the trick is to keep breathing

This is a pretty frivolous entry!

+ dumbdailypoll, as always.

+ I think I've officially given up on NaNo. Last week was too busy at work, and this weekend was just too busy overall: I'm at 20,712 and I should be at 38,641 to be "on schedule". I only have 6 days left to write. To get it done I would have to write 4,881 words per day; I've only written that many wpd once, and it was a weekend when I did nothing else.

Le sigh. I was really hoping that this could be the year I'd be able to make 50K WITH the vacation handicap. Turns out that 8 days'-worth of writing is a lot! Dammit all, guys. I hate that I look like a loser. I can't write on the NaNo website "I took an 8-day vacation the past three years" so I just look like I keep failing at it, again and again. Insert unhappy face.

I'm going to keep writing this week; my new goal is to hit 36,667, which is what a "normal NaNo" participant "should" have in 22 days. I don't think I'm going to make that either, but it makes me feel a little better about the whole thing. >.> My REAL goal is going to be just 50% completion, which is only 5,000 words away.

+ The consolation prize for losing at NaNo is that I finally have a spot in the garage! Goldbug is so, so pleased! I WILL FINALLY BE PARKED OUT OF THE SNOW. This is awesome!

+ I GOT PRESENTS! Tons of books (too many!!) from shanaqui, and High School Musical from katmillia! I AM SO EXCITED IT IS LIKE CHRISTMAS HAS COME SUPER EARLY. I can read the books on vacation, and watch the movie when I come home and am uber-depressed! YAYAYAY. You guys rule! ♥!

+ Part of the reason I didn't write was because I went to play Secret of Mana with hilldo on Friday. It was awesome, although certain people were butts and we didn't get to play for as long as I would have liked. That game is really pretty awesome, I'd forgotten. It's funny how much of the story I don't remember (aka all of it) because I was too young to pay attention to shit like that. XD

+ We really got a lot done this weekend, so even though I fail at 50,000 words, I can look back and be proud of how much crap we did. Productive weekends ahoy! We got a lot of errands done, did cleaning, transferred our beer from the primary to the secondary fermenter, worked out twice, and made a lot of tasty food.

+ I have discovered the way to stay warm while sleeping, and it is long johns. If you are safety_caesars, hilldo, or jennyclarinet you should be laughing right now as you should realize where I got the women's longjohns from. If you did not make it to the Halloween Party this year I will merely direct you to this image and let you put the pieces together yourself.

How have I missed out on this?!! I wore pajama pants to bed, but I hate the way they bunch up and ride up your legs and get tangled. So I tried sleeping in girly-boxer shorts, but I WAS SO FREAKING COLD. Longjohns are the solution! I am warm, but they stay on my legs! I WIN.

+ In an update of Sev Vs Her Hair, Round 3: I got a haircut. It isn't anything drastic -- I just got an overall trim, and trimmed my bottom layers short because I am trying to grow out the layers completely: I look like I've got a kind of shaggy bob thing going on. It's alright.

The lady gave me some advice on it: namely, to try to work with my waves. Ever since I declared war on my hair and started using "repairing" products, my hair has picked up a lot of curl, especially on the right hand side (I have one big, fat, pretty ringlet that would be really nice-looking if it weren't the only one). This is okay when my hair is air-drying, but on mornings when I showered the night before because I hit the gym, I don't know what to do with it. Except put it up, but... she also said that wearing ponytails so often is tearing my hair, which contributes to my general frizz and ugly-hair-ness (which is what I am trying to combat with the Strength and Repair stuff in the first place!). Augh. No ponytails? Really?

I look like blech today. THE BATTLE CONTINUES.

+ Work has not calmed down, in the slightest. The consolation prize is that at least I am done making slides. The booby prize is that now that I've presented the slides, I've been given like 50lb MORE work to do. D:

+ It snowed yesterday! There was white on the ground last night! I know eventually I will be hating on the snow, so for right now I want to enjoy how beautiful it is. ♥

So, F-List, how was your weekend?

For anyone reading this who isn't aware yet, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Basically, the goal is to write 50,000 words in a month. The novel does not have to be good. It does not even have to be edited. The only stipulation is 50,000 words in the month of November.

Hopefully that explains some of the confusion?

6,765 / 50,000 (13.5%)

Day: 4 / 22

Word Count: 6,765 / 50,000 (13.5%)
Outline Quality: At this point? Pretty much discarded and nonexistent.

Progress: Promising!
I Am Still: 2300 words behind where I should be, with my 8-day handicap.
I Should Be At: ~9000 words
I Am: Not screwed just yet!

Scene Worked On Most Recently: "Visit From a Nightmare"
Scene to be Worked On Next: "Aura"
"Research" of the Day: basically thinking up what a half-Nightmare might look like
Quote Excerpt of the Day:

"First of all," Klima said, his dark eyes sparkling with amusement as he looked at me, "your cousin is going on pilgrimage."

The words took a little bit to sink in at first, because Tirana wasn't really my cousin: we were related, through blood, but faintly, through a great-aunt and a half-sister somewhere back in our family line. I'd only met Tirana once, and it wasn't a happy memory. My doctors in Neinde had gone through a phase wondering whether a family member would be able to care for me better than a halfbreed, and they'd dug up Tirana's family as an excellent prospect; they were already dealing with one magical child, why not another? But Tirana had been born an elementalist, which was at least a noble calling, while I'd turned into a raving, crazy teenager with too much magic that wasn't useful enough. Tirana's family had come to the city, but her parents had taken one look at me and refused, pleading with the doctors that one magically fated child was enough for any family.

Novel I (Still) Think I'm Unconsciously Channeling In Terms Of Style And Exposition: Sunshine, by Robin McKinley
Things I Am Discovering About My Writing: Writing in first-person is hard!!

Character Quickly Developing His Own Quirky Personality: Klima
Klima Is: hotter than I thought he would be
Enna Is: the least snarky lead character I've ever dealt with
Lyde the Cat Has: shown up in more scenes than anyone

Best Thing I've Been Able To Meta With Today: elementalism, and the development of aura magic

Today's Goal: Write like mad tonight with wine while waiting for election results. I'd like to catch up to the 9000 words I should have (if I want any chance of finishing this thing in 22 days...)

#1 -- NaNoWriMo 2008! I am seventhe on the NaNo website -- friend me! I need as many buddies as I can to encourage me, as I'm going for "50,000 words in one month" with a -8 day vacation handicap. Get ready to kick my ass, guys.

I actually finally wrote a novel synopsis, too, for anyone interested...

( Overflow )

I'm kind of excited about doing this story. I think it'll be a good break from doing other projects -- they do say that you're supposed to start a new project for NaNo to make it easier on yourself, so we'll see if that's true...

#2 - healthbloggers! Jenny and I are having fun trading links and motivating each other with workouts - come join in!

Last week I ran 5 miles, which was a super exciting milestone for me. I made up for that by skipping Sunday's workout and then totally sucking ass on the treadmill last night. Oh, and even though I've lost weight, I don't appear to be any smaller, so I had a totally superficial little crankyfit last night. It was awesome. And by awesome I mean pretty terrible.

#3 - TRICK OR TREAT MEME I HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN ABOUT YOU JUST YET

#4 - GO PLAY FFDQ: capslock_ff

#5 -- Did anybody else watch House last night? WTF was up with that shit?? Thirteen??? OMG???? CAN I USE MORE PUNCTUATION?????