I return to my blog with some good news: after a couple of weeks of focused effort, I am on the better end of the semester. After a couple of weeks requiring unusual focus on my part, I have finished all but one of my midterms and exams for my classes. It isn’t that I’m going to totally kick back and relax, but I can rest easier now than I was a couple of weeks ago.
I have an English exam on Monday (it was supposed to be on Friday, but the professor had an emergency and class was canceled), and then midterms are behind me. My World War II class is back to status quo until the end of the semester, though we haven’t seen our grades from the midterm and our papers. Music Theory is steadily improving; by investing more of my time and focus in it, I can comfortably say that I understand what is going on and am improving at doing it quickly (which is half the struggle of the class). Religious Studies is showing itself to be more difficult on during this half of the semester; we finished Is Religion Dangerous? by Keith Ward (a very good read that, in my mind, reinforces my belief that, although people twist religion to selfish ends, it can be a fundamental and foundational force of good in the world) and now we are on to Religion: The Basics by Malory Nye, which is set up to be more like a college textbook…which makes it an overall thicker read. In addition, we’re short on discussion groups for Religious Studies in the next couple of weeks, so we will be left to our own devices to understand the book, unless we decide to ask about it shortly before the lecture sessions. Finally, my French Horn lessons are also going smoother, thanks to more time and thought devoted to figuring out everything. It isn’t even really a hard task, just time-consuming. I think I’m starting to realize that very few things in life are truly as difficult as they just time-consuming.
In addition, I have been making progress on my book as well. I began using Photoshop to create heraldries for the many factions that will be in my world, as well as putting the finishing touches on one of the regional map. I was also inspired earlier this week to begin writing down a rough race sketch for the humanity of Kenushi Ryu. I will gladly share some or all of this progress, depending on if there is any interest in the readers.
However, I now find myself confronted with a gargantuan task in writing my book, a task that I have mentioned in previous posts. Although I have, for all intents and purposes, decided that the creation of an artificial language for the purpose of use in my book will be highly positive, if not necessary. That being said, all of the work that I have done on naming characters, cities, nations, and every other facet of my world has basically been creative, but random and, if I am going to create my own language, most or all of what I have already named will, for the sake of consistency, need to be renamed in the ancient tongue (or tongues?) of the world. So, I find myself at a position where at least beginning the creation and forging of an artificial language seems necessary, yet I find myself faced with a project of such enormous proportions, I don’t even know where to start! Of course, it isn’t to say that there is nothing else I can do before my language is alive; there’s still plenty of maps to be made and that sort of thing. However, the sooner the language is created, the sooner I can forge on ahead with so many other facets of my world (Kenushi Ryu) with greater confidence. Perhaps, if you (the reader) feel you have something to contribute to my efforts, even if it’s just encouragement, I would be very grateful!
Finally, for the last couple of weeks I have directly omitted writing anything about world affairs; the election, the economic downturn, etc. I feel that I must explain that.
As for the election, I find myself completely disillusioned about the whole system. That is to say, I believe that via absentee, I will cast my lot to John McCain, but I do not do so enthusiastically. I must say that I do have my doubts about Sarah Palin; after all, in the words of Joe Biden (addressed to Barack Obama at the time, ironically) the Presidency “doesn’t lend itself to on-the-job training.” I agree with that, and I believe that the Vice Presidency, a heartbeat away from the Presidency, is scarcely different and, no offense to Palin, but she doesn’t have the political experience of John McCain or Joe Biden. I must restate that I do still find Obama to be a suspicious character. To illustrate that, let me put it this way: when someone launches an attack on Obama, the media is all over it and, when McCain is attacked, there is little, if any acknowledgment. Obama’s like the media’s poster boy.
Also, despite the enormous amount of coverage that the rumor of Obama’s foreign birth is getting on the blogs, the media hasn’t covered it, at least that I have heard of. It is difficult to tell if this is because the bloggers are starting rumors to damage Obama or if the media coverage betrays skewed opinions and poor journalism. Overall, a friend of mine spoke a few weeks ago of how disillusioned he was about the election, and I must agree, although for different reasons. I have seen one too many times during this election phrases like “I will never vote for a Republican” (or it could just as easily be the other way around), which tells me that people aren’t really thinking about their vote; they’re casting their vote based on illogical biases that really don’t have anything to do with what a candidate believes and has everything to do with what party the candidate holds to. In other words, I’m tired of people throwing their lot in to someone just because of their party affiliations…or worse, picking the candidate that talks better. This is not saying that a good politician can’t communicate properly; it’s just that, from what I’ve observed, that’s all that Obama has. He doesn’t have as much experience as McCain, and I’m monstrously suspicious of Obama; if nothing else, am I the only one whose noticed that his supporters practically worship the guy? That, to me, is deathly frightening.
Well, no matter. The election is in 10 days (not including today) and mine is just one vote in something like 300,000,000, albeit there will probably only be about 50-60% voter participation (maybe 70%, since this is a major election). And trust me, I would love to learn that I’m wrong; I would love to hear of voter turnout at 80 or even (gasp!) 90 percent. It sickens me that people take for granted the democratic form of government and let their potential votes fall silent. Anyway, this is likely going to be my last post about the election; it seems like most everything that is worth saying has been said a million times.
As for the economic downturn; well, from my limited knowledge of economics, let me say that I honestly believe there is little either candidate can realistically do to reinforce the economy unless they can come up with some new way to restore investor confidence. Every day Wall Street takes a hit, it’s suffering is echoed across the rest of the world. When I think of the economic problem, I envision a suspension bridge; a single chord in the middle has started giving slack and lowering and the increased strain on the rest of the bridge is forcing the entire structure closer to the abyss. I do think that, if one major stock market in the world collapses, that it won’t be the end of the world. If two crash, then it will be more difficult to recover, but it will be possible. Three, and we’re getting precariously close to a world-wide crash. Four or more, and I honestly think that the whole world economic system will implode upon itself. What will that look like? I have no idea, and it isn’t something I want to think about.
Anyway, like I said about the election, it seems that most of the things worth saying have been said, so I will let that be for now.
Take care, and God bless!
SfC
P.S. Don’t forget, if your interested in seeing some of the materials I’ve been able to construct for my novel, let me know!
For my post-graduation plans, I believe that I will be taking the GRE within the year and apply for graduate school for Higher English Education. That’s the plan, but I’m also trying to be flexible and keep an open mind as to what would be the best option for me to pursue; frankly, I’m still very uncertain, but that’s the course I have set for now.
