I love this bar...

Learned another advanced dance yesterday. Kicked ass, too.

I thought of whiskeygirl8, because it was a choreography composed for a Toby Keith song, "I Love This Bar."

I'll have to show it to her when I visit Oklahoma, or when she comes here to visit, whichever comes first. :) It's a couples dance, mind you, so I'll have to learn both parts, depending on whether she's a leader or a follower. Me, I follow best when dancing, but I figure I could probably learn the leader part without too much difficulty, given practice.

That's all for now, I think.

Happy Trails!

Trying to put luck on my side this time (NaNoWriMo)

Obligatory disclaimer:

Yes, I know a whole bunch of you heartily dislike NaNoWriMo, and the last thing you want is to hear me go on and on about it in here. However, you are going to be sorely disappointed. This year I'm going to give it another go, and hopefully have a little more success than usual. I'm also probably going to write about it in my LJ. Frequency of posts may vary greatly.

For those of you who don't want to read about NaNo, I will helpfully put (NaNoWriMo) in my post subject lines when I choose to write about it, or do something more than mention it in passing. That is all I'm prepared to do. I had a filter for NaNo before, but I've grown to dislike filters, and avoid them when I can. Also, I've developed an intolerant streak about other people whining about my journal content, not that that's happened in a very long time. So, feel free to skip these posts if'n you're so inclined: I've made it relatively easy.

/End disclaimer, and on to the fun part of the post!


As I mentioned, I'm giving this another go. Contrary to the last two times I've tried NaNo, I actually have the semblance of an idea in the back of my mind. I have no plot, but I have an idea, and a visual to go with it. Also, I have a genre. I am leagues ahead of where I was last year. :)

That being said, there will be no shilly-shallying this October. I plan to actually do some research and maybe even try to refine my idea into something resembling a plot. Plots are good. They can be changed if necessary, but having one to begin with is a good idea, at least for me. I used to pride myself on being a seat-of-the-pants writer, but the longer stuff I wrote when I was younger never held together properly, and the short stories I wrote were, well, short enough that I could write without a plot, the structure already being apparent in my head.

So, I am going to invest in industrial quantities of tea, look at November in such a way that I can still do most of the things I like to do, including NaNo, without losing too much sleep or my mind (which happened in 2003). Sadly, I learned the hard way in university (and after university, come to think of it) that I can't fuck with my sanity with impunity: I have to handle it reasonably carefully, and use what little common sense I have. That means getting enough sleep in spite of wordcount, eating as well as I can, and not stressing myself out if I don't meet my own arbitrarily-set expectations.

So, once again I will be NaNo-ing, but if I don't reach 50,000 words I won't beat myself up about it. I will have fun writing as much of this new novel as I can, and that'll be that.

Write on!

Random 24 thoughts

Finally managed to get my computer to talk to the 24 DVDs that t! lent me.

After hour 4 (I think): "Yay! Beautiful-eyed Nina is back!"

After hour 6: "Oh my God, is Kim ever stupid!"

After hour 8: "Oh, Sherry, say it ain't so!"


Poor Mason. His life really is craptacular. I did predict that he'd be feeling pretty damned put-upon this season, and I was right.

Poor Paula. That's all I have to say on that score.

I can't decide whether Kim is incredibly stupid and incredibly lucky, or incredibly resourceful and incredibly unlucky. Ever notice how her decisions end up with a lot of people getting hurt? Especially this time around.

Palmer needs to decide whether he wants to be a hard-ass or give people second chances. He can't do both successfully. I love his Chief of Staff. Another one who has reason to feel put-upon, though less than Mason.

The blond girls still annoy me beyond reason, although at least now they're more distinguishable one from the other. Chief lesson to be learned: playing the victim makes it easy to manipulate people.

That's all I have for now. More thoughts later.

NOT cool

Dear Author,

You may be the cat's pajamas, but putting an automatic video feed on the main page of your website is NOT cool. Some of us are at work, and do not want audio to suddenly start blaring from our computers at inopportune times. Others among us are still on dial-up, and you are fubarring our connections.

Seriously. Put a link to it if you must, but allow your readers the choice of whether or not they want to watch your little video.

No love,

A visitor to your website