7 Quick Takes Vol. 29: Ceratosaur Punching Edition

1.     Writing’s a funny art: things seem to just kind of happen without your intending them to. Some people take this too far and say things like “but that vital plot element just wasn’t there when I wrote the scene!” but certainly the story takes on a life of its own at times.

This week, completely without any planning, my hero ended up punching a ceratosaurus. 

Just in case you didn't catch that: he punches a ceratosaurus!

I briefly considered renaming the book Ceratosaur Punching: a Novel. I now want to have the blurb on the back cover simply read “the hero punches a ceratosaurus at one point.”

Yeah. Writing is fun.

2.     I am officially determined to leave this job whether or not I find a new one in time; I cannot stand one more year of this job! Hell, I’ll be lucky to make it to June without pulling a “Mr. Poppins” and racing out the door in the middle of a work day (though remembering the fact that I’m the kind of person whose go-to illustration is a seventy-five-year-old Frank Capra movie does provide some comfort).

3.     For those who have seen Office Space, do you remember the scene where the three protagonists go postal on the printer? I’m thinking of asking for that same kind of thing as my final request when I leave the company. Our office printer is my nemesis, and I daily fantasize about taking a sledgehammer to it. 

4.     This week I took the plunge and bought a keyboard. It was on clearance, because apparently it had already been bought and returned once and was not very cleanly repackaged. The keys are much too sensitive, so if my fingers twitch I get two notes, but I’m enjoying it a good deal so far, and I’m learning quickly.

5.     Read this:

http://www.scifiwright.com/2014/01/restless-heart-of-darkness-part-two/

Seriously. Read it. Here is laid out the best dissection of the secular left from a Christian perspective that I have read in a long, long time. I almost feel like I should give up blogging, because this guy said pretty much exactly what I’ve been trying to say. I have got to track down some of this guy’s fiction.

6.     Speaking of reading, if I ever do end up becoming a teacher (which I doubt, though anything’s possible), the very first thing I would have my students read each year is My Bondage, My Freedom by Frederick Douglass. Or perhaps one of his other autobiographies, in any case, Frederick Douglass. I’ve been finally retackling it, having begun it in college but fallen off about half-way with other commitments. Lord, what a man! Not only is his story fascinating and important in itself, but he makes one appreciate the power of reading and writing better than anyone I’ve ever read.

7.     Oh, in other reading news I’ve finally (about six hours in) gotten interested in Jane Eyre. Mr. Rochester rocks! Not ‘Mr. Darcy’ rocks, but pretty close.

Lots more at Conversion Diary. 

 Vivat Christus Rex!