I'm going to try and finish up that damn list soon-ish, but given my current schooling situation, I'm finding it a bit hard to write a semi "professional" (haha) article. Though things should cool down a bit later this week, so hopefully Thursday and Friday/Saturday will lead me in the direction of articles #2 and #1. Until then, though, it's just emo blog-boy back on the scene.

School has been kind of a painful mistress lately. And not just any painful mistress, no sir, we're talking like a body-building dominatrix mistress here; we're talking top of the line temptress of torture and pain. And, while I speak only words about how painful it is, I must now speak the joy and happiness which this pain imparts upon my mind and soul. My classes, three of the four anyway, are simply the bestest I've ever had. My Spanish 102 class is the bright sunshine of my day, filling me with happiness and ecstasy which only a low-level Spanish course could (though, to be honest, it's not quite as fun as last semester, but that's just emotional semantics, really) -- and the eye candy helps too. And then I have an English class devoted entirely to the study of quality Science Fiction books (War of the Worlds, Frankenstein, and such); the class professor is also one of the most entertaining and intelligent teachers I've ever had. Watching that man go seamlessly from common English word to its far origins in Latin, Italian, Spanish, Hebrew, etc. is, to say the least, frightening. There's also my Literature from 1660-1860 class which, although has an amazing professor, has some of the most difficult reading I've ever been assigned. I mean, I've read programming books that were easier to read than some of this stuff.

And then, of course, there's my new Creative Writing class, which is only once a week (sadface) for a nice three-hour chunk of time. It's still an ubertacularly incredible class, though. There are a lot of fun readings, being "forced" to write two-three pages of fiction a week, and so on. This brings me to the point I've been slowly been working my way up to making, which is to say that I now have a four page "introduction" for a new book-thing which I have, thus far, titled Paradise. A lot of fun murders, psychologically disturbed main characters, religious overtones, and everything else I'm generally known for in my writing; however, this time I'm going to be changing things up a bit since I'm aiming for an unusually ambitious project for the story. All of my normally disturbing tales will now be taking place in a post-nuclear "fallout community" of roughly three thousand residents which, brace yourself, is titled "Paradise" (Providence five miles ahead, obviously). There are going to be a number of other such "communities" throughout the country/world, all with equally hopeful names but, really, who gives a frick about them? Also, I may actually decide to add in some kind of love interest into this one, which is something I've generally omitted from any of my recent "serious" stuff. All... Two or three of them. Yes, versatile is the name of my game.

Now then, here's the five page introduction (1.5 line spacing, yayforme) to Paradise, which may have very little to do with the actual storyline, but it's here for a reason, and we'll all find out what its purpose is. Together... Wow, yeah, that sounded pretty bad. And, as a final stall before I give the link, I'll warn you that it fairly graphic towards the end, and the language, although mild for me, is still enough for a "risque" PG-13 movie. Now, here it is (the general link, anyway) in DOC and PDF form. I'll continually update the general directory whenever something new comes along, as well as posting the update in some form in an entry. I'm also keeping a fairly titanic notebook around me which I continually add and jot down little sketches and notes for whenever I get an idea. If you have any feedback, just leave a comment here, or e-mail me at your discretion.

It feels so odd to be taking a full course load, slightly more than the twelve "full-time" credits that I'm used to, but aside from the increased work load, I've been managing to keep myself fairly well occupied. I run a couple miles on the outdoor track behind our nearest gym, while also doing some fairly minimal lifting afterwards, and I've been doing a pretty good job of "eating healthy" as well. So I'm just proud on all ends of that whole thing; although I am slightly mystified as to how I've almost worked my way back down to 160lbs, which is near to, if not meeting, the lowest weight I've ever been since I hit six foot. So, yeah, that's just all sorts of special. Most importantly to me, though, is just how... "Therapeutic" it has been. If the situation occurs where I feel the need to lash out violently at people with spiked whips, I'll just go for a nice run and I'll come back lovingly embracing the world in one big hug. It's good fun, to be sure.

And I think that's just about it for tonight. I'll enjoy me some more War of the Worlds before I smeep.