Done!

"Won" NaNoWriMo today (well, yesterday, I guess, but I haven’t been to sleep yet). The official count is 50,215. As is, Fuel Eaters is not a complete rough draft. I skipped the end battle. It will get written, but not this month. Besides, my action scenes aren’t exactly as they should be and writing another one is slightly useless.

It didn’t seem as painful this time, and the finished product might be more useful than what I wrote back in 2004. I’d like to think that in four years I’ve gotten better at this writing thing. Probably isn’t true. Regardless, me with a big head is a dangerous thing that should generally be avoided. What else has November reaped? Gained a couple extra pounds due to the chocolate and Atomic Fireballs that have gotten me through the month. Haven’t actually been exercising much either this month despite league finals. I’ve also had a couple of extra migraines due to the increased coffee and energy drinks. In all, not a bad month.

The question now is: what am I going to do in December? Rather, how am I going to over-book December? There is, obviously, the Christmas things to do. Decorating, cards, online shopping, and otherwise avoiding crowded stores. I’m also going to make a run at clearing a few things off my 101 list. Like try and finish reading seven more books by the end of the year. That’s a bit steep, but we’ll see. Need to catch up on a few things for VOTS that have gone undone this past week. Need to give the apartment a good mucking out as well. And of course, there’s will be some gaming and some goofing off. I might even get back to writing after Eric is done with classes and we can decide what needs to be worked on most next. Model Species is very close to being done, Divine Fire still needs a proper ending, and Fuel Eater is going to definitely need work (work that I’m currently out of my mind enough to look forward to).

It occurred to be today as we were walking to get lunch that I am somewhat happy at the moment.  I’m sure it will lead to no good.

Thanksgiving

Nailing down specific things that I am thankful for is often difficult. It’s sort of like the question, “if you could go back and change one thing in your life, what would it be?” Everything, good and bad, is mingled together and if you isolate one thing, something else (everything else?) is changed. Even the ‘bad’ things ultimately can have a good affect.

As ever, I am thankful for all the people in my life who are tolerant of me, that put up with my general nonsense. Especially Eric, the victim of the most Katherine foolery. I would be living a very boring life indeed without him.

I’m thankful for another year of general good health. I’m still walking, running, playing ultimate, and doing all the other little things that comprise life. And the occasional day when I can’t do those things forces me to learn more about my health and appreciate the days when I can do everything I want.

I’ve also spent another year writing. Even though it’s a pain in the ass sometimes, it’s the only pain-in-the-ass job I’ve dreamt of having. Eric’s made this possible, through every form of support. And that makes me a little weepy because I can’t imagine why anyone would give me so great of an opportunity.

And also…

Book #23 – The World of Edward Gorey by Clifford Ross and Karen Wilkin

Picked this up on the way into Barnes & Noble last week. (That’s a half-truth. I saw it in the entryway, but a guy was politely holding the door for me so I went in, browsed, and double-backed.) I didn’t know much about Gorey other than I enjoy his work. It’s broke into three parts: Clifford Ross’s interview with Gorey, Karen Wilkin’s analysis of Gorey’s work, and selection of art plates. I find it amusing that Gorey’s own analysis of his influences is some what slip-shod, as most analyses by authors and artists of their own works are, while Wilkin is concerned with pinning down what piece has come from where. Nice bit of art to have around.

So much to say, so much to say, so much to say…

I started a grand sum-up of my weekend yesterday and ran out of energy. Here it is, more concise:

Friday night: Chris in town!

• Eric and I had dinner at Outback with Chris, AJ (who we hadn’t seen in ages), Chris’ brother Joey, Jeff and Andy (the designated driver). They had been drinking a while since Chris and AJ had both celebrated their 21st birthdays while Chris was away.
• Adjourned to Cadillac Ranch where mechanical bull riding occurred. Only Andy and I were smart enough to dodge that mangy bullet.
• Stopped briefly at San Felipe’s where we lost AJ to the array of possibly single girls.
• Headed to Joey’s where Chris was staying and played Rock Band. It was more fun than expected, though I fairly sucked at it.

Saturday: League Finals!

• Fairly easy game against the four seed in our pool.
• Lost against the uber-stacked and tight-playing one seed headed up by Nate. Nate’s team went on to WIN IT ALL! Not surprising to Eric or me.
• Played well enough though I was out-hustled by Genevieve in the second game.
• Stuck around to watch semis and finals and chat with people until finals were moved to Tempe Sports Complex.
• Eric went to a BBQ for Chris. I knew I’d be pretty much beat socially at that point and stayed home. Pretty much fell asleep at 8:30pm

Sunday & Monday: Down with the Sickness…

• Slowly realized that it wasn’t just my sinus acting up due to a day outdoors and I was indeed sick.
• Wrote a little.
• We made dinner for Chris and AJ.
• Had restless night made worse by Eric’s flailing limbs. Sustained kick to right upper arm while getting out of bed during a period of insomnia.

Which brings me up to about now. I have 7,354 words to go on my NaNo. Eric’s parents are coming into town tomorrow. It’s going to be a busy week and really don’t want to be sick.

M-T-W

I’m in too good a mood to write the war and destruction my NaNo needs. That’s a lame excuse. But since I am procrastinating:

Monday:

Started off with Obscure Music Monday: Kerbdog.

Went to see Quantum of Solace. The criticisms of it have been pretty harsh and are somewhat undue. I think many people have hyped up Casino Royale in their minds and this movie isn’t nearly as good. It’s not that bad though either. The villain’s plan is lame and the action is too fast, shaky and jumpy. But Bond gets his quantum of solace in the end. In a way, these two movies feel like the second and third part of a trilogy. In the second part of a trilogy (usually the best portion of a trilogy), the protagonist gets the crap beat out of them, mentally and/or physically. In the last part of a trilogy (often the weakest part), things get resolved and that isn’t necessarily satisfying. I think Quantum of Solace suffers from that.

My joints felt like hell. Despite that I managed 2300 words.

Tuesday:

First game of pool play. The fields at Quail Run were very hard. My back and knees, while better, weren’t happy. My upper back was fairly unhappy as well considering I hadn’t managed to exercise in any meaningful way since last Wednesday. I played pretty well, all in all. Handled well, did alright on D. We won 13-6. Nice way to go into finals on Saturday.

Wrote 1676 works.

Today:

Wednesday disc! It was good, as it generally is. I was feeling good, running well (for me). Did get hit in the leg just below my right knee with a disc (damn Volo!) and it’s bruising up nicely.

Decided to get some shopping errands done and walked up to Target. Probably not a great idea, but my back is feeling much better after a nice hot shower.

Haven’t written much *cough*.  I really should get at least a 1000.  Chris is coming into town Friday and we’re having dinner with him.  And he’s turned 21 since we’ve seen him last.  We’ll be drinking.

A couple of interesting links from the week thus far:
Effect Measure : Serendipity and bleach:

An interesting side light is that the human body produces its own version of bleach by generating hypochlorite during the course of inflammation, one way the body combats bacterial infection. When immune cells produce too much hypochlorite they can damage our own cells, not just bacterial cells.

Molecule of the Day : Desloratadine (It’s different, I swear)
Uncertain Principles: Athletes Aren’t Different

Post-weekend update with a side of link salad:

Writing-wise, I did sort a water-treading thing, squandering one of my “ahead days” on Friday and holding with an even 1667 on Saturday.  It was a good rest. 
I played some EQ2 on Friday, which I haven’t done since October.
Huskers!Football won their game Saturday and Huskers!Basketball won their game today, so that’s all good.
Watched a few movies, nothing of note. 
Tried Culver’s fried chicken: it’s tasty, though not as tasty as custard with caramel.

I am now going to go read and try not to fall asleep until I’ve read a least two pages.

Links from last week that never got posted:

One of my 101 things is to identify 10 commonly held beliefs (mostly scientific) that are wrong. Hence a link to
Really? – The Claim – Tongue Is Mapped Into Four Areas of Taste – Question – NYTimes.com

Tor’s Worlds Without Death or Taxes: When is a mainstream publisher also an anti-authoritarian propagandist? When it publishes science fiction. – Reason Magazine
I had never made the association between libertarian ideology and science fiction.  Anyone who knows me would not be surprised at this.

One more link pertaining to politics and maps:
330 – From Pickin’ Cotton to Pickin’ Presidents « Strange Maps

 

If music be the food of love…

Book #22 – Shakespeare in the Cinema by Stephen Buhler

I must recuse myself on two counts:

First, in my efforts to finish reading thirty books by the end of the year, I decided to *finish* reading this book. I had started it a while back (over a year ago) and was about halfway through. That I originally put this book down halfway through in no indication of how good or bad it is. It’s just something I do with books. I start reading, I might put them down and start reading something else. It’s not that the first book wasn’t interesting, I’m just fickle in this. The beauty of nonfiction is that I can pick up the book again and not worry about how much of the narrative I’ve forgotten.

Second, Dr. Buhler was one of my favorite professors in college. I took two classes taught by him. The first was an experimental two-section class called "Stories and the Human Experience." It was the best class about writing that I ever had that didn’t include the act of fiction writing (per se). The second was a class on Milton. As part of this class on Milton, Dr. Buhler performed his blues rendition of Paradise Lost. No, that’s not any less lit-geeky than it sounds, but that’s the thing about Dr. Buhler. He’s a lit-geek, not some hoity-toity Literature-With-A-Capital-L teacher. Therefore, a book he wrote on the cinema side of performing Shakespeare is fun and conversational and slightly irreverent. It is inclusive of the first 100 years or so of Shakespearean cinema and includes a survey of non-English language productions as well. Good stuff, if you’re a lit-geek.

######

I forgot to mention last post, I started a new blog. Why? There’s a good deal of music I enjoy that garners blank stares from people. Therefore, I introduce Obscure Music Monday. I have a feeling that it will occasionally be not-so-obscure and maybe even be Obscure Movie (Media?) Monday, but there it is.

######

Now back to NaNo. 27,500 and counting. Working with an outline is a good thing.