Favorite Characters

I love Beeker! He's absolutely my favorite Muppet character, closely followed by Animal. What's not to love about the following Carol of the Bells?

(Click here to see the video.)

Holiday Movies 2

Last night Paul and Kelsey came over and we went to see the new Disney movie Tangled. Love it. I want to see it again. Can I just say I love the horse? I mean, what's not to love about a horse that thinks he's a hound and fights with a sword in his mouth--and wins?

I've gotten in viewings of the following Christmas (or includes a Christmas scene) films:

Reflections on NaNoWriMo

With four days left, I'm at nearly 26,000 words. As I mentioned in earlier posts, I was also trying to do something new (such as outline the story before I began writing). And of course I HAD to read (listen to) the new Wheel of Time monster book that came out on November 2nd. So you can see I have plenty of excuses for not hitting the 50,000 mark by midnight on the 30th.

More importantly, I've realized a few things.

1. NaNo's not for me. Not officially anyway. I find my children who have oppositionally defiant attitudes must have come by them honestly--through me. I have hated the "I must write" aspect of NaNo. I write because I love it; it's fun. I thrill in learning new things and being part of the creative process. I found that much of the joy I usually feel when I write has been sucked out this month. That is definitely not what I'd hoped to get out the NaNo experience.

2. I may not be cut out to be a published author if I don't like being pinned down to deadlines. How's that for self destructive? As I've been reading published authors' blogs and they talk about editing deadlines for their publishers, I begin to have serious reservations. However, it's not like I'm doing this to make a bunch of money. That's absolutely not what I'm in it for. But if writing deadlines bring out the juvenile part of me, that's not encouraging.

It's also not exactly in character, since I don't have problems with deadlines at work. Heck, I'm my city's election official! I have a five-page-long checklist I have to follow to make sure I don't break the law while conducting the election. So it's not that I have inherent problems with deadlines. Perhaps I'm having trouble forcing creativity into a narrow time frame. Yet think how many published authors there are who work with deadlines all the time.

So much to learn ... even about myself.

3. I still like the idea of NaNo. I made my first attempt at writing a novel last January after hearing about it. I did it on my own just to see if I could actually complete a manuscript. I've been editing it off and on ever since, and I'm very close to completing it. I was able to write 80,000 words in 30 days.

So I'm looking forward to December 1st, the day of my liberation. =D

Reverse Progress

I've gone through 27 note cards from my outline (each representing a scene change) and written 23,866 (very rough) words.

'Nuff said.

ETA: as I go to bed for the night, I reached my goal of 25,000 words--plus 594 more for good measure.

Life's Not Easy

Tomorrow's going to be busy with family and cooking, so I wanted to share some of the things I'm grateful for as we celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. It's a lot harder now, these holidays, compared to what they were like before. Now our family is scattered all over the world.

It makes my heart ache.

I'm grateful for:

* Wonderful parents and siblings, who gave me a delightful childhood. It wasn't without its pitfalls and willful child that I was I fell down many of them. But I always knew I was loved and watched over.

* A loving husband. For all his human frailties (and he certainly married a woman with plenty of human frailties), he's as kind and generous a man as you'll find.

* Enchanting children (Yes, you are! Admit it.). They changed my life forever, and I can never thank them enough for the lessons they taught me and continue to teach me. They enlarged my humanity and showed me how wide and encompassing a mother's love could be.

* Loving grandchildren. Dang! If I'd known grandchildren were this much fun I'd have started out with them!

* Faith. The world's a hard place, and not everything can be scientifically measured and proven. I'm grateful for my life's experiences that have taught me to look beyond the obvious.

* Service. I've had many opportunities to serve. Lots of it has been in my family. My job has given me the chance to serve my community. I'm also grateful for the privilege it was to serve my country. I'm grateful for the people who carry the banner now.

* Employment. I'm grateful that I have a day job that I enjoy, surrounded by great people. It's the kind of job that I don't find myself groaning when Monday morning comes. I'm grateful for the people who gave me opportunities that prepared me for the responsibility I have now.

* Friends. I don't have many, but it's quality not quantity that counts here.

I'd like to share part of a talk by Gordon B. Hinckley:

"Life is like that -- ups and downs, a bump on the head, and a crack on the shins. It was ever thus. Hamlet went about crying, 'To be or not to be,' but that didn't solve any of his problems. There is something of a tendency among us to think that everything must be lovely and rosy and beautiful without realizing that even adversity has some sweet uses. One of my favorite newspaper columnists is Jenkin Lloyd Jones. In a recent article published in the News, he commented:

"'There seems to be a superstition among many thousands of our young who hold hands and smooch in the drive-ins that marriage is a cottage surrounded by perpetual hollyhocks, to which a perpetually young and handsome husband comes home to a perpetually young and ravishing wife. When the hollyhocks wither and boredom and bills appear, the divorce courts are jammed.

"'Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he's been robbed. The fact is that most putts don't drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just ordinary people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise....

"'Life is like an old-time rail journey -- delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.' (quoted from Jenkin Lloyd Jones.)"

So in closing, I thank the Lord for letting me have the ride.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gotta love JibJab!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Holiday Movies

Every year I have several movies that I like to watch during the Christmas season. They aren't necessarily "Christmas" movies but can just be set during the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year. I would begin with Miracle on 34th Street since it began on Thanksgiving and ended on Christmas and watch it while I did my baking the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

Unfortunately the last couple years things just haven't played out well, and I have found (made) time to watch my holiday films. I decided to get an early start, and I've been watching several as I exercise and get ready for work. So far I've seen:





Now I have to decide what I'll watch on Monday ...

Status

Hit 15,267 words this morning. Only 11,000 words behind schedule. I'll only have half an hour to work on it at lunch today and none tonight. I don't know how tired I'll be in the morning (woke at 4:30 a.m. today and couldn't go back to sleep--ah the joys of aging) and tomorrow night we're seeing Deathly Hallows 1.

(Isn't the image to the left fun?)






We're going to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra this evening, so it'll be quite late when I get in.


ETA: I was a little disappointed with the concert. I went expecting them to be orchestral rather than vocal. The concert was probably 75% vocals. So not what I expected. We ended up with a huge sound system in front of us, which blocked out the farthest section of the stage and cut of (visually) the heads of anyone performing in the middle.

It was a good show to watch ... once.

Goal Met

I met my goal for the long (for me) weekend. I began with just under 1500 words, and my goal was to have 10,000 by the end of today.

As I emailed myself the file, it had a word count of 10,030!

That's 1/5th of what I'm supposed to do during the month of November, and if I can keep this up I may yet reach it by November 30th!

Methinks I'm liking the outline thing.

Quidditch for Muggles

All I can say is I love it!

Procrastination

I've never been a procrastinator, but as I'm delving into this writing thing, I'm seeing another side to my character. I will anticipate all day the time I can finally get home from work and write, but then as I actually sit down at my computer I almost feel as though I've been bespelled. Think about the protections at Hogwarts where muggles who wander into the area by the wizarding school find themselves suddenly distracted.

Hmmm. Is Peeves on vacation and visiting the U.S.?

I don't get it.

I don't like it. Is there something my subconscious is trying to tell me?

But I will persevere. I overcame my greatest distraction by finishing The Towers of Midnight last night (328,000 words). We're two weeks into NaNoWriMo, and I've got fewer than a 1,500 words ... and an outline.

Haha. Perhaps I should have done what I've read others do in November and do a personal NaNoReaMo and set a goal to read a certain number of books during the month. Maybe then I'd actually be able to WRITE, since I set a goal to read.

There's something wrong with this picture.

*beats head on desk*

Freedom is Never Free

I am a veteran, and I come from a family of veterans. I'm married to a veteran. I have a nephew who is a Marine and currently deployed in Afghanistan. On this day, I honor those who came before me, served with me, and who serve now.


They tell me
'Freedom is never free.'
I know that-
More than most realize.
Freedom cost us more
Than we should have to give.
Freedom cost us blood.
It cost us the lives
Of our fathers,
Our sons,
Our brothers.
But while freedom is never free,
Remember-
It has been bought at great price,
And so is a thing of great value.
We must defend it,
From those who would take it away.
The defense of our freedoms
Will cost us-
More than we wish to pay.
But we must pay, to defend,
For if we try to make freedom free,
We forget-
True freedom is never free.

~~Jame Grengs

Outline Is Done!

Woot! The outline is finally completed!!

*dances a jig*

I wasn't able to work on it Thursday or Friday, so I thought I'd really focus today. Unfortunately, The Towers of Midnight kept calling me, which made it really hard to focus. But I finally took control this afternoon, persevering to completion.

*wipes sweat from brow*

Now I have to turn the notes into a manuscript.

Earth Smart

I'm a firm believer that human beings have a stewardship responsibility for this planet. As important as it is not to encumber our children and grandchildren with onerous debts, we need to make sure we're responsible with how we use the resources of this planet.

SciFi films often cast predatory aliens (as in Independence Day) who come here to rape the planet as terrible villains we must defeat at all costs. We need to make sure we're not the terrible villains (let's face it--we don't have a great track record) and be guilty of the same thing.

I think this is brilliant. Click here to see the video.

Cutting It Off

My poor hubby. What a couple of days he's had. He's a handyman and is always banging himself up as he works on projects or has to squeeze himself into too small areas. Monday he managed to break a blood vessel in his wedding ring finger. Unfortunately, he's also on blood thinner, so his entire finger swelled to twice its normal size.

When he got up yesterday morning, it was even worse than it had been on Monday. It was obvious that something had to be done. As the morning progressed, he made the decision to go to a jeweler and have the ring cut off. It (his finger, not the ring) looks much better now.

He told me last night that he's having the jeweler make a new ring with the gold. So much for our matching set. The set was a combination of white and yellow gold. If they melt them together, it will all look gold. That's okay, though. He'd literally worn all the design off his band with all the hard work he's done over the years.

Duh Moment

Ever have one of those moments where something should have been obvious to you and yet wasn't? I took a writing class on how to quickly write a manuscript. One thing it requires is for you to do an outline. I'm game to learn new ways to do things, and the teacher suggested using 3x5 cards so you can move scenes around as you wish later on. I thought I was upping the stakes by using 3x5 sticky notes instead of traditional cards, and I've been handwriting them as evidenced by some pictures I've been posting here and on Facebook.

Just so you know, I HATE writing things by hand. I'm much faster at typing plus I have tendonitis and arthritis issues in my right hand. The tendonitis is from too much mouse use (and writing things by hand). The arthritis isn't much of an issue because I don't usually write things by hand.

So this has been a grueling exercise.

As I've agonized over these dang sticky notes, it occurred to me that Word has a label file that would allow me to type each card (quickly) and then print a set of three onto my sticky notes (you have to be smarter than the average bear to know how to print onto the notes themselves).

So how come I didn't remember that until tonight? We're already into day 2 of NaNo, and I'm still working on my dang outline. I probably could have been done with the outline part if I'd typed my cards from the beginning--to say nothing of how much easier it will be to read my notes.

Notice the SIX new cards in the picture on the bottom right--the six NEAT new cards. *sigh*

I should never call anyone a moron again. With me it's too much a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

My Outline

Up to this point, with a 96,000 word manuscript (completed but for editing) and 1/3-1/2 done manuscript of 50,000 I've always been a winger as a writer. This is actually unusual for me, since I'm normally a list maker and very organized. How else can I run an election for a population of 92,000 people or do public speaking? But for some strange reason I've had a hard time doing an outline for writing.

I decided for my NaNoWriMo project that I would try and discipline myself and do an outline. Each of the cards above represent what I hope will be a chapter. Not too shabby! We'll see how it works when I can actually start typing from my notes.

When I finish this project, I will then evaluate the experience and find out if winging it or outlining works best for me.