November 2002 Archives

The site move to the new server seems to have gone well. I've been tweaking things to get stuff back to normal and I'm mostly there. I messed up my home page slightly by using a backup copy that didn't have the NaNoWriMo logo on it, so I'll fix that when I get home. Other than that, I think everything else is nailed down. Woo! Hopefully I'll get back to blogging more often again.

Posted on November 5, 2002 2:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Well, my novel's coming along very slowly. I was pretty good about keeping up with my daily goal until I got sick on Monday. Since then, I've been pretty bad about staying with it. I'm up around 3700 words now when I should be at 10,000 or so. It's a bit of a relief to see others struggling just as much, though. It gives me some faith that I can recover. Or that we're all screwed.

This is actually probably the longest story I've ever written. I've always had a problem with length. There are usually a set amount of things I want to happen in a story and I have trouble filling in the rest of it, so the story ends up being 2 or 3 pages long. Even if I stopped now, it'd be something of an achievement.

But I won't. I'm sort of stuck at the moment because I'm going into a dialogue-heavy section and dialogue's always been my weak point. But I'll plod on. I think my difficulty with this task is that I keep trying to think it has to be good. But it just has to be done. It's not like anyone can write an exceptional novel in a month. I'm trying not to look back at what I've written so far too much, since I'm sure most of it will bug me. I only look back so I remember character's names, pretty much.

I may put what I've done so far up here at some point. Maybe.

Posted on November 7, 2002 9:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Hey all.

Last night, Sarah and I went to the Tori Amos concert at The Patriot Center. Not the best place in the world to see a concert, since the floor seats aren't staggered in any way, so it's hard to see over anyone taller than you, but it was still a pretty good place. The sound system got a little wonky sometimes, but it held together.

The opening act, Howie Day, was a little bizarre. He was actually rather good, but most of what he was doing was pre-recorded and he spent an awful lot of time playing effects pedals with his feet. It sounded great, but it felt weird to watch a guy up there just bobbin' his head, mouthing the words nowhere near the microphone, and jabbing at pedals with his foot half the time. What made it really amusing, though, was when a complicated guitar part would come on the pre-recorded bit and people would cheer. Crazy.

Tori was excellent, playing a good mix of old and new. She was accompanied by a drummer and a bass player, who were both good but I didn't really dig the bass too much. The player seemed talented, but I don't often dig the kind of bass that seems really low and muddy and just sort of thrums. I can't really describe it well, I guess. It seems to just exist to vibrate people and not make music. But anyhow... the show itself was great. But I had a hard time getting into it. Partly because I was really tired but partly because I was pissed.

And why was I pissed? Well... soon after the first song started, a bunch of people pretty much rushed the stage. Maybe rush isn't the right word, since they did it kinda slowly, but you know what I mean. The staff people just stood there and watched them do it.

Now, at every other show I've been to, the staff stops that kind of thing and says it's a fire hazard and all that. And, seriously, it's rude. I don't think I'm saying that just because I'm older now or anything. It's rude and it's unfair to the people who either paid a lot of money, stood in line, or just did whatever to get the front row seats. You can enjoy the show just as well from a little bit further back where the seats you paid for are. It really doesn't matter whether it's a free show or one like this that cost $40 a ticket. They ended up getting in a lot of people's way.

And what really disappointed me was, when the staff FINALLY got around to making the people sit again, Tori noticed (and it was actually nice of her to ask what was going on, showing concern for her fans) and launched into a subversive little song about it. People around me were actually cheering and yelling "Sit down!" to the people that were being forced to sit down, which made it even more absurd that she sang about it like that. I'm sure a lot of artists feel powerful up there and maybe they feel like they have to stick it to "the man" for not letting people do what they want to do. Really, I'm all for people doing what they want to enjoy a show, just as long as it doesn't ruin anyone else's time. It's disappointing for an artist to choose one set of fans over another.

I don't know for sure if this has just started happening in the past few years or if I just never noticed it before, but this plague of rudeness is horrible. Too many people seem to think that they're the most important person in the universe. I've seen it at movies, at plays, at concerts... everywhere. We were at a really small show a couple weeks back. It was almost over and these two people came and sat down near us and proceeded to have a loud conversation (they had to talk loud enough to hear each other over the music, see...) and they really didn't care when I made it pretty clear they were being annoying. What is WRONG with people?

Anyhow... enough ranting. It was a good show. But it made me even further behind with my novel. Ah well. I'll catch up somehow.

Posted on November 13, 2002 2:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It was 28 years ago today that I came to Earth, my children. Rejoice! My arrival marked the coming of a new age.

For me, at least.

Posted on November 14, 2002 1:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Just some quickies.

There's pretty much no way I'm going to be able to finish the novel. I'm only at a little over 10,000 words and there's not much time left and Thanksgiving will eat into that a great deal. I tried but I hit too many mental roadblocks and I just don't have the time. I don't get home from my Japanese class until around 10 on Mondays, which didn't help. Sarah, on the other hand, has over 30,000 words and I think she'll be able to make it if she keeps at it.

Only two more Japanese classes left. Then there's a bit of a break and the next class starts up if I decide to take it. I think I will. I'm enjoying it quite a bit.

My mom got me Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars for my birfday and I just love it. I'd heard most of the songs on there before, whether on the radio or on the Bowie at the Beeb collection, but it was nice to hear the whole album together. The remastering made it sound real nice, too.

Be excellent to each other.

Posted on November 19, 2002 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Well, it's that time of year again. Sarah and I will be heading up to Massachusetts to spend Thanksgiving with my family. We're leaving in a couple hours, since we're driving up. Sarah's still terrified of getting on a plane. She's having trouble making this fear and her desire to go to Europe mesh, though. But anyhow... e-mail and blogging will be spotty while I'm there. But I'll eat a turkey or two for you guys.

I've also pretty much given up on the hope of completing my novel by the end of the month. I'm at a little over 11,000 words and I'm just not going to make it. This was just too rough a month. Too much to do and too little time to do it in combined with feeling sick too often and feeling tired even more often. That and my natural tendency to hate everything I do kind of led to my downfall. I'm hoping I can still run with this and try to continue in December and see if I can overcome my creative inertia. So we'll see what happens. I hate to lose and miss a goal like this so outrageously, but I don't feel like there was much I could do.

Sarah's gonna make it, though. She's kept on target the whole time and I'm proud of her.

Anyhow... Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. If you're travelling, I hope you stay safe. If not, I still hope you stay safe. It'll probably just be a little bit easier.

Posted on November 26, 2002 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)