Blog 6 again?

I was under the impression that if we included the preface in our portfolio we  didn't need to post the blog, but I see so many blog 6 posts I figured I'd rather be safe than sorry.  If nothing else, maybe someone will get some entertainment out of it.

     Generally speaking, whenever I start a new paper, first I have to stare blankly at the computer screen for at least 20 minutes, which is immediately followed by a good round of cursing and complaining about how I dislike having to do whatever it is I was sitting down to do.  This bout of ranting sometimes takes place in multitude of rooms as I pace around my apartment flailing manically due to the fact that I’m actually frustrated that my past addictions have made it difficult for me to concentrate and focus. I take a breath, I sit back down, typing out the first thoughts on the subject to pop into my head, whether they are complete thoughts or not.  Sometimes it’s just a word, sometimes it’s a phrase or song lyrics.  Then I realize that I need some more coffee.  I drink a pot of coffee every single day.  When I’m doing schoolwork I sometimes drink twice that amount.

     I save the document and close the program.  After my initial thoughts are down, I don’t look at the actual paper again for a day or so.  During this time I’m constantly brainstorming.  It doesn’t matter if I’m watching a movie, playing on Facebook, or surfing at Warm Waters, I’m rolling the paper around in my skull.  I’ve always done things like this in a similar manor, when I was young, I thought I was procrastinating, mainly because my folks and teachers growing up told me that’s what it was.  I didn’t realize that I need to walk away and do other things sometimes as part of my creative process.  I do this with studio art as well.

     The chicken or the egg: The first two papers in this class I knew the direction I wanted to take and the point I wanted to make.  The last one, the opinion piece, wasn’t so easy.  I started with the text and general ideas about a wide topic.  I couldn’t quite nail down where I was going or what exactly I was trying to say.  I got that light bulb moment for my focal point by watching a zombie movie.

     Having worked on-air as a radio personality, I understand that I have a dry sense of humor most of the time and it tends to get a tad snarky sometimes.  While in class Thursday work shopping the sanctity of marriage paper (I’m still flabbergasted that he chose that topic), I had to watch my words very carefully, while making sure my opinion was known.  “Are you saying children are better off in an orphanage than with gay adoptive parents?” and “Even though his paper indicates that a single mother doesn’t have a chance at raising a child without a father, he couldn’t have possibly meant to say such a thing, it just reads that way.”  (Those are paraphrased at best.)  I don’t enjoy writing bland technical instructions like I had to do when I was in the Corps; I enjoy throwing in my thoughts and opinions.  I dug throwing my musical tastes into the opinion piece.  I’ve never quoted Black flag or the Beastie Boys for an essay before now, and it made me smile to do so.  I still need work on comma placement and transitions, but I’m better off now than when I started the class.  Being present for every workshop helped out, because it’s easier to see our own flaws in other people before we can see them in ourselves.