i miss you all the time
Mar. 15th, 2007 12:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lobelia321Fly-by update:
1. The clouded leopard of Kalimantan
This is the first new carnivore species discovered in 100 years. As the man from the World Wildlife Fund said on Radio Four this morning: such things belong to history; we just don't expect to discover an entire new species of cat any longer. This beautiful leopard lives in what they call the Heart of Borneo, an area of rainforest (still) the size of the UK and there are (still) 5 to 10 thousand of them. Its tail looks a bit rat-like, unfortunately, but I'm not linking to the ratty-tail pic.
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ukcalico: Did you see its footprints??
2. Why I deleted football hotties from my desktop
Some of you have been wondering this. The very short summary of it is: t'son was excluded from his under-9s football club by a mean, nasty, middle-aged guy of a manager who is projecting his long-had-to-be-abandoned boyhood ambitions of becoming the next Pelé onto a bunch of nine-year-olds in a very local children's league and who thinks he's the José Mourinho of the under-9s. He wrote a rude email to us; he is unrepentant; it's basically a kind of class-war as well, and it rubbed my nose in all the horrible sides of football which I had been suppressing in favour of the drool and the World Cup euphoria.
At first, I used the handy expedient of 'bloody poms' to vent my ire. (This is the advantage of living as a foreigner in a foreign land; you get to blame all of life's short-comings on your host nation). But then my sister and other Germans informed me that it is just the same in the continental footballing world, and I had to remove C.Ronaldo et al from my desktop, leaving only the benign and actorishly-unmacho Brad Pitt.
T'son was very unhappy. We were in an agitated state. The situation has now been temporarily calmed. One day I may even watch a match again.
3. Am I unemployed?
No. For the moment, I don't seem to be facing imminent redundancy. You never know, though, with my institution so I must remain on my mettle and resist the temptation to become hauled into the everyday ins and outs of that place. This is difficult. It can only really be accomplished if something else occupies my brain. (I've been waking up at six every morning in an agitated state for weeks now.)
4. On Monday, I bought Chris Baty's book No Plot? No Problem! This is the man who invented NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. Now, I have stumbled across NaNoWriMo since I first joined the fanfic online world but it had never interested me and, indeed, puzzled me. Now I have learned the history of it, read the beginning of Baty's book, read most of the website, discovered that in my town there are no fewer than 88 NaNo participants, and now I am desperate to have a go but it's not until November!
I am a person who is buffetted by passing winds of passion and enthusiastic humours, both good and bad. So as soon as I read half-way through the book whose motto is 'What you need to write a novel is a deadline', I rared to go and immediately jumped in. So now I'm doing a sort of one-woman WriMo, but I've only been doing it for a day so it's all very 'passing winds' and 'buffetted'. However, I feel good!
Also, because the weather is nice. Mr Baty picked November for WriMo because the weather is bad but I am much more enthused into writing when the sun is shining and the air is warm.
Also, argh: creative workshops at the end of April! I signed up for three in my zeal for a literary festival in my town of abode, plus three readings and events, andsheldrake is actually going to one of the workshops as well, so we can be a miniature collective writing pack for 2 1/2 hours.
5. Everything else is too boring to write about. It just keeps me awake at six a.m.
How are you all?? I hope you're all well!! I've had glimpses of some of you but not near enough! :-) :-) :-)
1. The clouded leopard of Kalimantan
This is the first new carnivore species discovered in 100 years. As the man from the World Wildlife Fund said on Radio Four this morning: such things belong to history; we just don't expect to discover an entire new species of cat any longer. This beautiful leopard lives in what they call the Heart of Borneo, an area of rainforest (still) the size of the UK and there are (still) 5 to 10 thousand of them. Its tail looks a bit rat-like, unfortunately, but I'm not linking to the ratty-tail pic.
ukcalico: Did you see its footprints??2. Why I deleted football hotties from my desktop
Some of you have been wondering this. The very short summary of it is: t'son was excluded from his under-9s football club by a mean, nasty, middle-aged guy of a manager who is projecting his long-had-to-be-abandoned boyhood ambitions of becoming the next Pelé onto a bunch of nine-year-olds in a very local children's league and who thinks he's the José Mourinho of the under-9s. He wrote a rude email to us; he is unrepentant; it's basically a kind of class-war as well, and it rubbed my nose in all the horrible sides of football which I had been suppressing in favour of the drool and the World Cup euphoria.
At first, I used the handy expedient of 'bloody poms' to vent my ire. (This is the advantage of living as a foreigner in a foreign land; you get to blame all of life's short-comings on your host nation). But then my sister and other Germans informed me that it is just the same in the continental footballing world, and I had to remove C.Ronaldo et al from my desktop, leaving only the benign and actorishly-unmacho Brad Pitt.
T'son was very unhappy. We were in an agitated state. The situation has now been temporarily calmed. One day I may even watch a match again.
3. Am I unemployed?
No. For the moment, I don't seem to be facing imminent redundancy. You never know, though, with my institution so I must remain on my mettle and resist the temptation to become hauled into the everyday ins and outs of that place. This is difficult. It can only really be accomplished if something else occupies my brain. (I've been waking up at six every morning in an agitated state for weeks now.)
4. On Monday, I bought Chris Baty's book No Plot? No Problem! This is the man who invented NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. Now, I have stumbled across NaNoWriMo since I first joined the fanfic online world but it had never interested me and, indeed, puzzled me. Now I have learned the history of it, read the beginning of Baty's book, read most of the website, discovered that in my town there are no fewer than 88 NaNo participants, and now I am desperate to have a go but it's not until November!
I am a person who is buffetted by passing winds of passion and enthusiastic humours, both good and bad. So as soon as I read half-way through the book whose motto is 'What you need to write a novel is a deadline', I rared to go and immediately jumped in. So now I'm doing a sort of one-woman WriMo, but I've only been doing it for a day so it's all very 'passing winds' and 'buffetted'. However, I feel good!
Also, because the weather is nice. Mr Baty picked November for WriMo because the weather is bad but I am much more enthused into writing when the sun is shining and the air is warm.
Also, argh: creative workshops at the end of April! I signed up for three in my zeal for a literary festival in my town of abode, plus three readings and events, and
sheldrake is actually going to one of the workshops as well, so we can be a miniature collective writing pack for 2 1/2 hours.5. Everything else is too boring to write about. It just keeps me awake at six a.m.
How are you all?? I hope you're all well!! I've had glimpses of some of you but not near enough! :-) :-) :-)
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-15 02:33 pm (UTC)And Ha! NaNo! I tried it for the first time this year and didn't make it past 5000 words, lol. My inner editor kicked in full force and I just couldn't keep writing no matter. A lovely friend has given me the "No plot? No problem : a novel writing kit', though, so I can't wait to try again. :-) (I haven't read the book, by the way, but the kit is fun)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-15 06:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-24 11:01 pm (UTC)- 48-page booklet with inspiration, instructions, activities and anecdotes.
- daily noveling briefs--perfectly sized recommended allowances of writing advice and activities for every day of the noveling month
- monthlong, guided, displayable log with gold star decals for keeping daily and weekly track of your progress
- motivational materials, pep-talking letters and commitment coupons designed to keep your energy up and word-count flowing
- the radiant badge of the Triumphant Wordsmith--at month's (and novel's) end, wear it proudly and announce your authoring victory to the world.
And thanks about the icon! It's from a pic I took of some of my fave books, and the books I was reading at the time, almost exactly a year ago, lol.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-25 09:25 pm (UTC)The nano pack sounds absolutely fab and a must-have item. I am getting it for November for sure. Are you going to participate in November, then??? I'm dead on target with my own personal novel writing month, *g*, but still: it would be nice to have gold star stickers, heh.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-25 09:26 pm (UTC)And yep, I'm definitely going to try again. Hopefully, I'll get further than I did this year, which really wasn't very far, lol.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-15 02:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-15 06:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-15 08:36 pm (UTC)2. NaNoWriMo book sounds good.
3. If nothing else, NaNo is excellent for getting you to churn out stuff, which is exactly what I'm worst at. And once you have stuff, you have something to work on. It made me write 20,500 words of bad novel, which I count as a great achievement, plus it taught me lots about why novels ought to be planned, and gave me material which I was eventually able to turn into a sort of reasonable short story. I donated to NaNo last year, because I'd got such a lot out of it, and they do good works with kids and that.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-15 11:00 pm (UTC)Sometimes I feel I am getting a little unstrung...
I felt like donating immediately and on the spot but I thought maybe I'll wait till my first participation. I am very keen for November to roll by now!
Also, what you say is interesting: that even if you don't 'win', you do, actually, still 'win'. Hah, so it's the proverbial win-win. (Argh.)
Well, I'm writing 'my novel'. I'm actually writing orig. *stares at self*
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-16 06:09 am (UTC)And that leopard is lovely- just look at his little tongue sticking out. Kitty and doggie tongues are one of my favorite things!
Argh! about your son and footballing. I hate it when adults ruin sports for the kids, and unfortunately, it happens so often.
You're all writerly again- I love it!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-18 10:39 pm (UTC)You're all writerly again- I love it! you are such a sweetie!!!!!!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-17 05:52 am (UTC)Yay for writing! I'm going in fits and spurts these days, waiting on betas now for one thing.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-18 10:38 pm (UTC)Ah, Silver, you keep the old flame burning! :-)