Discoveries Unbounded

We are now into the second month of The Year of Discovery and already I am immersing myself in a plethora of new activities. For instance, I have started a new part time job at my local chapter of The Boys & Girls Club. This new job entails taking over their Aldebaran Robotics program for middle and high school students. This robot, named NAO, is a fully programmable bipedal robot capable of everything from holding a conversation, to breakdancing. I'll be sure to post some more about this soon.

I've also stumbled across a program for fledgling writers called NaNoWriMo.

I love this logo.

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Every November, hundreds of thousands of people attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in just thirty days. Just the mere thought of this piqued my interest. I am attempting to get my school on board with this idea so that in November we can hold write-ins in the library and really get the students involved in creative writing. I have also been able to team up with two local libraries to get the community involved as well. While I have been facing a little bit a resistance, it seems to center around two notions.

1.) Why do you have to wait until November? You can write a novel at any time...
2.) NO ONE can write a novel in a month. If they do, it is trash anyway.

While I agree that if you have an idea for a novel you certainly do not need to wait until November to start writing it, I also feel that some people need something to help them set a goal. The pressure of a deadline can do wonders for the psyche. Furthermore...

Of course you cannot write a novel in a month. Yes, if you do, its probably going to a amorphous pile of strange and twisted ideas. It will also have a boatload of grammatical errors. The point being that achieving the goal is more important than the content of said writing. In fact, the editing and review process is part of the eleven months (or beyond) afterward to really flesh out your ideas. This is an amazing opportunity to be able to work with a group of people (both locally and through the internet) on improving not only one's writing, but also their thought processes.

Personally, I know of at least ten students who would salivate over this even more than I am right now. Of course, if only there were a way to speed up the months until November.

Enter....

Camp NaNoWriMo!!!

Camp NaNoWriMo is a sort of online summer camp that takes place in the months of April and July. During these sessions, writers young and old can attempt to write 50,000 words during the month. The best part about this program is that members are allowed to pick their word goal. If 50,000 words is just simply too many, one can choose a goal that is more suited to their level. I will be doing Camp NaNoWriMo this April and hopefully recruiting some peers and students to take the challenge with me. This will serve as a good trial run in the hopes that this can become a regular program at our school. 

I already have a pretty good idea for my novel. Getting it down on Google Docs... well that's another story.

For those interested, here is a few starting points.

1. NaNoWriMo
2. Camp NaNoWriMo
3. Aldebaran Robotics

Bee's Book Reviews: Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk

Welcome to the first (and hopefully not last) of my book reviews. Before I jump into this I should mention that this is exactly what I am going to do.... jump into it. This will be a trial run of reviews and it should be noted that it may be: incomplete, inconsistent, nonsensical, etc. As with many things, practice makes perfect. It should also be noted that I am also not feeling 100% today. More than likely, I am coming down with another famous winter bug. Regardless, perhaps some literary expression on my part will have a secondary healing process. More than likely, though, it won't.

I digress.

I have been setting a series of goals for 2014. One of these is to really get back into reading. I have set a massively insane goal of reading 100 books this year. I realize that for some, this goal is most certainly attainable. The fact that I am a teacher of English should also make this much easier.

It won't.

I will try my best to deliver a review without spoiling story elements for potential readers. I will then rate each book from 1-5 certain items that may or may not fill the mood. This review, being a test of sorts, will be completely impromptu. I will attempt not to edit as much as I am attempting to create a baseline for future reviews.

The first in this list of 100 books is Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris.

Not being an avid Sedaris reader, I was not certain what to expect. In fact, the first time I had heard about this author was through the teacher I was working with during my student teaching in 2009. He told me to get all of his books because they were the best he had ever read. I, of course, stated my overall interest in getting these books that were so vehemently suggested. I found this one, about a year later, in the bargain bin at my local Barnes & Noble. I figured it was worth the couple of bucks and was totally digging the cover. The illustrations contained within contain the same sort of whimsical animals engaging in human situations. It took me about four years to finally take it off the bookshelf and read it. It was quite short and I got through it in little over a day. 

The book itself is split into numerous short stories that are reminiscent of Aesop's Fables in an unusual way. Each story, meant to have some sort of moral by the end, are only a few pages long. After reading the first of these stories, I had a good chuckle. Few books give me that sort of "laugh out loud" sort of reaction that this one did. I was excited to dig a little deeper into this one.

Unfortunately, as I progressed, the stories moved from a sort of lighthearted humor to something much more dark. Many play with the notion on how humans treat each other and some actually made me uncomfortable. There is still that comedic undertone that comes with each story, but it is followed by a period of what I can only describe as self-loathing towards my species. The animals in each story have distinctly pronounced human foibles. Examples include a hen with a enormous lack of self-confidence and a hairdressing, compulsively lying baboon. As previously stated, it is assumed that there is some lesson learned by the character at the end of each story... even if that character is left a bloody heap of flesh by the end. 

At times, however, it seemed that no moral is present and the character just dies. There is quite a bit of death imagery in this book. I did enjoy how Sedaris poked fun at death as well as life with everyday situations. I could actually relate to some of these stories on some level. Admitting this is just making me more uncomfortable.

Cat and Baboon

The book is written with large font and interesting illustrations by Ian Falconer. In my opinion, the illustrations become increasingly more uncomfortable as you progress. This may have been planned to induce laughter, but just made me uncomfortable. In fact, for the first time that I can remember, finishing this book and setting it down left me with an extremely uncomfortable feeling. I wasn't sure how to reflect, if at all, about its events or morals. 

I give Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris "Three Rhinoceroses" for reasons that you will understand if you take the time to read it. If you are looking for a quick and interesting read, I suggest picking this one up. Just be warned that it evoked some certainly strange reactions out of me... I have been informed by a co-worker that Sedaris's audiobooks of his works where he, himself, narrates are usually better than actually reading them. If I get my hands on the audiobook, I shall give it a listen.