Riverhed.com

So it’s no surprise that I haven’t been keeping up with this blog, and the truth is that I’ve been in a pretty major slump lately, in just about all aspects of my life. My cousin Isabelle put it nicely when she called it “transition depression” over lunch a few weeks ago. I’m “graduating” in 9 days, though I have to be back here in the fall to finish up the last of my courses. I had tried to take 27 credits this semester and it turned into a train wreck; I have a habit of taking off more than I can chew and then being all surprised when it doesn’t exactly pan out the way I want it to. Read the rest of this entry »

According to an email from the University of Massachusetts Chancellor’s Office, Amherst may be the latest area hit by the H1N1 swine flu.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has identified two probable cases at Amherst College that have not yet been confirmed by the Center for Disease Control. Amherst College is taking precautions, including cancelling social gatherings and treating four other recent cases of flu as if they were also swine flu. Those students are being isolated, treated, and expected to make a full recovery.

“None of the students’ cases are considered serious and all are responding well to treatment,” said Amherst College president Anthony Marx. “The College is, however, taking a series of steps… to contain the virus and to protect our community.”

No cases have been reported at UMass so far, though they are preparing for potential illnesses. Anyone experiencing fever greater than 100 degrees F, sore throat, cough, stuffy nose, chills, headache, body aches and/or fatigue is asked to seek medical attention immediately.

Edit: For the lolz (thanks BoingBoing)

The Vineyard Gazette, where I formerly interned and freelanced a bit, sent me a few articles I had written to get my portfolio together. They only found three so far, apparently because the system they used to archive back then was a little wonky, but they’ll get more to me soon. Tomorrow I’ll scan them in and post them for your enjoyment.

I also found my old moleskine notebooks that are filled with great little notes I can expand on for material. Expect it to be a good weekend content-wise, which should make up for last night and tonight. Ivona gave me a good piece of advice on writing tonight, although it’s something I knew intuitively but was trying to ignore; I’m not giving this blog the time it deserves. I may be forcing myself to write every day, but that doesn’t mean anything if I’m writing at 10 or 11 pm every night just rushing something out there so I don’t have to pay one of you goons five dollars.

Boring post is boring. Better ones tomorrow.

I was perusing the Lexis-Nexis database (I have access through UMass) the other day and because I’m a vain, egotistical, petty man, the first thing I searched for was myself and found the sports article I wrote for The Boston Globe. I was thinking tonight while driving the bus that I can use this blog as sort of a platform for my work, past and present, and I’ll post old articles I’ve written as I come across them, and eventually set up a separate portfolio section. It’ll come in handy when I start applying for jobs to have an easily-accessible archive of my work.

Anyway, I exported this particular article in PDF format, so I’ll just link it here instead of copy/pasting it. Keep in mind it’s from 6 years ago, when I was 18, and it’s the only sports article I’ve ever written. I didn’t expect the first article I’d write for a major newspaper would be a sports article, but hey, it’s still a proud accomplishment.

Enjoy.

In other news, I had to get a shot of cortisone directly into the bottom of my foot. I have a (fairly common) tissue buildup along a ligament that runs the length of the foot, and this should break it up. Despite the freezey shit the doctor sprayed on, when he jammed that needle in, it was the most excrutiating pain of my life. The best part is, I have to get 3-5 more shots, once a week for the next 3-5 weeks. Oh, and I have to have oral surgery to remedy an issue going on in that area, too. The doctor assured me that a biopsy is just standard procedure but he’s 99.9% sure it’s not an issue. Fun shit.

After getting a few posts up, I had decided to hold off on working on this blog for a bit until I was really ready to commit to updating every single day, at least once. I’ve never been commitment-shy (well, fuck, I’m married at 24, how could I be?), but I’ve always had a weird relationship with my writing. I’ll go through periods where I write a lot and then don’t write again for months, or years even. I mean, I’ll write papers for class, and make little notes here and there, but nothing serious. This blog is a way for me to try to get over that and live up to the fact that I call myself a writer.

So, since lack of motivation has always been the barrier that keeps me from accomplishing what I should easily be able to, I’ve decided to force myself into it. From now on, if I haven’t made a post by 2 am following any given day, I’ll pay whoever emails me at drew@riverhed.com pointing that out five dollars. Granted, that’s not a lot right now, but it’s incentive to get more people to come here and more importantly more incentive for me to make sure I post.

I had actually told Ivona this yesterday, and insisted that yesterday was going to be the day I kick things off. Which means I owe her five dollars (and believe me, she didn’t waste any time sending off emails and text messages informing me of this).

As far as the specifics go, I did 2 am instead of midnight because sometimes I work late. And it’s for 24-hour period of time, not necessarily calendar day. So if I post at 10 pm on the 12th, and not again until 1 am on the 14th, it doesn’t count (since it resets at 2 am, so it’s still in the 13th’s timeframe). Just wanted to get that out of the way so people don’t try to fuck me over on this. Oh, and you need PayPal to receive the money.

Anyway, it’s late now or I’d post more about what’s going on around here lately. Check back tomorrow for news.