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  Noyoki's Blog. This is where I'll keep my responses to Blogging challenges, and stuff. |
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| “The true alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words.” - William H. Gass NaNoWriMo – November 3rd I’m kind of digging my dialog today. Right now, I’m in the middle of a conversation between sister and brother. She’s trying to make him understand that things aren’t his fault, and like a true male, he refuses to believe. Pretty fun, all in all. While I was writing, she decided that one of the things she does is foster animals, and right now she has a litter of husky pups running amuck around the house. It’s always fun when characters start whispering to you, telling you their loves, their hates, and simply giving you a glimpse into their day to day lives. One thing that worries me a little is that I’m 33 pages in and still a ways away from the inciting incident. I’m worried that I’m taking too long to get to it, but all the stuff that comes before is important. Sigh, I guess I’ll play the wait and see game. Either way, this is going to be a long one. I’m trying to write 3,333 words a day so I can have 100k to work with. Hopefully I’ll be able to get to the end before the month is over. Daily writing for November 3rd: 11/03/2015 5:00 - 6:10 AM = 1,488 Words 11/03/2015 7:24 - 8:41 PM = 1,950 Words 11/03/2015 = 3,437 Total: 10,620 30 Day Blogging Challenge Prompt - Music Monday! What's your go-to, adrenaline rush, good mood music? Well, apparently I’m an idiot and somehow I got the prompts mixed up. Sooo, I guess I’ll do Monday to day then. My go-to, adrenaline rush music would have to be Rise Against. It’s one of my ultimate favorites, and they’re freaking awesome. It’s also one of my number 1 Pandora stations. Give it 100% - Day 65 Not quite as good as yesterday. I still managed to get up on time, but I’m feeling it today. So tired. Daylight savings on top of getting up early is throwing me off because I end up going to bed later. Anyway, I got my two walks during work in, but went home and laid down before it was time to leave for a NaNo write in. I didn’t get a walk with Shane in after work. Also didn’t get his room clean. Meh. One bit of cheating I’ve agreed with myself to do is to cheat when in a write in if we’re in a place with food or drinks. It’s my little treat to me for writing lots. So I had half a root beer, and half a coffee that wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. I also got two small pieces of chocolate that were even worse than the coffee. They tasted more like chalk than chocolate, so I only ate one corner and abandoned them. Ick. I got my exercises done this morning, and my writing. Go me! |
| “I will write my way into another life.” - Ann Patchett NaNoWriMo – November 2nd Things are moving along, though it was a little harder today. I woke up at 4, got my exercises done, took a shower, and then got to writing. I managed to almost make 2k before I had to go to work. Yay! I’m planning on doing a NaNo sprint at 10:00, then finish up the blog, and heading off to bed. Tomorrow, I’ll be joining our NaNo writing group for a write in, which should get me another couple thousand words. I’m hoping to be over 10k after tomorrow. Maybe I’ll even get to 15k. I’ve seen the score board for our site, and holy Cow, some people must have stayed up all night writing to get those words counts. I’m good, but not that good. Still it’s been fun so far. Finished writing for the day. Here are my results: 11/02/2015 5:00 - 6:20 AM = 1,961 Words 11/02/2015 8:00 - 9:35 PM = 1,713 Words 11/02/2015 Total = 3,674 Grand Total = 7,183 30 Day Blogging Challenge Prompt: How much would not having internet access for an extended period of time impact your life? That would make things rather tricky. At my job, I have to use the internet, so I wouldn’t be able to work. Almost all my recreational stuff is done online, and I have a mild to moderate addiction to my cell phone. Life without the internet would be a rather large slice of Hell for me. Then I’d have to go out and interact with people face to face. The Horror! I do have a bunch of books, so I’d still be able to read. And I don’t need the internet to write, though it makes research easier. The problem is that I do almost all my submitting online. Without the internet, I’d just be writing for myself, and you all would have to deal with the rabid HP/X-men crossover fans who’d be screaming for blood if they were told they would never get another installment of my fanfiction. Give it 100% - Day 64  1. Do not cheat on my diet. 2. Get up at 4 every week day. Exercise in the morning before work. 3. Write in the morning before work. 4. If it’s nice, try to get a little exercise in after work. 5. Walk both morning and afternoon break. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! Today was a good day. I managed to do it all, and I haven’t cheated even a little on the diet. I even got Husband to walk with us while Shay rode his bike. It’s been crazy warm here, and I love it! I’m sure winter will hit us like a slap upside the head soon, but for now I’m happy to enjoy the mild weather while it lasts. |
| “Take the first step, no more, no less, and the next will be revealed.” - Ken Roberts "Today I resolve to take writing seriously, to keep going and never stop, to learn everything I can and make it as a writer." Signed: Dana M. 11/01/2015 NaNoWriMo – November 1st Last night was an introvert’s dream of a party. I met with my fellow NaNoites at Perkins, and ate, chatted, and at midnight began writing. Like I said, the perfect party: a whole group of people seated in front of their computers typing, and not looking or interacting with each other. There’s something almost deliciously competitive about writing with a whole group like that. The clatter of keys make your own fingers dance to keep up. In the 30 minutes before midnight, I’ll admit, I was panicking more than just a little. I was terrified that the bell would strike, and no words would be forthcoming. In the end, that was a bit foolish, but I think we all experience that at the start of something amazing and crazy like this. Thankfully, the magic held, and I got to dance with the rest. 11/01/2015 12:00 - 1:20 AM = 2,028 Words 11/01/2015 9:42 - 9:54 PM = 1,480 Words Total Words for November 1st = 3,509 NaNo Tip – Don’t waste time agonizing over the first line. Instead use a place holder like – Once upon a time, or the one that I personally favor and use – And so it begins . . . 30 Day Blogging Challenge Prompt: Come up with a fake news headline...something you'd see in a checkout line tabloid at the grocery store. Convince us that it's something we should believe. Writers beware – National Novel Writing Month will be delayed two weeks this year due to a gross shortage of N’s. The hiccup in N distribution was discovered late last night while stocks were being counted in preparation for NaNoWriMo. We had to beg, borrow and steal just to get the N’s needed to complete this special article in advance of what would have been the Midnight kick off to the cherished event. Know this, we will get to the bottom of this global disaster and the perpetrators of the N shortage will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Our deepest apologies, dear readers, we know how much you were looking forward to NaNo, but think of it this way – You now have two extra weeks to prep for the eve t. Oh dear, we appear to have depleted our ratio of the eeded letter. With that, we bid you adieu. Give it 100% - Day 63   Okay, that’s not entirely unexpected. It still sucks, but such is life. Especially when you spend a week cheating epically. Goals moving forward: 1. Do not cheat on my diet. 2. Get up at 4 every week day. Exercise in the morning before work. 3. Write in the morning before work. 4. If it’s nice, try to get a little exercise in after work. 5. Walk both morning and afternoon break. It’s time to get this ship back on the right course. Today I took a long walk in the evening, so I was able to get my light workout in. The night was amazingly nice, warm, no wind, beautiful. I’ve also gone shopping, so now I have no excuses. I bought some lean cuisine pizzas for the days when Hubby doesn’t want to cook. That way I don’t give in and cheat with him, like I did all last week. When we fall, we have to pick ourselves back up again and keep walking. |
| “I already know what giving up feels like. I want to see what happens if I don’t.” - Neila Rey October NaNo Prep – 31 First: I won! Wooooooo. Super excited about that. I’ve been at Village Inn from 8:37 to 2:58 working to pull everything together. I’m still woefully behind where I wanted to be, but I’ve got a strong foundation to build on. When I started, I planned on using yWriter, but I didn’t like it. So I shifted over to Scrivner, and that’s working out better for me. I have my whole outline broken up in to chapters and scenes. I compiled my entire cast list, and got my locations in. I still need to do all the character charts for my insanely large cast, but sigh, that’s not going to happen today. Still, I think I took a respectable chunk out of it. Yesterday I got my November NaNo calendar printed and mounted at Kinko’s and I bought stickers! I have blinged out paw prints with jewels and sparkles for the days I meet my word count, plan black paws for days when I write and don’t make my word count, and a whole lot of nothing for the days I don’t write. I’m hoping to cover my calendar with all sparkly paws by the end of the month. Anyway, here it is:  30 Day Blogging Challenge Prompt - How did you enjoy this month's challenges? Would you like to see this format repeated in future "Unofficial" months? Do you have any suggestions for themes? What else did you do during October? What are your plans for November? I thought the mini challenges were interesting. They tied prompts together over five days and fit well together. I wouldn’t mind seeing it happen again. Theme suggestions: Animals, different styles of writing, learning about a foreign country, and maybe a how it’s make kind of thing. Oh! Cool photographs, or old ones. Maybe something about the future and how things might turn out. Next month I’m going to fling myself into the void of NaNo. Hopefully I learn to fly, and don’t end up dashing myself upon the rocks at the bottom of the pit. Give it 100% - Day 62 I’ll be doing my walking later tonight when I take my son around for trick-or-treat. We’re going to be a pair of black cats. Meow. |
| “ ‘Busy’ has become the new ‘fine’.” - Jeff Shinabarger October NaNo Prep – Day 30 We explored the changes in our protagonist today from the beginning of the story to the end. It was a good chance to get a better feel for our main characters, and grasp how they grow and change. I wish I had more time to work on it, but time groweth short, and I still have much to do. 30 Day Blogging Challenge Day 5 - Haunted Halloween - Almost everyone loves a haunted tale. Write about a haunted place, could be fact or fiction. “Really?” Kelly huffed, glaring into her locker. All her books were floating near the top, and of course, her math book was squished against the roof, refusing to budge as she tugged on it. Of all the lockers, she had to get this one. For the third year in a row. It had become one of those stupid old cartoons with the dancing frog. If she tried to get someone else to see the crazy things that happened in her locker, they’d look and see a perfectly normal teen space. A bit messy, but nothing out of the ordinary. The books twitched, silently mocking her. Growling, she slammed the stupid thing. Megan would let her share during class anyway. Let the stupid ghost play in the dark by itself. As she walked away, the locker slammed open, and the book smacked the back of her head. Give it 100% - Day 61 Not so good today. I got half way though the exercises when my knee started hurting like a witch, so I stopped before it gave out. Meh, at least I don’t have to do the serious working out for the next two days. |
| “Don’t think there are no crocodiles because the water is calm.” - Proverb October NaNo Prep – Day 29th My prep today got a little off track. I ended up more writing my characters than focusing on the scene, so I had to cut it short or get into the dangerous waters of writing before November starts. Can’t have that! It would be treason of the highest NaNo order to start before the start. This morning I had a bit of a panic attack when I realized November is like two days away and I still have so much to do. Procrastination strikes again! On Saturday I’m going to get up at 5 and spend the hours between 5-3 at Village Inn getting my shit together. Wish me luck. 30 Day Blogging Challenge Prompt: Day 4 - Halloween Menu - You have decided to host a Halloween Party. What will your house look like, describe the costume are you wearing, what creepy foods will you serve? Share a recipe or two. Well, first things first, I’d have to be quite tipsy to decide to do such a thing. I’m an introvert at heart, and I can’t remember ever setting up a party. I suppose if I did, I wouldn’t do much decorating because it would be a Halloween movie party. We’d watch all the cheesy scary movies, eat a ton of popcorn, and split bags of cheap Halloween Candy. If I’m feeling rambunctious, we’d have drinks too, and maybe come up with some sort of Halloween drinking game, not that I know any, but I’m sure someone I invite could figure it out. Give it 100% - Day 60 My inner child needs to be gagged, tied up, and thrown into a closet in the basement. That’s all I have to say about that. I managed to get my exercises done, and eat all sorts of terrible things. >.< This week has been one big back slide into bad habits. Today wasn’t great, tomorrow doesn’t look good either. I’m pinning my hopes on November. A fresh start and all sorts of good things to come. And Thanksgiving . . . mmmmm Thanksgiving. |
| “You are going to want to give up. Don’t.” - Unknown October NaNo Prep – Day 28 I’m finally getting a bit of handle on Kevin, so I’ll have to work with him a little more to figure him out entirely. His profile was the one I worked on tonight, and even though he curses a lot, he’s quite amusing to write. He and I are going to be good friends. 30 Day Blogging Challenge Prompt: Day 3 - Halloween Memories - What is your favorite memory of Halloween when you were young? I think one of my favorite parts of Halloween came at the end. We’d count all our candy and begin the sorting process. Then came the haggling. All the kids would begin the fine art of trading for the choice pieces. Swapping was always the most fun, even if my brothers robbed me blind in the end. Blog City Prompt: Your creative imagination can be good for writing novels, poems, short stories but can be your worst enemy when it invents worse case scenarios. Do you agree? No kidding. Do you know how many serial killers, ax murderers and monsters live in my basement? Let’s not get started on all the mad dog killer types just waiting to spring up and grab me while I’m taking a walk! Having a child has compounded my imagination to a frightening degree. Half the time I can’t watch the news because any story with a kid in it will almost definitely happen to my son. There are so many terrible things that could happen that it makes me cringe when my overactive imagination slips its leash. Give it 100% - Day 59 I’m giving up on the whole dieting thing this week. Next week, I’ll go shopping again and get back on track. I’ll have to get some lean TV dinners for the nights Husband doesn’t want to cook. I’d do it, but then we’d all die. I did my workout when I got home this afternoon, so I’m still going strong on that front. Not counting on losing much weight if any this week. |
| “Fear doesn’t go away. The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day.” - Steven Pressfield October NaNo Prep – Day 27 Today was another outline day. I’m going to revisit this before the month is over while I add the whole outline, and add more detail, into yWriter. During the outlining process, I was able to work out one of the problems my plot was giving me. The problem appeared yesterday during the brainstorming session, and I guess the guys in the basement were working on it all day, waiting for me to tackle my outline again to provide the answer. I love it when that happens! Blog City Prompt: Is there an image, a storyline, or a scene that keeps coming up and persisting in your writing? Do you know why? Do you put it there knowingly or does it show up on its own, unannounced? I’ve had one story idea and two long works revolve around the idea of a person being stripped of their emotions. My fanfic is over 500 pages long and deals with such a character. The only Nano year I did was also a fanfic that had the same idea. The third would have been an original work but I chickened out on a NaNo year. I’m not really sure why I’m so fascinated with this sort of character. Perhaps it’s because they’re difficult to write. I only noticed the trend when I stumbled across the old NaNo notes, so it wasn’t a conscious decision on my part. No emotionally damaged characters in my new story, so maybe I’ve worked that out of my system. 30 Day Blogging Challenge Prompt: Day 2 Halloween Controversy - Many Christian Churches encourage their congregations to boycott Halloween Celebrations. What is your opinion, is Halloween pure evil? To me, Halloween is purely commercial and fun. Just as atheists almost always celebrate Christmas and Easter, I see no reason for Christians to boycott Halloween. It has almost nothing to do with what it was originally. Now it’s a cultural thing, not a religious one. When you freak out about stuff like this, you end up coming across as mental. Dressing up for fun and eating candy won’t turn anyone into a witch or corrupt their furry little minds. It might rot their teeth, but such is life. Give it 100% - Day 58 Today was mostly a fuck it all kind of day. I slept in. I didn’t make any breakfast or lunch. I went to the gas station and got a bunch of terrible snacks, a pop, and a coffee. Sigh. When I got home, I did my exercise so that’s good. And now I’m going to eat fast food. So that’s bad. Sigh, sigh, sigh. I hate Tuesday. |
| “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” - Stephen King October NaNoPrep – Day 26 It seems like every time we have a brainstorm day, my book grows. Now I’m going have shifting perspective for two different groups of people twice during the middle of the book. Joyful times ahead. 30 Day Blogging Challenge Prompt: Day 1 - Halloween Traditions - In my area, suburban Rochester, NY, the kid's go out Trick or Treating about 5:30 pm and are in by about 8:30. Kids over thirteen aren't usually out trick or treating, on occasion you might get a group of teenagers but they are few and far between. Some adults have Halloween Parties but not many and not many people dress up in costumes at their jobs. What does Halloween Night look like in your area? Every year we get together at my Mother-in-law’s house. We eat a big dinner, and the whole family gets together for photos. Then we go and walk around the neighborhood with the kidlets. Since most are under the age of six, we don’t stay out too late, and they’re pretty tired by the time it’s all over. Give it 100% - Days 56-57 I ran out of time yesterday to get my blog done, but I did take a long walk in the afternoon, and I weighed myself.  Not terrible, but not great. Today I got my exercises done when I got home. I need to start getting up early again. |
| “Stressed spelled backwards is desserts.” - Loretta Laroche October NaNo Prep – Day 24 Today we explored the backstory of our works. It’s another contest round, alas, I haven’t won any of the contest rounds but there’s a lot of competition, so I don’t’ feel too bad about it. For my backstory, I introduced where the virus developed, and how it will be dispersed around the world. It was a bit of an info dump, but I think I pulled it off. Blog City Prompt: Should we stop teaching critical thinking? Is it to linear to with the twenty first century world? What are your thoughts about how children are taught today? What about creativity, are children encouraged to think outside the box? Critical thinking is important. It allows us to make those linear leaps of logic and focus on the logical side of deconstructing facts to bring them forward into fully formed thoughts. One of the problems many schools run into, especially with Common Core, is that it’s become all about memorization. We no longer teach thinking, period. We teach memorization, facts that will be forgotten after the test. I believe Common Core is a massive step in the wrong direction, but even before that new debacle, the system was broken. It fails to teach children to think, to cope with reality, or to have any sort of skills. Their brains are stuffed with facts that are all forgotten. To tell you the truth, the only think I’ve ever used from my entire schooling career, including college, are the two typing classes I took in high school. That was literally the only class I’ve ever taken that taught me something I use to this day. Well, after third grade or so. Reading, writing, basic math. That’s all we really use once we get out of school. The rest is just busy work. 30 Day Blogging Challenge Prompt: You've been given a free trip to a remote resort. It's five star all the way, the only catch is... It's completely technology free. You have turn in all of your devises, there is no internet or satellite signal. Not even a pay phone. You're there for a week - Is a week of bliss or a week of hell? That would be difficult, but I think I could cope. Maybe. I’m kind of addicted to my phone. I guess I’d have to go low tech, make sure I had a lot of books, some notebooks, and pens. Then I’ll be able to keep reading and writing even without technological feedback. Though writing for any length of time hurts my hand, and I can never write as fast as my thoughts. Still, it might be interesting to try a week unwired. Give it 100% - Day 55 Today was pretty good. When I got home, I got Hubby to go on a walk with us. Shay rode his bike, and we followed along behind like oversized ducklings. It was a great walk on a beautiful October day. |
| “There's an old voice in my head that's holding me back Well tell her that I miss our little talks.” - Of Monsters and Men, Little Talks October NaNo Prep – Day 23 Adventure day! I got my prep done, but that wasn’t the adventure. My little corner of the world had its first NaNo meeting of the season. We met in a little book store down town, on a Friday night, at 6, while a Basketball game was going on. Needless to say, things got a little crazy. I’m rather proud of myself though. Even when things took a left turn, I didn’t freak out and turn tail. I didn’t crash my car, or get lost. In the end, I ended up parking in a parking garage – a first for me – and made it to the book store half an hour late. Aside from that, it went well. I’m rather excited for the many write-ins we have scheduled next month. Hopefully not all of them will be as nerve wracking as tonight. 30 Day Blogger Challenge Prompt: Let's hear your opinion of one of the funniest things we have to put up with in life: advertising! Is it worth it? Can you believe it? Does it even matter any more because we are flooded with it? Can you even recall the product from an ad that you liked? How do you advertise yourself and your writing? There’s one set of commercials that I think are kind of adorable. The Friskies Dear Kitten commercials. Too cute for words. I also loved the Havoc insurance campaign, though I can never recall who he represents. I need to start building my writing platform, and to start, I’m becoming more active on Twitter. Check me out sometime: 00Kit00 – Dana McDowell (See what I did there? Advertising!) Give it 100% - Day 54 Close to good today. I did my workout when I got home. At work, I did break down and eat a bag of M&Ms, and at the NaNo meeting I had half a brownie. However, I’m not eating dinner tonight since I’m not very hungry. My adventures down town killed my appetite. So I guess it evens out. |
| “The world never stops. No matter how exhausted you feel, it keeps dragging you on and on and there is no rest.” - Mark O’Sullivan October NaNo Prep – Day 22 Just finished. Want sleep. But still so much to do. *sigh* 30 Day Blogging Challenge Prompt: Yesterday's prompt lied. Money isn't evil - politics are evil! Tell us how do you escape the political situations and what you think about political correctness, politicians, government, office/school/church/neighborhood politics and how you can escape them - if you do. “The Democrats have responded to the Republicans’ lack of dealing with reality by truly not dealing with reality, either.” – Lewis Black “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but our two-party system is a bowl of shit looking at itself in the mirror.” – Lewis Black [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] That’s roughly how I feel about the whole mess. Lewis Black sums it up perfectly. Give it 100% - Day 53 In the last week, I’ve learned a valued lesson. You can stay up late, or you can get up early. Can’t really do both. At least, I can’t. So I didn’t get up early again today, and I probably won’t be getting up early tomorrow. However, I did get my exercises done after dinner. Then I ate a piece of cake, thus undoing all my hard work. Sometimes I think I enjoy thwarting my own efforts in life. |
| “We relinquished our freedom that day, and we were more than happy to see it go. From that moment on we lived in true freedom, the freedom to point to someone else and say “They told me to do it! It’s their fault, not mine.” The freedom, God help us, to say “I was only following orders.” ― Max Brooks, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War October NaNo Prep – Day 21 It was all about definitions today. My mind kind of blanked out a little, but I was able to get four up, and I came up with a pretty kick ass name for my zombie virus: Vitaeque Reddenda Virus A.K.A VRV It’s Latin for reanimated. 30 Day Blogging Challenge Prompt: It's the root of all evil, so they say. Tell us what you think about money. For years, people survived by bartering. Every country has its own currency, and people make more money out of exchanging it when you buy there. Let's not forget those people who manipulate trade stocks. Or is it bankers? But the big question may be, Do you have enough or need it at all? What's your escape plan - the lottery, marriage, bitcoin? Money, money, money. It has a way of never being enough, doesn’t it? No matter how much you have, it never seems to be enough. Your bills inflate to match the new income. Don’t believe me? Go get a new job where you get paid more, or a raise. Within a couple of months you’ll find that you’re spending the same percentage of your cash now that you were before the raise. I could certainly use more, even if the whole rat race is beyond pointless. My escape plan is the impending zombie apocalypse, where I will inevitably become one of the undead and go around chopping on all you silly survivors. Give it 100% - Day 52 Today was better. Not perfect, but took a few steps in the right direction. Bad habits are way easier to develop than good ones, and I need to turn things around. I slept in again this morning, and now here I am, stuck staying up to catch up on everything. I got my exercises done when I got home, but I still need to get my writing done for the day. Now for the not so good news, my husband is the bane of all good intentions when it comes to dieting. We went out to eat, but at least it was a sit down restaurant. I did get a pop, but drank less than a quarter of it. I also got a filet mignon, which is my absolute favorite stake. Also had a sweet potato, with honey butter and brown sugar. Naughty, I know. But! I didn’t have dessert, so that’s something I suppose. I didn’t cheat during the day though. Meh, my weight is going to suck this week. |
| “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” - R. Colier October NaNo Prep – Day 20 Today we expanded on the outline, and added a time line for the story. I didn’t do a great job on the timeline, that’s something I need to spend more time on once I have more time. The one written by J. K. Rowling was hard to discern, but it’s cool to look at something a wildly successful writer once wrote out by hand. Her handwriting is almost as good as mine. Blog City Prompt: The little things in the beginning usually cause the big things at the end. Can you think of something minor that can turn into a big deal in the world, in your life, or in your city? They all looked down at the odd one, the one who wasn’t quite like them. Instead of swinging from the trees, he stood awkwardly on hind legs. Though the rest of the troop hooted at him and threw figs, it didn’t dissuade the strange one from his obsession. Most turned their back on him, ignored his bizarre behavior, and continued on with life’s tasks: eating, grooming, mating, running from predators and defending territory. One day, a female ventured down to the ground, and on all fours she approached the odd one. He held out a hand to her, and drew her to her feet. 30 Day Blogging Challenge Prompt: OK. Time to get serious. Tell us your opinion and how you escape age's effect on you - physical, mental, perception. By the latter I mean how others expect you to act because of your age. Can the fun-loving kid in you still get out or can you control your inner child. Or talk about staying healthy in hopes of living longer, better - Blue Zone One of the ways I’ve ducked aging is by not wearing makeup. I know, that sounds counterproductive, but I’ve always loathed the stuff. I tried makeup when I was oh, 12ish, and that week was enough to show me that I wasn’t the sort of girl who could pull it off. I’m 30 now, and I still wear not a speck. Have you ever seen a show like The View when they decide to do a no makeup day? The women all look odd, like there’s something wrong with their faces. It got me thinking, perhaps makeup is causing more damage than it hides. It’s full of chemicals, and that can’t be good on your face. It gunks up pours, and though it hides blemishes, how many more does it cause? At age 30 I look fine, not as airbrush beautiful as some of the women who’ve mastered the art, but still not like how they look when they strip the layers of paint away. I also know that men don’t like makeup. My husband hates it, and we both agree that it’s not worth the trouble. Makeup isn’t worn for men, it’s worn for other women. Give it 100% - Day 51 Today was a little better, no fast food at any rate. Alas, I was suffering from fast food hangover last night, and when I woke up I had a pretty bad stomach ache. So instead of exercising or writing, I slept in. This resulted in not having enough time to make lunch. I ended up getting snacks for lunch at work. Here’s where the not so good part comes in: I had a lunchable, which isn’t too terrible. And a Starbuck’s Frappuccino, which is worse, and a bag of baked chips, followed up with a Twix bar. >.< I overindulged a little during dinner too, but at least it was homemade cheese burgers and not fast food. I had two when I should have stopped at one. Small steps, but steps none the less. |
| “I have not failed. My success is just postponed.” - Unknown October NaNo Prep – Day 19 Today was a brain storming day, and wasn’t quite as successful as the last session. Then again, I’ve got my story pretty much nailed down, so I’m liking that. It feels good to know where I’m going. 30 Day Blogging Challenge Prompt: Tell us how you escape distractions to be able to write? Explain the most annoying ones and the schemes you use. In the end, it comes down to three little words: Just Do It. Procrastination is a son of a bitch, but the best way to defeat him is to sit down and start. Here’s a secret, starting is the hardest part. Before you start, Procrastination will try and sink its claws into you. The dishes are dirty, shouldn’t you clean that up before you write? How about that giant mound of laundry? You know, the lawn is getting a little shaggy. Oh! Husband wants to go to the movies, you don’t want him to think you’re ignoring him, do you? You should spend more time with your son you know. And so on, and so on, and so on. If you start listening, then you’ll never get a word written. The problem is, we don’t just put things off until tomorrow – we put them off until our death bed. So . . . Just Do It. Give it 100% - Day 50 I’d love to say that I rocked today and didn’t cheat. Well, I got my exercise done, and all throughout the work day I bested temptation. I avoided going to the gas station for coffee to combat the freezing temp in the building. I didn’t get a bag of chips from the snack machine. I didn’t eat candy. Overall, that part of the day rocked. Then, things went wrong. I had to get one of my tires patched, and they guy said it would take an hour. So I decided to take a walk. Good plan . . . not good after all. As I was walking past Wendy’s, my good intentions got jumped by Temptation, and got their collective asses whooped. Then I was kidnapped by Temptation and ate a bunch of deep fried yum. To top it off, husband got me a snack from Taco John’s, those little cinnamon pillows drizzled with frosting, a perfectly horrible end to a not so glorious day. *Sigh* |
| “Trust me, you can dance.” – Vodka 30 Day Blogging Challenge Prompt: Then on Sunday, pick a fellow blogger's topic from Saturday, and write your opinion on their topic. I chose "Invalid Entry"  from amyjo-Keeping it real and fun!   blog. Amyjo chose a great topic to tackle yesterday, one that anyone who has children needs to be concerned about. Even those without kids should sit up and take notice. There’s a problem in the U.S. with the school system. While I can’t say for certain when this problem began, I can say it’s getting worse. The latest turn it’s taken is in Common Core, where they’ve decided to reinvent the wheel when it comes to teaching. Instead of focusing on learning, they teach to the test. On top of that, they’ve changed all the methods for teaching everything. The stories I’ve heard about Common Core Math are hair curling. It seems like they’ve decided to take easy things, and make them freaking impossible to understand. Parents aren’t able to help their kids with homework anymore because the painful illogic of Common Core melts their brain. Don’t believe me, look up Common Core, rounding numbers sometime. Prepare to cry and ask Why??? Why are they doing this? It’s insanity. And nothing more than another failed program to try and fix what’s broken in our educational system. Give it 100% - Day 49   Pout, I’ve hit the first wall. That sucks. Then again, too much snacking and cheating in the food department probably hasn’t helped the last two weeks. Next week, I’ll focus more on not cheating on my diet. Yesterday night was a bit of a party for mother-in-law, and today I remembered why I don’t drink. So not much energy to do stuff. I spent most of the day sleeping it off. But, I made it a point to do some leg exercises for my activity for the weekend. It was the best I could do today. Tomorrow will be better. I know, I know, I keep saying that. But this time it’s true. |
| “It’s getting pretty intense. Every day has been ticking by. I just want to get there. The anticipation is killing me.” – Miles Austin October NaNo Prep – Day 17 Today was another contest round. If you want to check out my little snippet, here you go: "Invalid Entry" . I wanted to play a little with it, and so I wrote it in Brenden, the son’s, perspective. This scene is actually in response to something that will happen in the book, but I used Brenden’s thoughts and feelings about a parental fight to add action to the descriptive scene of the house. Instead of just giving the reader the setting, I had Brenden contemplate the house while he thought about the fight. That way it didn’t feel like scene setting, and it peppered in back story. 30 Day Bogging Challenge Prompt: On Saturday, write about a current event of issue you are strongly in favor of. “Happiness is like soap in the bath. The more you try to grab it, the more cloudy the water: the more difficult it is to find” – Adrian Furnham http://news.nationalpost.com/life/refute-of-happiness-how-our-obsession-with-pos... This article touched on something that’s been plaguing our culture for a while now. If you have flipboard for your news, you’ll notice as you’re flipping that there are a large number of articles on how to be happy. We’re all so very focused on our feelings, on positivity, and on obliterating any notion of negativity in our lives. It’s become insanely imbalanced. The painful truth is, happiness is not a state of being. We were designed by evolution to experience bad and negative feelings to help keep us alive. It’s unnatural to be happy all the time. Yet the culture keeps screaming at us that if we aren’t happy every moment of the day, then there’s something wrong with us. So many people are turning to antidepressants not because they’re depressed, but because they don’t always feel happy. Those who don’t turn to chemicals, turn to psychiatrists and spend thousands of dollars talking about their feelings, but never doing anything. We’ve forgotten how to cope with negative feelings and behave like rational human beings while experiencing them. Things won’t always go our way, but that doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world. Nor does it mean there’s something wrong with us for having a bad day. The more we pursue happiness for the sake of happiness, the less happy we become. Yet, from every corner of our culture we hear that we must be happy. There are endless self-help books that tout the benefits of conquering negativity. In the end, we’re chasing something impossible, and it’s doing a lot more damage to us than if we simply accepted that life is a series of ups and downs. When we try to cut the downs, we end up equally destroying the ups, and end up with a flat lining life. Blog City Prompt: Do you think "take it one day at a time" is good advice? Why or Why not? Take it one day at a time has always been a saying that makes me scratch my head. Sure, I can understand the sentiment behind it, but when you look at it objectively, it makes no logical sense. There isn’t an option to take it a week or two at a time. We all have to take everything one day at a time. I suppose if there was an option to take it two or three days at a time, people might choose to do so, even if that would bring them closer to death. There’s no way to fast-forward through our lives, so . . . take life one day at a time. Give it 100% - Day 48 Today wasn’t too bad. After visiting with my brother, mom and I took a half hour walk around her neighborhood. Tonight is going to be bad, since we’re going to a surprise birthday party for my mother-in-law, I’m sure alcohol and yummy food will be involved. Le sigh. It doesn’t help that my bike is broken, and there’s no point getting it fixed this year since winter will be here soon. Next week, I’ll get serious about my diet again. I already know November and December are going to be diet killing months. For NaNo, there are a lot of restaurant write ins scheduled, and I already know myself well enough to know I’ll be eating yummies. Either way, I’ll continue exercising throughout the rest of the year, even if my weight loss doesn’t happen as much as I’d like. 2016 will bring with it weight loss glory! |
| “The artist cannot look to others to validate his efforts or his calling. If you don't believe me, ask Van Gogh, who produced masterpiece after masterpiece and never found a buyer in his whole life.” ― Steven Pressfield, The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles October NaNo Prep – Day 16 Today we built a new directory. This one contains our settings. My list has 11 setting so far, and I put them in order of how they’ll appear in the story. I’ve no doubt that I didn’t catch them all, but it’s a start. "Invalid Item" Blog City Prompt: Do you ever feel like an imposter when you read other writers here on WDC? How do you handle that insecurity that strikes us all? This is one of my biggest challenges, and it’s why I haven’t managed to participate in NaNo for the past four years. Every year, I plan on writing, and every year I get cold feet. I start doubting my story, my abilities to write, and my will to finish. Then I end up washing my hands of the whole thing. This year, I’m not going to do that. Even if it turns out horribly, I’m going to write my novel. I think the only way we can handle our insecurities is to never give up. Even if they knock us flat on our back time and time again, we have to get up and set our lances to till it them again. 30 Day Blogging Challenge Prompt: Write about a two different smells...one that triggers an unpleasant memory, and one that triggers a happier moment. The smell of cinnamon toast reminds me of lazy Saturdays in childhood, when the parents were still asleep, and I’d make cinnamon toast and spend the morning in my jimmies watching cartoons. For as long as I can recall, the smell of green veggies cooking makes me physically ill. Green beans, cabbage, broccoli, all of them. When I was a young girl, I’d actually throw up when my parents forced me to eat my greens. I don’t know why I have that reaction, but I still can’t stomach them even now. Give it 100% - Day 47 Procrastination in the bane of my existence. Yet again, I yielded to resistance, and slept in instead of getting up to exercise and write. This whole week has kind of sucked for me. But, on the plus side, I did my exercises when I got home from work. I still need to do my writing, and that’ll be next. Yesterday I forgot to do confessions since I was in a rush to get everything done before bed. We haven’t gone shopping in a while, and so husband didn’t have anything worth cooking. So fast food again yesterday. >.< Today I gave in to cold and hunger and bought one of the tomato soups to go with my lunch, and then gave in some more and got a bag of peanut butter M&Ms. It seems like the more you give in, the more you give in. Sigh. Tomorrow is a new day, and I have dragons to slay. |
| “Let’s go to bed. I’m tired of this day. I need a new one.” - Unknown October NaNo Prep – Day 15 Got my prep done today. We used Write or Die to do a writing sprint, and I’m pleased to say I got over 600 words done in 15 minutes. If you want to be pushed in your writing, give this a shot. It forces you to keep writing, and it doesn’t let you know you’ve made mistakes like word does. So you get to keep writing and not feel the OCD urge to go fix every misspelled word. 30 Day Blogging Challenge Prompt: According to the now scientifically unproven "taste belt" or "tongue map", things we taste are generally bitter, sour, salty, or sweet. Of these four, how would you say people most identify you? I’d say I’m a good mix of sweet and salty. Before you get to know me, I’m very shy and sweet. After I’ve known you for a while, I let my salty side out to play. Give it 100% - Day 46 Learned an important lesson today. I got up and did my exercise, and had 17 minutes before I had to get my husband up. Instead of putting together my lunch stuff for work, or checking e-mails, or writing my to do list, I made the horrible mistake of laying down. And, after waking husband up, I stayed down and slept until I had to get up. As you may have guessed, I didn’t get my writing done this morning. It’s 8:11 here, and I have 2,000 words I have to write before I can go to bed. Sob. Note to self, don’t lay down after exercises. |
| “And shepherds we shall be, for Thee, my Lord, for Thee. Power hath descended forth from Thy hand. That our feet may swiftly carry out Thy command. So we shall flow a river forth to Thee, and teeming with souls shall it ever be.” - Boondock Saints October NaNo Prep – Day 14 Today I explored Mark’s wife. Even though she’s going to die, she’ll play a pretty important role in the story. She’s going to be one of the first zombies to turn, before anyone knows what’s going on. One of those domino effects where it all started because a high school girl dated a shitty boyfriend, and that started the dominos tipping off into the future of undeadhood. It’s all interconnected like that. Blog City Prompt: Think of your blog as a mirror. What does it reveal? Blog name, theme choice, design, bio, posts.... What does each element say about you? The title of my blog sets up the readers to expect the unexpected. We’re all Mad Here, from the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland. One of the reasons I chose that title, is because I wanted to be unexpected. I’m sure you’ve noticed that I start the day with a quote. Sometimes the quote matches up with what the blog is about, but just as often it simply is the quote that caught my eye that day. The same is true for my titles. They could reflect the content, or my inner feelings at the time of writing. With the colors of my blog, I am almost totally random when I chose them. There’s rarely a set pattern. In fact, the only title that gets its own special color is October NaNo Prep, and that’s orange for Halloween. The lay out is somewhat predictable. This month, I always start with Nano, and end with Give it 100%. The ones in the middle change places from day to day. Also, the areas I’m writing about can change. This month I added October Prep. Next month I’ll change that to NaNo. The month after? Who knows? My blog is free flowing. And like the cat it was inspired by, you never know where you might end up. 30 Day Blogging Challenge Prompt: How do you contrast a physical touch versus an emotional touch? Do you feel that one is any more of the five senses than the other? I don’t think of emotional touch as a sense, mostly because it can’t be weighted and measured like the other senses can. If I flash a light in your eyes, you’ll see pretty much the same thing as anyone else, a bright light. But how do we measure the stroke of a sunrise on a person’s heart? Some might be moved to tears, whereas others remain untouched by it. For me, the five senses are how we process external physical stimuli. While we might all have a different range, all the stimuli falls into measurable patterns that can be observed. Emotion . . . our hearts . . . even our thoughts become something else again. Something we haven’t developed a name for. Not the senses, because those dwell in the physical realm. Perhaps it’s time to come up with spiritual senses. What would they be? Empathy, imagination, internalization, intelligence, personality. What five spiritual senses do you think should exist? Give it 100% - Day 45 Yes, today was better. I actually made it through the whole 10 minute work out without resting, so that’s a bonus. I ended up cheating a little this afternoon, but the cold made me do it. At work, the building is freezing because we’re in that wretched time between summer and winter where they refuse to turn the heat on but it’s cold. So I was freezing, I had my coat on, but my hands were still cold. Due to that, I spent my second break trekking over to the gas station for some coffee. I got one of the flavored ones, the pumpkin spice and a bag of teriyaki jerky. The pumpkin spice latte was undrinkable. I don’t know who came up with the blend but holy crap they were heavy handed with the nutmeg. It tasted like a hot cup of nutmeg. I’m not sure if I can even count that as cheating since I didn’t get to drink the stupid thing. Though, I did snarf all the jerky. Okay confession time over. See, I’ll always tell it to you straight. Not just my successes, but my stumbles too. Sometimes you’re the hydrant, other times you’re the dog. Most people don’t tell their hydrant stories though. |
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