo or story. They know no one is reading but harbor a secret hope that someone will read that particular piece and recognize their blogging genius. Often, after they write this blog they will drop strange cryptic hints to X-boyfriends and X-girlfriends along the line of "Hey, I finally blogged again..." or "Did you know I'm blogging again...you should check it out...same blogspot address..."
hints like this will use...ellipses...like its going out of style. The ENTIRE purpose of a Blog as hopeful monolith of validation is to recieve reader comments. Comments are the fuel that feeds the fire and they will often use pity laced guilt trips to solicit them, ending posts like "and thats what i have to say about that...what? does no one else disagree?" The final act of a Blog as HMOV blogger is to reveal his/her identity in a cathartic draw back of the cyber-curtain, then to start another anonymous blog. Ah the cirle of Blog. Awesome.
Please enjoy (if anyone cares) and look out for (if you want to) more blogs from me (wouldnt you like to know) in the future (if you're lucky).
Aaron Allen (real name)
Intro to Common Bloggin'
So I just finished a pretty extensive draft of my MA thesis and its time to come up for air. Here is what my schedule has been over the last few months:
545AM: wake up (on weekdays) to teach an early morning seminary class for my church
730AM: come back and nap.
10AM: wake up (again) and take the subway or walk to one of 3 rotating libraries and write all day. the three libraries (in case you want to map it) are the Park slope branch of the NYPL, which is the closest and smallest--the main brooklyn branch of the NYPL, which is in walking distance but isnt very electronics friendly--and the 5th avenue (think ghostbusters) branch of the NYPL in Manhattan. I prefer the Manhattan one in every respect. The huge reading room in incredible, it allows me time to
marinate (get my thoughts ready for writing) on the F-train, it has plugs for my laptop, and it doesnt have wireless internet, which makes me 100% more efficient. I'm becoming a regular.
After the libraries close I usually come home and watch some tivoed sporting event from the day before or go to a movie or something with friends. I actually read a lot.
I have a bunch of friends in writing programs and I've realized that I am missing out on not being in direct contact with continuing education. I have to push myself a lot cause stasis is regression when it comes to my writing education...so I read a lot..mostly authors I admire or would like to emulate. books read in the last month include:
'the road' by Mcarthy
'some ether' poems by nick flynn
'halls of fame" essays by john D'gata (again)
'X' poems by James Galvin (again)
'Survivor" by chuck Palahaunik(sp)
Yes, I am painfully aware that they are all men. Other odds and ends include an amazing 80's instruction book called "PLAY SQUASH", which is all about playing squash. The book is so enthusiastic and so few people actually play squash...i love it. I've been reading Flannery O'connor (a woman!) and Sherwood anderson stories from anthologies. I also read from the LDS Journal of Discourses, mostly Brigham Young discourses (I've graduated from my Joseph Smith kick onto brother Brigham). Finally i read a TON of blogs through Google reader, mostly sports related
stuff, but also a lot of blogs of friends and former classmates.
545AM: wake up (on weekdays) to teach an early morning seminary class for my church
730AM: come back and nap.
10AM: wake up (again) and take the subway or walk to one of 3 rotating libraries and write all day. the three libraries (in case you want to map it) are the Park slope branch of the NYPL, which is the closest and smallest--the main brooklyn branch of the NYPL, which is in walking distance but isnt very electronics friendly--and the 5th avenue (think ghostbusters) branch of the NYPL in Manhattan. I prefer the Manhattan one in every respect. The huge reading room in incredible, it allows me time to
marinate (get my thoughts ready for writing) on the F-train, it has plugs for my laptop, and it doesnt have wireless internet, which makes me 100% more efficient. I'm becoming a regular.
After the libraries close I usually come home and watch some tivoed sporting event from the day before or go to a movie or something with friends. I actually read a lot.
I have a bunch of friends in writing programs and I've realized that I am missing out on not being in direct contact with continuing education. I have to push myself a lot cause stasis is regression when it comes to my writing education...so I read a lot..mostly authors I admire or would like to emulate. books read in the last month include:
'the road' by Mcarthy
'some ether' poems by nick flynn
'halls of fame" essays by john D'gata (again)
'X' poems by James Galvin (again)
'Survivor" by chuck Palahaunik(sp)
Yes, I am painfully aware that they are all men. Other odds and ends include an amazing 80's instruction book called "PLAY SQUASH", which is all about playing squash. The book is so enthusiastic and so few people actually play squash...i love it. I've been reading Flannery O'connor (a woman!) and Sherwood anderson stories from anthologies. I also read from the LDS Journal of Discourses, mostly Brigham Young discourses (I've graduated from my Joseph Smith kick onto brother Brigham). Finally i read a TON of blogs through Google reader, mostly sports related
stuff, but also a lot of blogs of friends and former classmates.
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