Of Octopuses and Classes

[lydamorehouse]

 
Image: My octopus quilt panel. (And yes, before you ask, we ARE still receiving discs from Netflix.) 

Tonight is my first Loft class. I got a note on Saturday that I achieved the magical SIXTH  student. When last I wrote, I was up to five, I believe. Five had made my class considered 'low attendance, viable," but six is the magic number needed to make it "regularly  viable." This only important to the Loft and how I get paid. The Loft has weird rules.

After dropping Mason off at the airport for his flight back to Wesleyan University in Connecticut, I have been organizing my thoughts for the first class. 

I find it pretty fascinating that these days, when I say I have a class I'm teaching at the Loft, a lot of my friends will ask, "So what are you teaching?" as though I might be teaching something other than how to write science fiction and fantasy. To be fair to my friends, I could be teaching something hyper-specific, like, I dunno, "developing characters for a cyberpunk world," but, alas, I'd say it's just the same old, same old, except it's never that, even when I'm going over some of the same material I've been teaching for years. The thing about my teaching style is that it is highly flexible. I always have a syllabus, of course, but my first entry in the syllabus is "this syllabus is a lie," because my goal is ALWAYS to tailor the class to the student's needs. I am hoping that with six people we can form a solid, highly participating group of people all working out how the magic of writing is accomplished together.

We'll see how it shakes out.

Anyway, wish me luck with that. I am feeling strangely unsettled about the class, probably since the last time I taught via the Loft it was such an utter disaster. (see: summer teen class.)

Otherwise, I've been feeling a yen to draw again, ironically inspired by a minor kerfuffle going on over at Facebook, which caused me to post a side-by-side comparison of one of my favorite redraws of one of Tite Kubo's panels from Bleach. Now, I'm like, jeez, I should get back into all that. The hardest part, of course, is finding time to draw. On the other hand, now that I've figured out how to print my own, I can totally use my postcard project as my excuse to do some original art.

I started this post with a picture of my current quilting project. I'm actually adding these octopus panels to a quilt that is already populated with sheep, since I am hoping that it turns out well enough to gift the quilt to my friend Eleanor, who writes a lot about Icelandic sheep and, of course, octopuses. 

That's kind of everything. Anything interesting going on in your lives??

Comments

[rachelmanija]

I love the octopus quilt.

Thanks for alerting me to the FB drama. I must say it's not anything I'd ever have anticipated.

[oracne]

Sheep and octopuses! That sounds terrific. The only different thing is that I've put some words into a manuscript for the first time since last September. I'm not writing every day, or a lot, but I am writing.

Also, instead of learning to knit I bought yarn on sale and my friend is knitting it for me.

[bibliofile]

Oh, those colors on the octopus square play well together. (But surely the quilt needs at least one cat? She says, advocating for creatures that are capable of advocating for their own needs well, thanks.)

[sabotabby]

Ahhh I love octopuses and queer anarchist flags. All the luck.

[lcohen]

yay 6th student--i hope it's a wonderful experience for all of you. and yay sheep and octopi!

[carbonel]

Other than the entire sewer drain saga that I wrote about at great length on my own DW, the most interesting thing in my life is that I will also be teaching a class for six people this Saturday, at the Open Book. That's where the Weavers Guild of Minnesota moved to; this will be my third class teaching blending board usage but the first one at the new place.

Class size for this is limited by the number of blending boards the guild owns (six), but I'm pleased to see that it's a full class.