Tadaaaaaa!!!

I did it! With two minutes to spare, I wrote 50066 words between 00:01 on November 1st, and Midnight on November 30th, including 11,181 words written on November 30th - in a desperate push to finish. My fingers hurt from typing, but it was worth it!

Carmen also made it, writing 50,261 words in the allotted time. We egged each other on. :)

No, it's not ready to be read. It needs massive editing and whole sections will be rewritten, but the important thing is that I have 50,066 words of the first draft of a novel. And perhaps starting in January, I will revisit it and see what I can do to improve it.

There is now this nifty badge at the left side of the main page (scroll down if you can't see it) that shows me to be a NaNoWriMo winner. My prize? The appreciative oohs and ahhs of you, my two readers. I hope to add another winner badge next year, and the year after, and the year after, and the...

Almost there!

The deadline is coming closer! Need to have 50,000 words or more by midnight on November 30th. Three days left, including today.

I'm now at 32,584. I need to write about 5,045 words a day today, tomorrow and Sunday. Think I can do it? Well, I wrote 5980 words yesterday, so yes, I can :)

Carmen is sitting at 36,476, so I'm not far behind. We can both do it!

Note to self: need to buy more coffee.

Favorite moment so far this NaNoWriMo? The following conversation occurred after a Word War:

[2008/11/19 22:50] Squiddy Geiger: I may ahve sleep-typed part of taht
[2008/11/19 22:50] Sicily Heartsdale: good for actually falling asleep well writing a sentece
[2008/11/19 22:50] Chex Ansar: Ooooo, sleep typing
[2008/11/19 22:50] Squiddy Geiger: at one point I caught myself typing "as I fled the rushing floodwaters"
[2008/11/19 22:51] Squiddy Geiger: umm... there's no flood in my story.
[2008/11/19 22:51] Sicily Heartsdale: *cracks up laughing*

Yes, it's that time again

I have once again embarked upon the madness known as NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) - during the month of November I shall endeavour to write a Novel. The goal is to write 50,000 words or more. Why 50,000? because that's the generally accepted minimum length to be considered a novel.

Visit www.nanowrimo.org for more information. And now, I'll go consume Mass Quantities and spew (hopefully) mass quantities of verbiage. Wish me luck!

Oh yes - you can see my progress in the header at the top of the main page, and compare it to my friend and fellow NaNo addict, Carmen.

Update for September 2008

I am here. I'm ashamed of leaving such a long time between entries. Here's a quick update:

Finally back with a previous employer after two years of floundering. Yay! Different department than before, and much much better than before. I'm enjoying my job, and the people I work with are great, too.

Kids are fantastic! Alexander is in Grade Three now, and doing very well, and Audrey is still going to the day home she's been in for the last three years. Brenda, the woman who runs the day home, is fantastic and Audrey loves it there.

Other than work and the kids, I hang out with friends, and am enjoying getting things back on track. Feel free to email me or phone me, those who have the number :)

And yes, one of these days (maybe now?) I will start regular updates.

NaNoWriMo final words

I did not do so well. But in my defense, I did better than I did on April Fools. It's ok, I had fun, and I met some cool local authors - and once I get a better job, that doesn't have me working in the evenings, I'll be able to go to the ongoing NaNo meetings that will occur monthly, just for fun. And yes, Ill do better on NaNoWriMo 2008 ;)

Carmen did much better than I did, as expected.

Oh - my story? No, you can't read it. It's bad. BUT it has potential, and I'll be working on it, seeing what I can make of it. Not sure if it's a novel or a short story, at the moment. We'll see what happens.

And the war is on....

up at the top of the page, in the blog header, you will now see my progress compared to Carmen AKA Tweetyiscool29

She's ahead, yes... yay Carmen! (she's done this before) but I'm gonna catch up, just you wait! (she says 'boo you!')

Off to a slow start...

My NaNoWriMo novel is off to a slow start, stuck at 587 words - a situation that was not helped by being called in for a 12 hour overtime shift, a mere 7 hours after my Friday regular shift ended.

I promise, today I will get to it and write! Carmen is at 1162, and thinks she's behind, so... I'm in trouble. But not for long, I promise!

NaNoWriMo 07

I've joined NaNoWriMo 07 - I'm going to write a Novel in November!

in my pants

Ok, another one stolen from Carmen

Put your music player on Random
Take the first 20 songs it plays
Add "in my pants" to the end of each

this is what you get:

What movies have *you* seen?

I did this and it turns out I've seen many of these movies. But it shouldn't have surprised me, really. What did surprise me is some of the ones I haven't seen. Where have I been?

Stolen from Carmen. Again.

Here's the list:

Stolen from Oorgo

Stolen from Oorgo

Your Deadly Sins

Envy: 60% Sloth: 60% Greed: 20% Wrath: 20% Gluttony: 0% Lust: 0% Pride: 0% Chance You'll Go to Hell: 23% You will die at the hands of a jealous lover. How ironic.

Meme stolen from Carmen

This is an oldie but a goodie - I first saw the Purity Test at least 20 years ago, posted as a download on a BBS. and now it's a meme, so...

Blame Carmen

this is the Purity Test. Start with 100%. Answer the questions below. Subtract 1% for each question you answer with a "yes". then post your score as: Purity: ___%

stolen from Carmen

I know I've not had an entry in a long time. I haven't been up to it, but I just stole this from my friend Carmen, so enjoy:

Pandora.com

Thanks to my friend oorgo I have discovered a new personalized internet radio service called Pandora.

It is a creation of the Music Genome Project, a project to analyze the "genes" of the world's music:

"Over the past 6 years, we've carefully listened to the songs of over 10,000 different artists - ranging from popular to obscure - and analyzed the musical qualities of each song one attribute at a time. This work continues each and every day as we endeavor to include all the great new stuff coming out of studios, clubs and garages around the world."

As a way of helping us find music we might like - they created the Pandora Radio system. I think you'll like it. Give it a try.

Stampeding with Alexander

Last Thursday, Alexander and I spent the day together, washing the car, playing with the cat, and wearing out our feet a the Calgary Stampede. We both had a great time. Read on for more: