Television Longing

September 10th needs to hurry up and get here already. I don't know how much longer I can stand it. Why am I so anxious? Because the 5th and final season of Supernatural starts on the 10th, aka the only one of my absolute favorite shows not written by Joss.

Hurry up, September.

WPW Round Up

This week B. Freret offers us a bit of car-themed dialogue with a twist. Check it out.

WPW: The Giant Robot Bank Robbery

The robot was massive. Towering at over four stories tall, it loomed over most of the downtown buildings. Each step it took left a pothole large enough to fit a car, as evidenced by one particular foot step which was almost exactly the same size and shape as the Jeep Cherokee the robot had stepped on and flattened.

Laser beams shot from its eyes, vaporizing police cars, police officers, and any innocent bystanders who were too dumb or too slow to get out of the way fast enough. The robot stopped in front of the bank, reached into the brick building, and pulled out the vault. It attached a small device, which looked like a cell phone, but wasn't, to the vault. Lights blinked on the device for a moment, then held still. A safe cracker.

The robot leaned over with a well-oiled hiss. Its huge fingers carefully opened the vault door and, by virtue of Hoover-like suction, it vacuumed the cash and gold out with its thumb. By now the police had given up hope of stopping the heist and were working only to minimize casualties.

From across the street, in a third storey room with a window view, a man in a white jacket held a remote control. He pushed a button. Rocket thrusters came out of the sides of the robot's feet, they fired up and began to lift him away to a quiet, secret spot. The man in the white jacket jumped in glee. It had gone even better than he'd thought. He sighed to himself and said, softly, "I wuv technology."

My Favorite Typo

Student papers often have typos, especially at the beginning of the semester before we've worked on proofreading. Of all the typos I see, there is one which I see most often, from the most students. I'm not sure what it is about this particular word, but it gets typoed a ton.

Today, I'm collecting the first writing homework from my classes. I just glanced at one student's and what should I happen to see? That's right, my favorite typo. See, I love this word because it makes the sentence feel more... enthusiastic, and who doesn't like enthusiasm?

There, at the end of the homework assignment, is this sentence: "I feel I have a method to my madness at this point in my writing, but I think tweaking is defiantly good."

First Day of School

My class schedule this semester is quick and dirty - three classes in four hours M/W/F, with office hours in between. I'm excited about that, because it means my time on campus is over by noon. The flip side, of course, being that I have to be up and prepared extra early, but it works out well overall.

Right now I've got a bit of a lull (office hours), then I'm off to my last class at 11:00. I'm excited for this semester and eager to meet my last batch of students.

WPW Round Up

This week, Jenny's playing along with a birthday riff and Deb's starting fires.

Blind Date

**Hi all, welcome to another Writing Prompt Wednesday. Won't you play along? The guidelines are simple, and I'd love to read what you come up with.** (P.S. Yeah, I know I'm early, but I'll be doing professional development all day tomorrow and won't have time.)


So he said we'd meet a Mulligan's, and I said I love Mulligan's. I mean, they have an awesome wine list there. What's not to love, right? Right. So, we were off to a good start, I can tell you. Then, when I get there, he's already waiting at this cute little table in the corner and, lemme tell ya, he is looking good this dark brown shirt that totally shows off his pecs. He even holds the chair out for me when I sit down. Way classy, right? Then waitress comes over and we order and, here's the horrible part, he orders a Cosmopolitan. I mean, a Cosmopolitan? You've got to be kidding me. What else could I do? I let him buy me dinner and then I got the heck out of there and blocked his number on my phone. There's only allowed to be one person in a relationship drinking chic drinks, and that person is me.

Writing About Your Writing Space

During part of one of the First Year Composition two-day extravaganza workshops, we were asked to do a bit of writing and describe our writing space. As I was doing it, I realized that it's a very cool, very meta, kind of exercise. I've seen pictures of writers' spaces, and it's cool to see those. But, to have the writer write about their space, well, you get a whole different kind of lens. After all, the biggest part of writing a scene is deciding where the emphasis goes, etc. and you can describe one setting infinite ways, depending on where you're focusing.

When I did the exercise, I was a little surprised by the results. I challenge y'all to do the exercise yourselves. My blurb is below, but don't read it until you write your own, got it?

Purple. Purple and brown and white. A cityscape of piled things. Like sculpture. Beads and necklaces. Cut out pages of books and calendars that have colorful pictures, all stacked in a pile. The desk that's gone a thousand-plus miles with me, and the cabinet too. My computer stuffed in a corner of that desk. Hundreds of pens spread out in a row of mugs. In my office, I have every color in the world.

Victoria's Secret

**Hi all, welcome to another Writing Prompt Wednesday. Won't you play along? The guidelines are simple, and I'd love to read what you come up with.**



"What do you think of this one?" Lily asked, modeling a lacy pink bra and matching thong.

Jason shrugged and shook his head. "Nah."

Lily disappeared back into the changing room then re-emerged in a little black bra and microscopic panties. "What about this set?"

He shook his head again, looking bored. "That's no good either."

By this point, they had been at the store for nearly an hour. Lily had gone into the changing room dozens of times, hoping to find the perfect lingerie set with which to seduce her fiance, Kevin. Jason, a childhood friend who had recently become a priest, was there to offer the male perspective and tell her to wait for said seduction until the wedding night in two weeks.

Lily was beginning to think that a man of the cloth wasn't her best choice for the task. She gave him an exasperated look. "What's wrong with this one?" She gestured to the bits which the set especially emphasized. "Do I, or do I not, look awesome in this?"

"You're beautiful, of course you are. That's not the point." Jason walked her over to stand in front of the mirror. He waved at the acreage of skin exposed before them. "The point is, look at that."

"Look at what?" Lily did not like the direction he was going in.

Jason sighed. "I don't mean it like that. What I'm trying to say is, everywhere you look today, you can find pictures of naked, or nearly naked, women. Seriously, it's getting old. I mean, dude, where's the mystery? But, leave a bit to the imagination..." He looked at the racks behind them and pulled off a slightly sheer white teddy that was long enough to almost reach her knees.

"That one?" Lily asked in disbelief.

"Oh yeah. This one. A little bit of mystery is very appealing." He winked. "That's why nuns are so sexy."

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that last part," Lily said. Then she took the teddy from his hand and went to the changing room to try it on.

There Goes Another Wednesday

Today was my day to fly back to the wonderful state of Colorado from Florida, and with all that entailed and a distinct lack of internet access, I partly didn't have time for, and partly didn't remember, an entry for WPW. However, now that I've returned home, we'll be back to the regularly scheduled programming next week.