10.31.2004

The Longest Weekend

I don't know if it's because I'm looking forward to finally being able to start the NaNoWriMo (Monday Nov. 1 - Tomorrow!), but this weekend has seemed soooooo long.
Ironically (as I just realized) this weekend actually IS longer, because of the daylight savings change!
I feel like I'm skipping work today. (muahhhahahahah!)
I've dug up the spaceship schematics I developed a couple years ago. It's a pretty cool ship, if I do say so myself.
I've also developed the main character and the main badguy. She's an intergalactic bounty hunter and he's a con man (posing as a politician - fancy that!).
I'll be posting word counts and excerpts on the NaNoWriMo site (click the icon on the right and follow along :).

10.29.2004

Quiet Friday

For some reason, it's especially quiet in the office today.

I'm going to two parties this evening and another one or two tomorrow.

I called my mother out of the blue this afternoon.

Amazon shipped my new headphones, but they appear to be stalled at Commerce City's UPS station. Must not have had room for them on the truck. Darn that free shipping!
(Nevermind. They just arrived and I'm testing them out now. Very good sound quality, at least to my untutored ear.)

Aileen got a job! Yippee!

Two more days till NaNoWriMo!

Back to work. :(

10.25.2004

Tying up the season

Yesterday we had the final for the current indoor soccer season (don't worry, another season starts in 2 weeks). Our team was ranked first (in Division D) with a 8-0 record. How we went from loss-loss-loss-loss to win-win-win-win is beyond me, but if we have another season like this one, we'll be moving up to the next division and back to losses, I'm sure.
The final was, if not the prettiest soccer we've ever played, was certainly hard fought. The final score, 4-4. They got that last goal to tie in the last 12 seconds of the game. Argh, it was so frustrating. There is no tie breaker, 'cause they need to keep a schedule, but we were considered the winners because the last time we played them, we won.

In anticipation of having to focus on novel writing, I bought a new set of headphones on Amazon today. Crucial, since my previous set is 5 years old and one of the earpieces is broken off so that it's only one sided (handy at work, where one must appear available).

Bum bum bum bum bada bum! The novel challenge approaches! Tremble in fear/anticipation!!

10.24.2004

Autumn Banquet

Yesterday, I attended the first annual Autumn Banquet. It was being given in my house by Aileen and Brian (aka my sister and brother in law and houseguests). It was a fantastic success, though the beginning was stalled a bit. All the non-resident guests were stuck in a traffic jam on I-25 for at least an hour. After they got here, however, everything went smoothly. The food was delicious and the table settings much admired. Everyone knows each other, so the talk was very "unfettered". Aileen got us so full of good food, we were helpless when she brought out the boardgames. We played a great game of Taboo, which ended around 11 or 11:30. That was also the end of the party. Next year's event is already much anticipated.

PS - Reuben's site is giving me a serious inferiority complex. He's gettin' all nihilistic or existential (yes, I know they're opposites, but I couldn't decide which one) on us. Me feel dumb. Me not write stuff of consequence.

10.20.2004

Writing Excitement

When I'm at work, I usually have to listen to music (with words) to keep focused on repetative tasks. Oddly enough, it keeps me from thinking, which keeps me off the internet. It occurred to me today that my need to interact with words, either reading or writing them is part of what distracts me. Music and words helps keep it internal so I can continue to draw.
I have *got* to start writing more. Maybe if I siphon off that pressure to write, I'll be able to focus better at work. Maybe it'll just make it worse.
I'm getting really excited about doing the NaNoWriMo. I have a good idea about the story I'll write. I've had the main character floating around for a while. I've designed her spaceship in a class I took. And now a plot is coming into shape. I'm allowed to do some preliminary work on the novel: character development, outlines, etc. but not work on the novel itself.
The website for NaNoWriMo has a beautifully done (by a participant) spreadsheet to track how many words written, how many to go, what your words/hour are and how you are doing compared to the other days you've worked so far. It has lovely charts and
graphs and is very intricate. So, now I'm saved from "wasting" hours doing it myself (as I would undoubtedly do).
Boy, I'm excited!

10.18.2004

NaNoWriMo


I just signed up for NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. It's like a marathon for writers. The challenge, write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days (the month of November). I'm going to try and add a link to this site. We'll see if I can make it a cute graphic link or if I'll have to resort to a boring text one.
Edited to add: Score! I so totally rock, if I do say so myself. After the First of November, I'll switch that link to my personal NaNoWriMo page, on which you should be able to see my progress and read excerpts.Posted by Hello

10.17.2004

Weekend Doings

I went to see Team America on Saturday. It was extremely crude and I was laughing/giggling during most of it. As usual with a Parker-Stone production, the songs were the best part. I still have Team America's theme song stuck in my head, and every other song was perfectly satirical ("Freedom costs a buck or five"). I thought they made fun of both extremes of the political spectrum very well. All in all, well worth the price of admission ($7 for a matinee!!!), but caution that it contains many scenes of graphic (puppet) violence, sex, crude language, and just plain gross stuff.
My soccer team is still on a roll. We had another big win today. It was against a team that I consider friendly, but one of the gals asked me "I thought you guys were nice?" To which I answered, "Well, some of us still are." I don't particularly like trash talking, since I think it's pretty unneccessary. Come on people, we're all adults here -- but some of my teammates get wrapped up in the emotions of the moment. Next week, we battle for the top spot in Division D. If we win, we can stay in Division D, but another season (10 weeks) of being on top and we have to move up to Division C.
PS - Haircut went well. I like it. :)

10.16.2004

Wishful thinking #3


Nicole Kidman Posted by Hello

Wishful thinking #2


Jennifer Connelly Posted by Hello

Wishful thinking #1


Tomorrow I'm going to get my hair cut and am thinking about changing the style. The success of this could be greatly influenced by the quality of direction I give to my hair dresser. I figured the best thing I could do is find pictures of actresses who have hair cuts I admire. The photos above aren't necessarily representative of the haircuts, but are rather beautiful photos of the actresses I looked at. Now if only I could look like that everyday. All I need is a makeup artist, fashion designer, and hair dresser to follow me around all day...
This actress is Julianne Moore. Posted by Hello

10.13.2004

It's a small internet after all...

Wierd coincidence today... I was searching online for stuff related to Buckaroo Banzai (my latest DVD acquisition). I found a chatty post about it on Montykins. I like the look and content of his site. It's attractive and simple to navigate, and he's a reasonably good writer chatting about any number of subjects. The wierd coincidence? The little link on the right for the "Damn Hell Ass Kings". That seems to be a group of online writers and creators that has an uncommonly high number of clever writers:
- I discovered Sars' Tomato Nation some months ago
- I keep an eye on Glark's Glarkware, since he comes up with some pretty cool and off-the-wall designs.
- I have dilly-dallied on Chicklit, but never found the time to explore it completely.
- I am a regular visitor to Television Without Pity, mainly because I like the folks at the "Enterprise" forum.
So, I'm adding Monty and his "Montykins" site to my list of interesting links.
I just love finding interesting sites and seeing how people communicate with them. Somehow I'm going to find a way to make my life more about this kind of communication. Starting with trying to be more faithful about this site and find some time to take it off blogspot and put it on my own url. We'll see how that goes.

Da Boys: Too Damn Cute

I took the kitties to the vet yesterday, just for a little general check up and get-to-know-the-vet visit. They're fine, don't worry. [Audience lets out collective breath.] The best thing? They don't hate me for it! Yippee!
Yep. I'm a sissy. I was worried about my cats avoiding me and not trusting me 'cause I catnapped them and held them down while another human poked and prodded them. Ok, I was really only worried about Martin, 'cause Matti is incapable of holding a grudge.
But they don't hate me and all is well with the world... [a big "HA!" from the audience and anyone who's been preoccupied with politics lately]
I'm putting a new cat picture online and linking it to the pictures section in the right hand column...

10.04.2004

Wave of the Future


Exciting news! SpaceShipOne captures X PrizePosted by Hello

"...in this case my enemy is a varmint."


That's me going to take a whack at our team mascot, a gopher. Yep, we were the Varmint Cong (a Caddyshack reference). And won "best team name" out of sheer nostalgia. Posted by Hello

Buzz buzz busy

"So how's things at work?"
"Busy!"
"So that's good, right?"
"Uh, yeah." (Except it cuts into my blogging time, darn it!)

Highlights from the past three weeks:
- My soccer team is still undefeated this season. We just won a game against old rivals and beat them 6-5. It was a hard fought game during which the other team made a great comeback, but we managed to score once more to beat them.
- I played golf for the first time. I didn't suck at it, so I'm inclined to play it again. My office had a golf tournament in which everyone was expected to play, golfer or no. Our team had a high (ie. bad) score, from consistently bogeying each hole (it was a "scramble", which meant we pretty regularly picked our one good player's ball). BUT we had fun, and in the end, that's what counts.
- Working some overtime on schematic drawings for a very large project near Fiddlers Green Ampitheater. Now it's on hold and I'm doing construction documents for another building (that I had worked on before *that* was put on hold).

I've been doing a lot of bargain book shopping. I think that's a subject for another day though...