MHAL Closing Protest

In an earlier post this summer I mentioned the executive order that abolished the Michigan Department of Histories Arts and Libraries. In the days that followed things appeared surprisingly quiet. In the next week word trickled down to many of my fellow students at the School of Information and there were a lot of questions being asked about what could be done about this. And until recently it appeared like not much at all. Then I was forwarded this message that I wanted to share with anyone who has been reading this:

“On Wednesday the 5th of August, let's assemble at the State Capitol, on the lawn. We have reserved the North and South lawns, and the steps. Time, 9:45 a.m. The State Senate goes into session at 10 a.m., the only time in the next few weeks we can be certain our legislators will be assembled at Lansing. At 10:30 a.m., we will process/march over to the Michigan Historical Center and form our *Hands Around the Library* -- in hopes of good media coverage! Since the perimeter of the building is a round 1800 feet, it is obvious we can use as many genealogists or friends of libraries/history of all types as possible. Please definitely let your local Society know you are coming for sure, since you can see that we need coverage - flags and ribbons can be held between people as well as hands and arms. We'll stay around the building probably 20 minutes starting at 11:00 a.m. -- then off to lunch, research, or museum viewing!”

Further information can be found at Michigan Genealogical Society's website as well as their official press release which contains the above statement and some more information. While feelings behind the scenes are mixed about MHAL closing (it is helping to streamline some parts), the general inclination is that the implications of this loss will only continue the decay of important social programs in Michigan.

Please again, pass this information along and help get the word out. I hope to see as many people as we can muster at the capitol tomorrow.

Marathon Training Day 47

Ok...have to admit. Today's training should've been 3 miles. But I skipped it...I also skipped yesterdays training (a 5 miler).

So my total mileage should be 115, but really i'm at 107. I'm making up one of the missed runs later today (a 5 miler). And then hopefully doing a twelve miler either saturday around richmond, or sunday once i get back into town.

Anyways, I'm down in Richmond, Indiana staying with my friends Justine and Nate. I road tripped down here with James to see Dave Matthews for two nights at Verizon Center just north of Indianapolis in a place called Noblesville. It's about an hour and a half from here. Usually James and I see Dave in Wisconsin at the Alpine Valley shows, but that show fell on the same weekend as the wedding of the Wisconsin people we stay with (ironic).

Justine and Nate are great people. She was originally supposed to be flying out to San Francisco tonight, but weather delayed and then cancelled a flight, and Nate ended up having to head back out to pick her up from the airport moments before we arrived at their house. They're pet people, and if my numbers are correct they have 12 pets in the house. 4 dogs, and 8 cats (that seems pretty close, but the litter of kittens with the flu was rather squirmy and hard to headcount). We played Stratego waiting for them to get back, and then went out and grabbed some Steak and Shake (the five miler is definitely important to do now). Now I've climbed into bed, and am having to duke it out with a not declawed cat for bedspace. James is down in their living room sleeping on their couch, not something I envy him of (not so much the couch, but their main floor smells rather of the 12 pets they have in the house.

The upstairs room puts me in the mind of the time when Shadow stayed with Jacquel and Ibis in Cairo. The vintage room. The smell of old house, and the furniture and light fixtures that make it all feel just timeless. It also reminds me that I need to soon continue my run on the American Gods roadtrip entries I've been doing.

Anyways, more tomorrow I'm sure. I've got an idea for a post after reading Gaiman's essay about gender and stories about how I perceive my stories (I see less gender because I have a hard time writing females, and more seasons). Now to fend off the cat with four wheel drive and go to bed.

Marathon Training Day 44

Today's Training: 3 Miles

Total Mileage: 104 Miles (Not counting the 3 tonight)

Pleasant surprise this morning: Got in to work and checked my work email only to discover that we have our first submission for the Teen Literary Magazine. A couple of poems. This is great, but with the deadline looming (Aug 5) only a week away, I'm concerned about having enough stuff to publish. To help fight against it the marketing department has been extremely supportive and giving in their time and energy to help get the word out. From whipping together fliers to getting an article in the Lansing State Journal, as well as on their website, myspace, and twitter, they've done everything in their power to get the word out to area teens, and now it just falls on the very talented youth to show us what they've got.

When I say talented, it's not an exaggeration. So far I've had two of the writers workshops (July 3, and July 22) 6 were at the first, and 4 at the second (3 returners). All of the participants were girls (of the middle school variety) and there was not a single rehashing of the Twilight plot. As far as that goes, I consider it a win. That is to say, I have nothing wrong with Twilight. I think Kevin Smith in his comments at Comic Con this year nailed the sentiment we should be feeling:

It's definitely something that I've found myself doing in the past (back during Harry Potter I was guilty for it until I read it, and loved it). But beyond that, as far as the writers workshop goes, it pleases me to see people being original with their fiction, and I've been finding that the more original the teens are being with their writing, the better it tends to be.

I've not been doing much on the writerly front as I should be lately. A few measely story starts, reading about 200 pages of the Rider (it's around 520 typed pages). I've been talking a lot about it with friends (writing, and the rider), but it's been one of those dead sort of things of late. Last I checked my spreadsheet (the one tracking all of my short story submissions) everything I've sent out has been rejected. There were a couple close calls, and one story is sitting in the hands (or slush pile) of an editor somewhere, but for the most part I'm being lazy with no excuse.

It's this point in the blog where I should be making platitudinal oaths to write a thousand words a day, or edit my novel by some insanely close date, or submit things, but I wont. Suffice it to say those things I should be doing, and if this writing career is something I want to be doing, I'll start thinking seriously about actually doing it. Really what I should do is just try finishing a brand new short story. Maybe I'll hop on that this afternoon after work and a run.