The good news is, after writing 9400 words this weekend my NanoWriMo project is back on track. The bad news is, after writing 9400 words this weekend, I am wrecked. Absolutely wrecked.
Just replace the word "September" in this song with the word "November", and you'll have a clue as to my mental state at the moment.
Don't get me wrong: after falling so far behind, I'm really glad to have caught up, and after this weekend there's no way in the world I'm not going to finish this thing, but PLEASE COULD SOMEBODY MAKE IT STOP?
Sunday, 21 November 2010
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry
Sorry.
It is Wednesday, which means there is ANOTHER Apprentice episode on tonight, and I still haven't done a round-up of last week's yet. And that was the round-up which was going to start with a quick mini-round-up of the week before, because I didn't manage to do that one either. On the round-up front, I'm failing miserably, is what I'm basically saying.
Sorry.
Speaking of failing miserably, see that little NaNoWriMo progress bar over on the right? We are over half way through November. Is 23,000 words more than half of 50, 000? No it is not. No matter how bad you are at maths.
*Sigh*
It is Wednesday, which means there is ANOTHER Apprentice episode on tonight, and I still haven't done a round-up of last week's yet. And that was the round-up which was going to start with a quick mini-round-up of the week before, because I didn't manage to do that one either. On the round-up front, I'm failing miserably, is what I'm basically saying.
Sorry.
Speaking of failing miserably, see that little NaNoWriMo progress bar over on the right? We are over half way through November. Is 23,000 words more than half of 50, 000? No it is not. No matter how bad you are at maths.
*Sigh*
Sunday, 14 November 2010
Sunday Night Music Club
The link is tenuous, but bear with me.
I've just come home from a lovely long lunch at Artisan and Vine, one of my favourite places,in the world. It's my birthday tomorrow, and lunch was the culmination of an excellent weekend of birthday celebrations with various friends, most (all) of which involved quite a lot of wine and all of which were a lot of fun.
A friend gave me some cheese as a birthday present. Not just any cheese; it's the cheese made by Alex James from out of Blur. One reason I like Artisan and Vine so much is it's the kind of place where, when my friend said "it's her birthday and she's just been given some special cheese; would you mind if we had some bread so we can all try it?" the waiter didn't even bat an eyelid.
The cheese was ace, lunch was ace, my other presents were all ace, the whole weekend has been ace. It's been the best birthday I've had in years, and IT'S STILL NOT EVEN MY ACTUAL BIRTHDAY YET. I have some seriously excellent friends.
All this means that picking a song tonight was tricky, becuase I wanted to mark the occasion in some way. I nearly picked a "getting older" song, and then I nearly picked a Blur song and then I nearly picked an "all my friends are absolutely ACE" song and then I looked up Alex James on Wikipedia and discovered he has a son called Gallileo and then I remembered this:
I've just come home from a lovely long lunch at Artisan and Vine, one of my favourite places,in the world. It's my birthday tomorrow, and lunch was the culmination of an excellent weekend of birthday celebrations with various friends, most (all) of which involved quite a lot of wine and all of which were a lot of fun.
A friend gave me some cheese as a birthday present. Not just any cheese; it's the cheese made by Alex James from out of Blur. One reason I like Artisan and Vine so much is it's the kind of place where, when my friend said "it's her birthday and she's just been given some special cheese; would you mind if we had some bread so we can all try it?" the waiter didn't even bat an eyelid.
The cheese was ace, lunch was ace, my other presents were all ace, the whole weekend has been ace. It's been the best birthday I've had in years, and IT'S STILL NOT EVEN MY ACTUAL BIRTHDAY YET. I have some seriously excellent friends.
All this means that picking a song tonight was tricky, becuase I wanted to mark the occasion in some way. I nearly picked a "getting older" song, and then I nearly picked a Blur song and then I nearly picked an "all my friends are absolutely ACE" song and then I looked up Alex James on Wikipedia and discovered he has a son called Gallileo and then I remembered this:
Saturday, 13 November 2010
It's only words.....
And to quote The Bee Gees/Boyzone (delete as applicable, depending on your age), they are all I have. About 18,000 of them, to be exact, which means I still have to find another 32,000 before the end of November.
I've also beeen loaned an excellent book of unusual words, which I've been dipping into and which is full of all sorts of interesting bits. For instance:
When you're looking at a map or navigtional chart and see little pointy marks indicating dangerous rocks, those are called vigias. The marks, I mean, not the rocks. Those are just called rocks. It comes from the Latin vigilia which means "keeping watch" and is where we get words like vigil, vigilance, vigilante etc. (Which reminds me, I haven't been to see what the Vigilant Citizen has been up to lately. I need to rectify this.)*
A mangonel (say it out loud; if there is any word that rolls off the tounge quite as nicely as this one does, I'd be surprised) is a contraption involving pullys and wheels and designed to throw large items - boulders, javelins, etc - during battles.
Pilgarlic is an old-fashioned word for being bald; it literally comes from the phrase "peeled garlic".
*I have just checked; there is an advertisment on his website which says:
TOP SECRET - How to make electricity at home. Discover what the electricity company has been hiding!
I'm glad he's been using his time wisely.
I've also beeen loaned an excellent book of unusual words, which I've been dipping into and which is full of all sorts of interesting bits. For instance:
When you're looking at a map or navigtional chart and see little pointy marks indicating dangerous rocks, those are called vigias. The marks, I mean, not the rocks. Those are just called rocks. It comes from the Latin vigilia which means "keeping watch" and is where we get words like vigil, vigilance, vigilante etc. (Which reminds me, I haven't been to see what the Vigilant Citizen has been up to lately. I need to rectify this.)*
A mangonel (say it out loud; if there is any word that rolls off the tounge quite as nicely as this one does, I'd be surprised) is a contraption involving pullys and wheels and designed to throw large items - boulders, javelins, etc - during battles.
Pilgarlic is an old-fashioned word for being bald; it literally comes from the phrase "peeled garlic".
*I have just checked; there is an advertisment on his website which says:
TOP SECRET - How to make electricity at home. Discover what the electricity company has been hiding!
I'm glad he's been using his time wisely.
Sunday, 7 November 2010
Sunday Night Music Club -the early edition
I'm going out for dinner later, so thought I'd slip this one in early.
Why this song now? Well, I'm listening almost exclusively to music which would have been around in Autumn 2002 at the moment, because that's when the story I'm writing is set. Basically it came down to a choice between this, Westlife and Liberty X.
You're welcome. Besides, it has that sort of melancholy Sunday night feel to it, don't you think?
Hard-core Stereophonics fans will tell you that this song was actually relased earlier than 2002 and they'd be quite right. But then I did say I'm listening to music which was *around* in Autumn 2002, and since that's when the second series of The Office was broadcast, and that series used a version (not this one) of Handbags and Gladrags as its theme-song, it was EVERYWHERE in Autumn 2002. Remember?
Why this song now? Well, I'm listening almost exclusively to music which would have been around in Autumn 2002 at the moment, because that's when the story I'm writing is set. Basically it came down to a choice between this, Westlife and Liberty X.
You're welcome. Besides, it has that sort of melancholy Sunday night feel to it, don't you think?
Hard-core Stereophonics fans will tell you that this song was actually relased earlier than 2002 and they'd be quite right. But then I did say I'm listening to music which was *around* in Autumn 2002, and since that's when the second series of The Office was broadcast, and that series used a version (not this one) of Handbags and Gladrags as its theme-song, it was EVERYWHERE in Autumn 2002. Remember?
Saturday, 6 November 2010
Test your powers of observation here
You may have already noticed; I've written 11 764 words this week. (If you hadn't already noticed, let me gently guide your eyes downwards and to the right slightly. And if you're still none the wiser about what this whole NaNoWriMo malarky is all about, let me gently point you over here.) Yay me.
You may also have noticed, not many of those words have been ones I've written here. And having raised your expectations last week with with my oh-so-prompt Apprentice round-up, I've let them come crashing down again by not even managing to get one of those written this week. I feel bad.
Yes, I'm afraid there's a steadily growing pile of tumbleweed just on the other side of this blog. Sorry about that. But you didn't really expect me to write 50,000 words of a novel AND keep up with posts this month, did you? There are loads of things I *want* to blog about, including (in no particular order) that Apprentice round-up, a review of a brilliant book I read a few weeks ago, and my reaction to the NaNoWriMo backlash which rippled through the publishing industry this week. Also the lady I saw today at Royal Festival Hall, wearing a gold, skin tight leopard skin jumpsuit and blue stilettos and hula-hooping. So it's not that I'm short of ideas. Just short of time.
Normal service should resume in early December I hope; in the meantime I'll do my best to get a couple of short posts up during the week. Also in the meantime, here's something silly.* But quite brilliant.
*Bonus related fact (which might make more sense after you watch the clip): It's my birthday soon. Just saying.
You may also have noticed, not many of those words have been ones I've written here. And having raised your expectations last week with with my oh-so-prompt Apprentice round-up, I've let them come crashing down again by not even managing to get one of those written this week. I feel bad.
Yes, I'm afraid there's a steadily growing pile of tumbleweed just on the other side of this blog. Sorry about that. But you didn't really expect me to write 50,000 words of a novel AND keep up with posts this month, did you? There are loads of things I *want* to blog about, including (in no particular order) that Apprentice round-up, a review of a brilliant book I read a few weeks ago, and my reaction to the NaNoWriMo backlash which rippled through the publishing industry this week. Also the lady I saw today at Royal Festival Hall, wearing a gold, skin tight leopard skin jumpsuit and blue stilettos and hula-hooping. So it's not that I'm short of ideas. Just short of time.
Normal service should resume in early December I hope; in the meantime I'll do my best to get a couple of short posts up during the week. Also in the meantime, here's something silly.* But quite brilliant.
*Bonus related fact (which might make more sense after you watch the clip): It's my birthday soon. Just saying.
Monday, 1 November 2010
Pots, Kettles, and a case of mistaken identity
Just now on University Challenge, Jeremy Paxman told off one of the contestants: "you know, there's no need to be so disdainful, just because you think the questions are too easy". Quite right, Jeremy. That's your job.
This wasn't even the best moment of television brilliance I witnessed today. Earlier this afternoon, Iwas watching had on in the background and barely noticed becuase I was SO BUSY WORKING a quiz show called Pointless. It's hosted by Alexander Armstrong and involves contestants trying to come up with answers to questions which are correct but which no one else will think of. (I have not sold it well; it's actually a very clever concept and deserves better than the daytime slot it has been given, in my humble opinion.) Anyway, these two women had to name people who had been on the celebrity version of the Apprentice. After much conferring, they came up with Abi Titchmarch.
Alexander Armstrong did an admirable job of acting as if they had given a perfectly sensible answer; but then the ladies realised they had made a mistake. "No, wait, who do we mean?" one of them said. "We've got that wrong. Abi Titmuss. TITMUSS."
"Yes, I think you probably did mean Abi Titmus" said Alexander Armstrong, trying not to explode into fits of giggles. Erm, let's check to see how many of the people we surveyed said Abi Titchmarch, which is what you said, and so the answer I have to take. Not surprisingly, the answer was zero. Which is normally a good thing on this program, but only if the answer is actually correct, which of course it wasn't.
This wasn't even the best moment of television brilliance I witnessed today. Earlier this afternoon, I
Alexander Armstrong did an admirable job of acting as if they had given a perfectly sensible answer; but then the ladies realised they had made a mistake. "No, wait, who do we mean?" one of them said. "We've got that wrong. Abi Titmuss. TITMUSS."
"Yes, I think you probably did mean Abi Titmus" said Alexander Armstrong, trying not to explode into fits of giggles. Erm, let's check to see how many of the people we surveyed said Abi Titchmarch, which is what you said, and so the answer I have to take. Not surprisingly, the answer was zero. Which is normally a good thing on this program, but only if the answer is actually correct, which of course it wasn't.
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