Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Paying for success, lazy writing, a few good things

The heat isn't working in my prehistoric office building so excuse my typos because my fingers are ice cubes. It's warmer outside than in here. You can bet our campus president isn't freezing his buns off right now.

Which reminds me of the fact that all the downsizing that will be occurring on my campus will involve cutting back on students and teachers. Not one administrator will lose a job or get a pay cut. Read more about it here if you like your blood to boil. We have been so successful at San Jose State that now, yes, we must pay for it.

Oh, but I'm not done ranting. I've never been a fan of The L Word and haven't watched it in a long time, but a friend of ours had a "let's watch the last episode party" otherwise known as the Dead Jenny Party. The L Word writers have been borrowing all season on the anachronistic laurels of the "Who Shot J.R.?" crew by leading-on viewers all season with the juicy fact that Jenny is killed--and the implication that the murderer would be unveiled in the last show.

We had to sit through an hour of anorexics with bad hair mouthing horrid dialogue to discover ... a trick ending. No, not a surprise (surprises are good) but a trick (tricks are the result of lazy writing). Thank goodness there were smart, beefy lesbians at the party and good food and drink; otherwise it would have been a waste of an hour of my living time.

The students in my fiction class this semester write stories a zillion times more engaging than anything on TV these days. Truly, there are some rockin' writers in that class. It's been a blast so far.

That said, I always find spring semester more of a trial than fall semester. The fall is easier, coming in off the energy of summer. All spring I keep looking over the hump of the week for the good weather and all that luxurious time off. I know all of you who get 2 weeks off a year feel just so sorry for me.

My morning writing sessions have been going so well (knock on wood) to the point where I'm actually enjoying writing again. Imagine that. Which is another reason I can't wait for summer because spending hours on end in the world of my novel with little else pressing is, well, heaven.

3 comments:

Lisa Nanette Allender said...

Hi Kate, wow--SJSU and their cuts being "justified" really DOES make blood boil(sigh).
They're very fortunate to have you--smart, savvy, dedicated, and inspiring!
Geez.
I did not watch L-Word until about 3 seasons in, and then I watched a lot of the FIRST Season.(MY cuz and her partner are rabid fans, and encouraged me to watch. A few of the women on the show are hot, but I, too, like larger women, and the show seems to have an awful lot of stick-thin grrls. It's really unattractive. Women should look like women. ;)

Collin Kelley said...

Email me and tell me what the trick ending was about Jenny. I got rid of premium cable so I didn't watch a single episode this season. Last season was terrible, even with Pam.

Brandon said...

are universities really cutting back?