What am I Blogging About?...and Apocalypse Now

When I originally created this blog I intended to talk about my writing projects; I named it Raven's Writings (I have a penchant for ravens). However, it never worked out well. I would blog about my current projects for a short time, but then writing flagged and so did the blog. Besides, in a given week I might only add a scant 4,000 words. That is insufficient to blog about. Predictably updates became fewer and farther between until the blog was forgotten. I attempted to revive it on a couple of occasions to the same disastrous results. This leads me to an uncomfortable question: Can I feasibly devote an entire blog to just writing?

No, no I can't. Not yet.

But if I'm not going to focus on writing, what am I going to focus on? The answer is obvious: nothing. I won't focus on anything, but I will talk about everything. Writing is one-dimension of my life and, to be honest, a small one. I am also a gamer, a martial artist, a teacher, a father, a husband, an entertainer, a dreamer, a cynic. I am many things and the blog should encompass all of them. That should give me plenty to blog about each week.

A few years ago I was in the habitat of sending out lengthy e-mails to my family and a few select friends. These e-mails, two or three times each year, summarized current developments in the several aspects of my life. Time has gone by and those e-mails have stopped, but the premise behind them is still good. This blog will replace those e-mails. However, instead of sending them out to the people who I think will want to hear about them I will just place them so that they are available for anyone who wants to look at them. Consequently, I've renamed the blog "Brendan's Blog" until I can think of something that captures my personality without sounding too pretentious. Feel free to add your suggestions in the comments.

Still, writing will be a major focus of the blog and I've created several static pages that will be updated much more slowly than the weekly posts. They reflect my WIP and include histories, summaries, progress, goals, and an excerpt. I'll add static pages for non-writing material as I find the need. Also, I hope to create a menu bar that will link you to posts sorted by subject. Even so, I am fairly excited about the current look of the blog. It feels more functional than the old blog and it looks modern. The original blog seemed to herald from the days when everyone was making websites on Angelfire and similar sites (I did that too!). Keep an eye out for future changes to improve functionality.

So what can you exactly expect on this blog?

• Health updates.  What am I doing to stay in shape? Is it working?  
• Karate.  What kata have I learned? Did I pass my kyu test? Pictures of injuries I've given/received.
• Gaming.  How is preparations going for next season? What happened in the most recent gaming session? What new board game do I love/hate?
• Improv.  Am I still doing it?  Is Haphazard getting back together or coming together with an all new crew? Do I have any new characters I am working on?
• Food. Have I created a crazy recipe (I have a few in mind)?  What have I barbecued recently?
• School.  Funny moments in class that I can safely share. Insights on teaching. Memorable moments from student papers. 
• Movies. I enjoy nitpicking them, thinking about them, etc. See thoughts on current movies, classic movies, and whatever I happened to stumble upon via Netflix. 
• Stuff.  You know, just stuff.  Those things that you want to put on Facebook, but the idea is too long and you don't really want to ramble on. That kind of stuff. I think a lot of stuff.

Don't worry. I know not everything is for everyone and I will be using labels to make it easy for you to find just the material you are looking for.  Oh, and if you're bored already don't worry about it. Posts will get better.

Apocalypse Now I often spend long hours at my desk. Much of this time is spent grading student papers, answering e-mails, keeping up-to-date, etc. However, I generally take a break during lunch to eat without worrying about work. I often watch a movie during this time. It's a good way to relax between class sessions. The college has a small movie collection that I've been sampling from, but this weekend I decided to start sampling in a more organized fashion. My goal: watch all the fiction movies the library owns. Given that they generally add two or three each month this will be a long, long, long term goal. I started this weekend with the A's. Technically, numbers come first but they only had "12 Angry Men" in that category and I've seen it. So instead, I started with "Apocalypse Now".

The best part for me was finally understanding what Apocalypse Now was about. I have a tendency to maintain a willful ignorance on a lot of subjects. One of these areas is the subject matter of movies and books. I am often acquainted with the title without a real understanding about the plot. Apocalypse Now was one of these. It also opened my eyes to how little I know about the Vietnam War and makes me interested to find out more. War movies are not my typical fare, but I enjoyed Apocalypse Now.

Added bonus: I will now understand things that allude to, parody, etc., this movie.