Feeling a bit better

First of all, let me apologize for my despondent tone yesterday. I was merely venting a frustration, and as it turns out, an unfounded one. At least on the part about my grade. After speaking briefly with my professor about how much that .2% bothered me, he informed me that the grade book is only a reflection of the official tally, and that he has the option to round up if he wants. Which he will be doing for me. So, I got an A- after all! Oddly, I am very relieved about this, and I don't really know why. But, I'll take it happily and move on to the Byzantine Empire in a week and a half.

Today I find, as I often do, that I have some free time on my hands while awaiting responses to various inquiries. And I want to use it to write. But, unfortunately, as often happens, nothing is grabbing my interest. Not any of my game projects, fiction projects, or even new ideas. Ah well. Something will spark eventually, I think.

I'm taking some time to read for pleasure lately. I have not been doing this at all for the last few months, despite the absolute plethora of available material at my fingertips. I start to read and I either get distracted, or get restless. So, I picked up something lite and easy. Right now I am reading Kothar of the Magic Sword by Gardner F. Fox. It's one of those slender (156 pages) "Clonan" books that were popular in the 70's. I have to say, it's not high literature by any stretch, but it's fun.

Kothar is very much a Conan knock-off, but that knowledge makes the book and character more enjoyable, I think. I don't have to figure him out. I just accept him for who he is, and enjoy the action and intrigue. The other thing about reading this book is that it is making me think about a WIP I have about my own "Clonan" of sorts. Unfortunately, that story is on my flash drive at home (remember, my work now actively bans their use here), so I will have to wait until I get home to put it on MyDrive.

But, I think tomorrow could be a good fiction-writing day.

Not cut out for this

I don't think I am cut out for the scholarly life.

I just got my final grade in my History and Popular Culture class. I got an 89.8%, which translates to a B+. Yay me, right?

But 0.2% from an A-? REALLY???

This was a tough term. Not because of the class, that was easy. But because of the logistics involved in taking it. Suffice it to say that many of my assignments suffered due to my inability to properly focus on my school work. I know, it's a poor excuse, and I only have myself to blame. But even so, I worked hard on it. And that research paper, though it had its flaws, was damn good, IMHO. At least good enough to warrant just a couple of points (I got 250/300) to bump me up past that 0.2%.

But, I guess I got what I deserved. Math is an exact science, after all.

The thing about it is, the flaws were mainly in my citations. Because I didn't cite things properly in my bibliography, or in my footnotes. Ugh! I fucking hate that shit! Seriously? I got deducted points because my bibliography entries weren't properly indented? Never mind that the citations are clearly defined, and there is no question where the information came from, and you can clearly verify that I got the information from that source (which, you know, is what citations are for, right?).

At this point, I wish I could just drop out of school. I'm so irritated with academia right now.

Still Kickin'

Dear Blogosphere,

It has been almost a month since last I spoke to you here. Please don't hate me, but I've been busy on my other blog. You know, that geeky blog that talks about those silly little role playing games I've been playing for over 30 years? Yeah, I'm there a lot. I've been doing a blog-a-day about D&D this month. If you ever played, or still play, or are morbidly curious, check it out. Also be sure to check out the blogs of interest on that site as well. Some really creative and cool people out there.

I'd like to report that I have been killing it on my fiction. But I can't. In fact, I've rarely touched a piece of fiction of my own in months. I have, however, been writing a lot of stuff about RPG's. So, I guess there's that. But, now that this term is over for the next couple of weeks, I might try to remedy that to an extent. I have a few stories that I really want to finish.

Speaking of which, I think I brought up a long while back that I was involved in an anthology of Sword & Planet stories. Well, due to many factors, the anthology itself is probably not going to happen. However, several of us have stories written already. So, the current consensus is to each self-publish our own as Kindles. Right now we're looking at using a "series title" and other elements to connect them all. Then there will be shared-promotion of each others' stories.

The idea is kind of based on the Fight Card series. A cool idea, and I think it's a good glimpse into the future of publishing and self-publishing.

In other news, I turned in a 13-page paper on Bodybuilding's influence on film making, starting with Steve Reeves as Hercules. I rather enjoyed it, and learned a few things. No word on the grade yet, as it was due yesterday (I turned in mine on Friday), so the prof hasn't gotten around to grading it yet. But, I'll know by the end of the week. Unless I totally bombed it, I should get a high B in the class, maybe an A-. I'm cool with either.

I had a huge crisis of faith on my career outlook the other day. I worried myself to tears almost. I really should figure out what I want to be when I grow up.