A Time for Me

So, since I will hopefully be leaving NSU  after this semester I'm helping Amber now get all the clubs settled out with future plans and such. Between us we came up with several ideas to hold out all four clubs until next semester.

Yeah, busy. Again I'm worried about leaving all this to her when I leave. Another friend of mine is thinking of starting a Pagan group on campus and wants me to help with it, but with everything else I can't really focus on another group, not with everythign that we're going to be dealing with trying to do this. NSU is primarily a Christian campus adn I know we're going to get hell for even suggesting such a thing-much like all our ideas for diversity week.

I had a horrible migraine today and my knees were hurting most of the day. This isn't good.

I think I have finished all the final edits on Three Sisters. Considering it only took me a week to write it, it's been trouble trying to revise and edit. 11K words is more than I've ever written for a short story but I can't make it any longer because doing so will ruin the story so it's staying as is for now.

Classes are going well I suppose. I'm just finishing gen ed right now and I hope they all will transfer to OSU in the fall. I know of one which won't but the rest should.

So, our campus hosts an annual diversity week every spring. I would have no problem with this except that everyone is so PC about it. We cannot leave anyone out, which I agree with, but not at the expense of not promoting anything except the Japanese and Native American student populations. I mean, come on, there are many more cultures represented on the NSU campus. I alone promote French, German, and Russian and I know for a fact that there are exchange students from each of those countries. What is the point of wanting to promote diversity if no one wants to really promote it?

Lovely rant courtesy of Robyn.

I've been busy. Very busy in fact. I have decided to transfer schools in the fall to Oklahoma State and get my degree in Russian, language and literature. So I've been busy filling out the application adn gathering all the paperwork I need. Other than that I've been working on club stuff with Amber. I really hate that I'm going to be leaving all this to her when I leave, but I need to get this degree. It's something I've been interested in for a long time and since I can take German there as well I think it will work.

Otherwise my word count for the year is slow going. I only have a little over 20K so far. It's not what I would like it to be but there is nothing to be done about that part now but I'll be spending this weekend catching up. Classes are going well enough but I've already become swamped with homework.

My research has been slow going. I still haven't finished my project on Lenin but that's because I have no bloody idea where my notes have disappeared to. I'm running out of books to read about the revolution and the Romanovs in general so that is not helping either.

Finals week came and went with little fuss and now I'm back at my mothers until January 7th. Classes start on the 9th so it'll be back to the sludge once again. This semester I'll be finishing up my gen ed stuff to get it all out of the way so I can finish up my degree in another 18 months. After NSU, I've decided that I'll probably be stuck in Oklahoma for a while longer so I may go ahead and get my Master's at TU and teach or something to save money for Ohio.

My Russian research had gone to a frantic level as of late. I've been putting together a very complex essay on Lenin which I've yet to finish. I'm also doing a profile of Anastasia Romanov. My next profile will probably be on the Kaiser Wilhelm who was the ruler of Germany during World War I but he was also the first cousin of the Tsarina Alexandra. Wilhelm had been very concerned about the well being of his cousin and her daughters when the Bolsheviks took control of the Russian government and there were rumours that he'd been trying to get them out of Russia before the massacre.

Of course, this is all speculation, and even the British and American governments supposedly had plans to remove the royal family. It's also speculation that something came of all these plans, but let's face it, rumours have been going around for decades that Ana and Alexi were secreted out of the Ekaterinburg house. Perhaps they were, but my research leads me to think this was not the case. There is far too much evidence to support that all the Romanovs were killed on July 17, 1918 (NS).

It's been almost a month since I was last here and I've been busy. I worked on my novel all through November but still ran into problems. Now I've decided to participate in NaNoWriYe and I'm going to try to write 500K in 2006 starting at the first of the year. I have a few ideas for short stories and novels and even one for a fantasy novel that I got last night and kept me up all mosrning writing the first few scenes. These, of course, won't count for my 2006 goals, but beginning a fantasy story is always hard for me so if it's done already, I shouldn't have any other problems.

As for the rest of my life, I've continued with the Russian history but my research has slowed a bit since finals week is fast approaching. I have discovered several new facts which I will chare when I have my notes with me as they are currently in Tulsa. I have two Christmas parties coming up this weekend; once for French Club and a Harry Potter themed party. I'll be preparing for my finals this week and making sure I have everything I need to study. I don't think I'll have much difficulty this semester. My most difficult final is on Friday the 16th and I have none the day before so I can study all day Thursday to prepare.

I've been away for a few days, busy with school and writing. I'm still doing research on Lenin and Rasputin and I've picked up some more books on World War II over the weekend. I finally got a printer for my room to make it easier to print off my research and classwork. Rcently I'v gotten really behind on my writing and I've been having problems keeping up with my word count but I hope that will chang today because I don't think I have much to do excpt read over some notes for one of my classes.

Well, my research on the revolution has continued. I keep finding more nad more information that raises more questions for me. Most of these questions lack satisfactory answers which, in turn, raises more questions. I've been trying to find some good information on Rasputin, but the subject is eluding me. On Internet searches, I've only found a few sites with a little bit of information but nothing near what I want. I think that when I start writing, Rasputin will be a character I'll have much freedom with in creating.

So far in my research I've discovered the basics. Grigori Efimovich Rasputin was born ca. 1869 in Prokovskoe, a small village in Sibera near the Tura River. He was from peasant stock and as a boy found no end of trouble with authorities. He was a womanizer and it was claimed that after he took a girls virginity, he would cut off a lock of her hair and bury it in his garden.

It was during his escapades that he discovered a renegade sect within the Russian Orthodox Church, the Skopsty. Members of this sect believed the only way to reach God was through acts of sin. Through this, Rasputin became a Russian "holy man" or staretz.

Most of Rasputin's early life is in shadow as well as much of his life after he entered Nicholas II's court. It is not known what the actual extent of his influence was or how far people, especially women, would go to get in his favor. Many believe he had an ongoing affair with the Tzarina Alexandra, but there has been no conclusive evidence of this theory.

Well, I just got back from fall break. I spent most of the break at bookstores and the library getting information about the Russian Revolution. I ended up spending at least $100 on books in the past five days but I think it was worth it.

The Romanovs: The Final Chapter by Robert K. Massie

Alexandra, the Last Tsarina by Carolly Erickson

Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie

Empire of the Czar by the Marquis de Custine

Stalin: Breaker of Nations by Robert Conquest

The Last Tsar by Edvard Radzinsky

The Romanovs: Autocrats of All the Russias by W. Bruce Lincoln

The Russian Revolution by Richard Pipes

These all seem to be very conprehensive novels about different aspects of the things I'm looking at. I hope they prove to be useful. So far the one I've found to be the most interesting is The Romanovs: The Final Chapter by Massie. It has a very comprehensive examination of the mystery behind the gravesite found by Geli Ryabov and Alexander Avdonin in May 1979. It raises some interesting questions that I've yet to find satisfactory answers for. Such as: Why did no one question why Ryabov and Avdonin seem so interested in the personal reports made by the executioners? Why is it everyone knew Avdonin was so interested in the Romanovs, but never watched him in case he did stumble upon something? How was it so simple to get so much information about the Romanovs and the executions if the Soviet government wanted everything to be kept hidden and buried?

So, I didn't get much sleep again last night, of course that might have somethin to do with my not getting to bed until 1a.m. but we won't tell anyone that, will we? As for everything else, I've been furthering my research about Russia between the World Wars and during the revolution. I think I might ask one of my professoers for some more information.

Well this was just a quickie update. I should be heading off to MWC, but who cares. We're having a party tonight for Tacy and Amber and I are going off to get her stuff today after I get out of class. It should be fun.

Later,

Robyn

Okay, so I didn't go to bed until almost 2 a.m. and then I couldn't fall asleep so when my alarm went off this morning I wanted to thrown it through the window. When I finally did get up and start getting around, the electricity in my building went out and I could even see to take a shower so I was running really late this morning, but I did eat breakfast which isn't normal.

Anyway, everyone seems really interested in my AH novel idea. This moght be one that I actaully want to finish rather than one I might finish eventually. As my research progresses, I might find myself in information overload though, since Amber asked me to incorporate what I'm finding out about Russia into the history section of the NSU Language Day on November 2nd.

I seriously thought about doing an alternate history of the Russian Revolution for my NaNo novel this year. I decided against it I'm guessing, because I've become so engrossed with te research that I think when I do write this book, I want to know so much about the topic so I know just what to change because the events I change, will in fact, change the course of history. So, in reagards to this, I've been reading several books written about the time period and I'm also looking for several more to add to my list if anyone has any suggestions.

The Rasputin File by Edvard Radzinsky

The Secret Plot to Save the Tsar: New Truths Behind the Romanov Mystery by Shay McNeal

The Russian Revolution by Richard Pipes

Nicholas II: Last of the Tsars by Marc Ferro

I'm also looking to find other books when I go home for fall break to help give me a clearer picture of pre-revolution attitudes.

As for my NaNo novel, I haven't entirely figured that out yet. Right now I think it's going to be a chronicle of the strange things my friends (the A.S.S. Sisters) and I do all the time and yes, there is a reason we're all the ASS sisters. I don't know if this is going to work out or not. I don't know what to do if it doesn't. I might rewrite a novel I started to write a long time ago but never came close to finishing because I had no real reason to. I'll figure it all out eventually.