So as I said, I've registered www.mamohanraj.com. I'm in the process of learning how to move everything over there (I found an ISP, pair.com, that looks like it'll work well (and cheaply) for web hosting; it doesn't do dial-up, but I don't need that). Lots of reminding myself of arcane unix compands (like tar -cvf). Lots of help from Jed and Kevin. I think I have it down now, so I'm just waiting for pair to get the registration of mamohanraj from register.com (Shmuel told me that I could have registered for $15 instead of $35, but too little, too late :-) No, I'll probably want to do that when I renew next year, so it's still helpful...).
I can't tell you how nice it'll be to have a permanent address and e-mail; to know that people will always be able to find me, and that I'll never again have to go around the net telling people to update their links. When this is done, it'll be a load off my mind.
In the process, I plan to also fix a bunch of things about my pages; there are wrong colors on some of them, and broken links (especially to my e-mail). And this diary is really *not* in the most optimal set-up, so I'm going to ask Columbine to send over some perl scripts...Jed offered to write some, but if he can just use Columbine's to help me, that makes more sense than writing from scratch. When we're done, this journal should be much easier to read; though I'll probably just eliminate the monthly files. I'll look just like all those other journals.... :-) We'll see.
I dunno; there's a lot of stuff I've just been putting up with for a long time, and I'm tired of dealing with it. They all drain energy in small and subtle ways, and it just feels like I might as well put in the time to do it right once and for all. Of course, that's easier to do when you *have* time. I expect that once I start grad school in the fall, I'll be pretty darn busy again for quite a while. So I have from now 'til September to get all the old projects sorted out and in place. Should be do-able; I'm really only doing a few major things this summer:
- teaching two classes (I'm done for the day at 9:30 a.m. MWF!)
- continuing to work on CS
- starting the new secret project (yes, I'll be telling you about it very very soon now)
- writing some more stories, hopefully
- incorporation and grant research
- maybe doing a CD
- probably moving
- reading lots of books! :-)
My back is starting to hurt again, so I'd best get off the computer. I think I might actually start my grading; I'm still not in an appropriate mood to try to do that essay. Maybe later this evening, or early this week. I promised it to Lee by Thursday (when I leave town). I don't really have anything else to do between now and then -- the essay and grading, grading and the essay. I can do that, right?
Still collecting responses on the CD, so please go back to yesterday and vote if you haven't yet. Though it looks like there's enough interest that I should probably move to the next stage -- finding out how expensive it would be, where the best place is to record it, etc... Cost-benefit analyses; what fun! :-)
One note -- someone asked for a sound sample; said it would be easier to decide if they knew what I sounded like. So I recorded a short poem (I did some longer stuff too, but I'm having a hard time moving it over due to ftp difficulties), and you can find it here - just click on the audio link. This may not stay up for long; it eats up disk space.
Have a good week, dears.
8:15 p.m. Well, Shmuel reminded me that there are already some audio files up, in the poems from '96, and lots smaller (from .9 MB to 1.9 MB) than the 14 MB monster I uploaded today. So unless you're on a fast connection, if you wanna hear my voice, you should go there. I did try downloading a converter to RealAudio, but after about 45 minutes of futzing I still couldn't figure out how to make it work. If anyone wants to volunteer to convert audio files for me, please let me know. I recorded "A Jewel of a Woman", but at 44.3 MB, it's appallingly large.
I didn't do any grading (of course); instead I finished reading David Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars, which is a beautiful book. It is honest and true about the way people sometimes are, which is something I think essential to a good novel; beyond that, it has a patience for description that I really envy -- I get so eager to tell the story (and to finish the work of writing) that I often skimp on many things, description especially. (Hmm...I don't think anyone's ever told me that one of my stories should be shorter -- you'd think I would learn something from that...).
I also thought it was fascinating the way it dealt with interracial relationships; I had to work a little to not get too caught up in it, to not start thinking that maybe Hatsue had it right, that maybe all of my romantic confusion was simply that I hadn't found a person who was right for me....but that idea only lasted for a few pages, so I think it was just a case of me being caught up in the internal logic of the character. Sometimes I think I empathize too much with characters. It's probably a good thing that I don't read horror novels with serial killer protagonists.
I'm not quite sure what to do with myself now; I'm too tired to want to work, but I somehow slept 'til 12:30 today(!) so it's much too early to go to sleep. I've only been up half a day at this point. I'll probably start another book, though I don't think I have anything that I strongly want to read. I'm in the midst of re-reading John Gardner's The Art of Fiction, but that's something I have to take in small doses. Good, but requires an awake mind.
Well, we'll see. In any case, I'm having a good day. The weather is beautiful, and that combined with good reading (and good work earlier) is making my heart feel very restful, at peace with itself and the world. It's nice.