Back and Blogging

Since I last posted, I have obtained a fairly useless Masters degree (yes, I did eventually overcome that writer's block for my multi-genre thesis), and I have gotten married. In fact, I have been married for over two months now and have felt thoroughly catapulted into crazy/wonderful/difficult/beautiful world of matrimony. I love it! I love the husband! I'm learning a lot and God has been abundantly faithful to both of us. I never expected marriage to be easy, and it isn't always, but I know it's going to refine me to be more like Jesus like nothing else in my life will. And praise the Lord for that!

I just spent the last two hours or so playing with the blog customization tools, and finally came up with a look that I'm more or less satisfied with. I tend to be fairly ADD about stuff like that, so expect relatively frequent changes with my mood. For now though, the book shelves make me happy.

Anyway, rather than write about what I eventually intend to write about, I would like to enumerate what I hope to use this blog for, and what I don't want to use it for. I say this mostly to encourage accountability; you'll see why shortly.

So here is what I hope to use this blog for:
1. Life Updates: It's fun to catch people up. I love reading about other people's lives. Mine is more or less interesting, and even when it's not interesting, the mundane can at the very least be mutually comforting.

2. Opinion Forum: I've got strong opinions, and a desire to share them and discuss them. I get a little sick of the Facebook soundbites and petty arguments, so I figure this might be a spot to (a) explain myself more thoroughly and (b) let people choose whether or not they want to know or discuss my opinion, rather than always broadcasting it via Facebook status update so that everyone is forced to swallow it.

3. Jesus Musings: I'd call this "religious musings" but the word religious has a bad taste in my mouth. I'd love a place to share what I'm learning and what God is doing in my life.

4. Creative Writing: Yes! A place to try stuff out in, get feedback on, throw ideas around...you can comment on these posts whether you write creatively or not. But I've been rolling some ideas around like marbles in my brain lately, and this might be a place to see if any of them are any good. (Like that simile...how was that?)

5. Reading Forum: Book discussions! I have a Jane Austen post brewing in my head at the moment...stay tuned!

What I do not want to use this blog for:
1. Angry Ranting: I hope that my blog posts will carefully thought out. I may have a strong emotion about something, but I don't want to use this as a place to say things that should've been dealt with internally and checked for sin before spouting off on them.

2. Gossip/Slander: It's wrong, wherever it occurs. I don't want to talk about individual people or share private matters. This will not be the place for that.

So anyway, if you are a fellow believer, please let me know whether I've crossed a line in this space. I want to be above reproach as much as possible.

A final commenting question, if you would like to respond: What would severe Christian persecution in the United States look like? Give me specifics! This has to do with a fiction idea of mine. :-)

Procrastination: It's an Art Form

I am suffering from acute, and I mean ACUTE senioritis. Or grad student-itis. Whatever you want to call it. I find it very difficult to get even the tiniest bit of motivation to do my homework. All the assignments seem rather the same after awhile. For instance, right now I'm supposed to be writing about a book I read as a child (Just as Long as We're Together by Judy Blume) and my reaction to it now as an adult, which is not an assignment type I've done before, but I really don't want to do it. I just don't. I'll write it out, get a grade slapped on it, and forget about it. I don't think I'm really learning anything anymore in my degree program. I'm just playing the game, getting the grades, and eventually that will all turn into a fancy piece of paper that says I have a Masters.

I admit, I'm somewhat befuddled by some of my teachers, and even my classmates, who are so obsessed with academia. People keep asking me if I'm excited to graduate and have my Masters. Truthfully, the only thing I'm really excited about is the fact that I can be done with school for as long as I please after May (I'll be taking AT LEAST a year off). The Masters doesn't mean a whole lot. It so far hasn't even gotten me terribly far in getting me a decent paying job, so I'm not sure what all the fuss is about.

One big reason I started this blog, aptly titled "Random Thought Corner," (since none of these posts will likely be terribly cohesive) was to see if I could like writing again. I'm getting my Masters in Creative Writing and I feel almost as if the program has ruined it for me. The push to be experimental and different in writing has only lead me to feel completely inept and frustrated that what I like to write is not what people like to read. Wait. Let me take that back. I'm frustrated that what I like to write is not what the elite few who actually read literary journals like to read. So what am I worried about? I'm not sure. I just feel that there is too much on my mind: getting married, finding a place to live, getting a 9-5 easy job, and learning to be the best wife I can be (because that is where I will find any worldly fulfillment that means anything for the Kingdom) that seems so much more pressing than a few essays, a couple Shakespeare plays, and a Masters thesis that will disappear in a poof of smoke as soon as the semester has ended. Sigh.