kaleidotrope

Just your typical, average Friday

Today is Friday, and I don’t have an awful lot to say about it beyond that.

I spent the day for the most part immersed in PowerPoint, which is nobody’s idea of a great time, but at least I’m making progress on pulling these lecture slides together. I got through about seven chapters today, the first half of the book, and hopefully will be able to more or less finish in the two days I’m in the office next week. I head to San Jose on Wednesday for a 5-day conference — and maybe the world’s least exciting destination for my birthday — and there are a few projects I’d like to make somebody else’s problem before I leave.

I’m probably not going to get the latest issue of Kaleidotrope out before I go, however. It’s largely finished, beyond a little last-minute tweaking and the printing, so it will definitely be mailed out in April. But the end-of-March timing just doesn’t work in my favor. It’s a really good issue, so if you haven’t subscribed yet, now would be a great time to do so. Just indicate you want your subscription to start with issue #8. There’s almost certainly going to be three issues total this year, so now’s a good time to get on board!

Other than that, not much to report. It’s just your typical, average Friday.

Kiss me, I’m Irish!

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day, everyone! Or, as we like to call it in New York, Drunk Tourists in the Street Before Lunchtime Day! Seriously, I can’t remember seeing this many obnoxious people in matching colors since my last home football game weekend at Penn State. I went for a walk around 12:30, since it was such a nice day outside, and I walked past several dozen bars with cheap shamrock decorations taped to the windows. I hadn’t had lunch yet and already some of these people — some who looked all of twelve or thirteen, I have to say — were can’t-get-up-off-the-ground or shout-random-things-at-strangers drunk. I suspect not a one of them was Irish.

For my (half-Irish on my mother’s side) part, I wore green today but didn’t even think to lift a pint. When I finally did have lunch, it was a slice of pizza and some fruit salad. I do drink on occasion, though almost never in the middle of the day — and then only in social situations — but I find the whole idea of taking the morning off to go binge drinking pretty depressing.

But beyond that, it was actually a really nice day. I sent a project I’m working on to our UK office, to get the ball rolling on a website we’re creating, and I put another manuscript into review. I also spent some time tracking down authors of some older books, with an eye towards developing new editions. So far, only one of them appears to have died since the previous edition, so that’s going well.

I did send out a bunch of rejection letters for Kaleidotrope, though, which is never fun. I noted earlier today on Twitter that when I read a story, I am looking for reasons to reject it. But, more than that, I’m looking for a story that doesn’t give me any reasons. I want to love every story, even if I don’t realistically have room for all of them, but in practice I’m going to love only a very small percentage. The number of stories I’ll hate is an even smaller percentage, of course, but that just means the vast number are somewhere in between. And it’s not that in-between stuff that I’m really looking for.

Anyway, that was my Wednesday. Right now, I think I need to take the dog out, and then I’m going to watch this new FX show Justified and go to bed.

Live from New York

Today was about as close to yesterday as it could get without being a weird repeating loop in the space-time continuum. I spent it mostly reading through a revised chapter on a counseling book we have in development, and also reading through a few of the stories that keep coming for Kaleidotrope ever I since opened the zine back up to submissions in January. It occurs to me, with just the tiniest hint of accompanying panic, that the next issue has to be out next month, in April, and I should probably get some layout work done as soon as possible. I think it’s going to be a really good issue, but I need to bring it all together before that happens. And, because I’m just a little crazy, I’m still thinking about doing three issues this year, the third one coming sometime in July.

This evening, I watched the very first episode of Saturday Night Live (then NBC’s Saturday Night), since I recently purchased — on the cheap, although those prices don’t seem to be offered anymore — the first two seasons on DVD. I’d seen a lot of it, in retrospectives and the like, but I’d never seen the episode in its entirety. It was…interesting, occasionally even amusing. Andy Kaufman’s Mighty Mouse routine is still kind of inspired. But it was more of a weird relic from a time before the show really got a handle of what it would morph into. (Although, after 35 years on the air, it’s safe to say the show has morphed more than a few times.) Intriguing, if only because that first episode is so over-stuffed — George Carlin, two guest comedians, two musical guests (with two songs apiece), the Muppets, and the expected sketch comedy — but not hysterically funny.

And now, if you don’t mind, it’s time for bed.

Whither Saturday?

Early this morning, I drove with my father over to our local mechanic to have one of the cars submitted to its yearly inspection. Which may be the last time I did much of anything today. I did finish some of the editing I had left for the next issue of Kaleidotrope, copying my handwritten corrections over to the electronic files so I can send them to the authors. I think it’s shaping up to be a really great issue, and I’m growing even more convinced that a third issue for the year in July is a good idea. We’ll see. I definitely have enough material already accepted to fill the extra issue, so that’s not a problem.

Beyond that, I spent a lot of the day pottering around online, playing with the dog (who seems shocked every time by the snow, when he isn’t determined to eat every last ounce of it), and watching a little television. (I could tell trying to explain The Mighty Boosh to my father — much less three episodes into the second season, much less halfway through that episode — was going to be a losing proposition. Heck, I like the show and it’s not like I always understand it.)

And that’s it.

Sometimes it just turns out that way

Sometimes there isn’t a whole lot to say about a day, especially when it’s not significantly different from any of a dozen others, and when the most exciting thing that happened was when the new edition of the APA Publication Manual arrived in the mail. (Seriously, though, my ordering this was long overdue. We have one copy in the office, luckily on my bookshelf, but also the previous edition.) I did a little work on a theories book in the morning, a little on an art therapy research book in the afternoon, and in the middle I went for a little walk around town. Same old, same old.

I also did a little bit of writing when I got home this evening. All told, I only wrote about 150 words, but that’s actually not half bad for me, and I actually think I like where this story’s going. Maybe it’s partly being inspired by Heather‘s write-up of her ongoing writing residency, and maybe it’s partly getting waist-deep into editing stories for Kaleidotrope, but it’s really nice to want to write. (Though I realize the only way to consistently get and stay there is to write even when I don’t want to.)

Speaking of Kaleidotrope, I’m actually thinking of doing a one-time third yearly issue in July. Right now, the zine comes out in April and October, with #8 and #9 planned for 2010. This would bring me up to an even ten issues (!!!), but it’s mostly because I may have over-accepted and would like to publish some of these stories and poems before 2011. The cost involved, particularly with paying contributors and postage, isn’t a non-issue, but I’m seriously considering it.

And that was my Monday.