England!!

Merry Christmas from England!

Well, Merry almost Christmas from England, in any case.

I'm sorry I haven't blogged - at my Uncle's house there is absolutely no cell phone service (not that I'd blog from my phone, Mom!) and there is no wifi service with which I could blog late at night, as I usually do... and during the day I would rather be spending time with my family.

I've just played a series of board games with my little cousin Alistair, who beat me at four out of the five games! And last night, when we played Phase 10, I was stuck on phase 1 for a good four or five rounds. I am beginning to suspect that a great deal of cheating goes on here, as well as in America. It seems that we at least have that much in common! (Duncan won Phase 10 last night, although Jacqueline always gives him a run for his money.)

So far, the weather has stayed rather consistently cold, with temperatures ranging from 25-35 degrees (fahrenheit) and snow through Monday night, though last night it rained a great deal and temperatures for tomorrow and Boxing Day are a little bit warmer (7-9 degrees Celsius, according to the TV.) It's been a lot of tun to play around in the snow (or, at least, watch it fall from my "warm" spot inside.) I've pretty much given up all hope of ever feeling my toes again until I depart England, but for the most part, I'm okay with that.

My Uncle cooks delicious meals every night around 8:30 or 9pm, which is quite late to a college student who is used to feeding herself whenever she is hungry. We've had lamb, pheasant, ham... I may never leave! We tend to sit around the table and talk until eleven or so at night. There is always good conversation, good wine, and a good deal of laughter here.

The first few days I was here, I did a lot of reading (as well as knitting - finishing up those damned socks I started for Tom in June) and hanging around the room off of the kitchen that has a furnace thingy in it. Grandad always keeps it lit and it just throws off massive amounts of heat when it's going.

Last Saturday, I took the train to North Harrow to visit my friend Siobhan. To summarize (and do no justice to) my visit with her, we spent a lot of time in cafes talking about writing. She persuaded me to begin writing a story which I've had sitting in the back of my brain for a good few months now, and I hope that I write it as well as it seems to be in my brain. We went to the pub on Sunday and Tuesday night and I enjoyed my legal-ness with perhaps a few too many drinks, and I met a lot of her friends. I loved staying with her and miss her already!

Tomorrow is Christmas, and my uncle Neil has already started the preparations. He says he doesn't want to spend all tomorrow cooking! I agree with him - I wouldn't either. Jacqueline and Alistair are just beside themselves waiting for it to be Christmas (perhaps because they might have sneaked a peek at a certain present they're getting from their parents. But ssshhh. Don't say I said anything.) and Duncan and I have (reluctantly) given them permission to wake us up in the morning. We've defaulting to our Mother's rule: The first number on the clock must read 8. I expect that they'll come bounding in at about 8:00:01.

Well, I believe that's all for now! I hope you all have a very merry (or, happy, since I'm in England) Christmas and if I don't blog before then, a very happy New Year!

Packing procrastination

In the middle of packing... I get bored and I filmed this vlog.

To Do and To Pack

Two lists up on my mirror right now: To do and To Pack (before going to England)

So far, I've made a small dent in my To Do list. If you want to, click to embiggen and read through the lists... the small print are my little quips to myself. (This is what I did yesterday while I didn't feel like studying...)

Took my exam this morning - think I did well enough. :) Officially on Christmas break now!! Yay!

Le Blog sur Le Decembre

Hey readers. So a few times over the last week I've filmed vlogs and written blogs and then decided not to post them... and that (for some reason) has tricked me into thinking that I've actually kept you informed. As you can tell, this is not the case.

My other excuse is that I have been busy... procrastinating studying for my finals.

Nonono, it's totally legit. Like, on Wednesday night, I went to the All Star dinner for Mom and Mike, who are both All Stars at Whole Foods. They're like the dynamic duo... and, according to the guy who was announcing everyone, the "second most fun couple at Whole Foods".

(Congrats, yall!)

And on Thursday I had to go to the eye doctor's (who wants to see a picture of the back of my eye?


I have two healthy eyes in my head! And okay, who wants to see a really cool picture of my eye?


Thanks, Karynna for the nifty camera trick! She calls it her "vampire eye" trick.)

But also on Thursday I had to go shopping, right? So I went with Pippa (Stepmother extraordinaire) and we found me a nice cream sweater, lacy camy, and my new favorite pants ever to wear to the wedding in England. And then I had dinner with them.

And then Friday... well, Friday I actually studied.

Saturday morning, I took my Chemistry exam, which took me about an hour to complete (I'm a fast test taker) and then I took a nap. But then I went to play a duet with one of the students at my old piano... school, I guess? It went well - we played Ode to Joy. And then after that, I went and babysat Emma, who is just SO CUTE with her little teeth!


And on Sunday, I went to brunch at Maudie's with Mom, Leslie, Duncan, and Mike to celebrate Mom's birthday on Saturday (Happy birthday, Mom!) and then I went shoe shopping at the mall to wear to the wedding in England. I bought black leather boots that are just so comfortable! I never want to take them off.

And today I went and had lunch with my friend Susanne (who has gone off to college in Denver) and that took a while... and here I am now, studying. My last exam is tomorrow, and I'm not too worried. I've been paying attention all semester - I got this. ;)

Tonight is Knit Night. I think I'm going to pick up some yarn for my trip... I need more cotton yarn. (For purposes you all will understand later.)

OH. OH. OH. I almost forgot! Pippa made me the most beautiful and gorgeous curtains! They're amazing and I love them. :D


And look! They make my room glow a pretty turquoise in the mornings.


And that's all for now! Hopefully I will blog again before Wednesday (when I leave for England) but you never know. Until then, ciao!

A blog about nothing in particular

I don't have much to say in this blog, except that my first exam is in nine hours, and I've just finished what I need to get done. (Which, in large part, was damage control on my procrastination efforts of the weekend.)

I want all of my blog readers to venture out to your local bookstore and buy (and read) The Passion, by Jeanette Winterson... because seriously? I think I could read that about six more times tonight and still not tire of it. Do it now, because this blog will still be here when you come back.

Tomorrow, after my English exam (which will feature eight essays in three hours - if my hand drops off, who wants to help me reattach it?) I'm going to go indulge in Kerbey Queso (which is ambrosia from the gods - or something of similar ilk) with my friends and then return to my apartment to bury myself in notes for my Chemistry exam on Saturday morning.

That's all for me tonight! I'm going to go to bed now... and maybe my dreams won't be so weird again that I'll wake up and still remember everything in the morning!

I'm Cleaning! (Ahem, studying)

At the moment, I am totally cleaning my room. Because later today, Pippa and Dad are delivering my curtains! Can't wait! Pictures when that happens....

I thought that while I was procrastinating studying and doing what I am supposed to do I'd share with you my semiannual study plans, as well as a few other pictures.


And look! My scarf! (It is super, super warm! And so worth knitting.)


And look! I made marmalade! (Albeit, it is a little runny. But it's delicious. I know - I've tried it.)

Also in this picture (in the smaller jars) is the orange syrup that is the result of the candied orange peels. I made these last year, and this year they're even better!


I can't help but keep snacking, because these are seriously addicting!

I do need more sugar... because between the orange peels and the marmalade I used two entire bags of it! I am baking cookies sometime today or Tuesday (probably tuesday) because I'm going to a cookie exchange at a friends.

Wonder what I'll be baking? I am thinking gingerbread cookies, but I also kind of want to make yummy peanut butter cookies. Suggestions?

Hodge Podge

Things that have happened in November and so far in December that I haven't blogged about. Because believe it or not, I had a life outside of nanowrimo... just no time to write about it!

1) I got initiated into Alpha Phi Omega. Ceremony and everything. (Sunday, November 22)

2) I played capture the flag on the Capitol lawn with APO. (Saturday, November 7)

3) APO gave me the "Most likely to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days" pledge award at our banquet. (Sunday, November 22) My reponse: "Crap! Now I have to!"

4) I went out to dinner and Dad and Pippa gave me nice presents! A lovely and fancy box for pens as well as some really unusual book ends for my bookshelf! Love you guys! (Thursday, November 19)

5) I went to the midnight showing of New Moon with my friends, and ended up liking the movie a lot more than I had expected. (Thursday, November 19)

6) Tom came and ran the flag with APO at the last home game. He loved it! (Saturday, November 21)

7) And on Monday, since he had no school because of thanksgiving break, he came with me to two of my classes and he really enjoyed himself. He says that college is a lot more interesting than middle school. And then he watched Twilight while I took a nap... Afterwards, we went to see New Moon (he really enjoyed it too, though he enjoyed it for the werewolves and I enjoyed it for... other reasons. Hello, Taylor Lautner's abs!) (Monday, November 23)

8) At a nanowrimo write-in at La Madeline, I made a friend whose name is also Stefanie. (Wednesday, November 25)

9) Today is the last day of classes. (!!!) I am currently (not) studying for a politics test I have in an hour and a half. I needed to write this blog, though... and as soon as it is posted I'll get back to the studying. (Friday, December 4) (My friend Karynna just tweeted: "Dear politics test, you are extremely inconvenient. Dear clouds, make it snow more than 2 flakes. Dear ground, don't melt the more than 2 flakes." Amen, sister.)

10) Today, it is supposed to snow. However, snow is nowhere to be found. It is freaking freezing outside, though. (Friday, December 4)

11) Yesterday, we made ice cream with liquid nitrogen and then made thunder with it too in our chemistry class. (Thursday, December 3)

12) I won Nanowrimo - did you hear? (Sunday, November 29)

13) We marched in the annual Chuy's parade again. Pictures on facebook. Mike made his comeback as The Carrot! (Saturday, November 28)

14) I finished the scarf that never ends! It's lovely - I'm sure I'll show it to yall with a picture sometime. Just in time for this freaking freezing weather, too! (Tuesday, December 1)

15) Did I mention that I joined the Green family in APO and my big is a girl named Lindsey? I can't remember if I did or not... (Sunday, November 1)

Right, I've run out of things to remember. Hope that sums up the last five weeks of my life, nicely!

Now, enough about the past!

The next few weeks are filled with final exams, the studying that goes along with said final exams, and a whole lot of sleeping. I'll post my finals to-do list again, though maybe in a bit of a different format this time.

On the sixteenth (I don't believe I've mentioned this yet?) I'm off to England to spend Christmas with the family across the pond, hang out in London for a week with Siobhan, and go to cousin Marcus' wedding! But at the moment I can't even think that far ahead with the beast that is final exams looming in my immediate future.

Right... I have to go back to studying for that test now!

NaNoWriMo Update #8 - THE WIN

So right now, I am floating on a ridiculously high cloud of AWESOME.


I always knew I had it in me, but I never knew it would feel so good! And I even finished a DAY EARLY!

Counts		Document
Words:		50139
Characters (no spaces):		208676
Characters (with spaces):		258845
Paragraphs:		1788
Sentences:		5224
Pages (approximate):		84

A few more stats before I progress onto the mindless gushing:

Words written: 50139
Total words warred: 20150
Average words written/day: 1626.48
Days skipped: 9
Days wrote over 4000 words: 4
Days wanted to go crazy: 29

-----

So, like, I can't come off of this high. It's so crazy! I posted on my twitter about a moment after I won, updated my facebook status, and then Ally called me and said she was kidnapping me and Karynna (who had won about fifteen minutes before me) out to ice cream to celebrate... and just wow.

I have a feeling that childbirth is something like this, (bear with me on this one): Beforehand, it's all "Soon I'll have something wonderful! Oh won't it be wonderful?" And then, in the middle of it all, it's like: "Gawd, what was I THINKING?! This is absolutely certifiably INSANE. Why would anyone DO THIS?! I just want it to be OVER!" and then when it's all over, you're all, "Oh, look what I just created! I want another one!"

(See? It makes at least a little sense!)

Because now, a mere hour and a half after it's finished, I understand why people keep coming back to nanowrimo year after year, why it is in its elventh year of existence:

It feels good at the end. Like, really good. And at the end of it, you're ridiculously numb in all sorts of places you usually aren't, and your ass hurts like crazy and you have irritated rashes where your arms have been bearing down on the desk for thirty days... and it's all worth it. ALL worth it.

I have literally never been so creative in my entire life. I have never, in such a short amount of time, created something so big! Sure, my first fanfiction piece Not Knowing was 57000 words, but that took me three years to complete! Three years! And I did this in thirty days?

I can't tell you how good it will feel to walk around tomorrow and have won this thing. I have a button that says "Ask me about my novel" that I'll be proudly displaying! I think I might explode into colored confetti or something. It doesn't matter that for the last six days of my life I have been practically glued to my keyboard (I am talking more than 25,000 words since last Tuesday.) It feels good. And you know what?

Next year, I'll be back full force. NaNoWriMo November 2010? Heck yes.

(Before then, however? Not a chance. I need an eleven month recovery period.)

NaNoWriMo Update #7

First, the stats.

Counts		Document
Words:		43725
Characters (no spaces):		182335
Characters (with spaces):		226161
Paragraphs:		1499
Sentences:		4461
Pages (approximate):		79

Ten things I am going to do after winning NaNoWriMo... which, god willing, will happen tomorrow.
1) I am going to read that book that I have been pushing back that I need to read for my final exam for English. (And then reevaluate time management for next year's NaNo)

2) Seriously, dance and scream and shout and buy myself a HUGE milkshake. I really want a milkshake.

3) Try and bum a massage out of someone.

4) Read a book for pleasure. Like seriously, I haven't touched one of those in, like, a month.

5) Reintroduce normal habits back into my writing; stuff like adding in contractions and dashes into my writing.

6) Knit that darned scarf that has been sitting in my bag for MONTHS.

7) Study for finals.

8) Study for those annoying "Oh, it's the last week of class! What a perfect opportunity for a test!" tests.

9) Brag to everyone. No, I'm not even kidding. I can imagine my conversations looking a lot like this for the month of December:
-"Hey Stef!"
-"Why yes, I wrote a novel, thanks for asking!"
-"I, uh, didn't... okay. A novel - wow!"
-"Yeah, it was pretty epic. Even though I took a bunch of days off I pulled it off in the end."
-"That sounds great, hey did you do the chemistry homework?"
-"No, but I did write a novel - didn't you hear?"
-"Yeah, uh... that's great."

10) Take a nap. I miss naps.

(Uh, and now I go back to my novel...)

NaNoWriMo Update #6

I've emerged from the depths! Can you believe it? I have a short update for yall who prefer my blogs in text, and then I am going to head back into the depths of my novel. Picture this as a surfacing-for-air for me.

For the stats inclined...

Counts		Document
Words:		37981
Characters (no spaces):		158596
Characters (with spaces):		196656
Paragraphs:		1258
Sentences:		3805
Pages (approximate):		72

And for the words inclined (though I probably shouldn't be wasting them on the blog), I am just 12000 words away from winning. According to the nifty little document that Karynna created (which we have fondly dubbed the Quotameter) I have to average 3000 words a day for the rest of the month.

I wrote 3000 words yesterday (Yes, on thanksgiving! - What, you think I have a life?), and it is totally doable. It actually, ironically, felt light. Even, dare I say it, downright easy. 3000 words is something like six pages of writing in Microsoft Word.

On Wednesday, when I last updated yall, I ended up writing 6000 words. I went to bed that night with a brain that could be best described as a pile of gelatinous mush, but I went to bed feeling ridiculously competent and accomplished.

I did break it up into different writing sessions. I wrote 2000 from 4-6pm at my apartment, 3000 when I could no longer stand being at my apartment and went to La Madeline and sat in on a write-in with some other Austin NaNoers, and another 1000 words when I got home and thought "I could totally make my ambitious quota today. Screw my safety!"

Something I have noticed during this month (which I mentioned to Siobhan in an email yesterday) is that while yes, I have suffered from a crazy high level of writers block, the nature of this competition is to just keep writing, and write on through that writers block. In the past, I have had a tendency to wait for perfection and just suffer through weeks of internal debate and angst, and nanowrimo has forced me to just push any and all writers block behind me, because if I spend too much time faffing about not writing I lose time. And time is words.

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving yesterday (ours was so ridiculously delicious that I cleared my plate twice). I can tell you that I am thankful for many things... and one of those things is my awesome family who just lets me go along with this crazy-stupid writing challenge!

Back to my novel! Huzzah!

-----

Today's ambitious goal is: 43000
Today's slightly-more-realistic-goal is: 41000

Nanowrimo Update #5 (Text. Vs. Video!)

Today is text and vlogday (as always, click into the browser to see the embedded video.)

Part 1: Text!

Can't talk now, I'm novelling.

Counts		Document
Words:		29950
Characters (no spaces):		125747
Characters (with spaces):		155735
Paragraphs:		966
Sentences:		2959
Pages (approximate):		52

Part 2: Vlog

Can talk now, since I'm making a vlog.



P.S. Yes, I have a cold, or something coldlike. Allergies? Cold? I'm actually thinking mild cold because it seems to be a pretty consistent level of suck, though it isn't that bad.

Double Whammy

Not only is it my 20th birthday... it also happens to be Vlogday!



Today has been beyond awesome... and I cannot possibly thank everyone enough for being there for me.

Thanks to everyone who loves me. I love you too!

NaNoWriMo Update #4

Today I took two tests and then sat my arse down in my chair and wrote. For seven and a half hours. I did some pretty serious damage control to my word count, though! It was certainly worth it. (Consequently, I have used up my entire quota of my daily allotted brain function.)

This morning, I was about 10,000 words behind. I wrote about 5,000 words today and have gotten my word count through at least November 12th's quota. I am only about 600 words short of the 13th's quota, though...

Today, I've written about my characters' first date and his subsequent desertion of the campus. It's not his fault, though! He was called away to a secret vampire council! He keeps trying to contact Cassie and explain, though and I keep telling him sternly that that simply will not do! He has to stay away from her for a while, or else I really have NO PLOT.

Yall ready for a stats update that will rock your world?

Counts		Document
Words:		21027
Characters (no spaces):		88150
Characters (with spaces):		109209
Paragraphs:		668
Sentences:		2067
Pages (approximate):		36
Readability		Document
Average sentences per paragraph:		3.09
Average words per sentence:		10.17
Average characters per word:		4.19
Average words per page:		584.08
Flesch Reading Ease: [?]		82.93
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: [?]		4.00
Automated Readability Index: [?]		3.00

Tomorrow's goal of 4000 words should put me at the 15th's quota (25,005 words.) If I can write 4000 words or so every day, I should be able to catch up by this Friday. Also, that might kill me... But I am counting on Thanksgiving to be my pillow of super writing awesomeness!

(In 24 hours and 19 minutes it'll be my birthday. Not that I'm counting down, or anything.)

Novelling Supplies

My list of supplies needed for writing a novel might be a little different than the classic interpretation...

Coke Zero (in sunshiney glory)


Blue cheese and crackers


A peek into the outside world, just to remind me that there IS an outside world.


My daily word count chart, to guilt me into not falling too far behind.


And facebook. To, well, distract me.


My goal today is to make up for lost time... literally. As you can see, I am just about at where I should have been on November 10th, and today I plan on making it to where I should have been on November 13th. That's just over 5000 words.

Um, if I go crazy, would someone mind writing my novel for me?

Lookie! A New Toy!

I am the luckiest almost-birthday-girl ever. :)


I have a new phone! And it's my new iPhone! Yay!

I've already weeded out contacts from my old phone that I no longer want and I have created a calendar in Outlook that I will somehow sync with my phone. I'm not entirely sure how it works, but I'm getting there.

I would write a longer blog, but unfortunately I have to read the rest of Frankenstein for my English test tomorrow!

No progress on NaNoWriMo - bad Stefanie! Unfortunately, this weekend wasn't very conducive to writing. Will make up word count this week, somehow.

They Call Me Ms. Powling. Awwww.

For the last few months I've been observing (and occasionally teaching) a group of first graders at a local elementary school as part of my UTeach and Intro to Teaching requirement.


Today was my last teaching day (not my last day, though) and my cooperating teacher took photos of me teaching.


See? I'm totally legit.


This morning, on the way to the elementary school, the fog was incredible! You couldn't see 100 yards in front of you.


Happy Friday, everyone!

P.S. See? I do have a life outside of my novel right now.

An Actual Post - With Words!

Hello, all! So let me tell you guys about my novel like I promised.

It is a struggle every day to get my daily word count. At the moment, I am close to 4000 words behind, and while I am enjoying the process of crafting my characters' lives, I will not pretend that it is all fun all of the time. Nor is it easy in any way.

Into week two, I have come to realize that where I was wading last week, I am slogging this week. Slogging uphill. Probably in ice cold water with bare feet. (Okay, so it's not that bad!)

Part of this has to do with the fact that I have other things to do every day: I attend 16 hours of class weekly, I have tests to study for, food to cook, and homework to complete. And on top of this, I want to write a novel?

On the one hand, I can always drop out if I feel like it is too hard. I would receive no bad grade and there would be no lasting side effects from dropping out, except the desire to do it again next year, and actually finish.

On the other, if I am anything I am determined. I feel like getting to 50,000 words, while a crazy goal, is a totally attainable goal. I do not want to be a participant of NaNoWriMo, I want to be a winner. For once, my inner voice telling me "Giving up is failing" might come in handy rather than be a nuisance.

I refuse to get so far behind that I can never recover. Thanksgiving break will be my time to at the very least catch up.

In the last 12 days of November, I have picked up an interesting habit or two because of NaNoWriMo. Things like becoming obsessed with eliminating all contractions from my writing. Contractions cost words, and therefore they are my enemy. Since then, even when I am doing things such as writing emails or taking notes, any apostrophe makes me pause and ask myself "Wait, does this matter?"

Another habit is eliminating hyphens from my syntax nearly altogether. Words like "time-saving" and "low-budget". Words that are hyphenated are considered one word, and are therefore my enemy.

A third, more amusing habit arising from NaNoWriMo is my new tendency to create names of characters that include more than one word: names like Mary Beth. While hanging out with Karynna yesterday, she suggested I should create a Hispanic character with a ridiculously long name... and thus, Kerri Ann Marie De la Cruz Gonzalez Lopez Salazar the Second was born. She refuses to let people shorten her name, and she is my new favorite character. I think I'll include her in every scene I write. And never use pronouns.

(Okay, maybe I won't. But it's funny, right?)

I have developed a certain love-hate relationship with my word count. I have also developed a crazy obsession with Word Wars. The idea behind a Word War is that a timer is set, and at the end of that the participants tally up how many words they wrote and the person with the most words wins. What they win is often nothing... but it works. In 20 minute word wars I can usually knock out 700-1000 words... which makes me a very happy girl!!

I have been hosting write-in/study-ins (since Katlin is not doing NaNo, and Ally has grudgingly dropped out - poor girl has 20 hours of workouts in addition to class every week!) at my apartment every week. Karynna, Katlin, and Ally have been coming by and I have cooked. It is a lot of fun, and I hope that even after November ends I can continue doing this. It is nice to cook for people once a week and have my friends over!

Well, I need to get back to my novel! Words won't write themselves. (Unfortunately... or else my novel would be made.)

NaNoWriMo Update #3

I swear that the next blog I write about NaNoWriMo will include more than just how many words I've written. But that blog won't happen right now at 1:45am...

(I am 4205 words behind right now, because I, ya know, do other things. Like study. And eat. I can't believe that some people have already WON NaNoWriMo...)

Counts		Document
Words:		15779
Characters (no spaces):		66637
Characters (with spaces):		82436
Paragraphs:		502
Sentences:		1501
Pages (approximate):		27
Readability		Document
Average sentences per paragraph:		2.99
Average words per sentence:		10.51
Average characters per word:		4.22
Average words per page:		584.41
Flesch Reading Ease: [?]		81.94
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: [?]		4.00
Automated Readability Index: [?]		4.00

Maybe tomorrow during my Super 3-Hour Break I'll write about my story. I promise to do three things:

1) Complain (a little)
2) Brag (a little)
and
3) Tell you more than just numbers. As my second grade teacher taught me (in song) "Elaboration is the way to make your writing exciting every day!"

But that's all. (For now!) I'm off to bed!

NaNoWriMo Update #2

Good lord, what a weekend. Unfortunately, not a weekend completely filled with words as I was hoping. But... progress has been made!

It's not "I'm totally caught up" kind of progress (tonight I should have had 13336, and tomorrow's quota is 15003) but it IS progress! 2943 words short of (tomorrow's) quota is still less than what it was at the beginning of the weekend! Yay!

Counts		Document
Words:		12060
Characters (no spaces):		50737
Characters (with spaces):		62818
Paragraphs:		370
Sentences:		1127
Pages (approximate):		19
Readability		Document
Average sentences per paragraph:		3.05
Average words per sentence:		10.70
Average characters per word:		4.21
Average words per page:		634.74
Flesch Reading Ease: [?]		82.27
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: [?]		4.00
Automated Readability Index: [?]		4.00

More on my weekend later (probably tomorrow) when I have more energy to put into a blog.

Night, all!

NaNoWriMo Update #1

So at this very moment, I am told that my novel is all of these things (by Google Documents, which I have discovered is the coolest thing since sliced bread. It means that I can work on my document from any computer, provided it has an internet connection.)

Counts
Words:		6013
Characters (no spaces):		25570
Characters (with spaces):		31590
Paragraphs:		240
Sentences:		637
Pages (approximate):		10
Readability
Average sentences per paragraph:		2.65
Average words per sentence:		9.44
Average characters per word:		4.25
Average words per page:		601.30
Flesch Reading Ease: [?]		83.52
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: [?]		4.00
Automated Readability Index: [?]		3.00

I'm behind, but not that behind. (By today, I should have 8335... which, as you can see is not the case. However, tomorrow is Friday, and Friday seems like a good day to catch up, right?)

I also have cover art!


What do you think? I like it. I made it yesterday.

Green Halloween?

I need to catch up on last weekend, so here's a short blog about it!

So on Halloween day I kept it chill. I slept in till about 12 or 1 and generally enjoyed a lazy afternoon. In the evening, I went over to my friend Ally's place with Karynna and we turned on Hocus Pocus and snacked on candy until 11, when we headed over to this comic book store called the Dragon's Lair for the NaNoWriMo midnight write.

(As an side, I generally consider myself Dorkus Supremus, as I am about a nerdy as an average English major can get, but I have never felt so cool and non-dorky in my life! I'm a nerd, but I never got into comic books.)

At midnight, we had a countdown and we started our novels! It was super fun and I got a good start on my novel: I Bleed Orange.



Here is Karynna happily novelling away...


And Ally getting stuck...


So Sunday was a big day in APO. It was BP/LP Sunday (Big person/Little person) when we (the pledges) get our Bigs and our family. There are six families at UT: Greens, Butts, DJs, Blackhands, Outsiders and Speers. My big is a girl named Lindsey and I am now part of the Green family!



Super exciting! We all went out to eat (and literally took over this little Italian restaurant on Barton Springs - we had like 20 people) and the Bigs treated the Littles... and a lot of laughter and general hilarity ensued.


Tonight I'm cooking dinner and having a write-in for my other novelling friends. I think I'll have to strictly enforce the writing thing, because last night we gave it a try (I baked cookies!) and we all novelled for 15 minutes and got distracted. Now I need to catch up on yesterday's word count... which I will do during the rest of my break.

Oh! I registered for classes! I'm going to hold off on posting my schedule until the next semester begins. Be assured that it is awesome, though.

It's NaNoWriMo! The Vlog edition

Happy Vlogday!



It's time to jump for joy and put pens to paper!

P.S. Yes, I have blue paint on my hands. The service project I did this evening was hanging out with adorable cub scouts and painting with them... unfortunately, the paint won't come off my hands!

Halloween Weekend, Part 1

So I went to a Halloween party last night and have spent most of today just being lazy and hanging around my apartment.

Had a ton of fun - I was there from about 11 to 3 or so. I wish that I'd brought a jacket, though! It was cold last night! Inside it was really hot though, because there were so many people dancing.


I went as Dorothy. (And that's my friend Anel - she was a spider.)

(and that's Becca, who went as Ellen Page in that new movie of hers... with the roller derby. Can't remember what it's called, though! )



At some point last night someone shouted "McKenzie picture!!" and all of the pledges ran outside and took a group photo. It was random and fun! (Although a few Actives did sneak in...)



Some of my favorite costumes were:

A David Letterman intern



The Swine Flu



Rorschach (from Watchmen.)


And Tommy and Chuckie from the Rugrats!


Now... bring on the real Halloween! Tonight there is a NaNoWriMo "Midnight Write" party!

I'm a terrible person

I make babies cry.

Shelves, mirrors, babies and musicals

It's like almost one in the morning and I'm starving. So... rice is on the stove. Super delicious!

Look what I made today!


A second, much-needed bookshelf to put more stuff on. Thing is... I need more book ends now! (What a good birthday present idea!)

Also, I finally got my mirror on the wall. (which, now I see it, is vaguely crooked.)


And... I have installed some excellent boy repellent into my car...


I'm picking up my favorite baby, Emma, from daycare twice a week now. I missed Emma so much! She's gotten bigger already. She eats like a beast (I don't know where she puts it all!) and she can sit up and balance herself pretty well already.


Oh, and she can clap. It is so adorable!

Tonight, I got all dressed up and went to see the musical Spring Awakening with my friends Karynna and Katlin. Let me say first, whuh!, and wow! It was so good! The musical is based off of a German play, and most of the characters are German schoolkids in their teenage years, who are all discovering their various sexual urges and the social taboo of them acting on it.

But contrasting the "conservative" times and messages being passed onto the children (or, well, messages not being passed onto the children) all of the songs (written by Duncan Sheik, who I am a huge fan of) are rock-themed, and it works perfectly. If it rolls through your area, go see it. But, um, don't bring your kids. (Unless you're comfortable with them watching the main characters have sex on stage. Twice. It's your call!)

Right, well, rice is ready. I'm going to shovel some food into me and then hit the sack.

NaNoHuhWhat?

Many of you are under the impression that I am a writer (to some degree) and in November I'm going to take that to a whole new level. Blog, let me introduce you to NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month.

If it seems like it's a scary, scary prospect... well it is.

The idea, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the (massive, huge, completely mind-numbingly scary) project is that you (yes, you!) will write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. For those who are mathematically inclined (not me!) that is around 1667 words a day (about 6 pages.) 50,000 words becomes in the end (or so I've been told) somewhere between 175-200 pages... and I will be honest and say that I am simultaneously terrified and completely delighted to be participating this year. However, something that I am struggling with is the idea that quantity is more important than quality. We shall see how that goes...

Also, no editing allowed. "Editing and such other weak pursuits are for December", according to the NaNo book No Plot, No Problem.

I've been planning my novel (in a not-outliney kind of way) ever since my friend Karynna reminded me to sign up in early October. So far, all I have is the title and a basic character sketch of my main character. I know that it is going to be a contemporary novel of the vampire persuasion (Why yes, I am going there) and that it will take place on the UT campus (which, at the moment is my entire world right now, so it kind of fits.)

So what is the brilliant title of my brilliant novel? I Bleed Orange.

It kind of started off as a joke... and then became "Well, huh. I could totally write that! Wait, that might actually be a lot of fun!" I've decided my main character's names will be Jonathan Pierce and Cassie Thompson. Jonathan will be the vampire... and hilarity will ensue. (However, no "Robert Sparkleson" for my vampires! Sorry, Twilighters!)

I have a little circle of friends who are also (completely crazy/have a death wish/utter dorknerds like me) doing NaNo, and I know that we plan on having little "word wars" (like "who can write the most words in 30 minutes") and writing sessions throughout November and so far they all have plots that are far more developed than mine... but I'm not too worried. I know my plot will come to me as I write.

I confess, my dear readers, that I do need something from you. I need you to be my "Guilt Monkeys". I need you to constantly (or, well, if you remember to) hound me and ask me how my brilliant and hilarious soon-to-be-bestselling novel is coming, and do all but sit on my shoulders and remind me that I have a word count to hit every day and I have to do it!

(Or you could come over and do my laundry for me. A busy student/writer/person-who-takes-naps doesn't have time for tasks such as laundry... No? Well fine.)

So, is anyone else doing it? Are you up for the challenge? Please, let me know if you're doing it too so we can be writing buddies!

Cake Week!

Cake week: it's better than Shark Week.

It's Cake Week here in Austin again. Aunt Leslie AND Kris had their birthday on Wednesday.

Tuesday night we went to BJ's and celebrated Leslie's birthday...


(She was able to blow out her two candles!)

and tonight I baked a belated cake for Kris (it has 20 candles that kind of are in a "20" shape!)


Kris was able to blow out all of her candles too.


(Kris is a winner!)

Both cakes were super delicious... and now that cake week has come to an end, I look forward to my own cake week in November!

-----

P.S. Blood drive was a great success! It'll be back in the spring! (Those are some of my other pledge friends.)

Vlog about Blood Drives and Sudoku

It's Wednesday and that means vlogday!

(Don't forget to click into the browser to see the video!)

Save a life, hug a blood drop?

Today is the beginning of the week-long blood drive going on at the UT campus. Every year APO sponsors it, and every year hundreds of people volunteer to give blood.

It's APO's biggest fall event and it happens to be an excellent way to get practically all of your required hours! (Of the 35, I have 10 so far, and will be working 20 hours, and get credit for 22 because Friday counts for time and a half!)

So if you can, come out and donate blood!

I worked at two different buses today and got two tshirts for it! (You get a tshirt after donating, by the way!)

Give blood, save 3 lives. They told me they were going for a "soccer shirt" kind of look. Works for me!


This one I think is hilarious, but I had to be told what it meant! ("Get 'giraffe' down here and give blood," Say it aloud - that might help!)


This was the fun bus I worked at most of the day off of Guadalupe St. Fun colors! (They're the ones that give you the giraffe shirt.) We kept Buddy B. Drop around with us all day and took turns in the suit.


Buddy is a drop of blood. Which is kind of creepy when you think about it, but he's clearly a happy blood drop.

I figured that if I was telling all of these people to donate, it would be pretty hypocritical of me to not do it myself, so after my shift was over I climbed into the bus and gave blood! My first time to ever do so.


They apparently had a hard time finding a vein (they're deep in there?) and then they had time drawing the blood out of me (It was really slow - my body reluctant to give it up?) and now it's kind of sore and I'm sure there will be a bruise there tomorrow.

Go Donate!

(If you want to, call me or send me a text message and ask me where I'll be if you want to donate at 'my' bus!)