Not a Crum

Have any of you ever wished that you weren't a Crum?

I bet the answer is yes. Some times it's been embarrassing to be seen in public with our brothers, especially when they have their shorts pulled up so high that you can see their tighty-whities peeking out the bottom of their pant leg. Maybe you wished you were in a family where you didn't get hand-me-down hand-me-down hand-me-downs from the mid 70's.

For me, looking back on these things creates the best picture of a childhood I could possibly ask for. Just look at the sweet pictures of us as kids (like the one above). Who would have thought their could be such a sweet assortment of clothing in one picture!?

But that brings me to a thought I just had. Maybe it would be nice to not be a Crum. That way I could feel privileged to stumble upon the Dlog and re-post the 'Analog' video.




Or I might happen to hit Perer's Watchmen review, Jon's short stories, or Nate's most recent whack at poetry and feel like I had entered a whole new world (cue Peabo Bryson) . Of course I can find and read all this now, but can you imagine what it would be for an outsider?... okay, so maybe it wouldn't seem so great, maybe all I'm saying is that I am really happy to be in our family and I love you all very much.

The Writing Process

William and Jesse are each working on a research paper. Since we are studying early American history, and since biographies are the easiest research to teach, they are doing their papers on the Founding Fathers. William is writing about George Washington and Jesse is writing about Benjamin Franklin. They have completed the most arduous part of the project--the research itself. As they read various sources they took notes on index cards. Each bit of information fit somewhere in the outline I gave them-- II: Childhood; III: Adulthood; IV: Contributions to American history, including specific subheadings. They put the outline code in the top corner of each note card and then organized all their cards according to the outline. Now they have taken their notes and written the body of their papers, one paragraph at a time. The next step will be to improve their writing--making it more interesting by adding colorful verbs, adverbs, and adjectives, and by varying the sentence structure. If topic and clincher sentences are missing they will add these. Finally, they will write their introduction and conclusion paragraphs using the topic and clincher sentences from each of the "body" paragraphs.

I thought you might enjoy following the process as William writes his paper on George Washington. Here is his first draft, otherwise known as the "sloppy copy".

On February 22, 1732, George Washington was born in Virginia. On April 12, 1743, his father died when he was eleven years old. George had to help his mother take care of his sister Elizabeth and his three younger brothers, Samuel, John, and Charles. George Washington was a great, hard-working student in school. His favorite subject was arithmetic.

When George was sixteen years old he got a job surverying Virginia land. After that he made maps. On January 6, 1779, George Washington married Martha Custis. Martha was a widow with two children. After George was married he moved into a Virginia home which once was owned by his brother. George's favorite things to do were to boat, fish, and most of all he liked to ride his horse.

George was appointed the commander-in-chief for the War for Independence. He was appointed because of his great successes in the French and Indian War. In 1789 George Washington was elected as the first President of the United States of America. After being President for four years, President Washington was reelected as President in 1792. George ended his second term in 1796.

As you can see, William has a good foundational report with a few informational gaps. As we work on the improvements together, we will identify those gaps and add more information as it is needed. The final copy of these three paragraphs is due by the end of this week, so check in after that to see how the paper has evolved.

B.E.R.T., Part 1

Tom Randle and his wife were enjoying a quiet evening while their children were visiting the grandparents next door. Tom, a forty-two year old electrician looked lovingly down at the woman sitting next to him and kissed her lightly on the forehead. She rested her head on his chest and closed her eyes.

The phone rang.

"Leave it." she pleaded, but she knew he had to answer. In Tom's line of work, there were no business hours. He was ready to go anytime, day or night, and, though they weren't poor, he could not afford to ignore his clients.

"I won't be a minute." He said. Then, picking up the phone, "Hello. No this is Tom. I'm sorry we're not..." He rolled his eyes, cupped his hand over the receiver and whispered, "A telemarketer."

"Oh, hang it up." She whispered back, but he was still listening to the voice on the other line.

"How much? Mmm hmm. Yes, I'll take one." He and the shameless salesman on the other end of the call talked about price. Tom rattled off his credit card number from memory, thanked the caller and hung up.

"What in the world could you have bought on date night?" She asked, a little peeved.

"Never mind, honey." It'll be a surprise. She gave him a look, trying to be vicious and fearsome. He laughed and said, "I hope I'll be able to handle the surprise when it comes." She smiled back at him and shook her head, rested her head against his chest and closed her eyes once more.

To be continued...

Wilco, the Song

Yet another blog.

I've begun yet another project (which will in no way reduce the contribution I make to my other projects).  This latest endeavor is a series of serials, most of them revamped from old ideas of previous blogs.  Set under the collective title, Seventh Semester Sophomore, this blog will include a different though similar versions of my "Trip to Colorado," "The Writing Monster," "Boot Camp," as well as new material that I have yet to come up with.  I make no promises about diligence on my part or quality on the story side of things, but who knows what will happen?

The shadow knows.

Mid-Week-Music

Okay, so sometimes I do the new-music Monday thing, sometimes I do old-school Friday's, but this was just too good to wait.

I heard an interview with Elvis Perkins who's currently playing the South by Southwest festival down in The Great State of Texas. Here's the upbeat song, Doomsday:



And here's the NPR interview, Elvis Perkins: Out of the 'Dirge'

Shampoo - Elvis Perkins In Dreamland - Elvis Perkins