Nanowrimo total, as of yesterday: just a smidge over 9,000 words.

It’s humid today, which seems to be the weather pattern that really kicks my butt at the moment.  As a result, I’m finding it very difficult to actually focus on getting any writing done.

I’m also beginning to think that Nanowrimo is a goal that’s not going to be met for me this year.  It’s not even a matter of whether I can get 50k written in a month.  Hell, I could sit down and spend a couple of solid days just churning out rubbish to make word count.

The thing is that I don’t want to churn out rubbish.  I’m enjoying exploring a new fictional world, but it feels like I haven’t developed enough of the world itself to be able to write anything that’s going to be of any use.  I just don’t see the point in churning out words that I’m going to toss in a few month’s time.

And yes, I’m aware that this is the same discussion I’ve been having with myself about whether to do Nanowrimo or not in the first place.  I think it can be a very fine thing – it’s a good way to generate a zero draft of part of a novel.  It’s a good way to just play with words, to see if you can write 50k words in a month.  I’ve “won” it twice before, so I know I can do that.

But is doing it just because I can a good enough reason?  Yes, I want to write this draft, but I also want it to be a useful draft.

I might keep on pushing forward.  This might just have to be a lost day of writing.

But I might just pull back a little, spend some more time working on building the foundation of this novel.

Mirrored from Stephanie Gunn.

Something's better than nothing, right?
It could be done much better but I just did it so bleh.
( Blah )

Links to all the promo vids, pics adn interveiws for tomorrow's episode Can I say it's one of my favorite epsiodes without having seen it? yes I can ;D

Also more info regarding that other exciting spoiler for 5.12

( additional joy )

I've been fine and also fairly fannish, just not getting as far as posting to LJ. In a burst of enthusiasm, I took on another extra accounting job to do from home, one that didn't involve a strict deadline and was a bit out of my area of expertise. The result was that I eyed it off for a long time before starting, occasionally poked at it, finally got stuck into it while rewatching Sharpe episodes because I couldn't stand it on its own, took it with me to my mother's house on three separate occasions with the intention of finishing it there, thought day after day, "I must finish those tax returns today" which is a very tedious thought, and generally let it interfere with my life for weeks out of all proportion to what I'll earn for it. I haven't quite mastered working from home, at least not without a deadline! That's the end of my extra work until next year and I now have my quietest two months ahead of me.

I've rewatched all of Rome and been amazed at how wonderful the second season is. I watched it every week while it was airing, but somehow its full brilliance didn't quite hit me at the time and some of the best scenes — Pullo trying to comfort Vorenus after ( spoiler ), Pullo's "I'm your friend. I love you. I would never betray you" during their fight, and their scenes together in the final episode — didn't permanently etch themselves in my mind the way they should have been etched. Now, they're etched.

I finally found a copy of Warriors, a 1999 BBC mini-series about British peacekeepers in Bosnia starring Damian Lewis and Ioan Gruffudd (whose name I will never be able to spell without looking it up). If you want to watch a no-happy-ending story about what it does to people to have to stand by and watch ethnic cleansing, by all means borrow it from me. 

I'm also enjoying White Collar, after seeing the first two episodes with cricketk and sarren last weekend. I'm not naturally inclined towards OT3 situations, but we'll see how it goes. The male leads have plenty of chemistry and I think Peter finds Neal far more fascinating than he does his wife! 

Other than that, I've been whippersnippering, pullling what Paterson's Curse remains on my property (not much) and removing the seed pods from the cape tulip that lived to form them despite my spraying efforts. Plant by plant, combing over every inch of my 29 acres, day after day. This is going to be a good year in the ongoing me vs weeds battle and I'm already looking forward to seeing the payoff next year.  I'm trying to manage my paddocks so 1) they feed the animals for as long as possible into the summer without me having to buy horse feed, 2) the horses don't get dangerously heavy on the spring grass, 3) the grass doesn't get so long anywhere that it's a real fire risk, and 4) no areas get so bare I get dust and erosion. I won't manage all of that, but that's the goal. Right now the horses are just this side of too fat and shiny in my smallest paddock, only one little area near the water trough is bare thanks to some temporary fencing keeping them out of other areas, everything is drying off but there looks to be plenty of feed for the summer, and I haven't spent a cent on horse feed since July and probably won't until February. No one believes me when I say this, but if you have some land and manage it right, it's cheaper to keep two horses than to feed a cat.

I think I'm irredeemably behind on New Things. Maybe I'll change my plan and aim to do 26 new things in the first six months of next year, like I did this year, rather than trying to fit my outstanding 25 things into the remaining 8 weeks of this year. Now that I finally have some free time, I mostly want to just relax and do the things I normally do.

( criminal minds )

I enjoyed that episode quite a bit. Even with all the... you know. Enucleation.

I'm watching the DVD of the Audrey Hepburn version of *War and Peace* to help me with reading the book. (The way the characters' names keep changing is very confusing).

Even the movie version is very, very long! It's all war! Peace! More war!

I have had great trouble finding anything about this condition in books. The most useful so far is a chapter in *Why Motor Skills Matter*. There was also a chapter on late premmies, which was useful as most books either assume your child was full term or was a micro-premmie.

The librarian did find me a book which had hypotonia as a key word and inter-library loaned it. Then she told me I was on no account to read it, because when it arrived it turned out to be the story of a boy with a genetic condition (which included hypotonia as a symptom) who died. So it has been sent back, sight unseen, because I cannot handle that.

Still struggling to find useful information.

I have been buying organic fruit and veggies, but, alas, it's not financially feasible. They are twice as yummy, have no nasty toxins and cost two to four times as much as the pesticide-laden ones. So as long as I am working one day a week I think we'll be chowing down on the poisons.

( *spins, twirls, and the most energetic holiday getting-down that you've ever seen* )

My charity fic cracked 20K today and is slowly inching its way towards structure and possibly even theme, though there are some tone issues that are a bit roller-coastery. I officially dropped out of queenbitchfest earlier tonight and, man, did that ever feel like a weight being lifted off. S7 was obviously my special-boo fandom that won't be replicated again.

Poll #1480977 Road trip!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 31

I would totally go on a road trip with...

From the business section of the Guardian this week: Google seeks to turn a profit from YouTube copyright clashes. The article's subtitle gives you the gist: "Group is working to persuade music and video companies to cash in rather than clamp down when their content is uploaded." In short, Google wants to use their content fingerprinting system to report uses--even transformed uses--to copyright holders and then to offer them the chance to put ads on user-generated content. There's lots wrong with that, but perhaps the wrongest is the idea that the companies have the right to take things down because "because the use does not fit the original's values." C'mon, Google! Don't be evil!

In brighter news, UK Will Urge EC To Legalise Mashups, Format-Shifting, Content Sharing. This "could include legalising more outright copying, the creation of sound/image mashups, format-shifting and sharing material with family and friends."

Relatedly, folks seem to be figuring out that the DVR isn't actually the death of commercial television and that so-called "music pirates" actually buy more music. While we've heard this song before, optimistically copyright holders will eventually figure out that they shouldn't be afraid of new technologies.

Mirrored from an original post on the OTW Blog.

Since I've realised the characters I draw are not as varied as they could be, Fanart prompts: not skinny youngish white people at my dreamwidth account. Will probably post the (eventual) results here, maybe? I knew this having two journals thing would end up complicated!

Comments blocked here because I want to keep track of things. Ooh, I don't think I've ever blocked comments before, how exciting :) I'm pretty sure anonymous and OpenID comments are screened but allowed, and if I don't unscreen for a bit I've just forgotten.

From a spoilery interview with a guest star from this week's episode. For the record it's episode 18 this season which will be #100! (prob filmed in Feb and broadcast around late March/early April)

Q: If my math is correct, your episode is right around the 90th of the series and thus coming up on that magical milestone of episode #100. Has there been any talk or ideas about doing something special to celebrate that when the time comes?

Special Guest Star: I think they are planning a big shindig in honor of #100. I should hope so. That’s a heck of an accomplishment. I hear there is a band made up of crewmembers that are planning to play the party. Word is, several other folks are going to sit in, including Jensen and executive producer Robert Singer (apparently he blows a mean harmonica). Should be a fun night. I’ll be watching the mailbox for my invitation.

I feel like i should have a party - anyone wanna come?

(no mentions of this weeks ep or other spoilers in comments plz)