Character Takeover: Sylvester Glass

      Yes, I'm aware it's not Thursday. Funny how things work out; I really should have a good excuse for not posting. Perhaps it was due to a play rehearsal. Perhaps I died from excitement over the fact that Kingdom Pen published my article on NaNoWriMo. (Never mind the fact that I wrote an article on how to get unstuck during NaNo whilst being stuck during NaNo. Sssh.)

      Now. What to post. Hmm... I could go on a NaNoWriMo rant... or a rant about chemistry and "climate change". Or perhaps...

     Wait.

     Why is there a picture in the middle of this post.

     I didn't plan this. I didn't plan anything. I'm making this up as I go along. In fact, I--

     You're rambling again, my dear author.

     I'm what? What is this mysterious font change?

     Please stop being surprised in a futile attempt to be witty. I'm the wittiest one here, remember?

     If I'm your author, then I created you. If I created you, then I'm wittier than you. I'm guessing you're Sylve--

     Ssh. Let me introduce myself, please. I'm old enough to take care of things.

     Pssh. Define old enough, and taking care of thi--

     Let's stop arguing with each other and get on with things. You're starting to sound like Anastasia.

     Well, she did visit once...

     ... I pity your readers. 

     Ah. Welcome to...wherever we are. Cyberspace, I'm assuming. Hmm, wonder who rules cyberspace...I might need to go and give them some competition.

     First things first. I'm Bob. Or the Dark Lord, or odoriferous weather-bitten knave (or whatever other Shakespearean insult suits your fancy), or a witty alibi...but my name, in fact, is Sylvester Glass. Has a villainous ring to it, doesn't it? I do like it. It fits my job perfectly.

     Have a frightened you yet? I seem to do that...my sidekick says I need to stop wearing the cloak and top hat, but I refuse. They're too much a part of me to disuse them so easily.

     I am supposed to stick to my job of "villainy" (long story...I'm not supposed to give away spoilers, I think), but my author is neglecting my story and I'm bored. It was either take over her blog or blow something up. Maybe I should have blown up her blog...no. I'm not that evil. Yet.  

     Do I really have to explain who I am and what I do? Suspense fuels me. It would be so much more fun to shrink back into the shadows and leave you all wondering what on earth happened this week. You know what? I think I'll do that.

     See you around. If you're lucky, you'll see me too.  

On Procrastination

     Ah yes. Another Thursday is (mostly) over, free from any Vogon invasions or woebegone gods of thunder.

      Also, this Thursday the Wandering Typewriter is supposed to have a brand new article hot off the presses (or in this case, the keyboard) for the eager readers. (I can say eager readers now because this blog has had over thirteen hundred pageviews as of today; thank you all for reading my odd and slightly sarcastic musings on life.) I had a philosophical post all planned out in my head about solitude and loneliness. Guess what happened? I procrastinated. Guess what I'm doing now? I'm procrastinating. Procrastinating writing my novel for NaNoWriMo, procrastinating practicing my violin, procrastinating studying for a test, procrastinating on getting my life together...

     In short, I'm really rather stressed at the moment.

     The internet glorifies procrastination, in a way. There are countless memes poking fun at the gnawing sense of impending panic that accompanies the last stages of the habit. In fact, we even use these memes as an excuse to procrastinate.

     Why do we procrastinate? Why don't we take advantage of our time, instead of frittering it away on useless things to avoid other things that aren't really all that bad? Why don't we do the things we love?

     There are answers to these questions. Answers quite deep and philosophical that could potentially change lives. I should probably attempt to figure out the answers and share them. And you know when the perfect time is to do all that? Right now.

     ...eh. I'll do it later.

Concerning Thursdays

     “It must be Thursday,” said Arthur to himself, sinking low over his beer. “I could never get the hang
of Thursdays.”
     Sometimes I feel like Arthur Dent. Other times I completely disagree. For, you see, Thursdays are the one day of the week I don’t usually have to leave the house. Monday is class day, Tuesday is violin group, Wednesday is class again, Friday is violin again. Thursday, though, I get to enjoy solitude for a while. Perhaps I am being prepared for an odd adventure, perhaps not.

     Thursday is a degraded pronunciation of “Thor’s Day”. Why we still have a day of the week named after a bumbling god of thunder who rode a chariot pulled by goats, I have absolutely no idea. Traditions die hard, I suppose. We humans hold on to our traditions and habits, I’ve observed. And something is more likely to become well-known or even popular if it is updated regularly. I can name a webcomic that follows this quasi-rule, but shan’t. Suspense fuels me.

     All that to say, is that the Wandering Typewriter will type something up on Thursdays. Hopefully it will alleviate the oddness of Thursdays. While I don’t think this blog will cause an earth-shattering explosion or something like that, I’d keep a towel handy, just in case.

The Trials of Not-so-amateur Photography

     One of the first posts on this blog--goodness, that was a long time ago--was primarily concerned with the trials of amateur photography. Take a look if you missed it. Ah, those were the days…the days when I managed to take halfway decent pictures with a point and shoot and could conveniently blame the bad pictures on the camera itself. Then the glorious Canon happened, and I graduated into a new realm…of frustration.

     You see, while point and shoots are frustrating in that one has little control over the settings, DSLRs are almost as maddening. You have perfect control (well, I say perfect…depends on how patient you are, really) over the settings; sometimes a photography session ends with quite nice pictures, like this one:

     Other times, the setting are horribly off as you try to snapshot something. Sometimes editing can fix it, other times it's so horribly off that fixing it is hopeless. The exposure's too bright or dim, the shutter speed was too slow, making the picture blurry. Sometimes they're otherwise nice enough to keep, but other times it's not even worth the effort to fix them. 

     The most maddening of all, though, is not when something goes horribly wrong; it’s when the shot you captured is absolutely beautiful, but one thing is ever so slightly off. It’s usually not enough to be obvious, at least when you’re taking the photo, but upon reviewing your shots later it’s maddening.The focus may be just slightly to the side of where it is supposed to be, or when a picture that looked perfectly clear on the tiny camera display is slightly but hopelessly blurry on a computer screen, or when a finger gets into the picture where you didn't intend it to be. 

     Some of these frustrating errors can probably be fixed with Lightroom or Photoshop, but those programs are for more serious camera people, not a high school/college student with no money. Perhaps someday…

Sometimes the messed up shots are frustrating. Sometimes they teach you a lesson. And sometimes, they’re amusing enough to make up for everything you’ve experienced. 

     As a parting note, if you wish to see more attempts at photography, I have succommed to the social media craze and now have an Instagram. You can follow me @smaugerellathenotsoterrible if you so wish.

     Signing off,

     The Wandering Typewriter

On Rebellion

     Teenagers are (often rightly so) stereotyped as rebellious beings. I am not usually rebellious, but tonight I had to make an exception. You see, today was National Coffee Day, which made it extremely necessary for me to do the following:

     And there you go.

In Which I...Forget Things

      I seem to have a  habit of forgetting things. Meals, chemical formulas, a radically new method of space travel--well, perhaps not the space travel. But I had a thoughtful, pseudo-philosophical blog post all planned out in my head, and I cannot remember a word of it. Hmm. It will come to me later. Likely late at night when I'm too sleepy to write it down and will proceed to forget it all again. 

      Forgetting a blog post isn't the worst thing I've forgotten. Forgetting breakfast and then trying to concentrate on chemistry is a hopefully something I won't do often. It may be that I am too full of other thoughts to remember such trivial things as "meals".

     There was a point to this...hmm. Well, while I think about it, have a cat picture. 

In which I realize that blogs do not update themselves

     Can blogs update themselves? Simple answer to a rhetorical question (without going on a philosophical tangent): no they cannot. This fact was proven by the Wandering Typewriter's semi-accidental hiatus.

     Well....what to type. Hmm. Studying is a boring subject, I would imagine; as is "writing" (a.k.a. fangirling over one's characters without doing any actual writing). So is photography...

     Wait.

     No it isn't.

(All pictures on this blog are copyrighted by me,
unless otherwise noted.)

     Woo hoo for another selfie on this blog. I should be ashamed. Maybe later. Although that theoretically doesn't count as a selfie, as it's taken by a DSLR instead of a phone. But I digress.

      One of the reasons for this blog's failure to update itself is the fact that I was away at a digital media camp. I have a scene in mind that summarized the week, but unfortunately I don't have a picture, and I don't feel like typing a thousand words at the moment. So I shall attempt to summarize: fourteen teenagers sit in a Mac lab, staring at the huge screens as they try desperately to finish editing their video on time. Then the sleep deprivation hits, the teens lose what portions of their intellect that are still intact, the counselors go insane, and madness intensifies. Another, more accurate summary would be to say we spent the majority of the week shooting at each other, but don't want to seem like more of a psychopath than I can help. 

      Despite the rather terrible photos that grace this blog, I think I can take decent pictures when I have a mind to. Especially if I have a good camera...one of the saddest things of the week was having to leave a borrowed Canon Rebel behind. *looks off into the distance as a single tear trails down my cheek* So sad, in fact, that one of the first things I said to my dad when I saw him again at the end of the week was that I needed a new camera.

     Behold the Canon. *strokes it* My precioussss.... *ahem* Sorry about that. But I do love the camera. 

     It would hardly be fair to write such a long post about photography without actually showing any pictures. So, without further ado...

     Well, I hope you enjoyed the post. I considered posting another awkward selfie with the glorious Canon, but one per blog post is quite enough for me. Farewell for now, and let's hope the hiatus won't be nearly as long this time around.