NaNoWriMo

"Blood of the Garlic" : 23k from 34 pieces entered on-line with approximately 35k (58 pieces) written so far. On the 21st a NaNo writer should be 70% there... or 35,000 words. Time to realize you may not make it this year if less than 20k is written. Some folks though are capable of writing thousands of words in a very short time if the Muse is motivated to do so and life doesn't impinge on the effort. Beware of intruders! And write!!

Susan Boyle will be coming to a store near you when her cd's released November 24th. It has set a pre-order record at Amazon.

Her cover of Wild Horses:



O Pinions about the Gnu's:

I never felt safe during the Bush years. As a minority this is hard to explain to anyone who hasn't been excluded and beat upon. So... current events have made me very nervous. There is a mean streak in the U.S. that has unnerved me. I was hoping it would've been blunted by the last election with the positive messages that were put out there; but the Health debate, the Marriage debate, the "we hate change" attitude of some folks wears me out. I didn't feel this uneasiness when I visited Costa Rica where folks are much happier. Here there is a certain oblivion except for the activists; things are bad, but "not bad enough". I think most people in Missoula are unaware on a personal level (it's an intellectual academia kind of community) that they are not immune to issues causing problems elsewhere. It is a Kingdom of Misfits afterall.

Polls

This was the poll I made yesterday: "Psalm 109:8 T-shirt Controversy Poll"  Hopefully it is balanced enough so that folks on any side of the issue can vote. 9 have already voted with 48 views in less than a day. One thing about polls... people love them. I have two old but active polls with over 5k views each. What makes a good poll? Hitting a nerve helps, as does keeping it silly, simple and cute (like about puppies "Your favorite puppy?" ). My suggestion? Research a few and decide on a style and issue that suits you. Then do another. Sooner or later, you'll hit a sweet spot and you'll be in Poll Heaven.

Thou:

If I were in touch I might know.

Me and Mine:

Was able to force myself to leave my confines late... like 8 p.m. last night and wrote two NaNo sketches at the Break Espresso, "I can still see him burning" and "Ponor".

One cooking note: I took half a can of pumpkin pie mix, added two eggs and then mixed in a package of flan (Royal) with the amount of milk called for. It actually turned out quite good. The flan provides structure and the pumpkin taste was fine, not too strong. So... I made pumpkin flan!

Montana: 39º in Missoula at 10 a.m. and sunny-cloudy. 33º in Bozeman where DA GAME is played at noon Montana Standard time. Flakes forecast.

NaNoWriMo

"Blood of the Garlic" : 22k from 33 pieces entered on-line with approximately 33k (56 pieces) written so far. I used the controversy over Psalm 109:8 and Special Kay 's suggestion about a vamp named Clovia (I made her a barber) to prompt me to write my latest: "Exodus 22:18".

To quote the KJV of the Bible:

Exodus 22:18

         Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.

I chose the Exodus quote for my story as those that would burn witches would also slay vampires. Same mind set. Using Psalm 109:8 would bring in politics and the furor over its present use (I don't want to interject politics into my stories).

Psalm 109:8-12

And what controversy would that engender?
My Opinion Only

Basically... is it a call for the assassination of Obama? Psalms 109:9 is brutal. Yep. That's one way of interpreting it. To wear a t-shirt with that slogan could be interpreted that way. Psalm 109 is not for the faint-hearted. Few of the Psalms are. To those who are really pissed at Obama, I would say: choose another verse. This one could be interpreted as a patriot turned terrorist. The line is thin indeed. Also... 8 years of Bush was 7 years too many for many, many people. And the country endured. You will too.

So, I made a POLL:

Psalm 109:8 T-shirt Controversy Poll
Psalm 109:8

8 Let his days be few; and let another take his office.

9 Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.

10 Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.

11 Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour.

12 Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.

Note: This is the King James Version. Pick whichever version you prefer.



There have been T-shirts printed with the message: Pray for Obama: Psalms 109:8.



What does this mean? (link to my blog entry: "Psalm 109:8 and Exodus 22:18" )



What does this mean to YOU?

    Obama as a president needs our prayers.
    Obama should be replaced as soon as possible.
    This is a prayer FOR Obama.
    This is a prayer AGAINST Obama.
    It is a patriotic act calling for a return to sanity.
    It is a terrorist act calling for his assasination.
    I want to wear one myself.
    I don't ever want to see one.
    You Americans are crazy.

Thou:

Chewie Kittie has an entry that is a must read: "Ripples" . Douger has reached 52k for this year's NaNo.

Me and Mine:

Went to Bernice's and Taco Sano and managed to write a bit. Even took a walk to the Rose Garden and back. Found a freeze dried red rose so I picked it.

I called a friend and he cheered me up as usual. I sometimes wish...

...and then I get depressed! Better to be thankful for small blessings.

Montana: 37º in Missoula at 3 p.m. and windy.

NaNoWriMo

"Blood of the Garlic" : 19k from 29 pieces entered on-line with approximately 31k (54 pieces) written so far.

I'm stuck though. The Muse took the day off. Couldn't write worth $%^& yesterday. The sunshine outside isn't helping.

I could use a booklet: 1001 story lines, 1001 prompts, 1001... any suggestions?

I went to the library and took out Richard Hugo's 31 Letters and 13 Dreams and cd Eat Stone and Go On, so I was just checking out YouTube and found this poetry reading in Seattle at the Richard Hugo house:



Thou:

Nicole~almost ready 2 forgive seems to be experiencing some healing. It's nice when that happens.

Me and Mine:

Sushi. That about sums it up. Frustrating day writing-wise. Did get to visit Rory and Leland (he finished off his chapbook) and their new cat and old rats.

Montana: 29º in Missoula at 10 a.m. and sunny.

NaNoWriMo

"Blood of the Garlic" : Over 18k from 28 pieces entered on-line with approximately 31k (53 pieces) written so far.

The latest: "Zee Perineum" and "Esquadrille of Mosquitoes"

Jacques bit you where? Lark had just come in from the hen house. She moved towards the stove and put down a basket of eggs. Omelets anyone?

Zee opening lines from "Zee Perineum".

Twelve NaNo winners including iKïyå§ama and cherry . Congratulations.

Thou:

Scottiegazelle posted for the first time since January, but not all news was good.

Downsizing: By-the-way... what is your advice to give to someone who is downsizing but wants to keep a blog? I'm not sure that a "book" disappears if it already exists. Can't make a new one though.

My opinion is to downsize by getting rid of folders and anything extraneous; transfer sigs and images to someone else if they want to store it or keep it. Free allows 10 items, Basic 50. Items can "only" have 50k size... but that's quite a bit. If I had to go FREE, I'd make one item my blog and do new entries at the top, deleting from the bottom when size limits were reached. My last ten entries = 25.44k so ten "entries" might do it! No one at WdC reads the old stuff anyways... I would tell everyone what my item "blog" was, provide the link, ask beg for them to check it as a favorite so it would show up on their My Favorites list every time I updated!

I don't know how else to be helpful. Do you?

Me and Mine:

Color me a liar... I spoke to a friend and mentioned we wouldn't see 60 degrees until March... if we were lucky. Apparently we hit 63 on Tuesday! And it was sunny as well.

Went to Bernice's Bakery and Taco Sano. Bernice's is only open till 8, but TS stays open till 11 and has internet.

Montana: 41º in Missoula at noon.

NaNoWriMo

"Blood of the Garlic" : Over 17k from 27 pieces entered on-line with approximately 30k (51 pieces) written so far. I'm over halfway there and 30k was my personal goal, so yay me!

I wrote "Cedar Root", "Cherry Bark" and "Volcano". The last includes Sarimsak (no dot on the i, I have to find where that symbol is again) who died a long time ago, but he's important to explain another character. If you are going to live a long time it helps to not have any feelings or at least be willing to not live in the past. The present, the present, the present...

There are a bunch of NaNo winners already. Some are past 60k. At present only 40 seem to be on track to get there; however, many will be like me... the words are written, just not counted yet.

Thou:

Z finally got busted for using perineum in his handle. I told him I knew someone with a lorum piercing... hope he doesn't use that! I think I should use perineum in one of my stories... biting the neck is so cliché.

Me and Mine:

I bought a replacement camera, a Kodak C-160. The one I lost was a C-180. I'm not happy but I can return it in 30 days. So if the previous one doesn't turn up within two weeks, I'll give in or try to find a C-180 elsewhere. I bought it because I seldom have a ride to Walmart and Myrt was going there.

I hung out at Break Espresso and wrote. Had a hard time though. In the end I spoke to Emma (someone I didn't know). Asked her if she knew anything about basket weaving. She did! She actually knew about split cedar root baskets and about knitting and what "colorwork" is. I... was pleasantly surprised although I did feel like an idiot. I'll get over that. My stories will need research to check facts. But ... I need to write them first!

Montana: 41º in Missoula at 10 a.m. and sunny.

NaNoWriMo

"Blood of the Garlic" : Almost 17k from 27 pieces entered on-line with approximately 28k (48 pieces) written so far. I'm over halfway there.

Thirteen orange shirts

         for Mark and Richard Neuner

the suffocating heat
the slow twang of soft voices
hard walls bare of adornment
until I placed flowers in the windows
a view of the campus far off in the distance
a ten minute walk
what few things I brought
thirteen orange shirts
my winter jacket
now long forgot
two narrow beds we pushed together
later pulled apart
in the atrium
a norfolk pine reaching the ceiling
in the cafeteria
eggs for breakfast
who knew what for lunch
something for dinner
each day with the same hungry folks
youth gathered round the television
wayne gloating when nixon won
not gloating when a plane crashed
three dead in my home town
concern and relief when making a call to a friend
my brother saw it aim for our house
lift for a second
turn over
miss

© Kåre Enga [166.272] 2009-10-23

Sketching it out:

Based on actual memories from autumn, 1972. Richard was delivering papers down the street; his brother Mark was a close friend. It crashed into a house on the next street. Their mother saw it from her kitchen window. I knew the folks next door too and I believe my sister knew the family whose house was plowed into (or next door; it's an old memory).

I had transferred to U Kansas and was doing well that semester, healing in fact. I remember I had a bunch of orange shirts (orange was definitely not in in 1972) probably my entire wardrobe... thirteen does stick in my mind as I remember someone commenting on my shirts and I went to count them. I had a yellow one and lavender one around that time too. I was "allergic" to blue.

Looked it up on line. Apparently it was on December 16th.

The lack of punctuation and capitalization is on purpose. I do prefer I to i though as i comes off as "cute" and this poem is not. It was written at a Virginia Woolf workshop last month.

Thou:

No new babies, weddings, funerals to report today... yet...

Me and Mine:

I got 4 sketches written yesterday. I'd been in the doldrums for two days. No movement is bad. Today is bright at the moment. I've promised myself that I need to get out more.

Putting what I wrote on line is also creating a minor problem. It takes time and energy and amounts to a light edit. This is good, but NaNo does have a time limit "imposed". My total on the last day will have to show words written rather than words on line. More work two Mondays from today...

Montana: 33º in Missoula at 10 a.m.

Like, apparently "meep" has been banned in a Massachusetts school, like the word doesn't even mean anything! I mean like meeping a meaningless meep can get you into trouble, Like, wow, man. Like it's not like students ever repeat meaningless words just to drive everyone... like ... meeping nuts.

NaNoWriMo

"Blood of the Garlic" : 16k from 26 pieces entered on-line with approximately 25k (44 pieces) written so far. I figure I'm halfway there. And today is the halfway point.

My latest revolves around "change" as my LDVs are long lived. I have a character, Mr. Nightengale, who hasn't been well sketched out as a person and has only had cameo roles in stories so far. So I made this one in his voice. Kinda like an interview with a vampire type of thing except not ghoulish... .

SIX NANO WINNERS ALREADY! CONGRATULATIONS!

Thou:

Not been much to read in Blogville, but I do check in with those of you still blogging.

Me and Mine:

It was cloudy, sunny with random snowflakes falling one at a time for the game. It started with the Grizz looking like they were still playing Idaho State (not good) but perked up in the second quarter.

So in the end, Montana officially won the Big Sky championship Saturday by defeating Northern Colorado 38-10. They'll get at least a 4th seed in the playoffs I think. Depends on whether they win against Montana State in Bozeman next week (if so, they will have a #1/#2 seed). Now if Chewie Kittie could only get me a ticket!

Who will they host on the 28th? My bet is New Hampshire, Northern Iowa, South Dakota State or maybe SF Austin.

Oh... and the guy who won $10,000 by kicking a 45 yard field goal had to do it all over again... and did! So there! Was quite a controversy around town. Fans were very happy he made it.

Montana: 31º in Missoula at 11 a.m.

NaNoWriMo

"Blood of the Garlic" : 15k from 24 pieces entered on-line with approximately 25k (43 pieces) written so far. I figure I'm halfway there.

"She was caught en entertaining the troops" was a prompt that came to mind for no reason, so I went with it for NaNo#42.

Used "Mother Nature" entry by Mi Belle * Michelle to prompt NaNo#43.

Whatever's clever I'd say... but I'm going to get desperate soon.

Thou:

If you get hungry, check out ~~-grannym-Giving Thanks~~ ; her last blog entry was lemon-almond macaroons.

It is nice to see cherry back. But where is everyone else?

I suspect that NaNo is taking up some folks time; others have decided to shrink their accounts (financial problems abound right now); some are just tired of blogging or putting energy elsewhere. I really need to call and send emails to folks who I haven't heard from recently.

Me and Mine:

Bought hot chocolate mix. Time to p.a.r.t.y.

Well... I went for a walk and ended up at Orange Food Mart. Bought $21 worth. $20 = not-much-of-nothing.

I ate tunafish-on-baguette. I added a thin layer of artichoke pesto though... gotta use it up. It was good.

I did go to the library to see the British film, "Somers Town". One of the young characters had fled Nottingham... the other was there from Poland. So the movie was partially subtitled. Felt uncomfortably realistic. I know kids that have fled home; some have major issues. Had refugees living with me and know all about the language/culture issues as well.

Montana: 29º in Missoula at 2 a.m.

NaNoWriMo

"Blood of the Garlic" : Still 13k from 22 pieces entered on-line with approximately 24k (41 pieces) written so far. I only wrote "Obituary" on Thursday. Wrote it at the Senior Center. Didn't have anything to do with old age though and in the end no one died (although he could have, should have...).

By now everyone should be close to 20k written. We have our first "winner" here at WdC. iKïyå§ama is very close.

Sadly, Sarah may have to put NaNo on hold as she cut herself while preparing beets. I kid you not...

Why don't vampires write for a living

Wastes too much blood (ah, dear Sarah...).

How can you tell the body's too ripe and the party's over?

When the vultures arrive.

What do vampires call being buried by an avalanche and not being found for a few years?

A nice nap.

So what does a frozen vampire have nightmares about?

Thawing out too soon.

Then what does a frozen vampire dream about?

He screams; she screams; I scream for ice cream.

Thou:

MaryLou has some good news. Something about a Texas wedding... ... "wondrous joy" 

I really liked this phrase about this year's autumn written by Leger~ : "A collective shiver and shed".

Me and Mine:

Thursday: I went to Writer's group and read three of my stories: "The Rules", "Betty Must Die" and Toothpicks". I did get a chuckle or two... I gave Franses and Kate copies of all 22 that are on-line so far. I need to figure out how to handle dialog. An em dash might do.

I really like what Parris is doing at the moment. Mary's dog-in-the-shelter story about Skitzy-Fritzy was charming too.

Didn't do much writing wise. Had salmon loaf at the Senior Center.

This morning I made a pot of coffee. I need it today.

Montana: 29º and sunny in Missoula at 11 a.m.

NaNoWriMo

"Blood of the Garlic" : Over 13k from 22 pieces entered on-line with approximately 24k (40 pieces) written so far. I'm still ahead of the curve.

I wrote in fellow NaNoer Joy - 49K 's blog:

Steal time from NaNo? no,no,no.

My stories tend to be character driven and as I get to know my characters they take over. "This story is mine" is what I'm hearing a lot. Fortunately, there's still a fool at the other end of the pen and sometimes he decides... not in this story! Next!

So... my characters do allow me eat. There're not mean, just bossy.

I wrote to chicochica who is lamenting about no NaNo:

DO. IT. IN. MARCH. For yourself.

The advantage of my doing short stories instead of a novel, is that there is no little need to worry about chronology. And in the end it is easier to trash killkillkill a story if it doesn't fit. Not being a storyteller is pushing my limits though! And the downside upside is that I'm lyrical so it's not loose in a prosy way that's only good for numbers and makes editing a pain later. The downside is... I need those numbers!

By-the-way, Frankie is NaNo'ing does a MarNoWriMo, so watch out for it. .

Thou:

Well... how are y'all?

Me and Mine:

Wrote three stories at Bernice's, Butterfly Herbs and The Break Espresso. In between I joined Eric and Hobie at Sushi Hana.

At least I got out!

While the Carolinas and Virginia are dealing with the rains of ex-Ida, we woke up to sugar-frosted mountains. It was actually somewhat bright in the morning in spite of the cloud cover.

Montana: 33º and foggy in Missoula at 11 p.m.