Incite Full

Well it’s been an interesting few days. I’ll start off by saying that the Celtics had better win tonight (or their next game, I suppose) or else I’m going to be getting a little bit antsy. After 2 softball games tuesday, I headed out to the bars with some friends to catch the last quarter or so of the game, and it was just an ugly slugfest. Only the slugs weren’t baskets, they were blatant fouls and flops- not exactly the historic and marquee matchup that the NBA wanted.

Regardless, I will watch. Speaking of watching, the Top Chef finale aired yesterday. If you don’t want to know, leave now-

Ok, so Top Chef finally has a female winner. And I shit you not I honestly thought Lisa was going to win it all. I felt dejected when Richard admitted he choked, and sick to my stomach (which was full of delicious pho) telling my roommate that Lisa was going to win- neither of us wanted to hear that. So imagine my decadent delight when Stephanie’s name was called. Oh Padma, that news coming from you makes it all the better. It was interesting to me, the initial challenge, which allowed the contestants to choose their sous chefs from a trio of culinary all-stars. I knew this season pretty well, and could predict exactly who would take what chef- obviously the show knew this as well, and went ahead with it. That’s cool.

Watching the individual courses was akin to tying my shoes with bloody fingers. It was messy, nerve-wracking, and often times painful. Oh Blaze- why dind’t you sear the shit out of that pork? You would have made me so much happier. Sigh.

Anyways, There is much more in my world than Top Chef. I’ve been working on a project at NASA for almost the entirety of my time here (no small feat as I have 10 different “projects”). Unfortunately earlier in the week we got confirmation that our funding has been cut. When I first heard of this, I felt like shit- it’s my favorite project to work on currently, and now no one will ever see it. But it’s gone now, and I’ll have to find some work to do (not hard) that I hopefully enjoy (a lot harder).

I’m saving my revelation for last, and I guess that’s now. I’ve been up to my balls in writing lately, between class and writing down all of those little things you think about during the day that you never remember. It’s fun, and after reading my ‘classmates’ samples, I am even more convinced that I can do this. But it’s hard to write something so… big, sometimes. And that’s where reading and learning comes in.

Think of famous works you’ve read. That author didn’t sit down and write that bitch out in a sitting. Hell, Atlas Shrugged took 7 years of writing for Ayn Rand to figure out. Granted it’s 1000+ pages (that’s less than half a page a day), but the idea still stands. Writing a great work, full of symbolism and imagery is a lot harder than it is made to seem.

In high school, we pull apart pieces to find the symbols the author used. We extrapolate meaning, and assign intention to it as if it were plain as day, black and white truth. This is not how books are written. Writers write down something, anything, and don’t stop. After a while, they read what they wrote, and get rid of most of it. Maybe a line in 6 sheets gives some direction to the author, who the hell knows- I’m not there yet. But anyways, they keep doing this, and subconsciously, themes start to emerge. Hopefully the author is quick enough to recognize this and start to use it, flesh it out, outline the important parts of the sketch he’s created, and allow us to see a glimpse of what his mind is trying to say. That’s all you can do.

It makes me feel a lot better about writing without knowing where I am going. All I need is the next 6 feet in front of me and I’ll get somewhere, I just have to trust myself to get there.

“Life being what it is, one dreams of revenge.”