NaNoWri...what????

I have officially signed up for my very first NaNoWriMo. For the uninitiated, that stands for National Novel Writing Month. Basically it's a non-profit organization that holds a one month writing exercise. During the month of November you are challenged to write 50,000 words. If you do, you win. If you don't, at least you tried.

What do you win, you might ask? Well, I'm so glad you did. You win..... a novel! Or at least a good start to one. And experience. And satisfaction. And that good ole fuzzy feeling.

I've been writing seriously since I was about 12. Do I think I'll ever get published? I hope so, but it's not something that I have this super huge drive on right now. I just think that this will be a good experience for me. It's all about just writing, rather than editing and being perfectionistic - two things I struggle with when I write. It's not saying, don't edit, it's just saying right now see where the story leads you.

My sister and a good friend at work are also doing it so we can encourage each other and keep each other on track.

There are a ton of resources on their website - fun ways to connect with other writers, idea generators, word wars, writing prompts, all kinds of fun things. You can check out their site if you're interested...

nanowrimo.org

And if you want, join me - it's an international event. If you do join, drop me a line so we can be writing buddies - my name is the same as it is here... sonshinemusic.

And if you want to be an annoyance drop me a line asking me how I'm doing during the month of November. :) I'll either be excited or really irritated (now there's incentive for you) but probably glad that someone read this :P

Car Conversations

We just took a quick mini vacation to visit some friends in Virginia. More on that later if I feel like it :P Here is a brief look at the conversations we had while leaving our house at 4am...


Dad: How do you tell how many points a buck has? Is it total? Or just on one side?
Dave: It's 1/2 divided by 4 + 3.





Dave: Oh no! I forgot to take Bonine (like Dramamine, but like, a trillion times better [and no, they don't pay me to say that])! What if I dream that I'm reading?!
Dad: Dream that you took Bonine.

Conversations

These are the kinds of conversations that my family has. All the time.

AchingHope: Oh look! They have their Christmas Flakes up!

Me: Their what?!

AH: Christmas Flakes. What else would you call them?

Me: Ummmm..... Snow Flakes?

AH: Pssshhhttt! Why would you call them that.

Me: Maybe because their flakes ... made out of snow.

AH: Shut up.

So Bite Me

I'll admit I've become a bit of a vampire fan.

And I'll admit it all started with Twilight.

I'll even admit that I like the books and the movie (though I'm certainly not obsessed with them)

And I'll admit right here to the chagrin of many Twilight lovers that I am firmly on Team Jacob. However, I also loved the way Breaking Dawn went. Figure that one out :P

I've read PC and Kristin Cast's House of Night novels, Melissa De La Cruz's Blue Bloods Series and a couple of Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books.

So what's next? Vampire Diaries.

I haven't read the books yet, but I thought I'd see what the show was all about. It looked interesting. The first episode was okay enough to bring me back for #2. That one was all right, but then I let it slip for a week. (I've been watching them online, because my schedule won't allow me to catch it on TV) It was all right and I was enjoying it, but it wasn't really compelling. They were a little over the top with making Stefan too much like Edward - from the movie. Certain angles, the way they had his hair, some of his expressions. I found it annoying. And there wasn't a whole lot going on other than high school drama. Nothing to make it really stand out.

The other night I wanted a little diversion, so I thought I would go ahead and catch up.

The third episode things were getting a little more interesting. Not as much in the vampire department, but I was really getting intrigued by Elena's friend, Bonnie, and her emerging powers. And I was really beginning to enjoy Ian Somerhalder's portrayal of Damon. I was never really a big fan of him as Boone. I don't know, just never quite did it for me, but I am loving him as Damon. You can tell he is having the time of his life, too. He loves playing the part and the performance is flawless and oh so fun.

But then came the end of the fourth episode and I was left with my jaw hanging. Spoiler warning!

To find out that there's this group of people who have been warned to watch for the return of the vampires and that Elena's parents were apparently part of it! Definitely much more interesting. It also raised a bunch of questions and thought that I now cannot wait to see them play with over the course of the show.

Free Association

I don't know if it's because I'm bored, sick or both, but I am in the mood for some randomness. One of the funniest things I've seen on someone's blog was Blam's free association in connection to Lost. http://blamken.blogspot.com/2009/04/norse-code.html

So I decided to do one of my own. It has nothing to do with anything. Just for fun. So let's see where I can get in 20 jumps. I only took one dose of NyQuil. Honest.

I will start by closing my eyes and typing something into the search engine.

1. F

2. Fandango

3. Movies

4. Luuuucy!!!!!
5. Lucy and Linus
6. Peanuts 7. Elephant 8. Mouse (someone please tell me where the idea that elephants are afraid of mice came from?)9. Wireless 10. Cell Phone (whoa! I had no idea something like this existed! What on earth?! It's called "cellphone with security") 11. Security 12. Yeoman Warder

13. Facebook (this may seem like a strange jump, but when my sister and I visited the Tower of London, our Yeoman Warder tour guide was hysterical and at one point [to make a long story short] stated that he was on Facebook.)

14. College (when I started my Facebook account)
15. Study (cause I was one of those weird college people that actually went to school to learn and, even worse, actually liked writing papers and doing research) 16. Clue 17. Mustard (sweet muffins! I'm getting my dad this grill cover for Father's Day!)
18. Duncan the Donut (from The Donut Man - ah childhood memories. He did a skit dressed up as a mustard tree) 19. Holes 20. Shia LaBeouf
Well, that was interesting. And random. But I ended with one of my favorite actors and it also brought me full circle because his name ends with the letter "F"! Woot!

Castle 2.02 "The Double Down"

This show just keeps getting better. I love it.

Favorite lines:

Castle: "I'm just saying whoever killed her also murdered the English language."

Castle: "What a coincidence"

Beckett: "Hundred bucks on our side."


Favorite moments:

Everyone straining to look at the board because they're all in on the bet while Beckett is trying to figure out what's going on.

Beckett finally opening up about some of her feelings over her mother's death.... and how Castle managed to not say a word though you could tell it took an effort

Castle thinking that his mother was really attacking Alexis and dropping his keys all over. HA!


I know I had more, but I didn't keep notes so I can't remember them. Next episode.