it's NANO time!

it's November again and time for another month of NaNoWriMo! i had originally planned to work on the Harry story again. i'd even worked on character profiles and descriptions, site and layout information, etc. the weekend of oct 28-29 i was full prepared to continue with the pre-planning of that story. my friend jami had even given me "Ready, Set, Novel!", the new NaNo writer's workbook, as an early birthday gift to help get me going.

but then during that weekend i received an email and some tweets about memoir writing that got me really jazzed about returned to that genre. so, once again, i'll be working on my life story. i've done a prelim outline and made some chicken-scratching notes of things i want to be sure to include, memories of events that have been brought forward by some of my other writing. i dusted them off and cleared out the cobwebs. i even gathered up all my fabulous books about memoir writing and placed them right next to my desk so they're handy when i need to look something up or to get additional motivation.

and now i'm ready to put pen to paper, digitally-speaking.

i've been participating in NaNo since 2005, and only achieved the 50k mark once, in 2008. let's see what i can do this year. as always, if i make 50k it's icing on the cake. the important thing is that the whole NaNo project really pushes me to write, write, write. so however many words i manage to churn out is that many words more than if i don't participate at all. keep your fingers and toes crossed for me that i manage to sprint, or hurtle, or at least crawl across the finish line this year!

Steve Jobs RIP

Steve Jobs has been so much a part of our collective consciousness for so long that I think we all took it for granted that we would be able to continue ad infinitum to be entertained and fascinated with his seemingly endless ability to create new and advanced technological inventions. His death yesterday, October 5, 2011, has created a huge gaping hole in that consciousness.

the siren call of the library

ok, ok, i'll be the first to admit that i'm addicted to books. and that includes library books. about 4 years ago, in the middle of a project i was working on, i actually had 46 items checked out. 46!! normally i'll have a stack of 12-15 books at any given time. and don't ask me how i know it was 46, because then i'd have to explain my obsessive-compulsive, anal-retentive record keeping, and that's another topic for another day.

at the beginning of 2011, i decided to return everything and start all over again, so for a brief moment in time i actually had ZERO library books checked out. that brief moment in time lasted all of a millisecond, because i was also picking up several books from the "Hold" shelf.

yesterday i returned 7 books, which the library staff processed today. so now, for a whole day, a whole 24 hours, i only have 1 book checked out. i'm so proud of myself *grin*

tomorrow i will return to the library to pick up more "holds" and the vicious cycle will start anew.

why have 1 when you can have 3?

no, no, i'm not talking about candy or cookies, i'm talking blogs. not that i'm staying current with the one blog i already have, but ....

i just created two new blogs, which i'll add to the sidebar for easy reference. one is for my riley family posts and one will be for mo's art stuff, like journal pages and index cards.

that's my story and i'm sticking to it.

words to live by

today's post on Daisy Yellow really struck a chord with me. i need to push away from the keyboard and work on my art journal or my doodle camp journal or my index-card-a-day project or my camp nano writing project or my [fill in the blank] ....

i spend WAY too much time online, it's an addiction! now, how to break the ugly cycle?