Sword Saints

Done

Wow. I wasn't expecting to hit 50,000 words at all, much less a day before the deadline. Many thanks to Margo and her folks for putting up with my madness while I belched out words on the screen. And a deep bow goes out to Scott F. for pulling me along when I was in the dark valley of being thousands of words behind. Oh, and a tip of the hat to Microsoft for the Xbox 360 that actually increased my productivity five-fold.

The control illusion

The only control that is not illusory is self-control. And yet self-control is the one type of control that is minimized, ignored, or swept under the rug. Listen to the news and everything carries at least the subtext of control. We want to control the climate, the environment, the economy. But let's not suggest that we start first with controlling the self, the ultimate source for the chaos that we seek to control. Chase your passions, but don't keep them in check. Follow your dreams, but don't subject them to reality. Embrace your phantoms, and pretend that they are solid and real.

Writing demoralized

Apparently I was a bit too gleeful in my previous post. I'm still fighting off the lingering effects of last Thursday's sinus sledgehammer, so that's been cutting into the writing a fair bit over the past week. But I finally threw in the writing towel yesterday when Nicholas got sick. He threw up at lunch, then was fighting a 102 degree fever much of the day. It broke some time in the night, though, and he's doing much better today (not that that gives me any more time to write). Still, I'm not even at the halfway point, and the month is two-thirds done.

By "threw in the writing towel" I simply meant "gave up on reaching 50,000 words by November 30". I'll have some time to write when the grandparents arrive later today, but I'd pretty much have to be a hermit for the next ten days to get to the 50,000 word mark. And that's just not cool when they drove all the way down here from Michigan.

I would like to at least pass 30,000 words, though. That's when I get to start killing off all my characters. Maybe one of these days I'll learn to write a character that I don't want to kill as soon as I possibly can.

Writing revitalized

I was expecting NaNoWriMo to be more challenging this year than in 2006 when I first tried it, and my expectations have been met. I've got my calendar of progress in the sidebar of the main page here. My secret for actually hitting my word count on those few green days in the calendar? Video games. Seriously.

In the first week, I'd take any time I could find and just write write write. Thirty minutes, one hour, two hours, three hours, whatever I could get. But the words weren't coming. I'd get distracted, frustrated, tired, and close the computer in disgust and discouragement with a few hundred words. But then I heard the suggestion to try writing intervals. Magic. Twenty minutes of writing followed by ten minutes of The Force Unleashed. Lather, rinse, repeat. Putting in three hours in the first week would net me maybe 1000-1500 words. Now putting in three hours gets me 2000-2500 words and an hour playing X360. Absolutely brilliant.

Of course, I'd love to be able to snatch those hours earlier in the day. But if I hurry, I can get to sleep before midnight.

Wednesday haiku

The government must
really love poor people since
they keep making more.

Wednesday haiku

I disagree with
Obama on all issues.
Still, my president.

Technobabble

I'm happy to report that the post Halloween party hard drive transplant seems to have fixed my PowerBook woes. The patient made a full recovery over the weekend and is happily backing up to the TIme Machine again. And that was just in time for NaNoWriMo, too! My battery's sitting at 60% of its original capacity, alas, but that's what the power plug is for.

On the even more portable side of things, I finally broke down and paid for an iPhone application: Classics. At $2.99 it's an utter steal. Slick and snappy interface, great books, very usable. If you're a fan of classic literature, go and grab it!

Speaking of NaNoWriMo and books, I'm way behind already. On a positive note, I was expecting that to be the case. The X360 is still out for repair, so it's not like I'm being distracted by games or movies or all that. It's just that right now the only thing I can cut into for writing time is sleep, and there's only so much of that I'm willing and able to sacrifice. I'll keep plugging away at it, though, if only for the discipline of writing a little bit every day.

Election thoughts

Jesus Christ is king. He came to give abundant life, and He died to set us free.

God willing, I will have that firmly fixed in my mind as I step into the voting booth today. I and many others will vote today. Tomorrow half of us will be disappointed, but the sun will rise and the birds will sing and leaves will continue to fall to the ground.

I am glad to see the 2008 campaign finally coming to an end, and all the media silliness surrounding it. To put it in perspective, Nicholas wasn't even born when it started. Now he's a toddler, running around, babbling, imitating Darth Vader. Sadly, the campaign for the 2012 election will launch tomorrow.

So then. I'm casting my vote for life and liberty today.