End of June

     Another June has almost ended. It's been a lot like most other Junes seem to be: lots of quiet endurance tests, hot weather, bad things happening in government. Haven't written much this month, haven't had a chance to, with my summer class in Comparative Religion starting up. Some stuff for the book review blog, though. 

Grandpa

     Grandpa died Wednesday afternoon(May 26) of cancer. It's good that he isn't sick anymore, but it hasn't exactly sunk in yet. Or maybe it has, all of the last school year I don't know. It's hard to tell with things like that, sometimes.
     The funeral was last Tuesday; it went well. The funeral home was packed to the limit with family, friends and coworkers, and at every intersection all the way to the cemetery there was a fire truck standing guard. They rang the fire bell to signal his passing; which was really emotional for some reason. Also the slideshow of pictures; most of us were kind of falling apart.
     After the graveside we went over to Louise and Harry's, where about eighty to a hundred relatives came to talk and hang out, for that is what you do when there is a grouping of Lankfords. Most people from their church brought food over, so there was more than enough to feed everyone. Mom had a good time spending time with everybody; Caleb shot baskets with a cousin.

     Jackie Dale Lankford was born on April 14, 1947 in Pawhuska(the nearest town with a hospital to Wynona), and was in the middle of the Lankford kids; yougner than Bob and Louise, but older than Ken, Nina or Linda. They bounced around as Papa Lankford worked in construction in various places while preaching. (Accuracy of facts isn't part of the stories of Lankford history, so everything has to be patched together.) Eventually he married Linda Morris in the mid-sixties, and they had two daughters, Dayla and Jatina. He worked for the Tahlequah Public Works Authority as a lineman for many years, and also served with the Tahlequah Fire Department. There was also a landscaping business at one point in the early 80's.
     In his free time, he enjoyed canoe racing with Bob on the Illinois River, and the family often went on road-trip vacations to various states. Later, after his marriage to Robbie, he loved to spend time spoiling their dogs Bogey, Fancy and Gretchen. They also went through a square-dancing phase at one point, and they liked to take off in the RV for some destination or other(usually Branson) almost anytime. He also really loved being out on Lake Tenkiller in his pontoon boat.

     I didn't really know him very well until I got to college, though we'd gotten closer in my teens. I'd go over there on most weekends while in Tahlequah at NSU, and we'd watch Shark Tank each Friday night and then whatever sports were on ESPN or FS1. I was at his trailer when Dale Earnhardt died in the 2001 Daytona 500, and also on 9/11.

     He came to a lot of my soccer games and homeschool-group plays, and it was a tradition that we went over there for Thanksgiving. He was just so full of common sense, which is far too uncommon nowadays. And yes, it's good that he isn't sick any longer, but it's still really sad for the rest of us. Especially Robbie.

     Love you, Grandpa.

This Week in Review

     This hasn't been the greatest week ever. For most of it I was sick with either an ear infection or strep throat (I think the latter). Then Grandpa died on Wednesday afternoon. Which was good in a sense, because he isn't sick anymore, but it's still hard to deal with. The funeral will be Tuesday afternoon.
     It's strange to think that it's been almost five years since Youth Tour. All these pictures of Memorial Day cemeteries and stuff on Facebook, so it's neat to remember that I've been there at Arlington.

     My birthday was yesterday; it was pretty quiet, as it should have been, given the funeral preparations and all. But it was nice. Got the DVD of Inside Out, and a series of books on language by a guy named Mark Forsyth. Started one of them, The Elements of Eloquence, which is wonderful so far. Began rereading through the Anne of Green Gables series for the who-knows-whatth time, which is nice. Definitely needed after finishing Seabiscuit again while reading some depressing textbooks for my summer course. Laura Hillenbrand is a wonderful writer, capturing danger and tension especially well, but at a time like this, especially if not feeling great, that's not necessarily a good thing. I didn't much like C.S. Lewis's A Grief Observed, but it's the best so far out of the textbooks I've read for this course. Watched a strange, but good, movie on Netflix called My Girl. It's a coming-of-age story about a girl who lives in a funeral home, and one summer her dad remarries and her best friend dies. It would make a great novel, reminiscent of To Kill a Mockingbird if it took place in the early 70's, which makes it even more unusual that it was an original screenplay.

     In sports news, an American rookie from California won the Indy 500 yesterday, and the Thunder will likely lose to the Warriors tonight in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals. Then Kevin Durant will probably head somewhere else. But the team will carry on somehow, just like Tahlequah will continue to run somehow without Jack Lankford in it. The Sharks and Penguins are playing for the Stanley Cup, the first game of that series in tonight.

     Kaitlin's wedding last Saturday went well, it was at First Presbyterian in Sand Springs, which is a very pretty church. It was a good wedding, whatever those criteria are. It was almost like being at GBC seven or eight years ago - with the Buckmasters, Grahams, David Ipock, the Buenos all there. The Scotts drove up from Russellville to be there, their boys are growing up. Most of the Fergusons were there, Laura had just about left for North Carolina for her summer job. Good to see Josh again. Also in attendance were the Wilsons and Ruscos, and half the Coxes.

Recapping Senior Year

     Senior year has ended. It was exceedingly long.

     Everyone freaked out (in a fantastically good way) about the future of October 21, 2015 actually being here. American Idol ended, which is awful. I starred in the RSU Theater production of Tales From Tent City, that was interesting. Got to see NSU BCM people(Bob and Deb, and Annie, Bucky, Daniel P, Ja Li Si, James and Jordan, specifically) at a conference last fall, which was fantastic.

     Finished watching Friday Night Lights; which wrapped up great. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. kept Tuesday nights interesting(and occasionally maddening). Kept up with the Thunder when I could. Learned that I can quote the entire script of The Princess Bride from memory. Fuller House was a great update of 90's sitcom goodness.

     Did lots of all-nighters to finish homework projects that needed to get done, which was immensely tiring and lonesome. Roughly one a week, sometimes two. Critiqued fifty-five poems written by classmates, and at least twenty-one short stories. Discovered that writing scripts is a very difficult branch of writing. Plowed through all of the Harry Potter books, which was frustrating. Watched much more Buffy the Vampire Slayer than I would have wanted to, since it was homework for Topics.

     But mostly it was just staring at the blank Word doc in my very silent apartment and knowing something had to be turned in by deadline. That doesn't make for much of interesting stories. There was rehearsal for Tent City, which was almost like another class, in that you show up, do your job, and then leave. Songs of this year would be a lot of Avril Lavigne - "Everybody Hurts," "I'm With You," "Keep Holding On," "Mobile," "Tomorrow" all leap to mind - Laura Story's "Blessings," too. Not sure of any others at the moment.

     Occasionally heard from Ashland, Amanda, Daniel, Dylan, Elizabeth, Jessica, Jon and Susan, which was helpful in finishing the semester.

Events of Early Summer

     We went to Okmulgee Saturday night to see Captain America: Civil War at the Orpheum. It was very good, but very hard to watch, seeing the bonds which have built so strongly disintegrate. The new Tom Holland version of Spider-Man is awesome; much better than Andrew Garfield.
     Amy's been getting birthday cards from all over, which she has been thrilled by. It's really fun to watch. Mom, Courtney and I started a book-review blog called Dust-Jacket Judgmentalism, check it out!

     In NSU BCM news, Mallory, Jacob, Bucky and Amber all graduated last week, which was cool. Lots of Youth Tour folks graduated, too; so there was lots of posts on Facebook. Justin and Ashleigh's wedding is tomorrow, which is awesome. Susan got an internship as an assistant stage manager in Indianapolis for the summer, which sounds interesting.

     Grades came in Wednesday night; I got three A's in Fiction Writing, Studies in Poetry and Scriptwriting, and a B in Topics of Advanced Comp. So that's a 3.75 GPA this semester, which is way better than I was expecting. Kelsey's documentary turned out well; as did this highlight video that Andrew Nichols put together of the last several seasons of RSU Theater shows.

School-Related Reading of Spring Semester

     This is a listing of school-things read this year. Classes when I can remember which was read for what. This probably isn't everything, but not everything was read cover-to-cover. So it's just textbooks and short stories, I think. I may add essays read later.

Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, by Anne Lamott

     Useful for an out-of-the-ordinary approach to thinking about writing. Pretty readable, too. Sure, the author can be a rambling weirdo, but she's from California. It gives a really great perspective of the mindset of a writer, which I tend to take for granted, but I suppose others would find novel. Fiction Writing.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, by Stephen King
Simply the best non-Elements of Style book on writing there is. And entertaining and interesting, too. Fiction Writing.

"Rip Van Winkle," by Washington Irving
     Everyone knows this story: A shiftless man(who is a terrible farmer, with a nagging wife) goes hunting in the Catskills one day, he meets some Dutch spirits bowling, and then takes a nap that lasts for twenty years. During this time, the Revolutionary War has happened and ended, and so Rip can finally fulfill his position in life, as a storyteller to the village children. Fiction Writing.

"The Story of an Hour," by Kate Chopin

     A woman named Louise, who suffers from a heart condition, learns that her husband has been killed in a railway accident, and excitedly ponders the future as a free woman, wondering what that "freedom" means. Then her supposedly-dead husband walks through the front door, giving her a fatal heart attack. Fiction Writing.

"A White Heron," by Sarah Orne Jewett

     A yougn girl named Sylvy, painfully shy, lives with her poor grandmother in the rural part of Maine. One day a handsome bird-hunter comes looking for a white heron to add to his collection, and Sylvy struggles with whether she should tell him the location of a white heron she knows about. He's offering a reward, after all, and they could certainly use the money. But there are much more vital things in this world than money.
 Fiction Writing

"Roman Fever," by Edith Wharton

     This story is just dying to have been made into a 1950's movie starring Cary Grant. 

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, by Stephen King

     The best book on writing that I've ever read. (Sure, Stephen King isn't the greatest writing in terms of quality or content, but he knows what he's talking about. And some of his stuff is pretty good.) Fiction Writing.

Playwriting Brief and Brilliant, by Julie Jensen

     The Elements of Style as approached from the angle of a playwright. Scriptwriting.

Tales From Tent City, by Brian James Polak (2014)

     This is the script of the play RSU Theater performed during the spring semester; it follows a group of teenagers living on the street; sort like a homeless Breakfast Club. Examined closely in Scriptwriting for work on the formatting of play scripts.

"A Rose for Emily," by William Faulkner
A portrait of a very peculiar old woman. I would really like Faulkner, I think, if I had the patience to actually get through most of his work. (His tone is great, and the characters seem really good, it's just that he rambles too much to pay attention to.) Fiction Writing.

"The Man Who Was Almost a Man," by Richard Wright
An irresponsible black teenager shoots his boss's mule with a new pistol he bought, then runs away from the consequences by becoming a hobo. Fiction Writing.

"The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson
I have no idea what this story is about, which really surprised Dr. Mackie, since I can usually dig through subtext and read between the lines better than most. But the plot follows members of a small rural community one June 27th, where they hold the lottery of seeing who of their number must be stoned. Then they proceed to stone a housewife. It's a rather horrible story, made even worse (and more confounding) due to the conversational, easily-read tone and diction. Fiction Writing.

How NOT To Write a Screenplay, by Denny Martin Flinn
     Numerous examples of what to avoid when writing a screenplay. Scriptwriting.

Western Wind: An Introduction to Poetry, by David Mason and John Frederick Nims
     This is a very thorough overview of poetic forms, though it's a little skimpy of going into the details of what most of these definitions mean. Studies in Poetry.

"The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas," by Ursula K. Le Guin
     In a perfect society, without harm or distress of any kind, is it worth living in, if you know that someone, somewhere, is suffering all the torment and agony of the whole city? And especially if you know that sufferer is a child? Fiction Writing

Lament for a Son, by Nicholas Wolterstorff (1987)
     A man tries to deal with his grief after his son dies in a mountain-climbing accident. Comparative Religion.

A Grief Observed, by C.S. Lewis (1961)
     A self-edited version of notebooks he kept after his wife died of cancer; lots of hard, honest questions for God, for himself and for the world in general. Comparative Religion.

Night, by Elie Wiesel (1960)
     A very bitter account of time spent in a concentration camp, from the perspective of a spoiled rich Jewish teenager. True, life was quite likely horrible, but even so, this is unnecessarily harsh and ungrateful. Comparative Religion.

Invitation to World Religions, by Jeffrey Brodd, et al. (2013)
     A very logically-laid-out textbook on the study of world religions, which seem entirely outside the sphere of academic study, due to their inherent and unconquerable subjectivity. Comparative Religion.

School-Related Reading of Spring Semester

     This is a listing of school-things read this year. Classes when I can remember which was read for what. This probably isn't everything, but not everything was read cover-to-cover. So it's just textbooks and short stories, I think. I may add essays read later.

Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, by Anne Lamott

     Useful for an out-of-the-ordinary approach to thinking about writing. Pretty readable, too. Sure, the author can be a rambling weirdo, but she's from California. It gives a really great perspective of the mindset of a writer, which I tend to take for granted, but I suppose others would find novel. Fiction Writing.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, by Stephen King
Simply the best non-Elements of Style book on writing there is. And entertaining and interesting, too. Fiction Writing.

"Rip Van Winkle," by Washington Irving
     Everyone knows this story: A shiftless man(who is a terrible farmer, with a nagging wife) goes hunting in the Catskills one day, he meets some Dutch spirits bowling, and then takes a nap that lasts for twenty years. During this time, the Revolutionary War has happened and ended, and so Rip can finally fulfill his position in life, as a storyteller to the village children. Fiction Writing.

"The Story of an Hour," by Kate Chopin

     A woman named Louise, who suffers from a heart condition, learns that her husband has been killed in a railway accident, and excitedly ponders the future as a free woman, wondering what that "freedom" means. Then her supposedly-dead husband walks through the front door, giving her a fatal heart attack. Fiction Writing.

"A White Heron," by Sarah Orne Jewett

     A yougn girl named Sylvy, painfully shy, lives with her poor grandmother in the rural part of Maine. One day a handsome bird-hunter comes looking for a white heron to add to his collection, and Sylvy struggles with whether she should tell him the location of a white heron she knows about. He's offering a reward, after all, and they could certainly use the money. But there are much more vital things in this world than money.
 Fiction Writing

"Roman Fever," by Edith Wharton

     This story is just dying to have been made into a 1950's movie starring Cary Grant. 

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, by Stephen King

     The best book on writing that I've ever read. (Sure, Stephen King isn't the greatest writing in terms of quality or content, but he knows what he's talking about. And some of his stuff is pretty good.) Fiction Writing.

Playwriting Brief and Brilliant, by Julie Jensen

     The Elements of Style as approached from the angle of a playwright. Scriptwriting.

Tales From Tent City, by Brian James Polak (2014)

     This is the script of the play RSU Theater performed during the spring semester; it follows a group of teenagers living on the street; sort like a homeless Breakfast Club. Examined closely in Scriptwriting for work on the formatting of play scripts.

"A Rose for Emily," by William Faulkner
A portrait of a very peculiar old woman. I would really like Faulkner, I think, if I had the patience to actually get through most of his work. (His tone is great, and the characters seem really good, it's just that he rambles too much to pay attention to.) Fiction Writing.

"The Man Who Was Almost a Man," by Richard Wright
An irresponsible black teenager shoots his boss's mule with a new pistol he bought, then runs away from the consequences by becoming a hobo. Fiction Writing.

"The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson
I have no idea what this story is about, which really surprised Dr. Mackie, since I can usually dig through subtext and read between the lines better than most. But the plot follows members of a small rural community one June 27th, where they hold the lottery of seeing who of their number must be stoned. Then they proceed to stone a housewife. It's a rather horrible story, made even worse (and more confounding) due to the conversational, easily-read tone and diction. Fiction Writing.

How NOT To Write a Screenplay, by Denny Martin Flinn
     Numerous examples of what to avoid when writing a screenplay. Scriptwriting.

Western Wind: An Introduction to Poetry, by David Mason and John Frederick Nims
     This is a very thorough overview of poetic forms, though it's a little skimpy of going into the details of what most of these definitions mean. Studies in Poetry.

"The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas," by Ursula K. Le Guin
     In a perfect society, without harm or distress of any kind, is it worth living in, if you know that someone, somewhere, is suffering all the torment and agony of the whole city? And especially if you know that sufferer is a child? Fiction Writing

Lament for a Son, by Nicholas Wolterstorff (1987)
     A man tries to deal with his grief after his son dies in a mountain-climbing accident. Comparative Religion.

A Grief Observed, by C.S. Lewis (1961)
     A self-edited version of notebooks he kept after his wife died of cancer; lots of hard, honest questions for God, for himself and for the world in general. Comparative Religion.

Night, by Elie Wiesel (1960)
     A very bitter account of time spent in a concentration camp, from the perspective of a spoiled rich Jewish teenager. True, life was quite likely horrible, but even so, this is unnecessarily harsh and ungrateful. Comparative Religion.

Invitation to World Religions, by Jeffrey Brodd, et al. (2013)
     A very logically-laid-out textbook on the study of world religions, which seem entirely outside the sphere of academic study, due to their inherent and unconquerable subjectivity. Comparative Religion.

Overheard in the Classroom - Part Two

     The second "Overheard in the Classroom" post, this time dealing with the spring 2016 semester at Rogers State University.

     1-12-16, Topics of Advanced Composition
     Dr. Dial-Driver - "....my daughter's kids live in a two-story house - there ought to be a law against two-story houses...."

     1-12-16, Studies in Poetry
     Since almost everyone from fall's Poetry Writing was back for Studies in Poetry, someone mentioned McKenzie's phrase "It's cool to learn shit!" as a sort of motto for the course. This got a good laugh.

     1-12-16, Scriptwriting
     We were supposed to write nine adjectives on a slip of paper, pass it to someone else, who would write nine more adjectives before passing it to someone else, who wrote down nine nouns. Then we selected one word from each set to finish the sentence "My life as a..." and explain the metaphor. Answers included "panicked, tormented airplane" (from Eric), "open cluttered notebook" (from Lauren, my favorite of these descriptions) and "furious, thoughtful tornado" (me). Jalexa wrote down "twinkling blasphemous supervolcano," which caused Dr. Blakely to frown, chuckle and say, "What is that? A Disney volcano with glitter? I don't know....and if it's blasphemous, then it maybe looks like a penis."

     1-14-16, Studies in Poetry
     "I didn't know the name." - Cody. "Well, his middle name wasn't Batman, so, no, you wouldn't!" Dr. Mackie snaps. (Eruption of giggles from the rest of us who had to endure his Batman fixation all last semester.)
     After a peculiar guy named Eric reads his latest poem, there's a stunned silence. "Well. That was depressing," Dr. Mackie finally says.
     "Did I hear you right, that you just used 'cucumber' in a poem?!" - Dr. Mackie to somebody.
     Catee refers to herself as "devious and sneaky." That got a laugh.
     "Did you really use 'trailer park'?" Dr. Mackie asks me after I finish reading my poem focusing on imagery(because that was the day's assignment.) "Well, there's so many poems about aardvarks...." Jeff says.
     "Maybe the theater smells like a book in a fish tank." - Jalexa, during a discussion of how weird the auditorium is. (It's not anywhere near as bad as people say.)

     1-19-16, Studies in Poetry
     Today's assignment - reference a song of our generation in a poem, where audiences can catch the allusion easily. After the third guy in a row(Alex) picks "All Star" by Smashmouth, Dr. Mackie asks him, "Why was this the only song you could think of? You're a musician!"
     "So many times I have no idea what you're talking about," Dr. Mackie says to Brandon after the latest poem. (Lots of us nod in agreement.)
     "You haven't let go of Whitman yet, have you?" Dr. Mackie asks Jeff after we hear his latest poem. (More chuckling from the rest of us who were in Poetry Writing last fall.)

     1-19-16, Scriptwriting
     Today's assignment is to create a character and write a monologue for him/her based solely off a row of hats. I created Alphonso the Graduation Cap, who complained about the state of public education today and the lack of Latin being taught.
     Anyway, Dr. Blakely was wearing a Medea mask when he walked in, which surprised us somewhat. He had us guess what it was for before explaining, I took a stab at IDing this role: "You're a....pelican?"

     1-21-16, Topics
     During one of Dr. Dial-Driver's stories, she got to talking about how she was fired from a waitressing job in high school because she dumped coffee on a guy who was harassing her. That seems like a great reaction worth getting fired for.

     1-21-16, Studies in Poetry
     "I never see you without your Diet Coke," Dr. Mackie says to me.

     1-21-16, Scriptwriting
     "I lost my title page in an hour and a half." - Eric, talking about his script.
     Archer, reading Eric's script - "I was one of your key detonators! I mean, donators."

     1-23-16, Topics
     The class was talking about how Oklahoma doesn't fit anywhere, since it seems to be right in the middle of everything happening around the country. Dr. Dial-Driver - "Yeah, well, in the southwest part of the state, where I grew up, there's nothing there between you and God except a barbed-wire fence."

     1-26-16, Studies in Poetry
     Today provided many, many entertaining quotes, as this class was even more bizarre than normal.
     Eric, on drugs for some kind of infection, was rambling on about something, Dr. Mackie interrupts: "You're on drugs! STOP talking!"
    "I just wanna get my BB gun and shoot people in the ass when they say, 'I love winter!'" Dr. Mackie grumbles.
     "How am I supposed to teach iambic pentameter to a bunch of people who can't even agree on pronouncing 'cement'?!!!" Dr. Mackie wails. (She couldn't. Only about three people could understand it out of the fifteen of us in the class. We all tried really hard, though, but there is much gnashing of teeth and hiding whenever the term "iambic pentameter" comes up ever after.)
     Brandon's observation poem came from The Phantom Tollbooth, parking lot problems were griped about, people did Yogi Bear impressions, and Zach wrote about his puppy Gruber. "I don't know how puppies think," he says in closing.
     "Did you just say 'shark race'?" Cody asks. (No, Zach didn't.) Me and Lauren immediately pounce on this as a good scene to use later in some kind of project, though no one can figure out how exactly a shark race would work.
     "Geese hate everyone. They're assholes," Catee states matter-of-factly. This starts a large discussion of how awful geese are, particularly the ones which live on campus. Near the end of it, Dr. Mackie mutters in amusement, "What'd you talk about in class today? We talked about geese shit."
     "I think my cat was a serial killer," Jeff says calmly.

     1-28-16, Studies in Poetry
     Since we all know how much Dr. Mackie detests Leonardo DiCaprio's acting, Jeff tries to encourage her to see The Revenant with "He gets mauled by a bear!"
     "It's titled 'To my Daughter.' It's a crush poem," Brian says. "Awww...." is the reaction of everyone else. After he's finished reading it - "Wait. That bastard who?" Dr. Mackie. "Elmo," he answers.
     "I come off as a bitter nerd in this, but I don't care," Jeff says in preamble to reading his latest work. None of us did too well with utilizing understatement and hyperbole.
     "'Kitchen Floor, Why Won't You Stay Dry?' is the title." - Donna. (Approving laughter from the rest of us.) "Don't you dare say you hate this title, Cody! It's a great title!" - Dr. Mackie.
     McKenzie wrote a poem snarling at the never-ceasing fire alarms in UV-B. It was great!
      "Have you read all of Finnegan's Wake? And why?" Dr. Mackie asks Brandon. (Much complaining and howling about Joyce occurs here.)
     "I wonder if anyone has ever written an ode to crawfish before...." Dr. Mackie says in response to Catee's poem.

     2-2-16, Studies in Poetry
     I wrote this in my notebook: "You know you're bored when you intensively scrutinize your fingernails." Also, apparently someone wrote a novel called I Got an Alligator for a Pet entirely in iambic pentameter, for some awful reason.
     "There's a hairbrush stuck in the wall partition," Catee reported for general edification. (Apparently she was bored, too.)
     There were the first of many, many political rants that ate up most of class time....although Jeff and Dr. Mackie were insulting each other about Leonardo DiCaprio in iambic pentameter. That was funny.
     "Does anyone else think of pet food whenever we say 'iambs'?" Dr. Mackie asks.

     2-4-16, Studies in Poetry
     While discussing whether songs could be considered poetry(a debate that never got finished by semester's end), someone mentions this amazing remixed cover of "Call Me Maybe" by Jenny Owen Young.

     2-9-16, Studies in Poetry
     There was a quiz today, and the creepy unnatural silence and formal solemnity in the room before it started was hilarious.
     "You have a very strange relationship with your Xbox," was Dr. Mackie's pronouncement after Cole reads his poem about his N64.
     "My emotional range can fit in a teaspoon," McKenzie says. I think that's a Harry Potter quote, but it was still hilarious.

     2-11-16, Studies in Poetry
     "No, I thought we were supposed to write about vocab words...." Zach tries to explain his poem, which completely missed the point of that day's assignment. (It was a great poem, though.)
     Dr. Mackie: "Wow. Moral of the story - Don't play saxophone. You'll die. Good thing my daughter switched to oboe."
     After we try fruitlessly to dig some kind of meaning out of Donna's poem, which makes no sense whatsoever, she says, "...Yeah, I don't get it, either." More silence, then Dr. Mackie says, "It was a very strange marriage between Harry Potter and The Lion King."

     2-26-16, Studies in Poetry
     After finishing reading his very sappy love poem, a stoical guy named Alex says, "I think I must be a maiden in love." Everyone snorts. "It's not bad, it's just - so light and fluffy. I want to gag." "It gave me diabetes," Eric comments.
     Cody is explaining that his coworkers decided to call him "Dick," as in "Grayson"(Robin), due to his obsession with Batman. "Are you sure that was their explanation for it?" Brian asks blandly, sending the rest of us snickering.

     2-26-16, Topics
     "Negatively perky. That's me in a nutshell." - Madison.

     2-18-16, Studies in Poetry
     Everyone gushed about how much they loved the Berenstain Bears before class. That was awesome.
     "Yeah, 'dumbass' is a term of endearment." - Dr. Mackie to Cody.
     I wrote a sestina for Parks and Rec fans that was one long inside joke after another, as it was delivered deadpan by Ron Swanson. After some of us quickly explained the joke to Dr. Mackie, it got lots of praise from everyone, and Dr. Mackie even shared it around the English department.

     2-23-16, Topics
     For some reason we get to talking about The Wizard of Oz today. Dr. Dial-Driver - "In the book, he gives the Scarecrow needles and pins for brains." Why, Sage asks, as she is one of the handful who hadn't read the book before. "Because they're sharp," DD answers.

     3-1-16, Topics
     Today's random topic was child pornography....it was one of those classes everyone bolts out the door as quickly as possible. Unrelated to that discussion, there was this quotable quote: "I don't get on my phone very often in public. Like, unless something weird happens, like a phone call." - Zach.

     3-1-16, Studies in Poetry
     "It's too songy, and less poey," Eric tries to clarify what was off with Catee's latest poem.

     3-1-16, Scriptwriting
     After we finish reading Eric's latest script about a humorous street fight: "Has anyone here actually been in a fight? Cause I haven't." - Dr. Blakely.

     3-3-16, Studies in Poetry
     Because it was iambic pentameter, we all kinda failed an assignment to write in blank verse. So we cheered ourselves up by teasing Dr. Mackie about her New England accent. Also, apparently "smile" and "poem" are both one syllable, but "fire" is two?! None of us could figure that one out.

     3-23-16, Tales From Tent City
     While rehearsing Tent City in the basement due to the auditorium showing a movie tonight, we had to improvise a little bit, and keep the sound down a lot. Zach races through one of his character's songs, which is the bridge between scenes. So I zone out, since I had been offstage for quite a while, and I miss my cue. Eventually Autumn and Zach wake me up, so I spin around on the piano bench I'd been sitting on, not quite all there yet:
     "Is it morning?" "Yeah, it's morning." I then deliver my line: "Doughnuts!"
     "Wrong morning!" Charli, Zach's girlfriend and the stage manager, snaps. (The actual line was "Do you ever sleep?", but I mixed those scenes up.)

     3-24-16, Studies in Poetry
     Today's random conversations included horror movies and being scared of the dark.

     3-29-16, Topics
     Jeff described a civil war that he was involved in during elementary school. Apparently it started because the first- and second-graders disagreed over Santa's existence. The first-graders believed in him, the second-graders didn't. I loved this idea, so I scrawled it down for safekeeping.

    3-29-16, Studies in Poetry
    My playing Brad Paisley's "Mr. Policeman" as an example of poetic elements within songs got an entertaining discussion started. Taxes and tornadoes were also "subjects of general interest," to quote from Cheaper by the Dozen. 
     "You can always tell a Wesley poem," Dr. Mackie muses, and everyone else agrees. (Not sure what sets mine apart, but okay....)
     "Did Eric write that?" Lauren laughs after Cody reads a poem about zombies.
     "Wait, he's depressing-" Dr. Mackie changes her mind on who should read next. "Actually it's more existential," Brandon tries to defend himself. "You mean it's a Brandon poem?" Dr. Mackei shoots back, much to the amusement of the class.

     4-7-16, Tales From Tent City
     While getting set for Tent City to open on the first night of shows, Kessiah says randomly, "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened." Me, not paying much attention: "Was that a euphenism?" "No, it says so right on that wall. See?" Slight pause, then she snorts. "I can see how you would think that, though, it being me...but no, my Chamber of Secrets has not been opened!"

     4-12-16, Studies in Poetry
     Cody wrote a poem about the movie There's Something About Mary, so we were grateful it wasn't another Batman poem. Jeff does tease him, though, since someone has to, saying, "Pick better movies..." Dr. Mackie frowns at him - "You know I could stand up and smack you, right?" "Don't. Please?"
    Catee's poem for today included the phrase "nurses' baffled hurrumphs." I had to scribble that down in the margins of my notebook.
     Unrelated to earlier conversation about Cody's poem, Dr. Mackie randomly turns to Jeff and asks, "Did you just growl?"

     4-12-16, Scriptwriting
     Once the OU theater department was putting on a play, which was interrupted by a tornado. So after hustling everyone to the shelter, they finished the play there, improvising the props necessary. How awesome!

    4-14-16, Topics
    Dr. Dial-Driver plunks a package of Oreos on her desk when she comes into the classroom, apparently so she and her husband won't eat them all up. "Have a cookie," she says, sounding exactly like May from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 
     After Zach's phone rings, since he forgot to silence it: Dr. Dial-Driver says "I thought we didn't allow phone calls in here. I left mine in the other room[her office] so my sister can't say something weird." She then describes the weird texts her sister sends her on a regular basis. (And yes, they do sound strange.)

    4-14-16, Studies in Poetry
    Cole wrote a mock-Frost poem about Cody and his tendency to write about Batman all the time, which was met with much general acclaim. Cody literally wrote about diarrhea. (Everyone hated that one.) "You really are 11," Dr. Mackie sighed at him in disgust.

     4-19-16, Scriptwriting
     "I'm trying not to spit on Archer," Eric interrupts one of his lines as a lisping snake. Archer, sitting next to him: "IT'S NOT WORKING!"
     A frizzy-haired blonde girl(no one ever learned her name, maybe it was Jenna) enters the room a half hour late. "Sorry. I was hung over." More blank stares. "But I'm better now." "Oh. Okay," Dr. Blakely answers for the rest of us. "Glad you could make it."

     4-21-16, Studies in Poetry
     Another set of sestinas has just been assigned, and reminders have been given that they lend themselves well to narratives. "I did that narrative in the attic-" Cody begins to say, before getting interrupted by Lauren's joy-filled "I liked that one!!!" "Thank you-" "No, I meant the sestinas!" An eruption of laughter followed.

    4-26-16, Studies in Poetry
    Zach asked Charli for endwords for his sestina. She gave him the following: ocean, girlfriend, sprinkler, butt, cupcake and fall. He managed to turn into something halfway understandable.
    "Did you say your dog was driving?" Zach asks Lauren. this led to stories of dogs pooping in places they shouldn't.
     "I had a nightmare last night I made the final where you all wrote a sonnet," Dr. Mackie says while dismissing us. Someone agrees that that would be a nightmare, as we howl in appropriate panic. "I know, that's why I'm glad it was just a dream!"

Nearly the End of Another Semester

     For most of last week, it seems like not much has gone quite right. Much too exhausted to be productive, but far too stressed to relax and rest. Frequently waking up during the night, turning sleep into a loose collection of half-hour episodes(typically featuring strange intense and instantly-forgotten dreams).

     American Idol is no more. That really hasn't set it just yet. Trent won, beating La'Porsha, Dalton finished third, Mackenzie fourth and Sonika fifth.

    Tales From Tent City turned out pretty well; the first night of the first weekend was a little rough, Friday night went spectacularly well, and Saturday night was a bit of a mixed bag. I completely forgot a line during the end of a key scene, but thankfully "Fine," if huffed in frustration, works well when ad-libbing at moving the scene along. Kessiah just ran with it and we finished the scene without trouble. What audience there has been have really liked it a lot; but there wasn't been that many IN the audience.14 people on Thursday, 23 on Friday and 13 on Saturday. We think the entire audience opening night was composed of friends-and-relations.
    I wrote a promo piece to generate some interest, which I think worked pretty well. It's gotten 188 pageviews, at least, which for such a small local production isn't too bad. Maybe that played some role in the second weekend's audiences, which were (by Keirstine's count) 40-plus on Thursday, 35-plus on Friday, and 40-plus on Saturday. That second Thursday something was a little off chemistry-wise we couldn't figure out, but things improved the next night, and though I felt I did terribly on Saturday, overall it went well. In eight weeks, we went from reading the script to putting on the world premiere of that show, which is pretty amazing.
     Crick was a very interesting character to play, but he was also an exhausting one. But I think the play overall really stuck with people, so that's what we were hoping for. The cast was easy to work with; I heard somebody report that the makeup artist said she'd never seen a cast working that well together the week before showtime. Everyone went over to Zach and Charli's apartment after the show on Saturday, Autumn and I being assigned a Reasor's stop for Coke and Dr. Pepper on the way over. Then we all played with their dogs Piper and Gruber/"Ranger" and watched the Tobey Maguire movie Cats and Dogs, which I had always wanted to see ever since it came out when I was eight. (I liked it as much as I thought I would.)

     Friday morning I got this email from a girl named Kelsey I'd had a couple classes with before, asking if I'd help with filming a student profile that was part of the final project for Mr. Williams' documentary class. So we did that interview Monday afternoon, and it went pretty well, though it was strange to be on the lens-end of the camera.
     Also got tired of people asking when I was gonna get a haircut, so I walked down to Supercuts and got a haircut Monday morning, which I'm not too thrilled with, but then again I dislike haircuts in general.

     The weather has been extremely rainy, which has been kind of nice. Good weather to walk through. There was a Claremore-Pryor girls' high school soccer game at the field last night, so I watched the first half and listened to the parents talk amongst themselves. (Claremore was leading 4-0 by halftime, and it was a pretty dirty game.) Then I went to the Chi Alpha meeting, which was fine.
     Last night's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was another great (and very big) episode, as all three season's 17th episode have been, come to think of it. Things are coming full circle that started at the very beginning of the series, which makes me wonder what storylines will be explored in season 4. It's roughly two weeks until Captain America: Civil War, so that's pretty exciting.

Infinity Dreams Award

     Just gonna be honest: I have no idea what "Infinity Dreams" are. (But it sounds like it would be the title of an Owl City song, which is a good thing.) Anyway, Susan tagged me in this, which is kind of a blog-based version of those Facebook-chain-notes that were so popular in high school. Because, as always, there is a handful of rules which must be adhered to in things like these, they are:
A - That banner photo must be used. (It is a nice picture.)
B - Thank the blogger who tagged you. (Makes sense. Just out of common courtesy. Thanks Susan!)
C - Tell 11 facts about yourself. (Unless your name is Ron Swanson. My name is not, so I shall find facts to tell about myself.)
D - Answer the 11 questions asked of you.
E - Tag 11 other bloggers. (If possible. I can't think of anyone.)

FUN FACTS ABOUT WESLEY
I can quote the entire script of The Princess Bride from memory.

After NSU BCM friends talked me into watching Parks and Recreation occasionally, I watched season 7 as it was airing, and then turned around and blazed through all seven seasons in six weeks last spring. (And then I began again, tracking the best quotes and quips. Currently at the beginning of season 4 with this massive project.)

I cannot drive due to bad eyesight, as I am blind in my right eye, very nearsighted, and have basically no depth perception or night vision. That can make life interesting.

I've never seen The Lion King all the way through.

Two of my screen crushes as a kid were Belle (from Beauty and the Beast) and Space Jam's Lola Bunny.
Speaking of Space Jam, I will still dance like a maniac if I hear the soundtrack playing.

Dogs and cats are usually much easier to talk with than people are. Also, I have a completely irrational fear of cows. They're almost as scary as dinosaurs.

I once gave an end-of-semester PowerPoint presentation on "The Art of Making Peanut Butter Sandwiches" for my basic computers gen ed, which received a perfect score.

If milk is even close to its expiration date, I'm not drinking it.

I have nine toenails.

I love cleaning. (Just call me Danny Tanner.)

Hunting has never had any appeal for me. I understand that it's sometimes necessary, but it's just not for me. It sounds unpleasant, tromping around in the cold darkness for hours while waiting for a target to show up. I think this comes in large part from loving The Fox and the Hound so much. (Highly-underrated Disney classic.)

NOW FOR THE QUESTIONS
What is your favorite time of the day?
     I can be highly productive between 10 p.m.- 2 a.m., and also late mornings. So I guess those would be my favorite times of day....I can't remember ever actually thinking about this question, so I'm not sure how to answer it.

What is your favorite book genre?
     I really enjoy cozy mysteries. I also like regionalist writers, I've discovered, and I've always pretty much loved work set in small towns, in addition to plots that are very character-driven. I'm not sure any of those is exactly a genre(since I'm terrible at identifying them) but I'll try just about anything. 

What song gets you super motivated to accomplish anything?
     There are a lot of motivating songs. But one of the best is the theme song from Hoosiers. Also the theme song from the Air Bud series, that's good, too.

If money was not an issue, what is the first thing you would do?
     That's a good question. I'm not sure. Maybe go exploring all over the country if I could find some people who wanted to take a cross-country trip for no reason. It seems like it would generate good material for a novel; in addition to being useful from a travelogue-writing perspective and interesting from an adventuring and prowling-through-history standpoint. 

Do you know any scary stories?
     I suppose so...let's see. 
     "Once upon a time - it may have been a dark and stormy night - there was a four-year-old little boy who watched Jurassic Park for some unfathomable reason. He was haunted by nightmares of being ripped apart by raptors for a year afterwards, and  he lived in mortal fear of dinosaurs in general ever since. Eventually, he forced himself to watch it again one day his sophomore year of college, and found just as alarming, though he did applaud the way the story was told, and the mechanics of the movie."

Do you know any puns/jokes?
     Of course. But since there isn't anything to build puns off of from the phrasing of this question, I'm at a loss what to use. 

Should you be doing something else right now instead of writing a blog post?
     Of course I should. I ought to be working on an essay, rewriting another, and revising a handful of short stories and a play-script. Instead I'm thinking of taking a nap on this stormy Sunday afternoon.

What is your favorite color and why?
     Blue, green and orange have always been my favorite colors. I'm not really sure why. Orange is likely because I grew up in an OSU household. And there's a lot of good shades of blue and green, from darker shades like the navy blue of RSU to the dark green of NSU. On a much happier note, there are also lighter shades like sky blue or lime green. 

Have you ever been on stage? If so, what was it like? If not, would you like to be?
     Let's see....first define what's meant by "on stage." Okay, assuming it doesn't mean the musicals and short plays from middle school/early high school, or youth group semi-scripted murder mysteries. And readings of Shakespeare are just readings, though a really fun way to pass the time. 
     There was the NSU BCM drama ministry of SWAT, of course. Those times hanging out/rehearsing with everybody down in the basement or the living room are easily my favorite part of college. Coffee runs late at night with Elizabeth, Susan and Jacob. Even those times like when we nearly died looking for nonexistent churches in sketchy Sallisaw neighborhoods. And First Baptist-Tahlequah did have an actual stage, because we teased Elizabeth about how excited she was gushing about it once we got there. Park Hill was pretty nice, too. (As the archivist of the team, I made sure to upload videos to YouTube when we remembered to shoot them. They can be found here.) 
     Used in the sense of an actual full-length theater production? Yes, actually. The RSU Theater Program just wrapped up their spring '16 show Tales From Tent City, which was a complicated, emotional, ensemble piece about homeless teenagers, where I played the role of Crick, who was a dog-loving scrounger/thief with anxiety issues. It was a bit like if The Breakfast Club took place on the streets, with the group dynamics of the crew from Firefly. I wrote a promo piece to generate interest in the show for my other blog, You Keep Using That Word. 
     The role of Crick was very challenging to play in some ways, because this play had never been produced anywhere before us, so we were originating the roles simply from the script. But it was a good experience, though very tiring, it was worth it. The cast was enjoyable to work with, and we all got along pretty well. Part of my costume was a denim jacket, which was really cool, as I've always loved those. One of the things that was difficult once we actually got to production was not washing my hair for two weeks, since we were homeless. Another semi-entertaining fact, just because it's so strange: One of the major selling points that was used for advertising around the English and Comm departments was "Come see Wes drop F-bombs all over the place!" 

If you had magical powers, what would they be?
     Hmm. I've always thought invisibility would be cool, but teleportation would be the most useful. 

Are you an artist?
     Hahahahaha.....NOPE. Though Courtney and Trevor can both draw really well, so maybe if I had a chance to really practice I could. This is actually the second time in 24 hours that I've been asked this. I definitely admire those who can, like I admire those who can play piano or fiddle really well.  

Tornado Season

     Tornado season is upon us, which means that it's officially springtime in Oklahoma. There were around four tornadoes that hit Claremore last night; a church got their roof blown off and the dairy got hit. No fatalities that I know of, so that's good.

     Rehearsal for Tales From Tent City was canceled halfway through, sending everyone scurrying home. I headed over to the dining hall, when after a while everyone ran into the basement. It was crowded. I heard somebody say that Claremore was trending on Twitter for a bit because of the wind speeds. Since it's also open to the community, other people came too, some bringing their pets. That helped ease the tension somewhat. Someone brought her cat, and there was a Pomeranian/Husky mix that was very scared, but friendly. (Also, Pomskys have really soft fur.) That was actually the second dog I'd petted last night; Zach and Charli's dog Gruber was dragged along to rehearsal after surgery that afternoon. So he played "Ranger," the dog of my character Crick. Animals are very soothing and calming. It would be nice if they were allowed in the apartments, Autumn and I agreed.

     Ran into a couple people from Claremore First Baptist, a skateboarder named Justin and his RA girlfriend Elizabeth, and tagged along with them to work on cleaning the streets of the neighborhoods that got hit.  So we met up with a bunch of other people from First Baptist and cleared the streets of large-ish branches and loose shingles. Most people were waiting for the morning to take pictures for insurance, which makes sense. Everybody seemed pretty calm.

     So that was what happened last night.

Weekend Update

     The sun is shining brightly, the temp is about 70 degrees, and the wind is only about ten miles per hour(for Claremore, that's nothing.) So, it's a great spring Saturday, right? I suppose so, if you're one of the families who attended the Easter Egg hunt held on campus this morning. (I honestly had to think for a very long time before realizing the holiday all these people were celebrating was Easter.) Over being sick from whatever I had last weekend, so that's something. It's Dad's birthday, so that's good. It's also eleven years ago today that Mimi died. That could be part of the reason I've just been sort of down today. Another reason could be that I'm simply exhausted. There hasn't been that much homework, even, this week, but still....

     Rehearsal for Tales From Tent City are coming along pretty well; though we all have to polish up some lines and things like that. The set was built on Wednesday and Thursday, so that's kind of exciting. I built one of our characters' houses, and decorated another. And promo posters, both the homemade-looking teasers and the official ones, were posted all around campus. Showtime is around 7 p.m. on the weekends of April 7-9 and 14-16.

     Been working on finishing a short story for Fiction Writing due Monday. That's kept me busy most of the weekend so far. Lots of hiking around campus has been done, too. I think I've covered around fifteen miles in the last two days.

     I'm very glad today is almost over. "But tomorrow is a different day..." Maybe next week will be easier.

Spring Break 2016

     Spring break has ended. Didn't do anything out of the ordinary, so it feels a bit frustrating that way. Caleb had Trenton over, so there was a lot of cleaning the house for that. Babysat Amy some.

      Reread Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman and Robert Louis Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde, read the newest Flavia De Luce mystery(As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust, by Alan Bradley), read the first of a new Philip Gulley series(it was fine, but disappointing), a book on college from a Christian prospective by a professor(vaguely interesting), an M.M. Kaye mystery(Death in Kenya). Also started three others, but misplaced two of them. And organized alphabetically all the biographies and poetry collections, and about half the short-story collections.

     Tristan got kicked out of American Idol on Thursday, which I was very mad about. (This following Lee's exit last week, and Olivia's the week before that.) Got caught up on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. And worked on memorizing lines for the play. Also caught some kind of sickness, which wasn't fun. That's about it.

American Idol 15.15 - Top 14

     I got to watch in realtime Wednesday night! (And then I was too tired to write up a recap then, but....yeah.) So, anyway, the Top 14 performed, except for those who didn't.
     See, it's like this: The producers ruled that if the judges could agree unanimously on any contestants, they would get a free pass into the Top 10, and whoever was left would be left for America to decide. So Keith, Jennifer and Harry got together and gave Fast Passes to Olivia(Yay!), Dalton(Yay!), Treny(Yay?) and La'Porsha(ugh). So that left ten singers fighting for the final six spots. What happened after that? Read on....(totally had Steven Tyler screeching that phrase right there) to find out.

Manny Torres performed Stevie Wonder's "Master Blaster," and the best thing I can say about it was that it wasn't very challenging rangewise. Also, that rhythm seemed really choppy, so maybe that had something to do with it. But it was extremely forgettable, though he seemed to have fun.

Gianna Isabella sang Annie Lennox's "I Put a Spell On You," which was boring. She was wearing a weird outfit, I was expecting an upbeat tonal shift which never happened, and then all the high notes just seemed to be jammed in there to say "I'm YELLING!" Not a fan.

Thomas Stringfellow did One Direction's "Story of My Life," which was fine, I suppose. It had nice guitar in the background. That hat was horrible, though. Couldn't pay attention between that and his hair, which was equally bad. The teen girls in the audience loved it, by the loud squealing which could be heard.

Tristan McIntosh did Rascal Flatts's "What Hurts the Most", which was actually first done by Mark Wills. It was weird hearing a girl sing this, like when Danny Gokey did "Jesus Take the Wheel." But it worked. What I scribbled down in my notebook: "Whoa. Terrific."

First off, I was distracted during Avalon Young's performance simply because she was wearing makeup. She looks like Elaine from Seinfeld that way. She did a Chris Brown song called "Excuse Me Miss," and it was weird, but it fit Avalon. She seemed nervous, though, and it felt like karaoke-good, not last-American-Idol-good.

Jenn Blosil managed to ruin Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors." I kinda thought that was one of those which it was hard to mess up. Her voice sounded worse than nails on a chalkboard, and those glitter eyebrows were the last straw. This was all-around terrible.

Lee Jean did another Ed Sheeran song, this one called "Make It Rain." I couldn't hear the guitar, but it was another nice Lee performance.

Sonika Vaid was next. She did Celine Dion's "I Surrender," because everyone has to do that at least once every season. There's something about her eyebrows.... and this was just such a boring song.

Jeneve Rose Mitchell surprised everyone by simply singing Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" without doing anything outlandish to it. It was weird, but interesting. And a little boring, because it was so subdued. Her voice was all over the place, but the emotion was there. "Did you like that?" Harry asked Jennifer. "Well....it was fun....?" she mumbled.

MacKenzie Bourg was the last contestant of the night, and he did an original song called "Roses." That was strange. The girls in the audience loved it. He seemed nervous and mumbling, but the guitar was played well. He also stole one of Jemma Simmons' shirts. (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. reference.) 

     I voted the maximum amount for Tristan and Lee, and then for Jeneve to try to keep her on there, with a couple online votes for Avalon and MacKenzie. And then I voted the old-fashioned way, by phone, for Tristan, Lee and Jeneve.

Stories, Discernment and Homework

     This Laura Story song has been stuck in my head an especially large amount for the last couple months. It usually plays pretty often, for whatever reason, but....yeah. I'm just...exhausted. More than usual. Past the energy of complaining. Past "keep your head and keep plowing." At least that ear infection is slowly improving, that's something.

      Almost halfway through the final Harry Potter, which will be something done, at least, once it's finished. This has been an incredibly unproductive week; haven't been able to concentrate on homework at all, and haven't even written up this week's Idol recaps yet. J.K. Rowling's writing has definitely gotten better over time; it's just....something, I don't know. They're all so massively long, for one thing. (Between the seven, they cover roughly 3,600 pages and just over a million words. 1,084,170 to be Hermione-exact.) That takes a lot of energy. And like Martin Cothran wrote once in an editorial in an issue of The Classical Teacher magazine, he was quoting Madeleine L'Engle's opinion of Rowling's books: "They're nice stories, it's just....there's nothing to them." Because there isn't. So they aren't really that harmful, like a lot of people said. They're just empty. Which is much worse in some ways, because there isn't anything to ponder which could be considered worthwhile(though I have no doubt lots of academic scholarly papers and books have dissected elements.)
     I've also been watching handfuls of episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, because it was homework. That was also tiring, but for a different reason. For one thing, I had my critical observation reporter instinct on. And for another, Buffy is what turned Joss Whedon into Joss Whedon; so that was interesting from that standpoint. And they have been very well-written and engaging plotlines; though a lot of Wikipedia research has had to be done to finish the outline of blank spaces between episodes. But even if the makeup of the vampires is really awful as-only-90's-special-effects-can-be on second viewing; vampires are still scary. I mean, I appreciate that Whedon played with and mixed up all the stereotypes and historical depictions into crafting this world and everything, but the concept is incredibly uncomfortable. But as somebody who frequently tries to evaluate pop culture by Biblical principles and mesh them whenever possible, while still striving for and admiring high artistic quality, it's an interesting situation. It's one of those "some people can eat meat sacrificed to idols and others can't" deals like Paul wrote about in 1 Corinthians 8, or the folks at PluggedIn are always arguing amongst themselves about. I'll skip the Buffy section of the Whedonverse if possible, and let others appreciate all the good parts(which, of course, there are lots of).
     But the thing that makes Buffy most dangerous is that it's such a well-told story. Louis L'Amour knew this well, that well-crafted narratives can be bombs. So did G.K. Chesterton, J.R.R. Tolkien, Harper Lee and Agatha Christie, plus a lot of other dead people I can't think of right now. Stephen King knows this. When tales are engaging, with an emotional pull created by following the adventures and trials of very complex characters with a lot of depth, that creates a lot of potential energy. MacGyver would be one of the first to agree that when a bunch of highly-flammable potential energy is bottled up, things will go either very right, or very, very wrong. (Come to think of it, Peter Parker and Norman Osborn serve as good examples, too.) The main premise of "high school is hell", taken literally like it is in the show, is really interesting from a storytelling angle. Never having attended an actual high school, I can't say how accurate that is, and I would be more inclined to say that college is. But apparently Buffy had quite a bit of trouble with that, too. Anyway, for me, the dark side of Buffy is too strong to think it very safe to be around.
     The Harry Potter books contain a lot of magical elements, too, but they strike me as harmless because they are first and foremost not well written enough to pose a danger. The later books have progressed far enough for me to shrug and say, "Huh. That was fine, I guess," and forget most of what happened almost immediately, but the early ones made me angry they were so bad; the fierce kind where I wanted to fire the book as hard as I could into the wall and cry in frustration at society in general for turning these into basically the biggest book series ever.

     Fuller House premiered on Netflix Friday; and they managed to match the tone perfectly. That's pretty amazing. And it doesn't help if you're one of those strange people who dislike Full House, but if you're a fan it's been awesome to see how the Tanners are doing nowadays. And as sitcoms, they both fill a much different niche of the storytelling spectrum; so the goals and expectations are different. Because the world needs more sitcoms which are actually funny, and because the main goal was to literally recapture Full House if possible, Fuller House is a success. (Especially when thrown into contrast with all those other Netflix shows....they are dark. Have mercy.)

     So now I'll get to work on those Idol recaps and then head back to doing homework.