35 minutes to NaNo!!!

I just finished playing FIFA! 2-0 win over Red Bull. I'm feeling good. I was debating whether to stay up to get a few hundred words in before I retire tonight. Now, that I'm up this late...might as well, right?

I'm getting nervous. I should have went to bed early, like La, to be 100% in the morning. But it going to feel badass to be typing at midnight with the rest of the West Coasters. The morning is going to be rough. I'll want to sleep in, but have NaNo on my mind. Also my competitive spirit will kick in. Knowing that La CAN wake up early to start writing, will motivate me to get up when she does.

I will finish 50k words this year.

My goal for the first week is 1800 words per day. That's only 133 more words than the daily average. But by the end of week one, I'll be a little less than 1000 words over average. No fuck it. Let's go for broke on the first week. 2000 words per day. That'll leave me at 14,000 by the end of week 1. A good 2331 cushion to slack off here and there. Man oh man...this is going to be tough. Wish me luck, folks.

And...if you hear any funny quotes, see interesting people, or hear any great stories, let me know. I need as many ideas as I can get. And away weeeeeee goooooooo...

Potato-looking Cheese

For those who know me, two of my weaknesses are cheese and french fries. So you can understand unbridled joy when my coworker brought me a Nicaraguan cheese called Cuajada.
When I was looking for it in the fridge, all I found was a ziplock bag with this flat potato.

I opened the bag and knew instantly that this was going to be the best part of my day. This bad boy is smoked out more than most of the kids I see during the day. It has a spongy texture like fried tofu and is salty like a day at the beach.

I cut a few pieces of this unpasteurized goodness and ate it straight, at the disapproval of the Nicaragüense. "You're supposed to eat it with something. Beans or rice or anything." Now, I know why. But I'll let the unicorn tell you why.

Just write and press "Send"

I know...I said I'd be blogging more. I had this great idea for an entry this morning, but it somehow escaped me on the drive over to work.

I'm typing this entry on my Neo Alphasmart to get into the practice of using this machine during NaNo. I'm getting more and more excited as the day comes closer. Lara got her grandfather to join in this year! Anyone out there want to join in with me? It's a painfully wonderful experience that I highly recommend.

I underestimated the difficulty in writing blog entries that steer clear from diary-ish (eww) or journal-y tones. My inclination is to always report what has been going on in my life, first, then see what comes up after that. I want to go the other way, then stop before I get to the life reporting. Yet, that's what blogs hove become. Or at least what most people expect. Blogs have replaced handwritten letters and even emails sent to an individual person. It's a way to keep in touch with a lot of people with minimal effort. That isn't a bad thing, just a shift in communication. It's even gotten extreme with micro-blogging (to which I am proudly a member) thanks to Twitter and Facebook status updates.

But then what's left to pique the interests of you, the reader? Blogging has always been a self-centered act. I write all of this for me, me, me. Having an audience is a perk, so I guess I should keep them in mind. So there it was...another boring stream-of-consciousness entry that helps clear the tubes of bullshit from the system in preparation for some high speed writing in 11 days.

Where's that horse?

NaNoWriMo is coming in 27 days! Who's in with me? To get my creative juices flowing again, I've decided to get in as much writing as I can, in as many mediums as possible. The most consistent of my writings has been my tweets on Twitter, pretty much updating every day. I want to start writing more than the 140 characters but don't expect to be writing long narratives here.

I'm visualizing blogger as metaphorical push-ups one does first thing to start the day. Not necessarily to build muscle but more for maintenance and morale building. By the way, I haven't done a push-up since the first day I got Wii Fit. It wasn't pretty.

So keep your eye out on new posts. This time around, I'm going to try to keep them more like narrative commentaries, a little more memoir-ish, and a lot less journal-like. As you can see my descriptive abilities have gotten flabby. Lots of work to do.

Monday Jumpstart

I wanted to share some fun links with people, on this dreary Monday morning. I didn't want to take up Facebook space with 3 links. So here they are. Maybe this will be a weekly thing?

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She believes the key to relationships is "trust," whereas I've always felt the most important thing in a relationship is me.
-Dan Liebert on Relationships

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LIT 101 CLASS
IN THREE LINES
OR LESS.

BY BEN JOSEPH

- - - -

1984

WINSTON: Don't tell the Party, but sex is way better than totalitarianism.

EVERYONE: Surprise! We're the Party.

WINSTON: Oh, rats.

The Lion, the Witch
and the Wardrobe

C.S. LEWIS: Finally, a utopia ruled by children and populated by talking animals.

THE WITCH: Hi, I'm a sexually mature woman of power and confidence.

C.S. LEWIS: Ah! Kill it, lion Jesus!

Paradise Lost

ADAM: Paradise has arbitrary dietary restrictions?

DEVIL: They're really more like guidelines.

GOD: Incorrect.

Moby-Dick

ISHMAEL: I'm existential.

AHAB: Really? Try vengeance.

ISHMAEL: I dig this dynamic. Can we drag it out for 600 pages?

The Great Gatsby

NICK: I love being rich and white.

GATSBY: Me, too, but I'd kill for the love of a woman.

DAISY: We can work with that.

Oliver Twist

OLIVER: Poverty ain't so bad, what with all the Cockney accents and charming musical interludes.

ME: Thanks to movies, no books were read in the passing of this class.

PROFESSOR WATERMAN: You're half right.

- from McSweeney's

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Taken at last week's A's game with the new phone

1282 17th Ave N minneapolis

Go to 1282 17th Ave N minneapolis on Google maps (or click the link). Go onto Street View. Interesting.

Researching for the best fit

http://www.dehp.net/candidate/ Respond to a short list of issues and it will tell you whose platform your views are closest. I like this site more than http://www.electoralcompass.com even though it doesn't look as pretty. The site is simplistic and should be considered only as a tool.

I'm in the process of researching whose policies I most agree. I usually keep my political views out of discussions because they have consistently led to arguments that many take personally, and end up with tense, awkward moments. I have seen political discussions even breaking up friendships. I'm tempted to share my views, here, but it's the same is true as it is in the real world. Maybe I'll share as the days come closer. But for now, I will remain shrouded in mystery.