Bleh
Yesterday I went to the 'writer's conference' that our school publication staff was invited to. It was mostly for journalism and yearbook people, so of course, the yearbook people never come and I didn't see the Stinger people at any of the journalism classes. There was one lecture, the "Great Moments in Lit Mags 2005" one, that we (the lit mag staff) got to go to. They actually discussed a page of Collage that one of my pictures was on! :D (It was the one with a poem about a matchbox car and a photograph, and the picture was the one I took of myself taking a picture of myself in a sideview mirror at Crater Lake.)
I saw some really snazzy, professional designs for lit mags, but if we want to imitate them, we'd have to sacrifice our 'we'll print anything you give us with no major changes as long as we have space and it's decent!' policy. Abby suggested that instead of trying to unify the content, which there's no way we can do because we don't get enough submissions as it is, we try to unify the design through one color. I kind of like the idea, but I worry that we'll have to make some pictures that would look better in color black and white. That was an awkwardly constructed sentence, but I'm too tired to attempt to fix it.
When I saw all the other magazines, with their elegant fonts and unifying designs and randomly bolded font to add emphasis to important words... well, that was sort of depressing. Our lit mag's technique is getting as much into the magazine as possible, and not worrying so much about an overall theme, just making sure that each individual page fits together. Which is a good thing. It works for us, and I like knowing that if I write something random but good, it might get voted in- I don't have to worry about it getting rejected just because it doesn't fit with the magazine's arbitrarily chosen theme. It's just that all the professional judges always bitch at us for not having one.
Incidentally, SUBMIT TO COLLAGE. If you are not a student at my highschool, you can disregard this message, but if you are, then you can't. Hah.
On the way to the conference I nearly missed the bus, because the bus (and I) didn't see the people blob that was apparently waiting for it, but my mom headed it off at the pass and I climbed on. It turned around and everyone else boarded, but I was on first. It was a really pimped-out bus, too. There was one huge seat in sort of a U-shape on the inside, interrupted halfway through by a bar on either side (it only held water, though.) It was all black leather and full of mirrors. There were little lights in the mirrors. Some of the mirrors were on the ceiling. It was insane, but really comfy.
On the ride back we got stuck in traffic, so we sang songs to help pass the time. We were no louder than the people trying to play Bullshit (card game) on a bus full of mirrors (...), but Tyler continued to pretend that he didn't know us and that he was a member of the Stinger instead of the CO-EDITOR OF COLLAGE.
When we finally got back, I had to hitch a ride to Risu-chan's house since I didn't have a key to get into my house and get my sleeping bag and stuff. (Later on I discovered that mom had waited to pick me up, because she didn't get my phone messages because she doesn't have a cell phone, and so she and Karen had missed the Harry Potter movie so I technically could have gone home and gotten my stuff but I didn't know that, now did I? And if you thought that run-on sentence was bad you should have seen the one in one of the other lit mags at the conference. Along with the Grendel poem, the one that bravely sacrificed accuracy in spelling and legend for the greater glory of the alarming alliteration.) We randomly hung out and discussed Harry Potter fanart (I told her about www.artdungeon.net!) until it was time to go to Abby's house. Risu-chan let me borrow sleeping stuff, which was really nice of her.
We stood in line for a while to get into the theatre to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (10:20 showing). I saw David there, as well as a lot of other people that I vaguely recognized from school. The movie was awesome, although our group of friends tended to laugh hysterically at places where no one else was laughing hysterically. > _ < Sorry about that. All I will say is that Neville is truly amazing and Voldemort wins at life, which are hardly spoilers because you all knew that.
Then we went to sleep at one in Abby's basement, which I never ever want to do again because the air down there is horribly dry and I felt really sick when I woke up. I think I'm ok now, but then again, I just slept for about three more hours.
Now I need to do two day's worth of homework and a day's worth of schoolwork. Oh, and write an absolutely ungodly number of words in my novel.
I saw some really snazzy, professional designs for lit mags, but if we want to imitate them, we'd have to sacrifice our 'we'll print anything you give us with no major changes as long as we have space and it's decent!' policy. Abby suggested that instead of trying to unify the content, which there's no way we can do because we don't get enough submissions as it is, we try to unify the design through one color. I kind of like the idea, but I worry that we'll have to make some pictures that would look better in color black and white. That was an awkwardly constructed sentence, but I'm too tired to attempt to fix it.
When I saw all the other magazines, with their elegant fonts and unifying designs and randomly bolded font to add emphasis to important words... well, that was sort of depressing. Our lit mag's technique is getting as much into the magazine as possible, and not worrying so much about an overall theme, just making sure that each individual page fits together. Which is a good thing. It works for us, and I like knowing that if I write something random but good, it might get voted in- I don't have to worry about it getting rejected just because it doesn't fit with the magazine's arbitrarily chosen theme. It's just that all the professional judges always bitch at us for not having one.
Incidentally, SUBMIT TO COLLAGE. If you are not a student at my highschool, you can disregard this message, but if you are, then you can't. Hah.
On the way to the conference I nearly missed the bus, because the bus (and I) didn't see the people blob that was apparently waiting for it, but my mom headed it off at the pass and I climbed on. It turned around and everyone else boarded, but I was on first. It was a really pimped-out bus, too. There was one huge seat in sort of a U-shape on the inside, interrupted halfway through by a bar on either side (it only held water, though.) It was all black leather and full of mirrors. There were little lights in the mirrors. Some of the mirrors were on the ceiling. It was insane, but really comfy.
On the ride back we got stuck in traffic, so we sang songs to help pass the time. We were no louder than the people trying to play Bullshit (card game) on a bus full of mirrors (...), but Tyler continued to pretend that he didn't know us and that he was a member of the Stinger instead of the CO-EDITOR OF COLLAGE.
When we finally got back, I had to hitch a ride to Risu-chan's house since I didn't have a key to get into my house and get my sleeping bag and stuff. (Later on I discovered that mom had waited to pick me up, because she didn't get my phone messages because she doesn't have a cell phone, and so she and Karen had missed the Harry Potter movie so I technically could have gone home and gotten my stuff but I didn't know that, now did I? And if you thought that run-on sentence was bad you should have seen the one in one of the other lit mags at the conference. Along with the Grendel poem, the one that bravely sacrificed accuracy in spelling and legend for the greater glory of the alarming alliteration.) We randomly hung out and discussed Harry Potter fanart (I told her about www.artdungeon.net!) until it was time to go to Abby's house. Risu-chan let me borrow sleeping stuff, which was really nice of her.
We stood in line for a while to get into the theatre to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (10:20 showing). I saw David there, as well as a lot of other people that I vaguely recognized from school. The movie was awesome, although our group of friends tended to laugh hysterically at places where no one else was laughing hysterically. > _ < Sorry about that. All I will say is that Neville is truly amazing and Voldemort wins at life, which are hardly spoilers because you all knew that.
Then we went to sleep at one in Abby's basement, which I never ever want to do again because the air down there is horribly dry and I felt really sick when I woke up. I think I'm ok now, but then again, I just slept for about three more hours.
Now I need to do two day's worth of homework and a day's worth of schoolwork. Oh, and write an absolutely ungodly number of words in my novel.