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As the case against the Boston Bomber builds, much of the narrative created around the bombing unravels. It appears certain now that many news outlets were going off of false information because of a rush to print.

I am rushed and exhausted, so this will need to be continues tomorrow…

Taking a break from Shadowrun writing to talk a little football and consider the implications of the off-season trades on a league stumbling towards parity. Football guru Mike Mayock released his well researched mock draft on the eve of the real draft. It confirmed what everyone else suspects: The QB’s aren’t top pick material, so any major team additions are going to come from the line on out. That leads to my own surprises for 13.

The Seahawks will be better than ever: Everyone knows what a ripple effect is. The Seahawks off season moves will have a ripple effect on that division, making it tough for the Niners to maintain dominance and tougher for the Cardinals to be relevant at all. The Rams are still a question mark–even with the consolidation of every man named Long in the league. If they turn out to be relevant it can seriously shake up the NFC playoff race. That all comes down to what kind of playmaker they can snag in the draft. Miami is offering Davone Bess, and the Rams could use a guy like him stretching the field.

The Giants are average still: But as long as they get hot at the right time, they can run the table. This goes double for the Packers who suffer from the same affliction. I think the Giants are going to look to address this by drafting a few guys who can hang in there and maintain intensity for 16 weeks. I don’t think, from a personality standpoint, they’ll go for the Honey Badger, but they should. The more likely move will be to improve the line on both sides and rely on the existing talent to mature. It worked for Cruz and now there is a backfield full of RB’s who need to step up

Today one of my favorite students discovered she was no longer enrolled. Financial drama led to her removal and now she can no longer take part in the class. It is a terrible thing, because some of the other students in the class are far less deserving than her of the space. The fact is some people come to school to learn while some come merely for a grade. The grade seekers look at a learning opportunity as an obstacle to their ultimate goal, be it a job, degree, or what have you. The learners see an opportunity for what it is, the chance to better yourself as a person and thus become more complete and more intellectual than before.

I was not the learner when I started–not entirely. I absorbed information that pertained to the book I was writing and dismissed all else. In that respect I was much like the students I encounter daily. On the other hand, I recognized what learning for learnings sake can do for you and I really hope these students can do the same.

I learned two new things about writing and thus about myself this week. For starters, there is a real and substantive value to writing as much as you can every day. The craft, as with most physical and mental ‘muscles’ should be exercised to exhaustion in order to create growth/strength. That being said, there needs to be a period of rest in order to heal. I’ve been doing this in part (more resting than writing) and discovered that striking an appropriate balance between both is essential to my professional and literary growth.

In laymen’s terms: I gotta write more and take a day off once in a while to rest. This doesn’t apply to the 10 minute rule, but in terms of being a professional author, I need to be producing a great deal more fiction to be noticed. Production has always been my problem. It goes hand in hand with distractions. I play games the way people in the desert drink water. I survive by moving from game to game and accomplishing artificially imposed goals. The same cannot be said of my writing where I have actual deadlines, if not goals. Those are roadblocks to me whereas the artificial barriers of game are motivational tools.

I think the key to my success in the coming year is to focus on production. I need to shape the time I have in a fashion that allows me to do more with it. This shouldn’t be a problem, because, as usual, the only person standing in my way is myself.

 

I couldn’t wait until wednesday to get this off my chest: Revis Island has taken his talents to the Tampa Bay area. Yep, the best corner in football and a large part of why people still watch the Jets play has been traded. I’m angry and disappointed, but I can’t say I didn’t see it coming. I said I would stop watching the Jets if a trade went through and the Jets didn’t get absolute top value from it. I am on the fence about the value of this deal. On the one hand the Jets have an additional first rounder that can be used or traded. On the other hand, the first rounders are uninspiring choices–especially to replace the level of interest and passion Revis brought to the table.

So, what happens now? The Jets will suck. The Sanchez experiment, an utter failure by statistical standards, will continue for another year while someone like Geno Smith waits in the wings and discovers he has NO game. The smart move is to skip the QB pickup, trade both first round picks for young useful talent, future picks, and perhaps as a way to unload a few more contracts that are unpayable. This is already a lost season.

This is already a rebuilding team.

I promised to have a story done by last night but lack of sleep and overwhelming responsibilities pushed me into unconsciousness where I would rather have been writing and working through the demons of my subconscious to produce something worthwhile. Instead I failed and today I’m making up for that failure.

Even if it takes all night.

I learned long ago that a teacher’s passion is the one thing that can ignite students to action and engagement. Left to their own devices, students appear to be more disinterested in a subject if being pumped up for it. I don’t care about blame so much as cause and the cause in this respect is a k-12 system that invests in memorization more than it does in installing basic principles of learning and moreover, a joy of learning and solving difficult problems. In short, if you give students a problem that doesn’t directly relate to what they spend the majority of their lives doing, the students don’t give a damn. Unfortunately, what they spend the majority of their time doing is distracting themselves and engaging in ‘worker bee’ behaviors. So what can be done?

This is the question that drives my course creation process.

I had the pleasure of being in the presence of poets tonight. I witnessed and assisted a poetry slam filled with young, powerful artists who wanted nothing more than to fill the air with their voices and share their strength and their message with all of us. It was incredible. While not all of the poetry rang with the tone of perfection, the effort and the courage carried them through.

15 years ago I took my turn at slam. I wasn’t the best by far but that from of expression appealed to me in the moment. It takes a special individual to step outside of the armor of seclusion to bathe in individuality under the glow of a stage light. In my time these things were often done unprepared. You were in class or went to the mic and you spit philosophy true and rhyming. The topics came from torn slips of paper folded and buried in a stylish cap. We rapped and spoke and screamed and growled and brought life and energy to the words. This is the path; the steps in which these students followed. They brought their own words–some rehearsed, some raw–that created magic on the stage.

That magic makes be proud to do what I do.

Reaching the keyboard in a fit of exhaustion has become par for the course. I manage to strike out a few words betwixt a frozen brain and bouts of unconsciousness, but just not enough.

 

words.

I wonder about the selection process to be part of a live studio audience. Often the dress is so disparate that I am left to wonder if these are fledgling actors or merely hollywood locals who do this sort of thing for kicks. I’m writing this as I am taking a break from writing a story. There is a rush on the work, so I’m up near two AM trying to grind out the 20 page beast. I think my best writing happens after 9 AM, but that isn’t really an option at this point. We are still in the midst of a busy school year and I don’t have the time to write during normal hours. After school ends I plan to reevaluate a great many things, including priorities. The goal–the main goal–is to make a living as a writer. That means devoting a significant amount of time and mental energy to advancing my craft before all else. I want that for myself.