Yikes. I didn't expect to have to write a post that was titled "I don't know" until much later in the month. Also, I am quite short of the required word count if I really want to get to 50 thousand words. But as this is not a novel, it's just my unfiltered thoughts, I'm not as concerned about hitting the word total. I'm just subbing in for the fact that I didn't do BEDA (Blog Every Day in April) this year. If I'm really ambitious, next year I'll get both BEDA and my NaNoWriMo substitute written - wouldn't that be an accomplishment! Anyways, so what shall I write about today...Podcasts?
Saturdays are my Podcast days. I listen to Rhett and Link's EarBiscuits interview show, Tom Merritt and Veronica Belmont's Sword and Laser book club, NPR's TED Radio Hour, the Adventures in Odyssey podcast, and The Skit Guys podcast. I really love podcasts, because it's like a radio show that I decide when it airs. I like podcasts because I can listen to them while I'm doing laundry/dishes or cooking or blogging (I'm listening to Sword and Laser right now. By the way, they have a Kickstarter going right now for their video show - you should check it out). I also listen to podcasts as white noise before I go to bed.
Back in...I think it was September? I tried to listen to "The Curse of Challion" on audiobook from Audible using my free book from the Sword and Laser podcast. It was a great book, read by an excellent reader, but my problem was that I would either fall asleep or somehow stop paying attention or...well, you get the idea. For the podcasts, I can fade out and then pop back in and listen and still know what the hosts are talking about, mostly. With a fiction book, I can't really do that because I miss super crucial plot points.
As I am still listening to a podcast while I write this, they are talking about NaNoWriMo and apparently there is a short story writing alternative to the full on novel...now there is something I would like to do! Perhaps I will need to think long and hard about what to write a short story on. The problem that I have almost always run into when I attempt to write fiction is that I don't actually enjoy dreaming up characters in a world of my own. I love reading about them, but why would I live in a fantasy world when the world that I actually live in demands so much of my time and attention? There are things out there that need capturing in the world. Unless I model my fiction after the lives of my friends (which I really think would be a dangerous activity - just look at what happens in "the Help" when they did that) I can't come up with anything original!
Speaking of novels, one of my fellow bloggers who I tend to mention a lot, Kati Woronka, has a great novel, "Dreams in the Medina" available for download. I promised her sometime ago that I would write a review, but never actually sat down to do it (to my shame). However, I did get it reviewed in my school newspaper and really enjoyed reading it. It tells the story of a female university student in Syria, and if you have time, I'd totally recommend it.
Well. I am falling well short of the requisite number of words. However, I have to write this week's staff editorial for the Retriever Weekly, so I'm gonna go do that now, and then do the project for Network Security that has been released for about a week and that I have hardly looked at (it's due in two weeks but it's a lot of work) and take a shower and do the other things that a 21-year-old who doesn't go out to bars and stuff on the weekend does with her life. However, just so you all don't think I'm a complete recluse, I did go see the new Ender's Game movie last night (very true to the book but managed to not leave out those who have not read the book, I really liked it) and I spent a good three hours hanging out with my friend Christina today. I promise, I'm not a hermit. And on that wonderful note I'm going to sign off for today.
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Thursday, October 31, 2013
BLOGWriMo - Halloween
Hello out there, wide world! It is midnight on November 1st, and as I have resolved to attempted to write 50K words this month on my blog (see my previous post - I'm altering NaNoWriMo to fit my own purposes), which is about 1.6K words per day. Yep, I have essentially resolved to write a college length essay every day. What's wrong with me?! Well, it's not really an essay, it's more like me going on and on about whatever pops into my head, and it's not exactly fiction because it's based on my life and it won't exactly have a plot because my life is, well, boring.
At this point, my friends are probably laughing at me in their heads, trying to tell me my life is not boring, etc. Well, they are just plain wrong, because my life is flat out boring. It's the midnight after Halloween night, and what did I do? No candy. No parties. Just been chilling in my apartment, doing my grading. Now, I did wear a costume all day today, and participated in the IV costume contest, but really, Halloween doesn't get me all excited. Wil Wheaton on "not the flog" described Halloween as "Goth Christmas" which made me laugh but doesn't really describe me.
In my family, we never dressed up for Halloween. I've never been trick-or-treating, and the only time I remember dressing up was ten years ago for our church harvest festival, the very first time we ever went (my whole family went as the letters of our last name, but that was before my three youngest sisters were born, so we all fit). I don't think I dressed up much in high school either - I remember being Elasti-girl in high school, but I think that was for spirit week (which I participated in every single year - I love school spirit). I also remember going to a party my youth group put on, and I dressed in my Dad's Julius Caesar costume from my middle school History Feast (I also used that for senior toga day in high school). In college though, I've done something for Halloween every year. I was a bat my freshman year (which took a LOT of explaining because I had black fairy wings and just ended up looking like an evil pixie), Flo the Progressive Girl my sophomore year (which was by far my most successful costume), and "corrected" computer engineer Barbie my junior year (confession - I didn't really wear a costume my junior year, but my classmate remarked I could pretend to be computer engineer Barbie because I was wearing pink glasses, a white turtleneck and pink sweater, similar to Barbie, and I liked it so much that I used it, then explaining I was "corrected" because I don't have crazy body proportions).
This year I dressed as a Sky Blue crayon. I created the Crayola label from duct tape, wore a blue pajama top and matching sweatpants, and then created a little pointy hat out of an actual hat (just in the wrong color) and a tank top in the right shade of blue, tied in such a way as to create a point. Once people understood what I was, they thought I was original and creative, but explaining it took too long, so overall it was probably a B level costume. The other problem with it was that the duct tape label peeled away from the cloth when I walked - you have failed me, Duct Tape!
But today, we were talking during our staff meeting, and Mark pointed out that he doesn't actually like Halloween,. And when I think about it, neither do I all that much. I like costumes, but not usually on Halloween - my favorite costumes have been when I dress up for Murder Mysteries - I've participated in two. I like carving pumpkins, but not because I particularly like Jack-O-Lanterns (they get gross and moldy too quickly). I love the smell of pumpkins though, and toasting the seeds from inside carved pumpkins (something I didn't start doing until high school and have since absolutely loved). I also love apples. Apple cider, Apple butter, baked apples - they're so yummy. And this year I made an apple pie COMPLETELY from scratch, with some help from my good friend Christina. It was SO yummy.
OK well that is an hour I've been sitting here going on and on about Halloween and I have ~700 words. I did some personal journal-writing for today as well so I'll total up those words and let you know! My guess is that I'm going to need to write another post to get to the word total I need for today, so I'll see what I can come up with and write again. :)
At this point, my friends are probably laughing at me in their heads, trying to tell me my life is not boring, etc. Well, they are just plain wrong, because my life is flat out boring. It's the midnight after Halloween night, and what did I do? No candy. No parties. Just been chilling in my apartment, doing my grading. Now, I did wear a costume all day today, and participated in the IV costume contest, but really, Halloween doesn't get me all excited. Wil Wheaton on "not the flog" described Halloween as "Goth Christmas" which made me laugh but doesn't really describe me.
In my family, we never dressed up for Halloween. I've never been trick-or-treating, and the only time I remember dressing up was ten years ago for our church harvest festival, the very first time we ever went (my whole family went as the letters of our last name, but that was before my three youngest sisters were born, so we all fit). I don't think I dressed up much in high school either - I remember being Elasti-girl in high school, but I think that was for spirit week (which I participated in every single year - I love school spirit). I also remember going to a party my youth group put on, and I dressed in my Dad's Julius Caesar costume from my middle school History Feast (I also used that for senior toga day in high school). In college though, I've done something for Halloween every year. I was a bat my freshman year (which took a LOT of explaining because I had black fairy wings and just ended up looking like an evil pixie), Flo the Progressive Girl my sophomore year (which was by far my most successful costume), and "corrected" computer engineer Barbie my junior year (confession - I didn't really wear a costume my junior year, but my classmate remarked I could pretend to be computer engineer Barbie because I was wearing pink glasses, a white turtleneck and pink sweater, similar to Barbie, and I liked it so much that I used it, then explaining I was "corrected" because I don't have crazy body proportions).
This year I dressed as a Sky Blue crayon. I created the Crayola label from duct tape, wore a blue pajama top and matching sweatpants, and then created a little pointy hat out of an actual hat (just in the wrong color) and a tank top in the right shade of blue, tied in such a way as to create a point. Once people understood what I was, they thought I was original and creative, but explaining it took too long, so overall it was probably a B level costume. The other problem with it was that the duct tape label peeled away from the cloth when I walked - you have failed me, Duct Tape!
But today, we were talking during our staff meeting, and Mark pointed out that he doesn't actually like Halloween,. And when I think about it, neither do I all that much. I like costumes, but not usually on Halloween - my favorite costumes have been when I dress up for Murder Mysteries - I've participated in two. I like carving pumpkins, but not because I particularly like Jack-O-Lanterns (they get gross and moldy too quickly). I love the smell of pumpkins though, and toasting the seeds from inside carved pumpkins (something I didn't start doing until high school and have since absolutely loved). I also love apples. Apple cider, Apple butter, baked apples - they're so yummy. And this year I made an apple pie COMPLETELY from scratch, with some help from my good friend Christina. It was SO yummy.
OK well that is an hour I've been sitting here going on and on about Halloween and I have ~700 words. I did some personal journal-writing for today as well so I'll total up those words and let you know! My guess is that I'm going to need to write another post to get to the word total I need for today, so I'll see what I can come up with and write again. :)
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
NaNoWriMo and actually keeping a blog
So, if you are not familiar with the concept of NaNoWriMo, it stands for National Novel Writing Month. In the month of November, a bunch of people challenge themselves to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. I've attempted it twice and not gotten beyond 1000 words either time, but I know friends of mine have successfully written some novels, so it is possible. Although, my friends generally try to accomplish as many writing challenges in a month as possible so it's a little bit of cheating when they finish because their novels don't always make sense.
Anyways. OK so what does that have to do with actually keeping a blog? Well, I have a lot of friends who have started blogging and have, for one reason or another, given up on their blogs, but I've managed to keep a semi-consistent blog for a little more than six years (my first post was 6/16/08). I'm sure there are more than 50,000 words on this blog, since my average words per post is 350. Each week for The Retriever Weekly, I manage to knock out 500 word articles in about an hour or two (with a little bit of research). If I break the NaNoWriMo words into TRW sized bits, it's 100 articles. OK, so that's kind of a lot. It's approximately three articles per day. So about 3 hours of writing. Which is a little tough.
But, if you take those three hours of writing each day and convert it to a week, you get 21 hours. I watch a fair bit of shows on television, so let's add up the time I spend watching TV (and Youtube):
- Castle: 1 hour
- Elementary: 1 hour
- The Chew: daily, one hour each = 7 hours
- Dancing with the Stars: 2 hours
- Good Mythical Morning - 10 min daily = 1 hour
- Geek and Sundry Tabletop/CoOptitude, 30 min each = 1 hour
- Various other YouTube shows: 1 hour
- MasterChef Junior: 1 hour
- Chopped/Chopped After Hours: ~1 hour
- Glee: 1 hour
- The Amazing Race: 1 hour
Total: 18 hours
Then I also listen to Adventures in Odyssey, EarBiscuits, Sword and Laser podcasts each week, which makes up for those remaining three hours. Now, granted, I usually turn on my television shows while making dinner/running laundry/doing other mundane chores, OR I watch the shows as a social activity with friends of mine, so I couldn't really be writing on my blog while doing that, but my point is, I could find that time each week if I wanted.
Also, one of my new years resolutions was to blog once a week and to keep a personal journal daily. The idea behind those resolutions was to keep myself writing and to keep my relationship with God strong (because that's what I use my journal for). Neither one of those resolutions has held up (and you can check back on the blog in January for my yearly review/list of new resolutions for the rest of my resolutions), but I'm trying to make sure I at least get the intent of the resolutions, which was writing and processing my life.
Recently, I was told that I should "savor every moment" of my senior year because I might not ever see some of the people from college after graduation, and part of that is why I'm trying to process and record memories more.
All that to say - my plan for NaNoWriMo this year is to blog, every day, with the goal of getting to 50,000 words of personal reflection by the end of the month. Some posts I might decide to make private, and if that happens I'll post here letting you all know I wrote privately. If I don't, please call me out! :)
Anyways. OK so what does that have to do with actually keeping a blog? Well, I have a lot of friends who have started blogging and have, for one reason or another, given up on their blogs, but I've managed to keep a semi-consistent blog for a little more than six years (my first post was 6/16/08). I'm sure there are more than 50,000 words on this blog, since my average words per post is 350. Each week for The Retriever Weekly, I manage to knock out 500 word articles in about an hour or two (with a little bit of research). If I break the NaNoWriMo words into TRW sized bits, it's 100 articles. OK, so that's kind of a lot. It's approximately three articles per day. So about 3 hours of writing. Which is a little tough.
But, if you take those three hours of writing each day and convert it to a week, you get 21 hours. I watch a fair bit of shows on television, so let's add up the time I spend watching TV (and Youtube):
- Castle: 1 hour
- Elementary: 1 hour
- The Chew: daily, one hour each = 7 hours
- Dancing with the Stars: 2 hours
- Good Mythical Morning - 10 min daily = 1 hour
- Geek and Sundry Tabletop/CoOptitude, 30 min each = 1 hour
- Various other YouTube shows: 1 hour
- MasterChef Junior: 1 hour
- Chopped/Chopped After Hours: ~1 hour
- Glee: 1 hour
- The Amazing Race: 1 hour
Total: 18 hours
Then I also listen to Adventures in Odyssey, EarBiscuits, Sword and Laser podcasts each week, which makes up for those remaining three hours. Now, granted, I usually turn on my television shows while making dinner/running laundry/doing other mundane chores, OR I watch the shows as a social activity with friends of mine, so I couldn't really be writing on my blog while doing that, but my point is, I could find that time each week if I wanted.
Also, one of my new years resolutions was to blog once a week and to keep a personal journal daily. The idea behind those resolutions was to keep myself writing and to keep my relationship with God strong (because that's what I use my journal for). Neither one of those resolutions has held up (and you can check back on the blog in January for my yearly review/list of new resolutions for the rest of my resolutions), but I'm trying to make sure I at least get the intent of the resolutions, which was writing and processing my life.
Recently, I was told that I should "savor every moment" of my senior year because I might not ever see some of the people from college after graduation, and part of that is why I'm trying to process and record memories more.
All that to say - my plan for NaNoWriMo this year is to blog, every day, with the goal of getting to 50,000 words of personal reflection by the end of the month. Some posts I might decide to make private, and if that happens I'll post here letting you all know I wrote privately. If I don't, please call me out! :)
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