afterallthistime | Entries tagged with creativity

Andy and I have been watching this web series called Strip Search, which, guys, click that link -- it's awesome. It's basically a reality TV competition show, but the contestants on it are actually awesome, smart, creative, not-asshole human beings. It's run by the guys at Penny Arcade (even if you don't read the web comic, you should probably know them as the guys who spearheaded the PAX conventions -- and if you didn't know that, get over here, you little shit, I'm revoking your License to Nerd), and it's all about webcomic artists.

Reasons You Need to Watch This Show:

1. The people are awesome. Like, I seriously dare you to watch the show and pick a quick and easy favorite, or find someone who ellicits a deep and visceral loathing. I mean, there are definitely contestants I find funnier, or more talented, or more interesting, but usually on reality shows there's at least one person I know I'm rooting for, straight up, and at least one person who can GDIAF. But there's no one who's really a Jerkass, no one who's really even a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing (and we're up to the 5th elimination round, you'd figure they'd have emerged by now. Everyone is just really cool and hangs out.

2. These people have appreciable talent. And I know there are reality shows out there that have people with talents -- say what you want about it, but there are some genuinely good singers on American Idol (though the show went from Cheesy Guilty Pleasure to Shiiiiiiit over time), and there are other talent competitions that showcase actual talent. But for all of those, you have an equal number of reality shows about quasi-celebrities whose tenacious grasp on celebrity paradoxically hinges on the fact that they have a reality show. It's nice to see people who are good at something practice what they're good at. It just is.

3. If you have a creative bone in your body, OH MY GOD, this show is going to make you want to BE ON IT AND DO WHAT THEY ARE DOING, AHHHH. How much do I want to lock myself in a lakeview cottage right now with a dozen other creative people and just talk ahop and be given challenges and collaborative activities and shit?? SO FUCKING MUCH. I would legit plan out like, an un-broadcast version of this if enough of y'all wanted to participate and pitch in. Like, we'd develop challenges and chit, and do team and individual challenges (but we wouldn't have to kick people out, we'd just earn points and get rewards and stuff). It'd be fucking awesome.

4. Everyone looks like they're having fun! It's challenging, yeah, but no one ever looks like they're being exploited, humiliated, or feeling anything other than enjoyment and genuine gratitude for being there.

5. It's fucking hilarious.

6. EVERYONE IS SO FUCKING ADORABLE, OMG. THE CONTESTANTS ARE BASICALLY PUPPIES (ESPECIALLY KATIE AND MONICA).

I'm going to go dork around the internet while all y'all catch up on this show, and then we can chat about it, mmmkay?

Free Floating Hostility coming soon, because if I don't type it out, it will burn a hole in my soul.

Let's talk about how much I don't want to go to work tomorrow. Or not. Yeah, no, let's not.

Last weekend I went to

muskratjamboree and it was epic, just as it was the last time. I tend towards the quiet, lurky side, since I've not been super vocal in fandom in the last several years, but I still love fan culture and hearing the last about what people are reading and watching and doing. I've picked up a lot of potential fandoms that may interest me, and had a great time basking on the aura of enthusiasm that everyone brought for their respective fandoms.

Mostly, it made me really want to create things again -- like, in terms of vidding or ficcing again, obviously, but also in a more general sense. Like, what excuse do I have -- what valid excuse do I have -- for not writing more, or for not doing more photomanips, or working on graphics so that I can actually get good enough to commit the images in my head to paper? Why am I not reading and critiquing more fic, or betaing anymore, or generating meta? Why am I pushing ideas aside as being too undeveloped or "out there" when I know I would get pleasure from writing them, and when I know, first hand, that there is an audience for everything, however brief, or meandering, or outlandish.

I feel like I am turning my back on a potentially welcoming community** out of a sense of inadequacy and this idea that I have nothing of value to offer, and that is just total bullshit. There are brilliant ideas out there that I am missing out on by not paying more attention to the community, and my own ideas are stagnating and dying because I never even give them a chance. I need to put the kibosh on that mode of thinking, yo.

Tomorrow starts the April round of Camp NaNoWriMo, and I'm hoping that lights the appropriate fire under my ass to start me writing again, because it's not so much that I have no ideas as it is that I never give myself permission to just write and not worry about quality or plot, and once I get started, I usually generate some decent stuff if I can keep it going long enough. Hoping to start on a collection of short fiction that I've been putting off committing to paper since, mmm, October, maybe??

**I'm referring specifically (in light of the con) to the fandom community, but in a broader and just as valid sense, I also mean the ~creative community in general. I enjoy making things, I enjoy crafting, and crocheting, and writing, but I don't make time for them any more. It's like -- work, gym, dinner, chores, internet, bed, everyday. THERE IS MORE TO ME THAN THAT, GODDAMNIT. I just need to... fucking reclaim it, man.

Meanwhile, this weekend I spent (with SIGNIFICANT help from Andy) getting the house clean, because SPRING, BITCHES. Wow, with two of us, we got basically EVERYTHING done in a day and a half, which is pretty epic, honestly. I still have to clean the tub and then my craft room (because, aha, the craft room is basically a dumping ground for whatever shit I've been working on -- or not working on -- and right now it contains:

1. a suitcase still half-full from MJ,
2. a stack of newspapers for a paper mache Loki helmet I am "supposed" to make for Anime Boston,
3. several blocks of Sculpey, a bunch of loose and disorganized jewelry posts and jump hooks, bottles of acrylic paint, and dozens of charms in various stages of completeness,
4. piles of clothing that no longer fit, strewn on both my desk chair and my dress makers dummy,
5. most of my collection of scrapbooking supplies, all over my desk, because... fuck you, that's why (no, I have no recollection of using them recently, I don't know how or why they're there)

but the craft room is closed off from the rest of the flat 99.9% of the time anyway, and I kind of regard it as a seperate entity, because I'm the only one who ever goes in there anyway. So while I DO want to get it cleaned and organized, it's not as much of a priority as the rest of the living space). This is a big deal, because it makes me feel like SOMETHING in my life is just, you know, DONE. Set. A-ok. In order. It means it's one less thing I have to feel anxious about, or to use as an excuse as to why I'm not doing X, Y, and Z instead of fretting about my living space or feeling overwhelmed by other obligations (also, everything smell like Fresh Water, and that's super nice, ahh...) We threw the windows open yesterday and tore down the curtains (to wash them), the the whole flat as full of fresh air and sunlight, and yeah... it feels like, if I had to wait for a time to start things over, this is it. This is the time to renew commitments to yourself.

Other things:

1. I've been driving. I know, wow. I'm hating it less. We're planning on scheduling my road test sometime in April, taking it sometime in May. I fucking hate merging onto the highway, but so does everyone. Other than that, I don't mind highway driving, and I've been long resigned to city driving. I've been taking myself around, to Mel's house, to and from work, to the gym... I'm excited to be able to apply to jobs that require a driver's license, because while that would mean I'd need to buy a car (it's usually in-home training, direct care work, etc.), the jobs that would require it also pay enough that it would be a reasonable expense to buy a semi-decent used car for work.

2. Work. I'm looking. I don't hate my job right now -- on the contrary, while there are some really frustrating moments, in general, I enjoy it. So now is really the time to look, when I'm in the frame of mind where I am restless enough to be mentally willing to try something new, but emotionally stable enough to be selective, and to only apply to jobs that sound like a step up, instead of applying to anything because AT LEAST IT'S NOT THIS.

3. I need fanart -- good fanart -- of a.) true-form!Castiel, and b.) Ice King/Marceline (not in a romantic sense) from Adventure Time, because oh my God, I think I'm addicted to Adventure Time, and Ice King and MArceline just make me go A BLOO BLOO BLOO.

I just heard the dryer stop, which is my signal to go and fold clothes, because Lord knows I won't feel like it after the gym tomorrow. Enjoy what little remains of the weekend, everyone.

I've been quiet. I apologize? The silence started because was busy and has continued thus because I'm feeling down. Not for any particualr reason, and not, like, depressed, just -- down. Sluggish. Disappointed with myself. Tired. I would bet money that a good chunk of it is the weather, and a side effect of the weather is that I haven't been going to the gym, which also makes me sluggish. I know once it warms up a bit I'll feel better, I always do. It's just a long road there, you know?

Speaking of working out, I want to change up my routine. Does anyone know a lot about working out, or know any communities, etc. where I can get some advice as to what I should be doing with regards to diet/exercise with my new fitness goals?

I'm on vacation until Feb. 25th. I managed to get all the laundry done today as well as the bedsheets and finally got the bathroom done (with help from my husband). I've been working on an About Me entry and a sort of Who's Who entry for LJ for my excursions to

add_me, and I've been working on my charms. These are the ones I've done in the last two days, ( charms based on sexual and gender identities and tangentially related such things: )

Hopefully I'll be in a more energetic/positive mood tomorrow. One can only hope.

Current Mood: blah

So, I'm going to make a statement that most Supernatural fans were probably already aware of, but bear with me, because I am super, super new to the fandom:

Misha Collins is out of his fucking mind.

I know I have SPN fans, and (I'm pretty sure) even a few of Misha's Minions on my LJ Friends list. I have a few Misha-related question, specifically about GISWHES. Biggest among them is, what the fuck IS IT?

...Because I inadvertently signed up for a registration invite. And dammit, I kind of REALLY want to do it, because all the promo stuff I've seen for it is wild and fucking batshit crazy, and I want in on it. I just don't fucking know what it IS.

Was anyone involved in this last time around? What is involved? What can you tell me about Teams -- are you assigned to them? Do you you pick them? Do you have to be in the same geographical region as your teammates (i.e., can I find my team mates on LJ and Tumblr)??

Anything, guys. Anything at all you can tell me will be awesome.

I'm feeling strangely restless right now -- there are a dozen things I should do/want to do, but I don't know what to focus on. On the plus side, my knee feels WORLDS better today, good enough that the plan is to start back up at the gym on Sunday (not necessarily running, but there are other, lower impact cardio exercises I can do). I'd like to resume the running by September 1st, though, so I can get in the last two weeks of "official" training up, and then do some speed work and hills.

Some of the improvement to my knee may have to do with last night's burlesque class, which was almost entirely floor work. The stripping topic was stocking removals, so we did a lot of work on our backs, with our legs: stroking one leg with the other, tear drops, the bicycle, and splays. Splays were interesting in a class of ten with limited floor space, because at any given moment, it felt like a very really possibility that you were going to get smothered by someone else's thighs. The floor moves are an incredible ab workout, but also a lot of slow, repetitive leg and knee movement, which I honestly think really helped. We did a choreographed rehearsal of the last two weeks in groups of three, as well -- bumps, grinds, shimmies, glove removals, shirt and skirt removals, floor work, and stocking removals -- and I discovered that when I'm choreographed, the self-conciousness goes away all but completely. So long as I have a planned routine, I can do all the moves and do them quite well (with the exception of shoulder shimmies; hip shimmies are no problem, but I can't isolate my shoulders, I either wind up doing basically a full body shimmy or look like I'm having a seizure. There is no in-between). I'm considering planning out choreography to a song I've loved for a long time, that I already have some ideas for, and when the circumstances are right (i.e., when I have the money to spend) taking the Babydolls' advanced class, and then at some point in the future, attending the Expo's amateur competition. (The song, by the way is Fingertips, by Poe).

I've spent today doing a few things I guess I could consider productive: started work on my cosplay helmet, finally; it's still in the base stage, still sort of just a prototype. I've cut out the face and made one horn out of cardstock and paper, will probably "flesh it out" with Model Magic, but at least this way the weight will be less than making the whole thing out of clay. I also designed another sticker/shirt to go along with the one I designed last night for my new RedBubble store -- I'm jumping ship on Zazzle because RedBubble is better known in the circles I travel, and because it is overall a lot kinder to fan-made fan merchandise. I've gotten about fifty page views thus far and about a dozen Tumblr reblogs, plus the items are showing up in the searches, so I hope to make a few sales soon. The two items right now are text-only, one for Avengers and one for SuperWhoLock -- I have another SuperWhoLock design (graphic) to work on, and another exclusively Supernatural design (also graphic) and those will likely take a while, since I have NO graphic skills whatsoever.

I did a little bit of crocheting, and might do a little more, and then read a bit. I'm just never in a reading mood anymore, and that makes me sad. Once I settle in and sort of make myself start, I usually get sucked right in, but getting myself to stop whatever and actually pick up the book has become a chore. It's ridiculously sad, really.

Tomorrow, maybe the beach, maybe some chores and then taking a nice long walk to get myself back in gear in a low-impact way. A week and a half left -- I'd be lying if I said part of me isn't excited, but part of me is just dreading the same old, same old. Which is why, again -- find fullfillment elsewhere.

I'm trying, I'm trying.

ETA: Ever have moments when you just realize, definitively, that you are a massive nerd? I just downloaded a font for Cirucular Gallifreyan. BEAT THAT.

I think it's funny -- not "ha ha" funy, but kind of ironic funny -- how much of a concious effort it is not to over-think while I'm attempting to write. Like, I have to focus really hard to avoid over-focusing? It's bizarre. But it's kind of sort of working, maybe? I don't know. I haven't written in ages. I'm trying to finish up the collection of twenty sestinas so I can publish elegance/animal and maybe move on to trying another form, because I love writing, but -- as has been previously stated -- am incapable of doing so (for the most part, with exceptions) without some kind of structure. There's this awesome resource at The Word Shop that has a listing of a slew of poerty forms, and I am itching to try some of them out. I've played around with a lot of forms, but it's a goal of mine to try to write at least one piece in every form listed there. Bizarre and oddly specific, yes. But we all have our goals and dreams, right?

( Speak of the devil; an update on Bucket List 2012 )

I'm moving. I'm still going. Not as quickly as I'd like, and with far more sudden stops and false starts than I'd like, but I'm moving. And that, ultimately, is the point. Just keep going.

2011 ends in ten days, so naturally I’ve been thinking quite a bit about 2012.

I am determined not to fuck it up.

( Read more... )

How about you all? Do you have resolutions??

What sometimes happens to me is this: I will be in a massive funk in some aspect of my life and then suddenly something will happen to spark me, and make me determined to do something about it. Today, being the geek that I am, this something was watching videos of Alex Day. If you don't know who that is, visit either Alex Day Music, or go to YouTube and search for user "nerimon." Basically, he does what I want to do - he talks about things he finds interesting, blogs, vblogs, creates YouTube vids, sings songs about Harry Potter and Pokemon and Doctor Who - and gets paid for it. More importantly, he loves it - it's clear he adores what he's doing with his life, and he's 22 years old and is basically completely in control of his own destiny.

I could never do what he does, to that extent. I couldn't quit my job tomorrow and just try to "live the dream," because (again, this is where I draw my inspiration from, it's sad, I know) John Cheese makes some pretty valid points in his article, "Five Reasons Money Can Buy Happiness" - the likelihood of me being able to make a living off any of the things I enjoy is slim to nill, and I recognize and am more or less fine with that. But I want to have that experience, at least - I want to make things and have people really appreciate them or enjoy them, but I want them to be projects I feel really good about too, and projects that I can have a blast creating.

We (a couple of friends and I) keep circle the idea of creating a Podcast - fan-based, free-floating, whatever - and I've been really thinking about that today. I wonder if anyone has suggestions for possible overarching theme/raison d'etre for a podcast, based on what my interests are? I want to say, I already have about three or so ideas, I just want to have other people weigh in on this. What kind of stuff would you like to hear podcasts about?? I figure this is as good of a place as any to ask, since if you are on my Friend's List, it's likely we have at least a few interests in common, right?

I've been really stagnating on the sestina collection as well, which I'm hoping to remedy tonight. I've got two sets of words I'm trying to turn into something, but I continue to oscillate between thinking that my idea for a collection of poems in a set form is great and thinking it's hokey and ridiculous; not to mention, of course, the constant fear I have that all of the poems themselves are trash to begin with (actually, that's not entirely true, even on my most self-doubting days, there are a handful of poems that I can look at and be honestly poud of. So, there's that). But even the book is a project that I've undertaken on my own, a solo project, and I would really, really love to do something more active, social, and collaborative.

I'm in an odd mood today, where I really feel like trying to get this started, but I'm a little confused as to where I should be starting. I'm thinking reading up a little on podcasts and brainstorming/elaborating on my chosen topics?

So Tuesday night, as I may have mentioned, was "ring-iversary," which is the name that my strangely whimsical/sentimental husband has given to the anniversary of our engagement (two years ago, 11/15/09). The tradition thus far has been to go back to the restaurant he proposed at (which was also, coincidentally, the first place we'd ever gone to dinner together), whereupon he presents me with ever more horrifically tacky rings, and then we go an purchase, ahem, "sexy things." I really love all three of these traditions, because among my favorite things in the world are, in fact, 1.) delicious, delicious sushi, 2.) tacky jewelry (no, seriously), and 3.) cute lingerie. Oh, ( this ), by the way, was this year's ring-iversary gift. After all these things transpired, we went home, where the remainder of the evening was passed in a blanket fort Andy had built in the living roopm because I had remarked, in passing that afternoon that I'd really missed building blanket forts, and how my sister, my cousin, and I used to do it all the time.

The following day we had errands to run in Lowell, so while we were there anyway, we stopped for lunch at Cobblestones, which is apparently a pretty well-known place, though generally further out of the way than we usually go for lunch or dinner. It's an American restaurant, very well put together, beautiful inside, and tipping onto the pricy side. Andy and I got the appetizer specials, which were an amazing beet and spinach salad with a balsamic vinaigrette, and sweet potatos and corn fritters with crème fraîche and molasses, and sandwiches - a typical but tasty burger for Andy, and grilled portebello for me. It reinforced my desire to really start touring around local restaurants - we tend to have our "haunts," and while we do occassionally try a new place, being on a budget often means sacrificing taking culinary "risks" in the interest of not "wasting" our money on a gamble (i.e., if we really hate the food, now we're hungry and out $40). Now that our finances are a bit more stable, maybe we can be a bit more daring.

I'm feeling strangely creatively empty and ridiculously restless (again, creatively). I'm beginning to seriously consider undergoing an evaluation for adult ADD; what used to be simple absent-mindedness has become not only absent-mindedness, but an inability to concentrate and a disturbing level of distractability. The harder I try to reign myself in, the worse it seems to get, and often, my irritation while trying to maintain focus on anything, even things that I used to enjoy, is often palpable. I have several things I'm trying to work on, and while I have a great deal of enthusiasm for what I'm trying to do - as in, I want to do it, I have good ideas, etc. - sitting down to work on it is almost physically painful, because the minute I try to focus, my mind and body both want to do something else (though what, I couldn't tell you). It's become pretty bad in the last several years.

Anyway, this week: Woo, two-and-a-half day week! Skipping out of the pep rally on Wednesday (shh!!) so I'll be out by 10:05 and hopefully be heading out to lunch with Andy, and Thursday I'll be preparing a side dish and heading to my folks for Thanksgiving dinner. Friday is "Pie Day" and games at Camelot, Saturday is hanging out and getting weekend chores done, and Sunday is the TSO concert, yay! So excited. Also, four-and-a-half day weekend, SCORE.

Got a few messages about holiday cards, still "counting heads" if anyone else is interested.

Ciao for now, lords and ladies.

Here has been my super-exciting day off: catching up on sleep, picking up Andy's pants from the tailor, buying Deathly Hallows II (squeee!), washing bedsheets, and doing some light picking up. I don't know, my intention today was to tear the house apart and really, thoroughly clean it, but I just can't seem to get up the motivation. It's not that the house is irrevocably filthy or anything, but it could use a good scrubbing down, and I just feel wholly unmotivated. I don't know why... I think the house has gotten to the point where it's gone beyond maintenance and really requires a devoted chunk of time, time set aside just to get cleaning done, and I just don't feel like devoting a chunk of time that huge to one task. In the long run, it's silly not to, because then the task just grows exponentially more and more intimidating, and living.working in a messy house is depression-making, especially for Yours Truly. I'm probably be up until 2 am anyway (when Andy gets home), so I might make the effort to finish all the non-scrubbing type things (organizing, picking up, etc), so that in the morning, I can do just the "cleaning" chores, which is much closer to my normal Saturday morning regiment - and I can enlist Andy to help, so the task doesn't seem so pitifully lonely and dull.

I had motivation at the beginning of November, I don't know what happened to it. Whatever destroyed my motivation for cleaning apparently did a job of my drive to complete NaNo as well, as it's been days since I've written a word, and I am pathetically, unforgivably behind. It's weird, because it's not even like I want to give up writing it, it's just... I feel like there's no way I'll ever catch up. I'm definitely not going to win, but that matters less to me than in past years, because I've still already produced more this month than in the last several months combined, and I don't completely loathe the story yet, which is also an oddity. I just don't feel as compelled to churn out the words and win...? I don't know. I foolishly decided to pile on the projects this month, all DIY craft projects in addition to NaNoWriMo, and decided I needed to totally revamp the house... it's my own poor planning, really.

Who else is still powering through NaNo? Who else is having doubts/giving in/giving up? Who else is plodding along and wherever they are on November 30th, then that is where they will be?

Tomorrow Andy and I are heading to Mom's to watch Deathly Hallows with her, and Sunday we are still on for Joce's. And now Andy is calling me, so I'll get going. Cheers.

Current Mood: antsy

(Note: If any of my NaNoing LJ Friends fall into any of these categories, please take this with a grain of salt as the not-too-serious ramblings of a bitter NaNo veteran. Thank you :))

NaNoers Just Begging for a Beating:

1. People who reach 50k on day five and insist on complaining about how their novel is going in the "NaNoWriMo Ate My Soul" forum.

2. People who reach 50k on day five. Full stop.

3. People who talk about how they plan on "challenging" themselves this year by writing a trilogy of books, or a septology, or the literary equivalent of the Encyclopedia-fucking-Britannica.

4. The fact that everyone seems to be writing fantasy except me, which makes me feel vaguely uncomfortable for reasons I can't quite work out.

5. People who have eight thousand forums posts but a word count of 200 and who do nothing but complain in all eight thousand forums posts that they only have a word count of 200.

6. People who reach 50k on day five.

7. People who reach 50k on day five.

8. People who reach 50k on day five.

(7,686 words).

Here I am, on my flex bock at work, NOT doing NaNoWriMo. YAY!

Actually, since I have 82 minutes plus my lunch (plus a little extra, since the BCBA and case manager are encouraging me to sort of "skip out" as often as possible to give my kid a chance to adjust to not having an aide by his side full-time), I still have plenty of time to write. Also, at nearly 4000 words, I'm only a day behind (meaning I need to make-up yesterday's word count and produce today's, but seing as how, in the nine years (yipes!) I've been doing NaNo, I've often had to catch up somewhere in the realm of 5,000 words in one go, I'm not exceedingly worried).

What I am worried about is how much I already hate my plot. When vague ideas finally started forming (like, at 2 am on November 1st), I thought I had the bud of a great mainstream adult fiction novel blossoming in my brain... then I started writing, and suddenly the entire tone screamed Young Adult novel, which, hey, in and of itself, is not bad.

Then I actually started churning out signifigant wordage, and at that point it became a Very Bad Thing. Basically the entire first chapter is an info dump - like, a ridiculous ammount of awkwardly-worded and ponderously detailed exposition - that simultaneously manages to say abso-fucking-loutely nothing. I have really nowhere to go beyond this point, which, given that it's still only week one, and I'm a day behind, is already not boding well for the success of this endeavor.

Still, I'm trying to tell myself that the lasting result of doing NaNo is, as always, getting into the habit of producing something everyday, and hopefully of learning how to silence, with at least some moderate degree of success, the voice inside my head that constantly tells me what a hack I am and that I should almost definitely be on Ritalin, and goads that while I'm wasting my time writing, I could easily be wasting my time doing any number of other, less frustrating but equally frivolous tasks.

Post-NaNo, I still have hopes of self-publishing by (or just after) the new year - not my NaNo novel, but the book of poetry I keep swearing I'll finish "next week," "next month," "whenever I damn well feel like, okay?" If I can condition myself to write everyday, and not instantly pan everything I've produced out of hand, then maybe there's hope for me yet.

Oh, also, my novel: teenage boy finds out his girlfriend is pregnant. ~~Hijinks ensue~~. Stuff happens. Thrilling original, isn't it?

Fellow NaNo-ers, good luck; if you are anything like me, you will need it in spades.

Last night my husband and a friend of ours trekked out to Salem, MA for Halloween festivities and had a fantastic time. However, I am now "stranded" at my folks' house until 2 am and don't have my camera or free use of the computer, so a post about Halloween will ahve to wait until tomorrow.

For now, here are some relevant, but non-Halloween pieces of news

1. On Saturday we had a freak snowstorm, and over 500,000 MA residents are still without power, including the district I work in. I sent in an absence notice for today before I left for Salem yesterday - needlessly, it turns out, since school was cancelled because most of my district is still blacked out. I got a call from our Reverse 911 at about 2:30 today telling me tomorrow's in-service day is cancelled as well, and the latest ETA for power restoration may be as late is November 3rd. I'm loving the time off right now, but I'll probably hate it in June (although by June I should have a different assignment (hopefully me old one back!) and might not mind it as much).

2. NANOWRIMO STARTS AT MIDNIGHT. And I have NO PLOT. NONE. BUT - I am excited, because planning has never really worked out for me, so maybe just winging it (having no expectations) will be good. I'm looking forward to it, anyway. As kind of a forewarning, for a good chunk of November, this blog might be kind of NaNo-centric, so I hope y'all don't mind listening to me ramble about my plot/lack thereof. Also, if anyone wants to follow me on the forums at NaNoWriMo.org, I'm PerfectMistake.

3. I'm excited to get my official discretionary budget for November, because there is a TON of stuff coming up that I want to go to (including Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Les Miserables, and Spamalot) and I'm going to buy some tickets. It'll be epic. Also, Andy is portioning out our holiday budget, and I get to buy the supplies for me holiday crafts and gifts ♥

4. Andy and I are hosting Thanksgiving for the first time this year. I'm nervous but also excited. Does anyone have any favorite Thanksgiving dishes they'd like to share? I already have a general idea of what I'm preparing, but I'm open to "twists" on some classics, or some interesting new dishes to try.

Signing off; Halloween pics and such to come. Hope anyone heading out to celebrate tonight has an awesome time!

WHO IS DOING NANOWRIMO THIS YEAR?

And who is actually planning for it instead of winging it come November 1st?

And who can tell me how to go about doing so myself, since I suck at anything resembling organization?

( Halloween cards )

Starting on holiday projects already; hey, it's October, so it's time to get in the spirit of Halloween. Also, I'm starting on the Christmas crafts because I'm trying to handmake everything again this year, hopefully with better success than last year (when I swore I was going to hand-make things, and then cracked at the end and wound up buying everything anyway. I really don't want to do that this year). I have some really excellent and totally do-able ideas this year though, so I'm super-psyched to get a head's up on them - I will never be one of those people to have all their Christmas gifting done in mid-July (growing up, a friend's mom was like that; how the hell did she do it?), but maybe I'll have it done before Thanksgiving? That would be refreshing.

I got some important things done today, like the info for updating my address on my state ID, changing my loan billing information, dropping my Euclidean Geometry class, and doing some laundry, but right now I'm wide awake, restless, and itching to move. Why does it always hit me in the middle of the night?

I want to devote one day a week to random acts of... I don't even know what you'd call it? Not kindness, necessarily; I try to be kind everyday. Random acts of inspiration, maybe? There are some amazing, fairly organized projects out there devoted to this idea. Probably my favorite is Operation Beautiful, because literally anyone can participate - you don't have to have money, any special supplies, or any particular talents. All you need is a pen, paper, and stealth ;)

I was thinking about them - random acts of inspiration - today, when I doodled out ( this message on an index card. ). For those who can't read it, it says, "You are the star on which all evenings wait. Shine on. You are the light in someone's darkness. You are beautiful. www.operationbeautiful.com." I tucked it inside a Sarah Dessen novel, which are pretty popular among the young women here. The last card I did, I tucked inside a copy of Twilight. I know this is an over-generalization, and I apologize, but feel like some of the younger girls who are super into Twilight and its culture kind of need to hear those affirmations, at least once in a while.

I've been doing these for quite a while now; I've left them in libraries, the mirrors in restaurant bathrooms, tucked underneath products at grocery stores. My favorite moment, though, came when I broke one of the "rules" of Operation Beautiful, which is "no graffitti." There is a women's restroom where I was working that was littered with graffitti - some of it hateful, some of it stupid, all of it negative and vulgar. So one day I penned over some of the more faded hate-filled messages: "Your smile means the world to someone! You are beautiful!" along with the website address.

Two days later, I walked into the building and headed to the second floor breakroom, and all along my hallway, more or less canvasing it, was a sea of sticky notes: "You are a beautiful person!" "Everyone is pretty on the inside!" "Smile!" "You're pretty when you smile :)" "You're a worthwhile person!" "Somebody loves you!"

It was one of the coolest moments ever. I ( saved two of them ) and tucked them inside my "plum blossoms" journal, a composition notebook I keep that is a running list of things that make me happy (little things, minutae that brings me joy or brightens my days).

I know personally how much I love finding things like those sticky notes - does anyone know of other projects that accomplish similar goals, or operate in similar ways? Or does anyone have a similar story of performing small acts of inspiration?

Fandom Friday will come later tonight, I think, but if my mind wanders, happy Friday everyone, and have an amazing weekend!

I've settled on LuLu as my publishing platform. According to their page count guidelines, I technically have enough content to publish now, though I think I'd like to prepare a few more pieces before a put the final draft together. The new open mic season starts locally in January, so I hope to have the book out by then so I can do promos at readings. I plan on spending most of tomorrow night working on new pieces (two of them), and then starting to format what I have to correspond to LuLu's publication guidelines.

Title and a more definite publication date to be forthcoming.

Stir crazy. I've been contemplating various projects I've been working on (or previously contemplating) and have been trying to make some progress. There was a fandom t-shirt I had in my head for days that I really wanted to make, but because the design was influenced/based on a fanfic that's immensely popular in the fandom, I felt the need to contact the author before going ahead with the design process. She, unfortunately, doesn't want the canon characters names to appear in the design, so that shoots my idea down (which disappoints me more than it should, I was really happy with the protype I designed), though she did give me the okay to use her fic for inspiration, so perhaps something else will come to mind (I already have a few ideas, and honestly, granting permission alone was pretty generous, so I can't be too bummed out about it).

I'm experimenting with different platforms to format my poetry book as well, as I'm getting closer to the final number I want for publication. Right now I'm fiddling with LuLu's Poetry Book designer (which is very pretty, don't get me wrong, but it's like it expects all your poems to be ten lines long, and I'm dealing with a much longer form) and Blurb's Booksmart (which is less elaborate, but currently worlds more flexible -- I think it may be winning at the moment). Also deleted my old Twitter and got a new one (I'm addicted to keeping up with the celebs and quasi-celebs I enjoy, what can I say - and it's a great tool to have when you're at conventions, as I learned at MJ). There are still some things around the house I could do, but for all intents and purposes, the house is pretty clean.

There's another pretty big something I want to get started on, but I'm a little hesitant to do it, because of the long term time commitment and because of my complete lack of organizational skills. But it remains something I'd love to do, especially since I've been really wanting to get out and meet some other like-minded people, so I may get the ball rolling tonight and see, once I have a clearer idea of what I'm doing, of anyone else wants to help me out.

All in all, I'm feeling rather scattered tonight. Suggestions of something to do -- a game to play, a show to watch, a fic to read, a new project idea -- would be welcome, as would random messages and well-wishes ;)

I've been in a bit of a funk lately when it comes to writing. I tend to write in only one form - sestina. Not because I can write in only one form, but because it's my favorite form to write in and because I decided I'd like to put together a chapbook of the form, hopefully, at this point, before the New Year.

I started writing sestina, however, as part of a challenge; I sought out new poetry forms, and devoted some time to writing in said form. I've written villanelles, rondelles, haikus, kyrielles, sonnets, dorsimbras, samisens, etc. I've not written them nearly as extensively - with the exception of sonnets and haikus, I've probably only done one or two of the other forms - but I've dabbled. I love playing about with new forms.

The other thing that got me into sestina was the (now functionally defunct) community

same_oh, which was a word-inclusion challenge. I would use lists of words posted as the line-ending words for my sestinas. It yielded some really positive results, including an award-winning poem I wrote called "Momento Mori."

I haven't really done any challenges for a while, and was wondering 1.) if anyone would want to do challenges with me, 2.) if anyone has a favorite poetry form to share that maybe I could experiment with, or 3.) if anyone has a word list for future sestinas?

Number 1 stands in conjunction with 2 and 3, of course.

I'm hoping returning to a regular schedule will be good for me, creatively and... well, in general, I guess. I've gone through too many transitional stages this summer and honestly, I'm ready for a return to routine (even if I'm not looking forward to the routine I'm returning to).

Ugh, no cooking for me tonight. Sandwiches and a watermelon and feta salad, I think.

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