22 December 2016

Dreams Awakening


Yesterday seemed like an awakening...

I have a goofy tradition of having whoopie pies with the family whenever I publish something, whether story, poem, or essay.

We had whoopie pies yesterday but not because I published anything. It was in celebration for finally finishing a poem I had been working on for a while--sixteen years, to be exact..

It's a novel-length poem involving Dream. I began the piece back in 2000, planning to work on it every couple of months. I soon fell into the habit of working on it every Sunday. So once a week, no matter what else I had going on, I wrote on the poem. It became my touchstone work, the paragon that prepared me for all my other writing throughout the days, weeks, months, and years. Originally, I figured the poem would take about a decade to finish. It ended up taking just a few years longer than that.

Still, finishing felt like an awakening...

However, I should clarify: I finished the first draft yesterday. I expect it shall take me two or three years more, working every Sunday, to edit it and compose the final draft. Perhaps it might even take longer. 

Another awakening awaits...

Nevertheless, when I do ultimately finish, I plan on sharing with my family another delicious batch of whoopie pies!


 
Image from www.foodista.com

 (These are not the whoopie pies I made. Mine were devoured before I could snap a good picture!)








30 November 2016

Within the Classroom Walls

I developed a Literacy Project for my degree in Library Science, and I've had the opportunity to begin implementing it in a local middle school class. It involves an author study of Ray Bradbury, a close reading of "The Veldt," performances of the play version of the story, and the creation of book trailers based on a chosen piece of Bradbury's work.

So far, the pupils have reacted fantastically to the unit. All but one did not recognize Ray Bradbury's name before we began. Now, many are clamouring to get their hands on his writing. Dark Carnival, and Fahrenheit 451 seem to be among the most popularly sought. Most students, it seems, love "The Veldt." It's proven quite the engaging tool for enhancing literary interest among the class.  

As we focus on the theme of technology's impact on human relationships and mindsets and behavior, it has been an educational delight to witness students engage with the writing of a true master, and even rather startling to behold them filling the room, like a technological veldtland itself, with their ideas and perspectives.

This is why I got into education.


Anyhow,  developing the unit, I came across a terrific rendition of Leonard Nimoy narrating "The Veldt."
Enjoy it at this link: https://archive.org/details/01TheVeldt

(Made available by the Internet Archive)



                                                                                    (image from morguefile.com)

30 October 2016

A Tale for the End of October


In honour of October's end, here are a few links to a story perfect for sharing near All Hallows' Eve:
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving.




Print Versions
From Project Gutenberg -
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving --
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41 
(Includes various electronic versions)

The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving --
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2048 
(Includes other stories from the original publication) 

From Ibiblio.com
http://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Irving/Sleepy/Irving_Sleepy.pdf

Audio versions
From Librivox -
https://librivox.org/the-legend-of-sleepy-hollow-by-washington-irving/

From Audible.com
http://www.audible.com/t2/title?asin=B00N0ETQO4&source_code=GO1GB907ESH060513&mkwid=sDWF1MZhL_dc&pcrid=152668752708&pmt=e&pkw=legend%20of%20sleepy%20hollow%20audio&cvosrc=ppc.google.legend%20of%20sleepy%20hollow%20audio&cvo_campaign=GS_CTA%7CAudio+-+Exact&cvo_crid=152668752708&Matchtype=e&cvo_placement=&gclid=CPjV8ri_g9ACFQqPfgodyjECug

From Youtube -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQtoiB-Xn9I


Kids' Versions

From Youtube -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qrfTSnfGHE
(Illustrated)  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h919stdxffs
(Narrated by Glenn Close)


Here also is a link that lists various versions available, including that perennial favourite,
the Walt Disney animated picture, released as part of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad --
https://archive.org/search.php?query=legend%20of%20sleepy%20hollow


Enjoy.
But still...Mind Your Heads!

29 September 2016

Free Downloads of Three Line Poetry

Prolific Press has made the entire catalogue of Three Line Poetry available for free download in pdf format via this link: free issues.

Engaging, expressive, profound: the verses to be found in Three Line Poetry cover a range of ideas, perspectives, and emotions. Highly recommended for enjoyable, quick-hitting reading.

Check out issue #35 for one of my poems. Issue 35

Enjoy!

21 August 2016

One Year To Go!

Only one year to go until the total solar eclipse on the 21st of August, 2017. 

And I will be watching from my own front step here in Casper, Wyoming. 

In fact, my house is just a few hundred yards from the exact centerline. Baily's Beads--a phenomenon created by sunlight casting through the "mountains" of the Moon around its ringed edge, with the last bead leading to the "diamond ring" effect--should be plainly visible. Plus, totality should start at around 11:42 a.m. and last for nearly two and a half minutes. 

I have anticipating this spectacular occurrence for over twenty years, ever since I first learned back in the nineties that Casper would lie in the path of a total eclipse in 2017.

So, once more, I would like to invite folks to my home. For viewing, I have a spacious yard and even a low-pitched roof. We'll have enough eclipse glasses for the whole neighbourhood. We also plan to have food and drinks and games for the kids! (How about "Pin the Moon on the Sun"? Each player wears a blindfold and tries to pin a black disk on a white disc. Closest one to "totality" wins a prize.)

Casper's hotels are already booked to capacity. Anyone from out of town is welcome to stay at my place. It's not much to offer, but folks could pitch tents in my yard. Any way I can help friends come to watch.

The only aspect I dread is the weather. Wyoming's late-August skies have a better-than-fair chance of shining bright and clear. But whatever the clouds, I plan to stand right here in my yard and keep gazing up.

No matter what, it promises to be spectacular. 


Below are some excellent resources for more information on next year's eclipse.


Eclipse2017.org

http://www.eclipse2017.org/2017/path_through_the_US.htm

http://www.eclipse2017.org/2017/states/WY.htm

http://www.eclipse2017.org/2017/communities/states/WY/Casper_1854.htm

Interactive Map: http://www.eclipse2017.org/xavier_redirect.htm

Further Links: http://www.eclipse2017.org/2017/links.htm

****


Great American Eclipse - 2017

http://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/eclipse-2017/

http://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/wyoming/


****
Space.com
http://www.eclipse2017.org/2017/path_through_the_US.htm

****

NASA
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle2001/SE2017Aug21Tgoogle.html

31 July 2016

Deadlines

Maybe I should start giving myself deadlines for my poetry and fiction writing.

I just finished a harrowing summer semester course for my master's program -- Administering and Evaluating Program Resources. A 16 week course compacted into 8, it proved to be the toughest semester of my college experience, with one 3-credit class requiring more work of me than when I was taking 24 credits my first few semesters. The weekly assignments were enough to keep me busy at my computer for hours a day themselves, but then we also had four major projects to complete: an advocacy plan, a grant proposal, a needs assessment, and a school library manual. Each one was rigourous enough alone. Together, though, they demanded every spare waking moment of my attention over the span of the semester. Nevertheless I learned more about administering an effective library program, and about what it takes to be a good school librarian, than I could have ever expected before I began the course.

I also learned that I can write a 5-6 page paper in a single day--and even be pleased with the results. 

Writing fiction, it was always my goal to write 4 pages per day, or around a thousand words. Away back before I started college, that goal remained elusive, but I reached it every once in a while. Now, my goal is just to keep present pieces moving forward, even if it's a single sentence or stanza. Some days, I'm happy just to make important notes. Whatever it takes to maintain measurable progress. That is thanks, in part, to having to concentrate my efforts on my schoolwork, forsaking my "real" writing for the sake of assignments. School has all but ruined me for my literary endeavours. 

And yet, perhaps it has been helping me. Even though I am not a fast, fluid typist, I am improving. More crucially,  I am also getting better at letting my ideas flow freer so that I can reach the end goal of a finished report or paper. It's deadlines. Deadlines are helping me refine my writing ability.

Now, with only two semesters to go until I earn my master's degree, I am more excited than ever to be finished so I can fully return to my fiction and poetry writing and really start getting some good work done. I expect whole new era of production. A renewed wellspring of words. To ensure it, however, I'd better not let myself get lackadaisical. I have to keep striving for challenging goals. And I ought to keep imposing on myself my own "encouraging" deadlines.

27 June 2016

Summer Institute

I just got back into town last night from a trip to North Dakota.

I attended the Summer Institute at Valley City State University. I don't mention it often on this blog, but I am a teacher, and I am also studying to earn a Master's of Education Degree with a concentration in Library and Information Technologies. VCSU's Summer Institute is basically a collection of librarians and educators gathering together to work on issues involving school libraries.

This past weekend, we networked, we collaborated, and we broadened or perspectives and deepened our understanding of how to be more effective teacher-librarians. We studied guided inquiry in particular along with how MakerSpaces can enhance the library and enrich learning. We helped a librarian in Jamestown, ND, arrange a couple of her elementary libraries. We had video conferences and guest speakers. We had dinner with the University president, and we met the North Dakota State Librarian. It was a full schedule, and I learned quite a lot.

My family went with me to Valley City. But while I was off studying with the quire of librarians, my wife took the family to Fargo. It was the twins' first visit to Chuck E Cheese's. Over the weekend, the family also went swimming and playing at the park. I did carve out a moment to visit with them the medicine wheel behind the dorms where we were staying. The setting sun shone bright and brilliant along the lines of stones. Here's more information on the monument: http://medicinewheel.vcsu.edu/.

I'll be going back to Valley City next year...not to attend the Summer Institute, but to graduate.





For further information on the LIT program at VCSU, please visit these links:

Library & Information Technologies (LIT) 

http://www.vcsu.edu/graduate/vp.htm?p=3077

 

VCSU’s M.Ed. library concentration receives national recognition

http://www.vcsu.edu/news/news.htm?id=10150

31 May 2016

Return from the Journey.

My journey to Europe was wonderful.

Having never before even boarded a plane, I drove 4 hours from Casper to Denver just for the dubious privilege of spending 9 hours praying the wind uphold me all the way to Germany. Across North America. By night over the Atlantic. My brother, Brandel, and I finally arrived in Frankfurt and shambled off that winged contraption. We rented a car and tried our luck even further on the Autobahn. We only got lost once.



The Tauber Valley was astonishing. The forests and fields stood full in bloom. Verdant meadows and shining skies. Little villages climbing the hillsides. Gardens. Groves. Centuries-old structures crowded in the hamlets with modern wind turbines turning over the horizons.









We found our little "landhotel" which sat right next to the Tauber River.
Anna, our hostess, was indeed gracious.[http://landhotel-muehlenwoerth.de/]


 


















The beautiful bells in the belfry just up from our place welcomed us again and again and again...


There Brandel and I crashed until early evening when we ventured out to stretch our legs, explore the village, and to locate something to eat.



The nearest open restaurants were a couple of villages south. Refusing to fly all the way to Germany to eat at a place called "Pizza Pie," we decided on a hall across the square. Closed. So, we wandered into the joint next door. Even though we were speaking quietly, our accents gave us away, as two long-haired fellows at the bar asked us if we were American. They hailed from the States too!
That's how we met "the Matts" -- Matt Johnsen and Matt Crooks. Veterans of the annual Keep It True festival, they ended up being our American Ambassadors to KIT as well as to Germany.

By the way, be sure to check out Pharaoh - a fine power metal group out of Pennsylvania.
http://www.solarflight.net/
http://www.mattjohnsen.com/

Anyhow, after eating and drinking a bit, we walked with our new friends to another bar that ended up being closed. (Germany's business hours still confound me.)  Along the walk was when I took the the picture to the right.
 
So then we drove to the next village for the festival's warm-up party which was taking place in an old gymnasium with an open bar and a DJ playing a selection of new and vintage heavy metal. Quite the gathering of metal-heads.


I volunteered to be the driver and so held back from drinking any more. Not much of a hard drinker in the first place, I was also somewhat on edge. Not only was I a stranger in a strange land, I was also in the midst of the final weeks of the spring semester with a few important projects still due in my master's courses. I was having trouble thinking of much else. In fact, I took a whole slough of work along with me that I needed to complete. I did get quite a lot done on the plane rides and in the hotels, but I simply could not relax, could not completely enjoy myself, with so much hanging over my head.


Nevertheless, I understood why I was there. It wasn't to do schoolwork, and it wasn't to remain wary of every moment away from home. It was to see Fates Warning perform "Awaken The Guardian."

We met the band Saturday afternoon.
Jim Matheos. Frank Aresti. Joe Dibiase. Steve Zimmerman. John Arch.

The meet-and-greet was right off to the side near the stage. Bands were playing throughout. Not the best set-up. Over the noise, I could not verily express to each member of the band what the music meant to me nor properly thank them all for their inspiring work. Still, it was an honour to shake each musician's hand and also get all their autographs on my original "Awaken The Guardian" album sleeve.
(http://www.fateswarning.com/)

My brother and I ended up spending most of the festival hanging out by the beer gardens next to the football field up the hill from the hall. We hung out with "the Matts"--Johnsen and Crooks--and we also met lots of other welcoming continentals: Jurgen, Sasha, Angela, Richie, Sophia, Anna, Evelyn, Derr, Steve, and hordes of other festival-goers too numerous to name. I ended up exchanging perspectives on education with a bona fide German English teacher named Sonya. She eventually brought up the idea of having our students start communicating as international pen pals. A terrific learning opportunity which I am working to implement. Everyone we met was wonderfully welcoming, making our experience all the more a pleasure.
Anyway, the crowds seethed heavy metal. My brother, Brandel, kept saying it was like stepping back into 1987. The leather and denim. The long hair. The patches. Seemingly every band name ever conceived emblazoned on every back and every sleeve. Truly, the metal culture remains a thriving beast east of the Atlantic. I thought that my long hair and leather branded me as metal. Perhaps in Wyoming. The music scene in Europe, though, is a place "where everyone is more metal than you."









(http://www.keep-it-true.de/

https://www.facebook.com/keepittruefestival). 









Although the hall, being an old rink, was not built for sonic lucidity, it did contain a magnificent atmosphere, particularly with the balconies.












Heir Apparent was the last band before the headlining show. They got the crowds ready with a terrific performance, and as the final stage was set, the hall began to resonate with anticipation.









The photograph below captures rather well the empyreal experience of beholding Fates Warning perform "Awaken The Guardian."



Honestly...Fates Warning.  "Awaken The Guardian."

Still, beforehand I was a bit concerned. It was not as if these guys had been honing their chops on the road for a few hard-earned months. It was a one-off reunion show. I did not expect perfection. Nevertheless, they came as close as possible. Each player's professionalism, and all together, shone brilliantly.
The performance was phenomenal. The energy. The emotion. Again, although the sound was not excellent in the hall, the concert itself truly was. "Awaken The Guardian" remains a major influence for me, my musical tastes, as well as my writing. It was the album that got me into Fates Warning and progressive metal, as well as into writing poetry and prose. And so it was my honour to witness its performance in such a manner: the people, the place, the moment.
As a matter of fact, the concert took on even more significance, after the main "album" was over, when the band also played a few choice favourites from earlier records. I'm glad someone was paying attention to the date, because it was nothing short of fantastic to behold Fates Warning play the song "Night On Brocken" in Germany on April 30th--never more appropriate for Walpurgis Nacht!


After the show, Brandel and I stood by the doors and watched the amazed look on every face that passed. One guy we met, an American now living in Europe,  when Brandel asked how he liked the show, smiled at us and shook his head and said he cried like a ----- Well, it was obvious he was touched by the performance.

We waited around to see if any band members would come out. We had notions of meeting John Arch and speaking more with him. We had met Frank Aresti some years ago in Denver at a Fates Warning, Queensryche, Dream Theater show; it would have been cool to talk more with him, too. It would have been awesome to speak with any and all of the fellas from Fates Warning. If even just to thank them. However, security crews shut down the venue, and we never did see if, when, where, nor how the band appeared after the show...Alas.


Brandel and I drove back toward our hotel, amazed, astonished, astounded. Perhaps that was why we did not notice our car's headlights were not on. No kidding: flashing us continuously from behind, we got pulled over by a concerned citizen--whom we thought was mad at us for not driving fast enough--and who called the cops on us for being a danger on the road by not having the headlights on in the middle of the night. The cops came. We explained. Thank the Lord, Brandel passed his breath test with a 100%--er, I mean a 0%!


Germany was unforgettable.

But our journey had only just begun.

Next we flew over to Ireland. We met a friendly Irishman called David Whelan on the flight. A hardcore concert-goer who had also attended Keep It True, he gave us all sorts of helpful information and valuable advice for our excursion up and down Ireland. Much obliged, David!


Landing in Dublin, and after being greeted by a jolly old drunk Irishman right outside the airport doors, we rode a bus up to Belfast. From the station, we hauled ourselves and our bags through the downtown streets. We only got lost once.

In Belfast, we attended a Corrosion of Conformity concert at the Limelight. It was Brandel's idea, and I'm glad we did it. Great show. The reunited line-up played much of "Deliverance" along with a few other treasures. The venue was packed. In fact, when we first walked in, I was a wee bit discouraged. The hook-shaped pub did not appear to be particularly well-designed for music performances. But Holy Moly! Was the sound incredible in that little place! And COC delivered a killer show.
After a couple pints, I retired back to the hotel to work on a project for school, but Brandel hung out and ended up meeting Woody Weatherman and Pepper Keenan.

The delicious Irish breakfast the next morning was well worth taking a later bus back down to Dublin.

Another friendly Irishman at the airport's rental agency helped us out and welcomed us "home." We buckled ourselves in the car--steering wheel on the right and passing traffic on the wrong--and carefully wove our way to County Wicklow.

Brandel has been researching over the last few years our family history. He says many of our Hodgins ancestors, before crossing over the Atlantic and becoming dirt farmers in Manitoba and North Dakota, originated from eastern Ireland, the Wicklow area in particular.

The place is breathtaking.










We stayed in Laragh. The River Glenmachnass flowed right outside our window.









 













We drove up the way and visited the Monastic City.
http://www.glendalough.ie/heritage/monastic-city/


(There we also met a textiles vendor called Mick. Another friendly Irishman. He asked if we'd yet had any Guinness in Ireland, saying if we do "you'll be seein' double and feelin' single!" The man was almost too authentic. We did buy a few souvenirs from him, though.)







We wandered around the graveyard.
We walked through the ruins.

In every step, in every breath, the sense of betiding tidelessness...hypnotising, haunting.























































































Our sojourn ended far too soon.


We left the next morning for North America. We are still not sure what in the world was going on in the Toronto airport. What ought to have been a leisurely layover at YYZ metamorphosed into a mad RUSH for the gate. Something was up. We just hoped our plane stayed that way.


Landing in Denver, we finally stepped outside and together shared a moment of true gratitude.
For everything: for the successful journey, for the safe return , the people, the places, the sights, the sounds, the excitement, the exhilaration, even the hurry and the worry, and, of course, the memories.
Then we made our way home.


Such is my humble travelogue.

However...
As wonderful as the journey was, I did not get a whole lot of writing done.

A couple of pieces I have in the works will certainly benefit from genuine details and authentic flavours.

Other than that, though, the most writing I accomplished was for school.
O, well. The influence of every moment remains with me and shall certainly find its way into verses waiting for me to write.



Until then, one last photograph. One of my favourites from the long journey:

[Only a moment from Wyoming...]