NaNoWriMo Finissimo!

Or, to elaborate, National Novel Writing Month Fine!

Yeah, didn't know what Finissimo actually meant. But! I do know NaNoWriMo '09 is now officially over.

And I won! Huzzah! 50,000 words of a brand new novel - a novel never before seen by any living thing ever - in less than 30 days. Suffice it to say I'm a tad satisfied with myself.

But it wasn't all rose smelling and grass watching. Oh no. This year, for whatever reason, was much more difficult than previous years. At times, I just couldn't bring myself to write. I would sit at my desk, staring at my computer, not willing to do other things, but not willing to open up my story, either. If I had just opened that story, things would have gone just peachy. As is, things got a little hairy towards the end of the month. It was a little iffy there for a bit, whether or not I'd reach the goal in time; thanks to a 7000 word day and a 12,000 word day, I did it, and with two full days to spare, too!

What follows is a log of my November writing activities, for your viewing pleasure.

Week 1:
Day 1: 5k words written at all night write-in.
Day 2: 500 words written during class.
Day 3: 500 more words written.
Days 4-7: No words written.
Week 1 word count: 6000 words

At this point, I resolved to a 7 to 9 writing time every Tuesday to Thursday.

Week 2:
Day 8: No words written.
Day 9: 500 words written during class.
Day 10: 4k words written, during and after the 7 to 9 time.
Day 11: 1000 words written, 500 during class.
Day 12: 2000 written from 7 to 9.
Day 13-14: 500 words written at hotel
Total word count: 14000 words

That weekend was my brother's wedding, and I stayed with my family in a hotel away from my dorm room. Was a fun weekend, but not at all productive for writing. Starting to freak out a little.

Week 3:
Day 15: Still spent with family. Evening spent rehearsing dance for Woofest*. No words written.
Day 16: 4000 words written around and in classes.
Day 17: Performed in Woofest all evening. 1000 words written earlier in the day.
Day 18: 2000 words written, 500 in class.
Day 19: 4000 words written.
Days 20-21: No words written.
Total word count: 25000 words

*Woofest - an event in which each of the six floors of the male freshmen dorm put together and perform a dance/skit to "woo" the women of Vanguard. Also, something that took entirely too much time.

Also, notice that I haven't done any writing on the weekends. For the most part, there was absolutely no reason for this. Just me not getting around to writing. At this point, I'm halfway done with only one more week to go. My list of "Things To Do, Urgent" is very prominent. Also, all my rides up to Sacramento for Thanksgiving fell through, so I decided I'd just go over to my friend's or brother's house for Thanksgiving. No problem; more time to write.

Week 4:
Day 22: No words written
Day 23: No words written, even in the class I usually write in.
Day 24: I figure I'll just write 5000 words a day until I finish. No worries. 4000 words written, and I watch Twilight when I should be writing that last thousand (overall, I'd say a fair movie).
Day 25: Don't write all day, figuring I'll write in the evening. My brother says he'll pick me up at 5, and I can stay at his house until Friday. Great, shouldn't be too many distractions at his house, so I'll be able to do writing. 1000 words written at his house. Still on track for 5000 words a day within the deadline.
Day 26: Thanksgiving dinner at brother's inlaw's house. Get back to brother's house at about 6. Figure I'll get my 5000 written. We watch the new G.I. Joe movie. 1000 words written.
Total word count: 31,000 words

Guess what I'm going to be doing the last weekend?

Day 27: Get dropped back off at my dorm room at 7:30. Watch a movie. Take a nap. Dawdle until 7, and then write for six hours. My door doesn't open. I don't see a single person. 7000 words written.
Total word count: 38,000 words

Day 28: Wake up. Eat Thanksgiving leftovers. Write from 12:30 until 4. Take a break at 42k and giggle to myself at the number. Start writing again at 6. Reach 47k. Half-hour break to be social with two people, one of which has actually done NaNo in a previous year (the first Vanguard student I've met who hasn't heard about it from me). Back to writing at 10:45. Reach 49k at midnight. Head back to my room and get ready for bed. Write the last 1000 in 45 minutes.

Validate and win at 1:12 (one of my favorite numbers)! Extremely happy. 12k words in a single day! My eyes burn.
Final word count: 50,049 words

Day 29: Relax in hammock.
Day 30: Not touch my novel.

Who Needs Energy Drinks?

Energy flows through my veins! Chemicals, chemicals rushing, rushing, wreaking havoc on my organs. That's right. Energy drinks. Those cans filled to brimming with radioactive waste scooped from the nearest sewer pipe of large, industrial factories.

Who needs them?

I don't. All I need to do is live. The fresh air, the oxygen, the nitrogen, the homework I need to do...it all provides a rush like no other! I need to scream, I need to dance, I need to engage in some kind of activity that will leave me breathless, muscles aching, tongue lolling, heart beating from a cool, natural high. Endorphins. I love endorphins. Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people don't kill their husbands. They just don't! And did anyone else notice endorphins sound like a heavily-accented Chinese man trying to say dolphins?

I claim babbling. Look at my blog title. Don't like it, write a letter. Form a committee. Get in line. What line? There is no line. Tough. Make one.

Babble babble, tower of rabble

Cheating fools of murder all.

Dabble dabble, tower of Babel

And then downwards ever fall.

Freaking jerks. I can't believe they built that tower. Can you imagine how much easier life would be if we all spoke a single language. Yeesh. Makes me want to punch a cowboy.

Okay, I'm done. Good to get that off my chest. I rambled a little bit. A little bit.

In other news, my foot stopped hurting after that one night. Well, it still hurt, just not as much as that first night. It's actually feeling pretty good right now. And I don't have a prosthetic. The alien was very good about seeping through the pores of my foot. Godspeed little alien spawn, wherever you are.

Child of the Foot

Sequel to the Ninja Turtle Spin-off series, "The Foot Clan," in which it is discovered that the Foot ninjas originated from a small ethnocentric community in rural Virginia that was relocated to Japan in the early 1800s, at which time they reached their level of notoriety they enjoy today. It's a documentary, actually.

And that's also the only thing that it has in common with my foot. Earlier today, for absolutely no reason that I can see, my foot slowly began to build up an ache, a pain, a non-pins-and-needles sort of feeling that has persisted ever since. It started off small, something along the lines of a sore muscle. "Okay," I told myself. "I can deal with this." Soon, the ache began to build, slowly but surely intensifying until it was vaguely uncomfortable. I just knew something was up.

I had a test in TaeKwonDo (was pretty easy as per usual), and it didn't really bother me throughout the class. At least, I was able to ignore it. It finished, I came back to the room, did some stuff, showered some skin, and decided my foot HURTS.

This pain, whatever it is, has decided to progress merrily along from one small isolated spot on the opposite side of the arch of my left foot to a large isolated spot on the opposite side of the arch of my left foot. It's localized pain, which I suppose is a blessing. At least it's not spreading to my other foot (yet [knock on wood]), but nearly the entire bottom of my left foot feels like there's an alien hatchling chewing through the flesh. Mmm. Fresh meat. I suppose I really can't blame him. My feet are some quality chunks of human, after all. Probably go for ten bucks an ounce on the Plutonian black market.

Just, please, burst out soon so I can get a prosthetic.

Re: Classes & Mailbox Loot

As requested, elaboration!

~ School starts

sub: classes

Okilydokily! Classes! You asked, and so here it is. I'm taking TaeKwonDo (yey), Empirical World lecture (bleh) and lab (meh), Old Testament Survey (yey), Creative Writing (yey), Survey of American Literature 1 (...yey?), and Survey of World Literature 1 (yey). Now there's a funny story surrounding my classes. At least, I find it amusing. Judge as you will.

First off, I was originally not at all pleased with my class schedule for this semester. It ran full days on Monday/Wednesdays, which isn't so bad. I can handle a full day or two. But then my Tuesday/Thursdays were ugly. I had a class from 10:30-11:45, and then a break of two class periods before having another class at 3:00. Ugh. I was not at all looking forward to having a big gap between classes. I'd rather have them be in chunks and just get them over with. And then, to top it off, I had a Friday class - which I was able to avoid all last year.

Okay, so classes start, things are actually looking pretty decent; I've accepted the fact I'm going to have this big gap between things on Thursdays. I have a 9 o'clock class (American Literature) M/W/F, but my roommate (Steve) and next door neighbors (Cody and Andy. Names are important, y'know) all have 9 o'clock classes as well. Sweet deal. Won't be a problem waking up. Well, Cody and I discover we have different classes in the same room at the same time. That seemed a bit odd, so we walk over, figuring we'd puzzle it out at the class room.

As it turns out, the class I had thought was at 9 was actually at 11. Well darn. Now I'd probably be sleeping in later (nice, but I'd prefer to be forced to get up early. Call me a masochist). Now I'm all thrown off. Things are looking bleak when, lo and behold, I discover there's a World Literature class at 9 M/W/F. Well. Isn't that enticing? It's part of my requirement anyways, and if I took it, it would mean I could drop my 3:00 T/Th class (Christian Worldview. A junior class, which I wouldn't have minded if it wasn't for the time). So that's what I did.

And then I head to my Old Testament class (which, incidentally, has about half my floor enrolled) and discover my professor is just about the epitome of awesome. Professor Westbrook, you are just about the epitome of awesome. So cool. And then my Empirical World Lab professor reveals himself to be a pretty cool guy, as well. A former male model (and he says it's exactly like Zoolander), he's chill, understanding most of us don't really want to be there. Let's us out after a half hour. I think I like you, Professor Michael Smith.

TaeKwonDo was killer. Soresoresore. But fun.

As for my Empirical World lecture, I attended the first day, and left thinking "Well, 5 out of 6 awesome classes isn't bad." The professor just seemed really, really bland. Okay, that's not true. He seems like a really cool guy; it's more the material. I came back to the next class and reviewed my notes, and I remembered writing about 1% of them.

But actually, it's starting to get a little interesting now. I really am some kind of glutton for learning, I think.

And so my (tentative) final schedule is as follows:

Monday: World Lit (9:00-9:30), Am Lit (11:00-11:50), Old Testament (1:00-2:15), Creative Writing (2:30-5:30), TaeKwonDo (8:00-9:15).

Tuesday: Empirical World Lecture (10:30-11:45)

Wednesday: Same as Monday, except Empirical World Lab (3:00-6:00) instead of Creative Writing.

Thursday: See Tuesday.

Friday: The first two classes of Monday and Wednesday.

So, really, I'm much, much happier with this schedule.

And I'm tempted - oh so tempted - to add Hip Hop right after my Empirical World Lecture class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Yes. Very tempted.

sub: mailbox loot

Alright, let me set up some background:

As per usual, I tried to order all my textbooks online. Since I have two literature classes, I had to buy two sets of anthologies (Gosh and darn. I had to buy story books), so that was pretty exciting when those came in the mail. There were also some novels I had to buy, and novels are always exciting to receive. So the totals for nearly all my schoolbooks for classes was about $150. Not bad, considering it would probably be about double that if I bought them in the bookstore. Plus, most of those are books I'll probably never sell. This was a Friday.

I was a little miffed when I had to buy my science book (and I'm very glad I'm not a science major). The textbook in the bookstore was $130, and the lab book (which each student has to buy. No photocopies allowed) was about $60. So, together, they would add up to about the same as all my other books combined. But, I went online and found both books for $120 new. Score! This was also on Friday.

Besides that, I had surplus financial aid this year. So I head over to the business services office, right? I ask them if I can withdraw the surplus, right? They say go online and request a check, right? So I do that, right? I send in the request, but - funny thing - there's nothing asking me how much I want to withdraw, so I'm thinking they're either going to send me a blank check or maybe a hundred dollars or something. Whatever. They say it will arrive Thursday. This was a Friday. Cool beans.

And then I brought my Gamecube to school (well, technically, I bring a new used Gamecube to school after buying it to give my sister an early birthday present. She wanted to keep the old one), but I left my only memory card with my sister. Figured she could use it more. Now I'm here at school playing video games with floormates, and we are lamenting our inability to save anything. We can't unlock new characters or anything. So I decide to peruse Ebay and pick up a 32 Mb (whereas my old one was 4 Mb) for $10. This was a Monday. Probably take about a week or so to get here.

So I'm way excited to check my mailbox each day. That same Monday, most of my books arrive (so exciting), but I'm still waiting on my science books. Tuesday, nothing. Wednesday, I get out of chapel, open my mailbox, and pull out a check. Is it blank? No. Is it for $100? No. I'm fairly certain it was my entire surplus (and after checking with Business Services, I discover I was correct, although only for one semester).

I won't say how much it was for, but I have to say I actually made an audible exclamation of surprise. And now I'm sorely tempted to buy a Nintendo Wii (but I will resist, of course. Frivolous spending). I also receive a slip of paper saying I received a package and can collect it inside. "My science books are here. Oh joy," I think.

I go inside, hand over the slip, and the lady comes waltzing back with this tiny, cushioned envelope. "What in the world? There's no way the science books will fit in that," I think. "Thank you very much," I say. Extremely confused, I open the envelope.

And find a memory card! Huzzah and hurray! What a pleasant surprise! That was definitely the best day as far as mail went (I received my science book on Thursday [not as exciting]. Unfortunately, it was only the text book, so I'll just have to buy the lab book in the bookstore [but I actually have cash for it now!]).

Now I'm kind of depressed because I'm not expecting anything else in my mailbox. So sad.

I think I'll pull through.

And that just about wraps those two subjects up. If my faithful reader(s?) is interested in anything else, just let me know! Here's the remaining list:

~ Summer

sub: getting out of school

sub: selling knives

sub: Halloween costume?

~ School Starts

sub: room and roommate and dorm and dormmates

~ Anything else

sub: specify

sub: maybe other stuff I've forgotten and will remember later?

Okays.

Update? Update.

Forward the paper, dip the pens! I'm updating my blog. Because it's been sofreakinglong since my last update, and a ton of stuff has happened, I'm not even going to attempt to write it all up. It would take much, much too long.

Instead, I'm going to make a list. Yes, a list. This list will be a short list. Choose one [maybe two], and I'll elaborate on it.

~ Summer

sub: getting out of school

sub: selling knives

sub: Halloween costume?

~ School starts

sub: classes

sub: room and roommate and dorm and dormmates

sub: mailbox loot

~ Anything else

sub: specify

sub: maybe other stuff I've forgotten and will remember later?

Okays.

Summer? An August Idea!

When I began learning life's lessons, no one ever told me time would go faster and faster. I never received a homework assignment telling me to stop and smell the roses while you can before everything just flies by so fast that by the time you go to smell the rose, it's already wilted. I'm 18 years old, and the springtime of my youth is passing me by like a badly-aimed water balloon. Woe is me to the life of glee in which all things lead to the great nowhere of real life. I get four years of school before that real life gets a real crack at me (unless I go to grad school), and one of those years is already practically over! Woe! Despair!

...And I did not at all mean to go emo(tional) right there. My life is going great. Its legs are healthy, and there's still plenty of race left to run. It's just a bit daunting to think how fast the race is progressing. This is one race where I think I'd rather I was the slower participant. I have one more week of school, and then finals week, and that will be the end of my first real year of college. 

Crazy. 

Then it's a semester of work, work, and work. Hopefully. I'm sure I'll get a job somewhere. That El Toritos guy has been a bugger to get a hold of. Every time I've called him, he's been too busy to take a phone call. And then when I called the place this week, he's on vacation! Next Monday - next Monday for sure. That's when he gets back, and that's when I'm giving him a call. 

As far as school goes, I'm beginning to feel the end-of-year crunch. I have a grand total of 2 (maaaybe 3) in-class finals. While that's certainly a nice thing, I have a bunch of papers/presentations due this next week. 1 poetry presentation (that I also have to write up into a paper), 1 poetry analysis (in paper form), 1 10-page book analysis, maybe a take-home final that will likely be more rigorous and all around annoying than taking it in-class, and then the two in-class finals. Thankfully, those two in-class ones should be a piece of cake. 

Oh, and I'll also be reading one of my short stories to an audience. Should be interesting. On the one hand, it'll be a sort of performance, which will be fun, but I really don't know how I feel about reading my own work aloud. 

Next year's schedule is a bit wonky and all over the place, but I'll talk more about that as the fall semester nears. 

In TaeKwonDo last night, I got a fun crack to the jaw while sparring. Heel to the chin. Yes. It actually hurt to spit, but it was nice to know it didn't bother me at all. Sparring is fun. 

Speaking of which, I test for green belt in a week. I feel so accomplished.

Insert disjointed, vaguely-related paragraph here.

In other news, I'm seriously considering double majoring in English and History. After examining the History checklist, I've discovered I need 16 (maaaybe 17) classes to obtain a degree in History. So that's 3 semesters, which leaves me 3 more semesters to finish my general education and English. Absolutely doable. And to sweeten the dealio, there might still only be a semester here and there where I'd have to take 18 units. 

But yeah. This next week is going to be very busy for me. In fact, right now, I should probably be doing research for one of my poems. Until next time, Internet. 

Let's Try This Again

By golly by jimbo! How long has it been since my last entry here? Beginning of December? Golly geepers. So I'm sure everyone's still waiting with baited breath as to what grades I got. Yes, I'm sure. Well, in case you happen to wander through this empty banana peel of a blog, I am quite satisfied with the grades I received last semester. A's in everything except for Speech Composition/Presentation, which was a B (B+, but who's keeping track? =p). I wasn't actually expecting much better than that, as the Professor in that class was/is a very strict grader. I was very happy with what I got for U.S. History, though. I'm not sure if it's true, but I thought my grade rode on my final quite a bit. Do good on it, and I'd get an A, do bad, and it's a B. I got an A, and so I can only figure I did alright. 

As for this semester (which is practically already done. Tsk tsk to me), I'm taking Taekwondo again (but the ADVANCED class), Foundations of Literary Study (essentially an introduction to the English major. S'awright, I suppose. Dealing with literary criticism and stuff [not exactly something I used to place stock in {although that's changed somewhat}]), Survey of British Literature II (yay for getting to read poetry 'n' stuff!), Creative Writing Workshop (a lot of fun. Get to write short stories), New Testament Survey (Learning all about the history of it and stuff like that), and World Civilizations I (which covers from the 1600's [1700's?] back to the beginning of civilization). The classes are fun, and I think I'm doing pretty well in all of them. 

I'm just getting off Spring Break now. Flew out from Costa Mesa to Portland Oregon, had a 3 hour layover, from Portland to San Jose, and then an hour drive to Salinas. Spent a fun week with half the fam'. And now I'm waiting for my plane to board after a twelve hour layover in Portland on the way back. It wouldn't have been so bad if I had managed to get to sleep last night. I went to bed at about 9:30, tried to fall asleep until about 1:40, and then decided to just get up since we were leaving at 3:30. My flight left at 6 and arrived in Portland at about 7:30. 

And then I got to sit around and write for twelve hours. Wrote the first draft of my next short story, as well as finished the next post for the writing contest I'm currently in. Altogether it's about 4500 words. And I walked around and had breakfast/lunch/dinner, on top of other random things. I'm just glad Portland has free Wi-Fi. That was nice. 

But seriously, I seem to have a problem with traveling ever since I started college last fall. My first trip back home was over Thanksgiving. The drive both ways, usually 6-8 hours, was about 10 hours with traffic the entire way. 

And then for Christmas Break, the guy's car I was riding with needed its radiator replaced. We left at 6 (5?) in the morning, drove for about 15 minutes, pulled over to a gas station, figured out the radiator was bone dry, waited 1 1/2 hours for it to cool down, filled it up, went driving again, drove 5 minutes, saw the temperature skyrocket again, pulled over to the side of the Freeway, called roadside service, waited for 2 hours, and got towed to East L.A. We waited for an hour in the auto shop, they told us it would be another 3 hours, we went to the only safe place around (McDonald's! Oh joy!) that didn't have drug deals happening, and spent 3 1/2 hours in there playing cards and generally doing nothing. Finally, we got back on the road, and we drove pretty much uneventfully. We did stop at a gas station in the middle of nowhere where I think the employees go stir crazy from boredom. A big black guy saw my motorcycle goggles I was wearing, and said "Those motorcycle goggles! (me: Yup!) Dang! You gonna ride a motorcycle in flipflops! HaHA!" 

Yeah, it was an interesting trip that ended up being about 13 or 14 hours. The drive back was fairly uneventful, just for a change. Meanwhile, my parent's moved to Salinas to pastor a Vineyard church. We went there for my dad's dedication a week later, and amazingly got there in a reasonable amount of time. But that's apparently where my luck ended, because then there was this plane trip for Spring Break. Now, it wasn't necessarily bad or anything, because I can handle hanging out in airports, and it was cheap for my parents because they were using their airline miles, but 12 hours in an airport when you snatched 30 minutes of sleep on the way to the airport, and another 30 minutes of sleep while in the air, isn't quite as enjoyable as you might think.

Nevertheless, I managed to snag a booth in the internet cafe and hang out there for about 8 hours or so. And now I'm waiting for my plane to board, which it should be doing in about 30 minutes. Maybe I'll catch a nap or something.

So there you go. Or there I go. All caught up in an abbreviated version of my life. Makes it seem kind of cheap. And makes me seem rather brusque. But so's life. Huzzah. 

Indubitably,

Elijah