« September 2007 | Main | November 2007 »
October 31, 2007
Happy Halloween
Over the course of the six Halloweens I've spent in the Pacific Northwest, I've bought candy every year. I don't think I've had more than a handful of kids knock on my door and ask for any. So Ben and I have to eat it. Same deal this year, so far.
Maybe if I carved a scary coconut munching jack-o-lantern, like Lana did, I would have better luck. We don't have any jack-o-lanterns at all.
In other spooky news, I found my first verified gray hair today. I wasn't sure if it was actually gray or just one of my occasional surprise blond strands, so I plucked it out for a closer look. It was still young - only a couple of inches long - and definitely silver. After a decade of "enhancing" my hair color, I stopped earlier this year because I wanted to know when I started going silver. It's happening. I'm actually kind of excited. It's a pretty silver. I hope the rest of the strands that follow it shimmer in just the same way.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 07:20 PM | Comments (3)
October 30, 2007
Last night
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 07:16 AM | Comments (0)
October 29, 2007
Recap.
Friday: Three haunted houses in one with Austin (Frighttown!)
Saturday: Two movies with Ben. ("King of Kong" was good, "Once" not so much.)
Sunday: Sunday Night Dinner Club is not a dinner club. Beatings led to biscuits.
Monday: The Good, the Bad, the free popcorn with brothers and husband.
I'm taking tomorrow evening off from social activities.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 10:59 PM | Comments (0)
October 28, 2007
Now for some fiction
Because I obviously don't have enough on my plate right now (that's sarcasm), I've decided to try my hand at National Novel Writing Month again this year. Back in late 2001, another eventful era in my life, I cobbled together 50,000 absurd and awful words to become a NaNoWriMo "winner." This time, I plan to start with the same basic premise, similar characters, and at least a few of the same events. But I think I'll add plot. The NaNo Web site has come a long way in six years, and now it allows people to create profiles. I'm Procrasta-Tron.
So that I don't get bored, also in November I aim to:
* Create members-only content for Society for Professional Journalists folks.
* Volunteer at Wordstock.
* Write a paper for my economics class.
* Drink heartily at the Hair of the Dog anniversary party.
* Eat heartily at SNDC gatherings.
* Eat heartily at Sue & John's house on Thanksgiving.
* Exercise heartily to counteract all that hearty eating.
Perhaps I should take up juggling, too, so I have an excuse for all the balls I will inevitably drop in the next 33 days.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 11:07 PM | Comments (2)
October 27, 2007
Bittersweet and brooding writers
Molly Backes and Sarah Aswell, two urbanites I vaguely and indirectly know, today on their blogs kicked off a conversation about what it means to be a writer, and how they each approach their writing lives.
Both write fiction and non-fiction, and both infuse their non-fiction with their subjective experiences. As a newspaper reporter, whose job - at least theoretically - is to engage an audience, defend democracy and renounce subjectivity - I enjoyed their different takes on the scribbler's life.
Says Molly, on her blog Bittersweet:
Of course, as any writer knows, the second you commit something to the page, it becomes a sort of fiction, regardless of how hard you try to stay true to what really happened. You have personal bias, discrepancies in memory and perception, and as a story teller you’re always making choices about what to include or not include, what to emphasize and what to ignore. As a fiction writer, I think I’m more guilty of this than most, because I tend to believe that sometimes fiction tells the truth in a way that non-fiction can’t.
I struggle with some of the issues Molly raises in my different writerly guises.
The minute I cease to believe in objectivity and truth at work I deserve to be locked out of the office. My mission as a newspaper reporter is to present fair, truthful and unbiased information that gives readers tools to better understand and navigate the world around them.
Can objectivity and subjectivity co-exist, or is that an inherent oxymoron? Because any halfway-decent writer, newspaper or otherwise, will judge what information to include, how to present it, how to have the most impact. Yet there are obviously subjective decisions involved in pulling together any decent article, regardless of the story's objective voice.
So I have my differences with Molly and Sarah, although I agree with much of what they say. I like Sarah's take on writerly compulsions, described on her blog Brood:
There won’t be a day when everyone wakes up a writer. Just like there won’t be a day when we all wake up painters or politicians or Martians. I write all day and it isn’t fun, but it’s all I know to do. We don’t go to literary events and we don’t smoke cigarettes and we don’t talk about the novel we’re working on (after work, at lunch, during work) because we’re embarrassed by this problem we have: writing.
The question I'd pose to Sarah and Molly: How much do you write for yourself? How much do you write for an audience? What is your relationship with that audience, what are your responsibilities to your readers and what do you expect from them in turn?
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 04:03 PM | Comments (1)
October 25, 2007
Productive? Or shirking?
Shirking: Yesterday I stayed home sick from work. I didn't clean the house, even though I could have. Today I skipped the gym. I ate out instead of cooking. I didn't go out because I was too tired.
Productive: Yesterday I got the highest midterm score of anyone in my econ class. Today I scheduled a conference. I wrote an article. I copy edited a magazine. I made a Web site.*
* Still need to transfer the site over here.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 09:13 PM | Comments (0)
October 22, 2007
Scattergories
The letter is "S."
Austin: Strawberries.
Me: Sugar.
Morgan: Sand.
Robin: Safari.
What?
Austin: It's desert, not dessert!?!
Me: Ahhhh!
Robin: *laughs*
Morgan: *laughs until he cries*
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 06:50 AM | Comments (2)
October 18, 2007
Weather
Hurricanes keep the planet alive, according to "Naked Science," which I turned on because of the name. Unfortunately, although there is a lot of science there doesn't seem to be any naked on this show.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 07:40 PM | Comments (0)
October 16, 2007
Family
Did I mention that Austin's in Portland? He got here on Sunday. Now more than half of the five Sherwood offspring are in the same city, and all of the vegetarians are here. I think we need to bring Chance out for tours of Reed and Lewis & Clark and Portland State and so on. It would be hilarious if he decided to go to college in Portland.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 08:56 PM | Comments (4)
October 12, 2007
Resolution review
This Jan. 1, I resolved to:
* Get my 3 mile running speed down to 27 minutes.
* Do my first pull up.
* Sleep outside for at least 4 nights.
* Read in chronological order two classic novels from every decade of the 20th century, no two books by the same author.
* Complete the long and difficult Ape Cave trail again.
* Ski.
* Read four books from the Modern Library's 100 best works of nonfiction.
My progress:
* I have improved my 3 mile running speed to 29 minutes, from 36 minutes a year ago. Getting it down to 27 will be a real challenge, but I'll do my best.
* Didn't start training for the pull up until a few weeks ago. If I don't make it by Jan. 1, I'm going to push through and get it done before my 30th birthday.
* Four nights outside accomplished: Two nights in central Washington with Rian surrounding a rock concert; one night near the Oregon Coast during the Portland to Coast relay; one night in a mountainous forest stargazing with Ben.
* On the novels, I'm making good progress. I'm halfway through the '70s.
* I did the Ape Cave, and it was exhilarating.
* Skied twice in late spring, hope to go again this winter.
* Hmm, I don't have time to think about nonfiction right now.
Hmmm, the year is running out and there's still a lot to get done.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 09:52 PM | Comments (0)
October 11, 2007
My brother Austin left Reston, Va., for Portland, Ore., this morning. He has already driven 600 miles.
I have to share this excerpt from an e-mail my mom sent me:
When I talked to Austin this evening he told me about some of his experiences. At one rest stop he noticed the incongruous sight of an Amish family seated and eating dinner at a McDonald's. When he went to put gas in the car, a man at the gas station helped him put air in his tire- which was low. When he checked into the hotel, the clerk asked him if he was there for the Elvis convention! I told him I thought that the breakfast crowd ought to be interesting!
Yay for Austin!
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 09:26 PM | Comments (4)
October 09, 2007
weekend update
I did not get a lot of sleep in Eugene, although I spent a reasonable amount of time lying down with the lights out. Went to bed around 6 p.m. Sunday night and slept until 6:30 Monday morning.
The conference was a hit. In the last two weeks, we went from 40 people registered to 100. Folks from all journalistic backgrounds crowded into classrooms for some learning, and before heading out the door the filled out positive evaluations. One anonymous form did complain that our Pulitzer-winning keynote speaker swore too much. I'm not sure what to make of that.
I wish I'd had more time and energy for Rian, who gets a little bit older tomorrow. We discovered a cool bar, a Mexican restaurant with tofu on the menu, and a hopping dessert vendor.
Then I came home feeling cloudy headed and sneezy. I've got a nasty head cold, but I also have a lot of work to get done. No sick days for me.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 07:21 AM | Comments (2)
October 05, 2007
Eugene
I'm heading south to visit Rian, whose birthday is impending, and to attend this conference, which I helped organize. I'm dead tired after a crazy busy week. Oy.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 06:47 PM | Comments (0)
October 03, 2007
* snow *
It's snowing on Mount Hood today, even though it's in the 50s in Portland. Everyone who lives and works on the mountain looks excited on the evening news. I'm excited. I went skiing for the first time in years last winter, and I didn't get started until way too late in the season. I think I'll try to go by mid-November this year. I'd also like to take a trip to Bend for a weekend before the end of January. I love snow!
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 05:58 PM | Comments (2)
October 02, 2007
The future
World population is projected to hit 7 billion by 2015 or so, according to the UN (pdf). I remember when the population hit 6 billion. I was in college then. We're already at 6.6 billion right now, and I have to say that the world does not feel any more crowded than it did a decade ago.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 09:07 PM | Comments (0)