(I posted yesterday’s…

(I posted yesterday's entry very early this morning, FYI).

So our Jen has a journal, "Om Mani Padme Hum". And it's funny. We thought she was just a sweet little smut proofreader, but no -- there's much more to our Jen. You can tell I'm liking the journal, but what you can't tell is how clearly out of it I end up feeling. I'm not sure if I'm getting old, or I'm just terminally unhip. I don't even understand half of the language she uses, never mind the pop song references. For example:

  • "Check it." Okay, this is clearly an abbreviated form of 'check it out'. Right? Got it. But where did the out go? I'm lost and confused.
  • "fine-lookin' coochie mama, yo?" Umm...is this English? Jen? Help?
  • "props to Erin" -- what does this mean?? I've heard this phrase before, I know I have, but I have no clue what 'props' has to do with anything. Properties? Propagana? Properly???
It's too painful to go on -- that's just a little bit from one entry. She has *several* entires. It's like wandering a foreign land...but a very funny foreign land. :-)

More later; I gotta go read more Jen now. So what if she makes me feel old at 28? :-)

1:00. I wanted to point you guys to this interesting project -- Suzette Haden Elgin's publishing a novella on the web. At first I thought it wasn't my kind of thing, but by the end of the prologue I was hooked and had to keep reading. You may like it too.

What I appear to be doing today is industriously working -- going through piled up e-mail, finishing off old projects (I did manage to do that review yesterday), looking forward to new ones, etc.

What I'm really doing is avoiding writing. I had an idea for a story, but it's one that would probably be difficult to write. And part of me really doesn't want to write it. So I do all sorts of busywork instead so I don't feel guilty, but of course it doesn't work -- I feel guilty anyway. And the time ticks away -- there's about 4-5 hours of work time left today, max. If I can procrastinate long enough, then it'll be *too late* -- and this story is one that should be written soon, before I lose the specifics and the impetus. So just another hour or two of procrastinating to go...eh. Sometimes I feel like such a wimp.

Okay. One last e-mail check. Then I stare at a blank page for thirty minutes or until I start writing...whichever comes first.

Discipline sucks.

5:30. So I wrote it. Meep. Yay, me...now I have to figure out what to do with it.

In other news, the U of C Scavenger Hunt is on. Here's the official list for this year -- if you want to help out the friend of a friend of mine, and can easily get one or more of these items, drop me a note and I'll put you in touch with them. Some items can only be found in Chicago, but many are from across the country. An example of a Chicago item:

171. A full-sized street cleaner circling the inner circle of the Quads. Or, if that doesn't work, a full-sized monkey on a bicycle circling the inner circle of the Quads. [150 points. 20 bonus points if the monkey has a metal plate in his head. 52 bonus points if you get both the cleaner and the monkey, and they race like Mad Max escaping the Thunderdome]

Examples of non-Chicago items:

2. Who was the boss: Tony or Angela? Support your answer in a 5 page essay, to be published on the ScavHunt website. Papers are due by 10 a.m. Friday morning. Papers will be graded on persuasiveness and coherency of argument, writing style, and judge's personal bias. [13 points]

63. Polyglot Porn. [6 points per language; 96 points maximum. 60 bonus points if it's video and it involves Momus.]

321. Metal lunchboxes with cool graphics from our salad days. [3 points per lunch box; 24 points maximum. 1 extra point per box for a matching thermos]

-- They'll pay postage. (What the heck is Momus?)

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