Re-Trey-Set

When my house was broken into last year and my laptop was stolen, it felt like I had lost everything. All of my writing, all of my work, everything. Luckily, some had been backed up to an external drive, and so I kept some of my writings from my childhood, high school, and a couple of classes at TU. But I lost everything I had been working on, including a story about the life of a tree and a story that I'd even submitted for publication about a boy in Antarctica. To say this was demotivating would be grossly understating how I felt. And thus, I have only posted here 4 times since that day, and have stopped writing almost completely.

This semester, I took an extra class that I didn't need for any credits, but because it had been highly recommended to me by several professors. The class was Russian European Cinema (I know, very film-snobbish of me), and the teacher was Yevgeny Yevtushenko. For those who do not know who him, he is considered one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, if not THE best Russian poet during his time (don't believe me? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Yevtushenko). He introduced us to essentially most of his favorite films, typically dealing with a post-WWII world (which he was born into). We had to write short film reports about some aspect of the film and how it affected us and turn those in the next week.

He read three of my reports in front of the class, and also complimented me on my writing nearly every time that I saw him. In his own words, "You have a gift for knowing how to say something in the most beautiful ways." At the end of the semester, I gave him several of my previous works (which I will post on here in due time) and asked for my email address.

Now I am excited, rearing to go, desiring to write more than I have in years. Losing many contest entries, still being unpublished and losing my laptop crushed my spirit, but now I am ready to churn out the words and move forwards from my creative slump. The only question is, are you willing to read what I have to say? That I can never truly know, but honestly, I don't care. I want to write, and now with my school career finally wrapping up and my professional career in limbo, I'll take advantage of the down time between applications and interviews to write, write some more, and hopefully blow everyone away. In the eternal words of a fellow Robert, "I am ready!"



What this means for the blog is a miniature reset of sorts. I will generally be keeping the same format, but I have a couple of new monthly series that I want to do as well, so my blogging schedule is as follows:


Monday:
Ginseng for the Soul returns with a weekly dose of poetry and humor to get you ready to go for the week. You know you need it (I know I do).


Tuesday:
On the FIRST Tuesday of the month, This Is a Football will be covering what happened the month before or looking ahead to what the next month will bring in the world of football (usually NFL, but hey, isn't soccer called football technically?).

On the THIRD Tuesday of the month, 451 Kindlings will fire up your week with a review of either a new book that I think you should read, or a reminiscing of the great books I have read before.


Wednesday:
On the SECOND Wednesday of the month, I will be reviewing TV shows (mainly those available on Netflix and Amazon Prime) in a new series called Burning Binges. Be ready to learn about new shows to binge on!

On the FOURTH Wednesday of the month, video games will be played and reported on by yours truly in another new series titled No Pain, No Game. I've been debating making this a video series in the future, so be on the lookout for that (or comment and let me know which you'd prefer!)


Thursday:
I have moved an old series here (Flashback Fridays) and rebranded it Throwback Thursdays, since that's what all the cool kids seem to be saying nowadays. So here I will review old films initially as a much-delayed continuation of Revisiting the Movies, but within the next few months I will be interrupting this series (yet again) to post about my Top 50 Films of All Time. I would start this now, but I've got a dozen or so films that I want to see first before I post these again for the first time in 3 years.


Friday:
Yes, it's back, my most-popular series, The Should, the Could and the Empty! I will post movie reviews here (by hopefully seeing them the night before on Thursday so that you know what to see) and let you know what should and should NOT be seen.


Saturday:
Here is MY favorite series, The Writer Within, where on the FIRST Saturday of every month, I will post one of my short stories or essays for you to read and enjoy! I hope.


Sunday:
Finally, the reliable Retrospections will appear hear to remind you of what writing you may have missed, providing links so that you can right those wrongs.


And as always, I reserve the right to post Flubberghasts, or random posts about random things, including opinions or short lists. In addition, there will occasionally be more than one The Should, the Could and the Empty in one week, so I will post the extra one whenever it pleaseth me. That's the lowdown on my blog reset, and I look forward to writing for you all in the coming days! Until then, read through some of my old stuff and enjoy!