That’s right. Just one more week before Spring Break, which I think every teacher and student are looking forward to. Not sure which group is more excited though. Of course, this means things will be crazy to get everything ready before we take a week off then return for the final push for June.
Given how nutty this week was, I’m going to assume the next one will follow suit. It wasn’t a single thing that was draining, but a bunch of small ones. I’m helping out when I can with the Unified Basketball team, which is a combination of our special and general education students. We’re defending champions, so we have to work hard. I almost forgot how tiring this can be after a day of work too and I’m only doing TA Support. On top of this, I’ve been handling non-school stressors and trying to get some editing time in. I had my son’s CSE meeting as well . . . He’s a good kid and a hard-working student who has a plan for the future. Means it was an easy meeting.
That pretty much sums up this, which is a shame. It was all a wild slapdash of activity revolving around work and parenting. I finished chapter 9 of Darwin & the Beast Collector and will try to tackle chapter 10 this coming week. Not sure if I’ll get very far, but I have the second half of Spring Break. If I can finish 3 chapters while in Oswego then I will be in good shape. Of course, I’m finding that my focus has been broken due to stress and fatigue. This is making me worry about other things, which might also be connected to my birthday coming up next week.
Once I finish editing and typing in the changes to Darwin & the Beast Collector, I will have to start a new book. It’s been a few years since I did that and I have this fear that I no longer have the ability to write cohesive paragraphs or chapter sections. I have the outline ready for Darwin & the Joy Path, but I don’t know if that will be enough to get me through things. It doesn’t help that there are some pretty big events coming later in the year, which will put a mental strain on me. It could result in me only getting one writing weekend per month, which sounds terrible. That and the rest of the responsibilities that mean there’s no writing on weekdays. At the very least, I have worries that I won’t produce anything good if I make the attempt. I will be trying to start it up during the summer, which has more free time, but I have doubts.
On another plus side, I’ll be able to bring my laptop up to Oswego. This means I can play music and take a break to watch a streaming show or prep a June post, which could increase my productivity. It might be cold too, so there won’t be more than a single Pokemon Go outing every day to do the regular stuff. Aside from seeing some friends once or twice, I don’t plan on doing much in the way of tourist stuff. I just want to get away and recover some energy before the final stretch of the school year. It almost worked last August, but some stressors seemed to wait for my return and strike hard to push me back down. Maybe I should just hope for the best and expect the worst until certain things on both a personal and national level chance.
As I said, next week is the homestretch, so I can’t plan for much. Looks like there’s only two appointments and that whole 45th birthday thing then Passover on Saturday. I might get a little editing in on days that I go in early enough to have the faculty lounge to myself, but it might be easier to just use the one evening I have no . . . Oh, I have plans on that evening too. Maybe I need to accept that I won’t be able to edit or even write a full chapter section within a day. Doesn’t sit well with me in the writing arena since I don’t know if I’d be able to regain the proper flow. Guess time will tell?
So, goals of the week?
Birthday stuff.
Really should do the last May blog post.
Start the June blog posts.
Make a packing list for Oswego.
Try to start editing chapter 10.
Get extra sleep.
Figure out which universal power keeps making it rain on weekends that I have my son.
Maybe order the latest Linkin Park CD for my trip. Also, looking at CD’s by Tantric and Orgy . . . Those are real bands.
I realized that I haven’t talked about magic for a long time. I write fantasy books, so I should bring it up from time to time. With Darwin’s adventures not being published any time soon, I don’t want to use him as an example. Instead, I’m curious to see what people think about magic. Enjoy.
What do you want from magic in a story?
If you could cast one spell, what would you cast?
How has your thoughts on magic changed as you get older?
Since I’ve been doing as much walking as I can thanks to Pokemon Go, I thought I’d post about this holiday. Haven’t been able to walk as much as I wanted during the winter thanks to that polar vortex in January. I had to go around the mall, which can get boring and it’s crowded. Don’t think it counts as fresh air either with all of the people coughing and making other noises. Anyway, enjoy the memes and maybe try to get some fresh air if you can.
Technically, this starts tomorrow. I assume because you don’t want to start it on April Fools Day. Still, this is an entire month where attention is brough to autism. Though, it has gone beyond that to involve ALL neurodivergent people. Given my background, I’m going to focus on autism though.
A major reason for this is because I still run into many people who think the following:
Those with autism are stupid.
Those with autism cannot succeed.
Those with autism are dangerous.
Those with high-functioning autism don’t really have autism.
Those who are nonverbal don’t know what is going on.
Those who are nonverbal cannot communicate at all.
Autism can be cured. (This one pisses me off.)
The list keeps going, but you get the point.
After working with students who have autism (and other neurodivergent conditions) and being the father of an autistic teenager, my thoughts routinely change. My son does remarkably well in school and works hard even though he has trouble understanding concepts we take for granted. His social skills are rough, but he is a good kid that wants to help others and tries to get that point across. My students also work hard and do their best to accomplish whatever goals we set. Usually because they are teenagers and even those who are nonverbal will have bouts of (You’re not the boss of me!), which makes for interesting challenges. It’s always an adventure.
So, I’m going to make a post about autism every Tuesday, but also one on Sunday with questions for the audience. I’m thinking of making the post on the 29th a collection of things people have learned about autism over the years. Simply to show at the end of the month how perceptions can change.
What do people think about that? Heck, feel free to mention anything that you found interesting about autism that other people should know now. Don’t have to wait for me to get my act together.
It’s not a milestone year, but ‘The Matrix’ was released on March 31, 1999. I think this movie really changed how certain genres operate. At least for a time. We saw ‘bullet time’ everywhere and stories about living in simulations exploded. Not to mention characters who could absorb skills like Neo and chosen one tales. It really was a fun movie and I still enjoy it today because it feels culturally impactful to me.
The aspect that I was thinking about today was the concept of humans being trapped in a false world. ‘The Matrix’ poses this as a place where humans are kept to be unwittingly used as batteries for machines. If one is going to escape, they are approached by someone who gives them a choice. Red pill means they wake up to the horrible reality of a desolate Earth and blue pill means they stay in the fake world. Of course, the heroes always take the red pill in order to make the story continue. Wouldn’t be exciting if they bow out of their own adventure, right?
I’m sure there are stories out there with the climax being that the hero decides to stay in the fake world. Can’t think of any off the top of my head, but I swear I’ve seen some endings like that. Staying in a false world can make sense if reality is so horrific that you would rather not face. People do that in the real world too. An author would still call this a negative ending since the hero didn’t escape what we are supposed to see as a prison. I guess the message could be to enjoy what you have and don’t always toss it away for what might not be better. Need to have a lot of prep work for that though. Most will think escaping reality is a sign of failure and weakness. Just see how people will speak to someone who plays D&D or wants to be a fantasy author. It’s not pretty.
Role-playing games, fantasy, and science fiction can all be seen as creating fake worlds for us to play in. While we don’t physically go to them, we mentally travel there and leave our reality behind. Yes, we can do this with other genres, but I’m talking about the ones that are more likely to leave Earth. Personally, I always felt there was a different level of escapism when you go into an entire new world. It isn’t one designed like ‘The Matrix’ to make people think they’re in reality, but to leave here entirely. Guess I’m leaning towards how all authors, especially in these genres, are architects of their own ‘Matrix’ to temporarily trap readers.
On the other side of the coin, I have seen a big push to make our fiction more realistic. I see people tearing fantasy apart because it doesn’t match science. Historical fiction is shredded because people don’t pay attention to the second word in that genre. I don’t know what caused the rise in destroying fiction and a large push towards getting readers to stick to non-fiction and the news. The amount of political books and biographies that seem to come out is dizzying. In fact, I really only hear about those on the few ads I bump into or maybe a James Patterson book. Are people so worried about leaving reality and missing something that they are avoiding escapism in all forms? That would explain why so many are stressed, negative, and miserable.
The fake world is a fun story trope to work with, especially since it’s a very flexible. You can make it everything. Characters can be aware or unaware of their situation. Maybe they’re trapped in a game, which is a common anime/manga tale. It could be them being experimented on by aliens who want to learn about our society and only kidnapped the hero. The fake world concept can be used to carry almost any story that involves ‘reality vs fiction’. Sure, reality tends to win, which might feed those who think fiction is a waste of time, but that tends to be the good ending. It’s still a fun adventure.
What do other people think of stories involving ‘fake worlds’?
Legends of Windemere 