It's been a while.

Yes, I know this is my first post here in about two months. There's a reason for that.

Inspiration has been tough to come by, for one. That's the biggest thing. And when it does come, it comes at the weirdest (and often times most inconvenient) moments. Like now. As of the nanosecond this sentence was written, I am sitting in my print newswriting class, waiting for technical issues to resolve themselves.

I promised some of my Breakthrough compatriots a podcast after the program ended. So far, that hasn't even happened. I've recorded the text, sure. But I haven't dropped the quotes in there yet, and I haven't touched the recording in...oh, I don't know, two months?

That, and I've been up to a lot lately. I've been meaning to put up a set report from my visit to "Let's Make a Deal" last month, but haven't quite done that yet. Of course, the thought only occurred to me as I typed that sentence. So there.

Even worse, I have this horrible habit of starting to write things and finishing them much, much later. Call it lack of inspiration, call it laziness, call it whatever you want. But I don't like it. Any suggestions?

GSC: Week One Discussions

Over at my floor blog I am now publishing a weekly Game Show Challenge that my floormates (will hopefully) play, and this is their outlet to discuss the questions from that week.

'09-'10 denizens of BK4: discuss away.

Reflection on Summer

This is the last night in my own room for a long time.

But at least I won't be as sappy as I was last summer about it, now that I know what it's like. And besides, this summer was crazy good:

--I got a job, made a little money. I won't be flat broke when I go back to school. (Don't ask me to touch that check from that other little thing I did last January...that's for something bigger and better.)

--I made a difference in some kids' lives. As cliché as this sounds, it's probably true--teaching Korean, even though I myself am still learning, was a way to expose some kids to a culture they would otherwise not be exposed to. And even I learned something about myself in the process--although I may have seemed like a crotchety 42 year-old man with no soul, I still was deeply passionate about getting my point across.

--Made new friends, but kept the old. Well, a few of the old, in any event.

--I wrote my first good poem in a long while. (It was posted here, if you look back a couple of entries.) And I'm learning my first new classical piano piece in a long time...it's coming along alarmingly well, though we'll see when school starts.

--I could be good in the kitchen...if I only got off my lazy ass to get in the kitchen.

Most importantly to me, though...

--I saw people whom I haven't seen in years. No, this doesn't mean reconnecting over Facebook (though that's a nice surprise in and of itself, depending on who it is). I mean actual, face-to-face, heart-to-heart interaction. Yeah, I know, strange concept in this day and age, isn't it? There's something about actual physical contact, or sight, or whatever that emails definitely don't have, that Facebook tries to poorly replicate, that even pictures can't capture, but face-to-face, in-person encounters do. One person I saw, we were close friends when I used to live in Denver many, many, many, many years ago. We hadn't seen each other in FIFTEEN YEARS. Another person, I had kept in touch with lo these last two years. We hadn't seen each other for that amount of time, but it was a special reconnection for me. I just hate this impersonal barrier electronic communication sometimes raises--there are so many different vocal inflections that are lost over written text in an email. (Which is why I wanted to do podcasts to go along with my blog entries, but...that worked out really well, didn't it?)

But in short, it's been a wonderful, wonderful summer. Now I hope my brain isn't totally dysfunctional when I return to school.

BTNOLA, Come on Down!

Some photos from my recent game show short course at my summer job, where we played "The Price is Right" to wrap up the summer.

What pressure! What excitement!

Here's a happy contestant.

Playing a pricing game (for you PIR diehards out there, this was Money Game)

"Spinning" the Big Wheel

All lined up and raring to go in Contestants' Row!

In 140 Characters or Less:

I will never understand the appeal of #Twitter. #FB's status update gimmick can only go so far before it becomes repetitive. @Reader: Do yo

(Sorry, character limit cut me off.)

No, I'm not dead...

...just really, really busy, 'tis all. Haven't had much time to blog lately, and even then when I actually sit down to blog I don't have much inspiration. But I've got something good coming up in the next week--the first of the podcasts is in the works and coming soon! So stay tuned for that.

In the meantime:

--Mini-reunions are fun. Especially when they're totally unplanned until, literally, 8 or 9 hours beforehand.

--Getting inspiration to write is hard. Partially because (and this segues into my next point)...

--Finding time is even harder. We are such busy people in the world these days that we don't get to have little bits of time to ourselves.

--Podcasts are a pain to put together, I'm now remembering. Though the finished product is well worth it.

--More to come in the coming weeks...keep checking back!

Therapy, in 88 Keys

Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, and Chopin

Are more than likely rolling in their graves

As I lay out the melodies by hand

A rocky road, my hands make way to pave.

Come forth, dear fingers, play what's on the page,

And calm thy soul with music to attend

To days where grief strikes in this day and age,

These painful hours, the music strives to end.

One strong chord here, the pain begins to ease

The angsty strife cloud parteth for the sun.

One triad there, my frustration doth cease,

The piece concludes, the therapy is done.

As fingers mine doth burn with my resolve

Frustration hence my ears doth now absolve.