Philip Pullman (b.1946)

1 High-Brow, -11 Violent, 3 Experimental and 3 Cynical!

Philip Pullman was already a prominent author of children's books when he published his most praised work to date, the trilogy known as His Dark Materials (1995-2000). In this work, set both in parallel worlds and our own, Pullman made a courageous attempt to write a book for young readers which incorporated a whole vision of the universe, as well as a discussion of ethical issues. He managed to combine this with a burst of thought-provoking and entertaining imagination, bringing to life a Europe where the church is still in control, "souls" that have been externalized as animal presences, intelligent, sentient polar bears and much more. The series have been described as a sort of "anti-Narnia", as Pullman's attempt to write an updated variant of the kind of books C S Lewis, whom Pullman has criticized for having racist, misogynistic and preaching tendencies, wanted to write. His Dark Materials has also spawned some controversy among Christians, who see the the work as an attack against Christianity, Pullman being one of Britain's most outspoken atheists. Other Christians have, however, claimed to have found spirituality in the books.

Either way, Pullman's combination of renewal and expansion of the genre, his profound messages on the value of life and his refusal to under-estimate his young readers' ability to see life as it is makes Pullman one of the most interesting and important writers of modern fantasy.

You are also a lot like Tove Jansson.

If you want something some action, try Gene Wolfe.

If you'd like a challenge, try your exact opposite, J R R Tolkien.

http://www.helloquizzy.com/tests/which-fantasy-writer-are-you

I'm interested in going to see this movie on July 10th. It will be at

The Magnolia
West Village
3699 McKinney Avenue, Suite 100
Dallas, TX 75204
(214) 764-9106

The official website is http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/bloodthelastvampire/

Who wants to go?

Here are my final grades for spring 09. Sadly enough the ending of the semester only reinforced my belief that I can procrastinate until 24 hours before the project is due and still turn in something get earns an A. I just need to work on not being late on some assignments. (Late not because I procrastinated too long and wasn't able to finish in time but late because I just didn't keep up with when they were due.)

LIT PUNK TO CYBERSPACE: CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF POP CULTURE A
ARTS THEORY & PRACTICE OF VISUAL ARTS B
COMM INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION A
ARTS ADVANCED DESIGN: SIX NAME OF BEAUTY B

After pulling an all-nighter last night I completed two of my art projects and one 10 page paper. The paper has been turned in but I haven't received confirmation. I have received grades on the art projects. It looks like I should have a B in my "Six Names of Beauty" class. It looks like I might need to pull another before the semester ends. Bah! I'm tired.

I was googling my name and fell across someone else with my name (but Keith for the middle name) born around 1942 who is an army vet. Apparently there is also someone else out there with my name but I haven't isolated yet whether that is my father or someone else.

You can get your minds out of that gutter and read the article linked below.
>a href="http://media.www.utdmercury.com/media/storage/paper691/news/2009/04/13/News/Onomatopoeia.Attacks.Apathy.With.Improvisation-3707568.shtml">Onomatopoeia attacks apathy with improvisation</a>

Onomatopoeia will have a few additional improvisations before the spring semester ends, George said. He hinted at an event to come at the end of April, potentially involving roaming hordes of the undead.

"There's a phrase, 'if you can't beat them, join them'," George said. "Perhaps the best way to cure apathy is to have a group of students walking around like there is no life on campus.

1. Run around buying everything that you might need.
2. Begin Packing.
3. Run back out to purchase something you forgot.
4. Drink
5. Pack more.
6. Drink
7. Calm down thinking everything is fine. 3 checked bags will be fine. Only $100 more.
8. Panic when realize each extra bag is $130 U.S. dollars.
9. Frantically repack everything into 1 bag.
10. Sigh Happily and Drink.
11. Realize the other person is now 30 minutes late from when we were supposed to be at the airport.
12. Sit back and relax cause there isn't anything else you can do.
13. Except Drink.

My frustration has lessened with the federal government as I know have my passport. It has transferred though to Nash County. Apparently even though I specifically requested a Birth cert with the proper stamps and paid for it they only sent me the generic copy. That is why the whole passport thing was held up.

I've also stopped playing WOW. My temp account expired. While I am tempted to purchase a subscription as WOW is a decent time waster I'm having a problem justifying the $60 for the subscription when I don't find the game all that entertaining. Too much time spent killing the same thing over and over again without much challenge. That and too much time spent walking around just trying to get somewhere. I also did not get to play with any of the friends on the server.

Today is a day of D&D at the Area 51 game shop. It should be fun.

I am cheesed off at my government. Specifically the Houston Passport Agency. Outside of my incredulity at the fact that an actual birth certificate is required. Apparently something about either the zerox of my driver's license or the birth cert. I paid a Nash County for is insufficient for them to grant me a passport. Now I have to mail them photocopies of easily obtained and fake-able documents to prove I'm a citizen. This is after I paid twice the normal rate to have delivery of my passport expedited. And to find out what is wrong with the submitted documents and to request a refund now that my passport is not expedited I have to send them a letter.

*sigh*

I control how I feel and I decide not waste energy in futile frustration. So There Houston Passport Agency!

Unlike Monday I've made some accomplishments today. Laundry is clean and folded. One of the books in one class is now as read as it will ever be, at least by me. And I'm writing this entry. woohoo.

Still haven't presented my Who Am I speech that I thought was due over a week ago. She says Thursday for sure but I'm not so certain. Outside of that the class is interesting at least.

In Cultural Critique (Punk to Cyberspace) I'm beginning to understand more of the point to the who debour and Boulliard philosophies. So far though whenever they get into examples I'm still dissatisfied.

Both art classes are dragging on. Perhaps it will eventually get interesting. Otherwise I'll have to find some outside projects to keep me going.

Hopefully my sister isn't having too bad a time of it and my prayers are going out that she get better.

That is all. Move Along. move along.

This weekend I failed to call folks on Valentine's day like I planned. I got to the game late on Saturday and it took an hour longer to finish than it should have. Thankfully everyone had a good challenging time. I've installed WOW for a trial run to see if the game has become any more interesting but I still can't justify $13 a month to play it. We shall see how that goes.

I plan on getting laundry done today, reading some texts, improving and practicing my speech, and perhaps spreading my culture jam around on the internet a bit more. Though I'll likely end up playing to much WOW and watching Torchwood with Janice.

In reverse order I finally made it to Kroger's so I have grocers. On the delicatessen's recommendation I now have some nice London broil for sandwiches. Before that was the Six Names of Beauty class. Another rambling discussion of meaningless aspects of beauty. Thankfully there were some slides of art to make things educational. Before that was a practice session with Professora Lingo on the Who Am I Speech? I need more practice.

I also now have my digicam in the shop. Hopefully I'll have it back by Monday. My 2nd class of the day, Critical Culture Analysis of Pop culture, was a waist of time. The second half of class presented their culture jams. finally my first class of the day was as entertaining as ever but didn't cover anything I didn't already know. At the end I did recover my text book which was good.

That recaps the day.

After slowly overcoming a massive allergy attack I did manage to research where to have my camera fixed. In order to get it fixed I have to have a fully charged battery. That necessitated finding first the battery and then the charger. In the process I stumbled across some other odds and ends that I was looking for. I also managed to get out and see Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. Ignoring the poor screen quality the movie was okay. I had some issues with character actions and the design of their fortress. That and the immortal vampires who have been training in combat for around 40 years at least being easily taken down by peasants with swords who, while werewolves, had not actually changed into werewolves yet. Bah.

Woke up to another headache morning. Once it is gone I need to head over to National Tire and Battery so they will fix the wobbly tire they installed. Then it is off to a camera repair place so I can use my digital camera in class. I'm sure there is something else I wanted to do but right now I'm drawing a blank.

I'm also going to the movies today. I will see a movie. If anyone wants to come along give me a call and we can set a time and pick a movie.

Sadness. I managed to forget to upload my paper before my last class. Hopefully I'll manage this evening.

Well today so far has at least been productive. Yesterday was spent writing a paper that was due this morning. There was a brief interruption for lunch with Janice and a trip to Vintage Clothes in Plano. Good place to visit for Amtgard garb and costumes in general. I can tell I'm getting older as over $70 for a threadbare mini-frock coat didn't even cause me to bat an eye. After that I finished my paper and vegged. Even though I needed to write a speech for this morning I just couldn't summon the willpower. I think to myself "It's short. I've written the same thing before. I can do it in the morning."

So I wake up this morning at 3 like normal but instead of going back to sleep peacefully I have a series of disturbing dreams that I can no longer remember now. By 5:00 I finally get up to write the speech. I spend an hour or so doing my normal wake up and face the day activities. By 9:00 I've finished the speech and practiced it a few time. To avoid the risk of arriving at class late and interrupting someone else's speech I show up early. And what do I learn when I arrive? No, class wasn't canceled, exactly. Yes, you guessed it. The speech isn't due until next Tuesday. Amusingly enough Ms. Lingo also thought the speeches were today and was feeling guilty at having to postpone them as she had been volunteered for a speech at 11:00. So even though class wasn't canceled it was cut short to only 30 minutes.

Now I'm a bit hungry and don't have my next class until 11:30. I wander around looking for a breakfast joint and instead end up at la Madeleine. Only sorta a breakfast but decent food. Now it is back to class where I realize I failed to upload my paper as a I needed. Thankfully the due date has been pushed back to midnight tonight. While everyone is sitting there joking around and such I notice a student taking some sign up outside the door. *le sigh* I just know class is canceled. And it is. Amusingly enough the sign makes special mention that it isn't a Culture Jam. Class truly is canceled.

So now I get to have lunch with Becky and pick up a tail light bulb for my car. Not as laborious a process as I feared but no where near as easy and fixing the headlights. So here we are at the NOW. It is starting to storm outside and I need to work up the energy to go to Advanced Design. I'm tired and the class is only a work day but I should go regardless. Who Knows.

My last week of pure vacation before school and work resume has largely been hijacked by illness. I started out with DayTime to over come my cold. Unfortunately it only suppressed the symptoms without curing anything. Then I switched to some old TheraFlu for Cold and Cough which has almost completely cleared up my cough. Unfortunately it moved everything up to my sinuses. Suck! Now I've picked up new TheraFlu that covers all the bases. Hopefully things will be better by tomorrow.

For the past two days I've been oh so busy finishing up projects for my final two classes. Sunday I created almost nine monoprints (one shot prints made from ink on a glass plate run through printing press) for Mixed Media. They are essentially finished but I'll probably add something to them (which would make them not monoprints).

Tonight I've been working on the outside of class compressed charcoal drawing for Figure Drawing. I'll likely be doing the same tomorrow night as well else I might not get it finished in time. I'm finally starting to enjoy the mess that is charcoal.

Driving home from school was a mild adventure thanks to the icy roads. I fooled around a bit on Synergy Parkway but played it safe the rest of the way home.

As far as my other classes I did not fully finish my 2-D animation final project but I've received an A- in the class regardless. In Intermediate Painting I failed to finish one painting and the second wasn't finished until the evening of the day it was due (yes, that means it was late). Taddy accepted it anyone and displayed it in the end of fall student show. I also had my three week live model figure drawing up and the architectural mixed media piece displayed.

I'll let you know what the grades are in those classes once I receive them.