My shameless plug.

I have a new blog. Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird is my online notebook for social and literary theory. My goal is to spare readers of my other blogs the drudgery of having to endure my theoretical ramblings.

Changing of the guard.

Once again, my attention is diverted elsewhere. Come join the fun at Spare Winter Hours.

Workblog and other updates.

The second draft of the script has been finished for awhile. I need to add another puzzle or two and crank up the challenge factor and then voilà, I'll be finished. Deadline is Monday.

I almost have all my books for my three distance courses and I pick up the rest tomorrow. The finances are in order, and Lisa was kind enough to do my taxes. I have a doctor and dentist's appointment next week. By Tuesday everything will be completed and I'm surprised by how quickly and efficiently all these predeparture chores were taken care of. I must be a grown-up.

By the way, I saw Hot Fuzz last week and I was very impressed: violent and fast-paced and crammed with references. I recommend it to anyone with a sweet tooth for cop films with improbable premises and over-the-top mayhem. I suppose liking this film negates the "I must be a grown-up" statement. Meh.

Need more coffee.

New look.

Black and green. Let's see how this works out, yes?

Workblog.

The script is finished: yesterday I had a brief meeting with the project heads and they really liked the first draft. The words "hilarious" and "inventive" were tossed around. Normally I feel queasy when I boast about getting such praise, but my self-esteem took a righteous beating recently and I needed the boost. Don't worry, my excessive bragging will stop now.

I'll be finishing the second and final draft this week. Then I can move onto other projects I have lined up. Here's the work currently simmering on the burner:

• A script for a graphic novel. About a quarter done.
• A stage play. The first draft is finished and now I need to put it through a cold reading and some tightening up in a few parts.
• Two short stories. One finished, the other half -finished.
• I've had to put the radio plays out to pasture. That's just how it goes sometimes.
• A friend of mine got this crazy notion to do some animation. Since geography and time is against us at the moment, I really don't know when this will get rolling.
• One article I have swimming in my head.
  

So, what are you folks up to? I'm tired of talking about myself.

Summer school report.

According to Student Financial Services, my standing deferral crisis will be "taken care of," whatever that means. I sent all the appropriate paperwork before the deadline, now I have to sit on my hands and wait for all this to play itself out.

In other news, I completely flunked my French class. I should have known I couldn't absorb five chapters of a French textbook in three weeks. Oh, well. Luckily, grades from summer courses don't count towards the overall GPA, graduate school admissions only look at so many grades and I'm not exactly planning to enter the French graduate program. C'est la vie. I will just have to take the class again, that's all. A minor setback.

I should point out that I'm a little obsessed with my GPA. I wholeheartedly admit it. If I wasn't planning to attend grad school I would just shrug my shoulders and be content with a long string of C's on my transcript. So, yes, I'm counting the numbers this time. In high school I didn't give two shits about my grades. "The wheel is come full circled," quoting Edmund's dying words from King Lear.

Call off the reinforcements.

After running some last-minute errands, my conflict with my school is almost resolved. All my profs have gotten in touch with Financial Services, and my account won't be evaluated until next week. The work I owe from the previous semester is finished, too. I can take a breath now.

Which means I get to enjoy my Shakespeare class at my leisure. Did I mention I'm I have a writing job contract? I'm writing a script for a game that the library will use to teach students how not to plagiarize. Not so terribly exciting but I was given free reign over the format and content.

Tomorrow: attending Robin and Grace's wedding and spending some time with my family.

HELP

Okay, maybe if I blog a to-do list I won't feel so terribly worried. I have a busy summer:

1. Write three papers I owe a semester ago. Two will be done this weekend and the other . . . well . . . with my intensive French class taking all my headspace (which, by the way, I'm not doing so well in) for the next week (it's five days a week for two and a half hours and I have to study for the class every night) so I'm freaking out because . . .

2. . . . I just got this lovely letter from the government stating that I need to have my grades in from the classes I deferred by August 3rd or else I will have to owe them a catastrophic amount of money and possibly threaten future funding.

3. That means I need to contact five profs, tell them to get my grades in by the 3rd (and hoping that they haven't disappeared for the summer) and write three papers (they're not so bad, really - rather short and one of them is almost finished) in time for them to receive said papers, grade them and give me a final mark. I have just over a week to do this.

4. I need a plane ticket back to Ljubljana.

5. I need to extend the storage company looking after our stuff.

I know, this was poorly written and rant-y but I REALLY NEED TO SCREAM TEXTUALLY.

Thank you.