Allyra's Alliterations

Well, I've just passed 40,000 words. I think I might just celebrate by turning off my word program. And then I think I'll shut off my heat-radiating laptop. And then maybe I'll stare at my TV until my eyes fall out and my DVR decides it won't overflow after all.

Blinking is another option. Or sleep. Whatever.

BTW, I still haven't had the assistance of the Traveling Shovel of Death, but the moment might be coming soon. I just have to decide if it is really something my character would be willing to do, because at the moment it would be purely in cold blood. Don't get me wrong, the guy's got it coming, but I'm just not sure if the lady would be willing to do it. Perhaps the guy's got something else dastardly to try which will push her over the edge...

Does it count as typing if you're just banging your head repeatedly on the keyboard?

Focus? I DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' FOCUS!!!


I'm ok. Honest.

I'm allowing myself a brief -- very brief -- respite to celebrate the fact that I just passed the 25,000 word mark. Yippee for mee!

Yesterday I really slacked off badly. I wrote less than 600 words. Thankfully that didn't destroy the lead I've given myself over where the 1667 word daily quota would put me, but it sure put a kink in my momentum. I've got about 400 more words to write today to meet the recommended word quota, and I've promised myself I'll get at least that much before I stop for the night. I'd really rather get more than that. It's the whole "the more you get the more you want" thing: I started off doing more (sometimes significantly more) than the quota, so now that I'm back to "only" reaching the quota for several days (with the exception of yesterday) I'm feeling a bit unaccomplished.

Such is life.
But I'm wasting words. ;) Time to get back to it.

I think I'm losing momentum.  Ok, make that: I'm definitely losing momentum.  I find I am distracted by anything and everything, and I have the unreasonable desire to start watching various and sundry dvds instead of writing.  Serenity is calling me, but I don't have time right now!!!!  AAaaahhhh!

Must write 374 more words before bed!  Aaagggggghhhhh!

Going now.
Blah.

Well, for anyone who is the least bit curious, I've now written 17,706 words.  That is ahead of schedule, but I've been working reduced hours this week giving me more time to write.  I probably won't make as much headway next week.  I've been deliberately not looking at how far ahead of schedule I am.  Either it will depress me because it's not more, or it'll encourage me to slack off because it's a nice margin.  I just stick with counting how many words I've written each day.  (Of course, I count the day as starting when I get wake up and ending when I go to bed, so my count is different from the official NaNo count.)

Here's hoping I can keep a reasonable word count going for the next 32,294 words.

Posted by yangnome (no, I don't know who that is) on one of the forums:

"A number of years ago, I was blessed when during a word war, the Traveling Shovel of Death (TSoD) visited my novel, killing a character and prompting a large increase in word count. I immediately shared this information with other wrimos in chat. The next break, one of the wrimos told me the shovel had entered his novel. The break after that, the shovel had affected another story. Recognizing the pattern of the TSoD, I decided to post a message to all participants, alerting them about The Shovel.

each year, TSoD has returned to NaNoWriMo. Last year, I didn't have net access for most of the year, but found a few threads detailing the activity of the shovel. Once you hear about it, the shovel will be bound to show up in your story (yes, it isn't too late now. This isn't a dare, it is more like an infection. I haven't been able to avoid the shovel's appearance for five years now. I don't plan for the shovel this year either, but I expect it will return. The good news is, TSoD and the death of a character are a great way to make that push towards 50k.

Once your story has been infected by the shovel, post it here. In the meantime, if you have plans for the shovel, let us know. If you'd like to share past experiences with the shovel, let us know. I'll see if I can pull up past instances.

For those who have questions, I've included a brief FAQ regarding TSoD.

Shovel FAQ

What can I do with the shovel?
Use it as a murder weapon. Kill a main character, a supporting character, or even a background character.

What if I don’t like violent scenes?
Have the shovel show up bloody on the ground, or maybe just a body that has been beaten. You don’t need to describe the murder to use the shovel, though I’m sure it wouldn’t stop you.

Why use the shovel to murder someone?
Easy, it provides conflict. Conflict drives stories.

Couldn't I just use a gun or a knife, maybe a sword?
I’m sure you could. Personally, I haven’t seen any guns knives or swords traveling around from novel to novel wreaking destruction though. The shovel is something bigger than you or I. It is bigger than our novels. It is a weapon of mass destruction if you will.

What if I don’t want to use the shovel?
No one is forcing you. Don’t be surprised though if it pops into your novel. It popped into mine. Others who heard of the shovel couldn’t resist. Can you?

Does it have to be used as a murder weapon?
I suppose not, but the shovel has developed a taste for blood.

What do I do with the shovel when I am done?
Return it. Set it free so it can travel to another place, another land, maybe even another world.

I’m still not convinced.
Well, use of the shovel will provide you with words. Anyone could easily milk a small 1,000-word scene from the shovel. Those more talented could get more. Heck, I’d bet someone could even get a whole novel out of the shovel’s exploits.

Are there any rules regarding the use of the shovel?
No, but we would like to hear about its use. Post the fact that you send it here, and maybe the excerpt from its use.

This sounds silly. It couldn’t possibly fit in my novel.
Maybe you are correct. I don’t know what you are writing about. The first year the shovel visited me, I wasn't writing a silly novel and it fit in mine with little problem. TSoD does not discriminate based on genre.

Anything else I need to know about the shovel?
No. Well, don't turn your back on it."

And a reply from memhensel:

Oh god... I just realised that I should kill someone...

And it just goes downhill from there.  I should be writing, but I can't stop giggling...

From Chris Baty, NaNoWriMo program director:

"And please remember: If you write a paragraph or chapter you don't like, just put it in italics (or change the font color to white). Do not delete! After you write your way across the 50,000-word finish line, you can double back and clip out all the parts of your book that make you cringe (I think you'll surprise yourself with what you decide to keep). For now, just keep moving forward! There's an old folk saying that goes: Whenever you delete a sentence in your NaNoWriMo novel, a NaNoWriMo angel loses its wings and plummets, screaming, to the ground.

Where it will likely require medical attention.

These are words to live by. Resist the tyranny of the delete key! Onward! Upward! To Day Three!"


Is it insane that I found that to be absolutely hilarious?
 

Ok, obviously I'm back from Albuquerque.  Had a great time.  I'm not going to give you the complete rundown right now, I've got bigger fish to fry.  But that's for later.  I'll just say that it was the best year of flying we've ever had, and Arky (the Noah's Ark hot air balloon) is evil.  Go figure.

On Halloween:  next year I should just go in my pajamas.  So much more comfortable.  I went as an angel, and as you can imagine (I KNOW you were thinking it!) I got a lot of snide comments about how out of character it was.  Sorry, I don't have a picture.

On craziness:  Kheldar, you have scarred me for life.  Every December 1st, I tell myself "never again".  I've spent the entire month of November obsessing about word counts and trying to restrain my use of the backspace key.  But here we are, November 1st -- ok, it's late enough to actually be the 2nd now, but you know what I mean -- I've got no coherant plan on what I'm babbling on about, but here I am at my computer once again trying to make a strong start so I'll have leeway later in the month.  I feel like I should be hit over the head and restrained until enough time has passed that I'll have to accept that I won't be reaching 50,000 words and I have to let it go.

Sigh.  With friends like these....

I'm going to go whimper over my keyboard while I listen to the Battlestar Galactica Season 4 soundtrack and try to pound out words that hopefully noone will ever be forced to read.

Welcome to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, aka my insane vacation.  As you might be able to tell from the time stamp on this post, it is an ungodly hour of the morning (though I notice that the post is on Pacific Standard Time while I'm on Mountain Standard Time (so I started writing this at 5:34am rather than 4:34.)  Regardless, you're probably wondering why I'm posting at such a horrible time of the day.  I'll get to that.  First, the rundown of my vacation so far:

Thursday, Oct. 1:  Left home around 8:15am, thus starting the trend of getting up too early for my tastes.  Drove through Idaho, stopping in Nampa for lunch with Misch and the girls while picking up Mom, who'd been visiting.  Drove down past Salt Lake before stopping for the night.  (Sorry Kheldar, didn't stop to see you... again....)
 
Friday, Oct. 2:  Drove on down through Utah, cut through the corner of Colorado into the Four Corners area where grandma lives.  Dropped Mom off with grandma (she's decided getting up before dawn to chase balloons isn't her thing).  Continued on to Albuquerque.  Got here around 8pm and checked into the hotel where we're staying.  (Yes, we've family in the area, but we didn't want to stress them out hosting us and stress us out trying not to neglect our hosts.)

Saturday, Oct 3:  Got up at 4:30am, left the hotel at 5am to head to the Balloon Fiesta Field.  Have I mentioned just how terrible that hour of the day is?  Got to the field before anyone else associated with our balloon, so we headed up to the location of the balloon we're planning to crew for later in the week.  No one was there either.  We were a bit early. ;p  Anyway, we went back to the location of our first balloon and people started arriving.  We crewed for the balloon Foolish Pleasure out of Tucson, AZ.  (The balloon we usually crew for couldn't make it since the pilot was Storm Chasing when his truck was hit by lightning.  The doctors wouldn't clear him to fly.  The man has a serious streak of "accident prone".  Oh, but he's ok, in case you were wondering.)  We spent a lot of time waiting for the ok to inflate.  The balloons launch in two waves, and we were 2nd wave.  It looked like we might be the ONLY 2nd wave balloon at our end of the field, but we still had to wait.  But things went smoothly when we got the go-ahead.  Frank and Jill, our friends from England got to fly.  They landed in a dirt lot in an older neighborhood.  After packing up the balloon we went back to the field to tailgate a bit, then went the the Pilot and Crew Beer & Brats lunch.  I had a bratwurst but skipped the beer.  By that time I was well and truly toasted.  (Both tired and sunburnt.)  We stopped at the store for a few necessary items (sunblock and cookies), & went back to the hotel for a nap.  That evening we went back to the field for the Night Glow.  The gas balloons had been inflating through the afternoon for an evening launch, but by the time we got there the wind was absolutely battering those balloons together.  It was extreme.  They finally had to cancel the Gas Balloon Race.  I'm not sure why the didn't just launch the balloons.  They'd have had a real good jump on the race!  We wandered around and did a bit of souvenir shopping.  The Glow was canceled because of the wind, but they did have fireworks.  Sorta.  Anyway, we went back to the hotel and ordered pizza for dinner.  Too tired for anything else.

Sunday, Oct. 4:  We started half an hour later, having learned from Saturday.  Went to the field, met up with our crew.  This time Dad and I both got to fly.  First time we'd both been in the same balloon.  It was a good flight.  We flew over a corn maze (I have pictures, if anyone needs a cheat sheet.)  We also did a perfect splash and dash.  Just enough water to say that we'd done it, not enough to get our feet wet.  We landed in what looked like a perfect place.  If we'd had the key to the gate, it would've been perfect.  As it was, we had to walk the balloon up an embankment, over a gate, down a hill, over another gate, past some trees, houses, and vehicles into a hay field.  It was quite the adventure.  We packed up, tailgated back on the field, then went back to the hotel for another nap.  We checked the Fiesta web site for the weather report after we woke up.  The winds were up in the double digits, so we didn't bother heading to the field for the scheduled (and canceled) glow.  We went to Applebies (ok, too early in the am for spelling) for dinner, then headed to bed.

Monday, Oct. 5:  This time we launched from off field in an RV park.  The winds picked up a bit, so the balloon went for quite a ways.  They did a splunk and dunk -- water up to the knees for two of them, and up to the rump for the other two.  Heh.  Just as glad not to have done that.  They had a good landing, but any balloons that landed later had a rougher time.  While waiting for us to catch up with them in the chase truck, they saw another balloon rip some panels out in a tree.  I have video of another balloon landing.  And apparently back on the field someone hit their basket on a corporate tent, dumped out their passenger, and then landed hard on the field.  The passenger dislocated a hip, but the pilot was ok.  Craziness.  Anyway, we went out to breakfast with some folks we crewed with before, then we headed out to the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History.  It was a neat place.  We met a guy from Ottowa, John Clearwater.  He's apparently a grand poomba of military nukes.  He's written several books.  Interesting.  Anyway, we went to the Quarters for a very filling dinner, then went back to the hotel for laundry and sleep.

Tuesday, Oct. 6:  We launched from the field we packed up in after Dad's and my flight.  Pilot Dan took his wife Lorrie and daughter Julia up with him.  They did yet another splash and dash -- gently this time -- and landed just west of the balloon field.  We tailgated for a bit, but then it got really chilly.  I made Dad stop for hot cocoa on the way back to the hotel.  Then we napped again (a necessity, truly) then went to Jill and Frank's camp site for a great BBQ dinner.  After that we came back to the hotel for a couple of hours relaxation, then an early bedtime.

Wednesday, Oct. 7:  Today.  Got up, showered.  Naturally it was only AFTER I showered that we got the word "no flights today".  Raining off and on, plus winds that are supposed to pick up too much.  Since my hair was still really wet, I didn't want to go back to bed and soak my pillow.  But now, having spent the last hour doing this, my hair is only damp, and I'm about ready to go back to bed.  There's an event planned for the zoo today, but we'll see the weather is good enough to go.

Well, there you go.  That's what I've been up to for the last few days, and why I'm posting so horrifyingly early in the morning.  I'm for bed.

But more on that later.  Since it's been so long, this might be a long one so....

Lessee, what's been going on since the last time I spoke.  Well, I haven't killed any of my coworkers  (yet).  About a month ago I went with Dad to Seattle for a Mariner's game.  We stopped by to visit the Freemont Troll first.
    He's amusing.  :)

We met my cousin and his family for the game, and a fun time and shiskaberries were had by all (or most anyway.)
  

Unfortunately the M's lost, but we're going to blame it on the umpire who had difficulty telling balls from strikes.  Dad only yelled at him a few times.  (Love you, Daddy!)  Since it was a night game, we found a hotel for the night (after a veeeeery long search for a vacancy).  Next day, before heading home we went to the Museum of Flight.  Very cool place which is a lot bigger than I thought it would be.  We didn't have time to see the whole thing before heading home.  Might have to go back sometime.
     

After that was another uneventful stretch.  I have many of those.  About 2 weeks ago I went with Luv and her hubby to the last regular season game of the local AAA ball team.  Also fun despite another loss.  Honest, I'm not a jinx or anything.  A couple days later I was headed to the Washington coast for a visit with Miferty.  This is where the Airship Pirates come in.  (Thanks for your patience. ;)  
So as I was leaving town, I plugged in the adapter I use so I can listen to my MP3 player on my car stereo.  Naturally, since I had a six hour drive in front of me, the darn player went belly up.  Any request for music was met by an instant reboot.  So I stopped at the store on my way out of town and picked up a new player.  Obviously it wasn't going to be of any use for the drive to the coast, but I figured I could load it while I was there and have it for the return drive.  I managed to find enough radio stations to keep me occupied, and had a nice visit.  Of course, it made me just a little nervous when they told me to remove all food from my car unless I wanted the the bears to take a can opener to it.  But my Necco Wafers were saved.  (Did you know that Necco Wafers get soft on the coast? Heh.) There were the usual raccoons.
           

And the deer.


And the not so usual bear.
      
Not the best picture, but the bear wasn't going to pose for me.  Not a bad thing, really.  I'd prefer the bear stay scared and stay away!  One morning as Miferty and I were getting ready to leave the house, she had to check to see if the hidden key was still there.  So we were standing outside and we heard this crackling sound. 
Miferty looks around.  "Could be the bear, or maybe deer, or--"
"Bear," I say.
"Yeah, it could be the bear," says Miferty.
"No, it's the bear!"  I say.
Needless to say, we got back inside rather quickly.
But it was a good visit.  We played cards for hours, walked on the beach, ate junk food.  Everything you need for a good vacation.  Too short, though.
So, when the time came I was back on my way home, listening to the Airship Pirates on my new MP3 player.  Everything was going well, and when the album ended I starting flipping through the player to see what I should play next.  Only I couldn't get anything else to play.  It just kept playing the same album.  (head/desk).  Since I am still capable of marginally intelligent conversation, clearly I didn't listen to that one album for six hours straight.  It was back to the radio for me.  I did still have those songs stuck in my head for a good (bad?) week after.  So I'm now on my third MP3 player of the month.  (Fingers crossed!)

And now I return to my normal, uneventful life.  There will be ballooning soon, but who knows how long it'll take me to post that!
Until the next time...

Hi, my name is Allyrapixie.   /waves sheepishly

(Hi, Allyrapixie)

It's been six years, three months and two days since the last time I killed a coworker.

(The room fills with astonished murmurs and more than a few concerned glances.)

I know, I know.  But my dear mother started telling me to have a nice day, and if I had to kill anyone to do it cleanly.  Took all the fun out of it, so I swore off for awhile.  But I'm back, and I'm here to tell you that it's a bad idea.  All that antagonism just builds up inside until it starts eating you up.

(Everyone starts nodding and voicing their agreement.)

I've spent the last six years, three months and two days with a need that no amount of violent movies and video games could fill.  So I'm ready to give it another try.  I'll do my best to keep it clean, but I'm sure my mom will understand so long as I clean up after myself.  Thanks for listening, I feel better already.

Love you Mom!

I hear you've been making fun of me, dear brother.  I'll have you know, I am NOT fussing over my new "baby."  It's a Kindle.  It's absolutely reasonable to by a cover for a Kindle, and if you're going to do something you might as well do it well.  So yes, I bought a nice and shiny cover.  (Granted, it's a tad shinier than I had intended, since what I thought said "light brown" actually said "light bronze", but still, I at least didn't buy the ruby one.)  And twice when I've said "I bought a Kindle" the response was "a candle?" so I if I shorten it to Kinnie, what's the harm?

You're just jealous.

(BTW, it's less than fun to type entire sentences and then wait for your computer to catch up.  Stupid computer must be jealous of the Kindle as well.)

Ok, so I'm looking around Amazon, browsing through the free books and I find this:

"Pepper and Salt, or Seasoning for Young Folk" by Howard Pyle (1853-1911)

Personally I like my "young folk"  with barbeque sauce, but whatever.  :)

Is it really?

( Read more... )

Exactly four months ago I posted a question about jury duty, having just received a jury questionnaire for District Court.  Today I received a county court jury summons.  In case you don't remember my previous tirade, I am absolutely not a fan of jury duty.  I hate it.  I am completely unsuited to it.  And naturally that makes it inevitable that I will be summoned again and again.  This is my fourth time with the county court, though thankfully the district court thing hasn't gone any further than a questionnaire.  Of course, I probably just jinxed myself by mentioning it.

Adding confusion to annoyance, the summons/questionnaire is less than clear about the dates of the jury term.  With close examination you find out that it's a two week term apparently starting on September 21.  If they're going to annoy me, they should at least not make a form that takes a cryptologist to decode.

Adding insult to injury, the dates they want me for -- don't work for me.  I've got 2 separate events which interfere with this whole thing, so I'm going to have to request a deferment.  They want me to pick a month that will work for me.  Tempting to say "never".  When exactly would I want to deal with this crap?  November?  That's NaNoWriMo month, if I decide to participate again.  So would jury duty interfere?  Dunno.  Could make me really cranky for a couple of weeks.  December?  Christmas rush time?  Heck, I truly would prefer to be at the mall on Christmas Eve fighting all the last minute shoppers rather than serve on a jury.

Yup.  Cranky already.

Well, I done it. 

I've gone and spent a bucketful of money and now await with anticipation/trepidation my Kindle.  Time will tell if it was a good idea or a bad one, but since I've spent so much time obsessing over the idea, I figure there's less of a chance that it's a passing fancy. 

I just have to get past the whole "Oh my word what have I done?" moment.

Went with my family to the Walla Walla Sweet Onion Festival. As onion lovers it seemed like a good idea for a Saturday. We took part the 1st Annual SweetSkip. Basically, you pay for eleven tokens that will get you food samples at eleven area restaurants. You walk around fromm restaurant to restaurant eating as you go. The first place gave us a sample-sized bowl of French Onion soup. The next one was chili and an onion sausage. Then there was a slice of pizza, followed by an onion sesame croissant. The fifth place was closed (shame on them!)

Let's see, next was an onion rye breadroll, then this small puff pastry thing with caramelized onion stuff on top. Then a slice of bread with herbed goat cheese and a cinnamon/cider onion jam. How many is that? Uh... eight. By then everything was starting to blur together, and I'd come to the conclusion that -- sacriledge! -- it is possible to have too much onion. So, next was an onion ring -- yeah, just one. I would complain, but really, I was about onioned out. On the plus side, it was a perfectly cooked onion ring, so the batter was crisp and the onion still mostly raw. I like onion better that way. Anyway, next was a Mexican restaurant that served chips and salsa with your choice of fried-onion toppings. I had the chips and salsa and basically ignored the onions! Last was a small salad with onions and an onion vinaigrette.

It was all very exhausting, mostly because it was very hot. Close to 100 Fahrenheit (that would be about 38 Celcius for my lady weasel across the pond).  Just add butter, 'cause I am toast.  Hold the onion.

I had a weird, weird week.  Frustrating as a whole, but with definite streaks of the strange.

Read on...

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