Liveblogging the sprint to NaNoWriMo victory

7:04 - Starting word count: 43,076. 6,924 words to go before midnight. I've got my coffee with sugar and a piece of toast with peanut butter for breakfast.

8:26 - Got my first thousand words and then some. Switched from Antonio Carlos Jobim to Poison the Well. The original last-day plan called for a day off and a leisurely wrapup. Instead, I'm going in to work and taking Lola to the vet at noon (something wrong with her left hind leg). I am all about the added challenge this year! (word count 44,524)

9:45 - Two thousand words down. Stavesacre to Appleseed Cast. I'm trying to pace myself so I don't run out of words before I run out of story. Less than five thou to go now. (word count 45,115)

10:17 - At The Drive-In is on now. I'm on call for work this morning, so the goal is to write as much as possible before I need to go in this afternoon. (word count 45,418)

10:27 - My main characters totally just had sex. (word count 45,606)

11:42 - Double-decker muenster/pepperjack sandwiches, grilled to perfection: The Brunch of Novelists. I'm more than half done for the day, which means I'm closer and closer to my 50,000 word goal for the month. I need to bring our puppy in to the dog doctor and then go to work, but I'm in a good position to wrap up in time to watch E.R. tonight. (word count 46,664)

1:23 - Time to head in to the office for the afternoon. I'm ending my efforts for the first half of the day with a word count of 47.330.

6:12 - I'm back, mother grabbers! And I've got my novel writing cap on.

7:23 - word count 47,936. That stretch was tough. It's sad writing a death scene for my main character! I had kind of grown attached to her. Now, on to the denouement. The rest should be easier, I think, let's see if I can wrap it up soon.

7:36 - Broke 48,000. I like those round number landmarks.

9:14 = the end.

A New Hope

It's been a bad month for me, computer-wise. First I fried my Windows partition with a nasty virus. So, I wiped my secondary hard drive clean and switched it over to Ubuntu Linux as a temporary replacement OS. Last night, I somehow managed to destroy all that stuff by accidentally deleting the entire file structure. Of course, I had not learned from my mistakes and created a backup, so nearly everything was lost again. Against all odds, I managed to pull it together and create a new website for the 2007 Craftstravaganza!!.

All other consequences aside, the worst part was losing bits of my novel-in-progress along the way. When Windows went down, it took my first 5,000 or so words with it. This was bearable and I hoped to clean the infected files at some point in the future and possibly recover it all. I happy continued writing from where I left off in my Linux system, until it was hilariously also botched, irretreivably losing all my files.

So, at this point, I've written over half of a novel, but it's 26,792 words that I will never see again. I was already falling behind schedule, so I thought about giving up on NaNoWriMo and decided... damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead, I'm going to finish this thing anyway! I will start over tonight and refer to the rest as "The Lost Chapters." It'll be like Episode IV, jumping into an epic story with a beginning that nobody else has seen (and which might be better off that way). Despite these tiny setbacks, I shouldn't even break a sweat. 23,208 words in ten days? Pah! I've written an entire book in less time than that.

Apollonia NO!

Totally read this comic!

A defunct Dotonbori institution

Rarmen restaurant: 1970-2005?? R.I.P.

Stiff Little Fingers - Suspect Device

Boing Boing posted some classic punk videos that I am enjoying. The crowd shots are my favorite part of this video. This was a time before 1-inch buttons were invented. A simpler time.

Bike Kill 2005 THE SEQUEL

Double feature! Click for the original Bike Kill.

End Times for the Grease Pit neighborhood bike shop alleycat party

d00ds I guess 2:30 at the bench is all you need to know if you do these things on a habitual basis. Bike down and show your support for a community resource for West Bank cyclers. I'll be the one on the single speed Batavus Monte Carlo going really slow and looking lost because I'm a St. Paul boy and I am not hip to the 612. Don't miss it...

I posted this at the Sibley Bike blog too. It needs some love.

Lock picking for fun

I have just chosen a new hobby to pick up after finishing this year's novel: Locksport! Lockpicking seems like a good practical skill just in case I'm in a tight bind and need to pick a lock for some reason. It goes in my category of stuff to learn next to hotwiring and sign language. Remember, you can pick your nose, and you can pick your friends, but you can't pick your friends' locks (unless they give you permission first).

p.s. (Christmas is coming up and this would make a nice stocking stuffer)

Writing life

I'm posting here more than I expected on account of the new approach I'm taking to the novel writing process this year. I've done it and won it (written 50,000 words in a month) for the past two years, but both those were kind of a crazy rush. 2004 was the first year I attempted NaNaWriMo, and I wasn't even sure if I could do it at all. That year was all about sleep-dep and intensive focus on the writing. As it turned out, I finished really quickly so I probably didn't need to do that after all.

Last year I wasn't even sure if I would end up doing the novel and then wrote the thing even faster than the first year. This time around, I'm trying to take it easy. My challenge for 2006 is to write the novel and maintain a normal life at the same time. 50,000 words is still a goal, but it's not my main priority.

So far, this plan is working out just fine--I'm on track with over 2,000 words per day--and I dig it. Frequent breaks make the writing go easier and I get inspired by doing real things as a real life person. Under my new plan, I've had time this month to visit old friends, attend a party in Minneapolis, and meet new neighbors down our block. Weirdly, I actually feel more active, outgoing and energetic than I do in a normal month. If this year goes well, maybe my challenge for next year will be to write a draft that's actually good!

My computer is hosed

Image from Express

Thank Linux for Ubuntu! Windows has been basically demolished by some kind of virus/spyware attack that I've been fighting for a couple of days, until this morning I remembered that I have a startup disk for an operating system that is friendly and virus-free! I booted up my Ubuntu Live CD and decided to give up on Windows for now while I get back to work on my novel. As soon as I figure out how to install plugins, I'll get that word count updated.

look here!

WriMo has begun.

There'll be no further postings until my 50,000 word draft is done, unless I get inspired or hit by a car and forced to give up. LOOK HERE for fancy info word count etc. If you so crazy that you're doing it too (Annie? How's it looking this year?) for sure let's add me as a writing buddy ok! I'm off!

Apples to Appletown

This weekend we're off to Wisconsin to visit college friends & dress up for Halloween & celebrate the occasion by drinking my most expensive bottle of free wine, the Saint-Joseph Offerus. It's been a while since we made the trek over to the East Side (of Wisconsin) so we're waiting until after the driving is all over to evaluate whether we want to do it all over again next weekend for Art vs. Craft. Mark your calendars, Milwaukeans! We might be there or we might not be, but you have no excuse to miss the best alt craft event in the Midwest!

Joshua Ploeg--vegan cookery!

UPDATED! The 720 Space was fairly packed at 6:50, so Jenna and I grabbed the last two chairs and sat at a table with our new friend, Maryann. We paid $6 each, which is incredible. There didn't seem to be much in the way of kitchen space, so plates of food were doled out one at a time while we watched the 'talkies.' Unfortunately, we skipped the one about Risk, but I enjoyed the other three. By the time those were done, we had eaten a few courses of vegan food. My favorite was the first course, which we decided was some kind of tempeh... it reminded me strongly of the dinner I had at La Victoire Suprême du Coeur (in the good ways). A variety of beers were produced from somewhere, and I regretted leaving my flask at home. Total course count was 5 or 6, I think. After eating, The Dad in Common rocked the house (they are better than their MySpace page would have you believe). We had to leave after a couple of songs because of Jenna's ear condition, but I would have stayed all night! I'd tell you to go, but if you missed it, you just missed out...

--old news---posted 10/25--
I just found out via Faythe Levine that there's a "seven course vegan extravaganza" tour going on. I checked the website of Traveling Chef Joshua "Ploog?" Ploeg (formerly of BTPNLSL), and apparently he will be throwing down at the 720 Space in Minneapolis tonight (October 25).

Joe Biel is reported to be screening documentaries about bikes, trains, dogs, patches, and the board game RISK! It's at 6 or 7pm (depending on who you ask) and probably ultra cheap (only $6 in Milwaukee, for homemade dinner and movies, holy crap).

If you can go, you should go, and I'll see you there. If you can't make it then check back here for a writeup when it's over.

I've got a 20-sided die

So there I was in Savers scoping out the aisle of forgotten toys when I spotted this purple beauty for $2.99 and I knew that I had to have it. So I put aside the sticky copy of Work is Hell and walked home with my very own boxed 1980 edition Dungeons & Dragons (plus Pipe Dream for the NES (awesome)).

I'm not allowed to play D&D... you know... because of the demons? But I always felt a fondness for the game since it's part of my shared geek heritage. Cracking open that box was like opening a time capsule to the year before I was born: everything is in mint condition, and there are even some hand-written character sheets on lined notebook paper for extra entertainment value! I actually threw those away because I was too embarassed to read the personal notes about the paladin or whatever of the person who owned this game before me, and who might be old enough to be my dad.

I'm keeping the rest, though. Maybe one day I'll try to sell it on eBay, but for now I guess I'll put it on display next to my other nerd ephemera. It would fit nicely in between my copies of Supercade and Dinotopia.

Don't sit, Lola!

Our Lola is a sweet little dog and generally well-behaved, but certainly not trained. So when she started sitting down all over the place yesterday, we began to get concerned. In this photo, you can see her not sitting--like she normally does. We don't know why, but she has begun to sit calmly when she'd normally be snuffling around or jumping up on our chairs to get our attention. She has some documented rear leg problems, and I just hope she doesn't need any surgery to fix this sudden sitting thing. With any luck, it's just the cold.

Flickr'd Friday

Mak Clare Valley 2002 Shiraz

Despite what I wrote in my tasting notes, this is probably not the best Shiraz ever, but it is the best shiraz I've ever purchased for twelve bucks. If you're a shiraz fan, you would be a fool not to try a bottle of this stuff. AARON I AM TALKING TO YOU

The bouquet bowled me over with rich plums, and it follows up with a great strong flavor and steady finish. The light endnotes were a welcome alternative to the alcoholic punch of cheap shiraz. At four years old, this wine is awesome. Dark, delicious, and so smooth. Attractive label art and story about Ned Kelly for teh win! You probably won't be able to drink it with my wife's homemade potato soup and cheesy biscuits, but you should still drink it.

Minnesotans can find this wine at Surdyk's.

Flu shot: the shot to wake the dark heart? A public health announcement from Sui Generis

I got my influenza vaccination shot at Cub Foods on Saturday. With my insurance card, it cost zero dollars and a little bit of soreness in my arm, and that's a price I am willing to pay if it helps me avoid getting the flu!

I work peripherally in the healthcare industry, and I learned a lot about influenza this year. It is a lot scarier than I thought. I hated it enough when I was just trying to avoid feeling gross, but then I read some statistics, and now I'm really not going to miss a flu shot. I couldn't believe this stuff. I was like, "people die from influenza?" and the CDC was like, "about 36,000 people in the U.S. every year," and I was like, "whoa."

So, get a flu shot, okay? It's safe and it is effective. It might not prevent you from getting the flu, but it will certainly do a better job than if you don't get the vaccination. You might even get a sticker or a button!

MZD

Mark Z. Danielewski's first novel House of Leaves did lots of weird stuff with text and formatting, but it never felt gimmicky because it was so effective at creating a mood. With his new book, Only Revolutions, I don't know. Reading the book from both sides is clever, and it has its own definite rhythm, but I just don't get anything out of it. Danielewski was in town on Saturday and I thought about going to hear him read from Only Revolutions and get my copy of House of Leaves signed, but I was so underwhelmed with his new offering that I skipped it.

I haven't been reading much lately. Now it's winter again, I want to start another knitting project! Jenna picked her needles back up and got to felting some thrift store sweaters for a blanket or something. I need to find a project that would let me use the lovely yarn I got from Aisha Celia at the Craftstravaganza! Or I could knit a match for the solo sock I crafted in January--that is, if I hadn't forgotten the pattern alterations that I made.