Writ, Wrote, Gewritten

So Max, Max has got problems. Two in particular have been on my mind the past couple of days. And what is a blog if not a depository for nagging thoughts such as these? One problem is not exactly dinner table conversation, so I'm posting it over on Superblog. The other, slightly more palatable quandry is as follows:

My recent experience with college application essays has got me questioning this whole writing thing. I like to write, and sometimes I can write pretty good stuff. But when I try to translate my style to a more academic environment, it's just not as good. I mean, I can pump out these-support-conclusion essays all day long, but that's no fun. I have the best time, and make the best stuff, when I write in my normal style, free-associating, sarcastic, hyperbolic, sort of self-aggrandizing and depricating at the same time. Unfortunately, run-on sentences and free-form structure don't translate that well to "official" texts. I could take the JM route and just write how I feel, but I'm really not comfortable taking the chance that my reader will not be a "cool" guy/gal.

I guess the solution to this problem is actually pretty clear, and I'm just denying it because it means work: I have to try to adjust my style for academic papers, keeping the good original voice but dropping some of the structural liberties. Man.....work sucks.

P.S.: I've noticed that ever since I started hanging out with the WTITYB crowd (see, there's another good use for blogs: lumping together groups of people), my vocabulary has subtly shifted. For example:
Good things: Sweet, or more often, Pretty sweet.
Bad things/usually people: Tools/sucks (although I used this before)
Opener/precedes every statement: Oh man,.../Man...
Traveling through the jungle: Ter-munglin, as in "Ter-munglin' through the jungle."