![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gurdonarkYesterday I received very nice mail art from nquisitiv1 and marstokyo. The former was a really neat artistic rendering of the lyrics of a New Order song, while marstokyo's was a really cool photo of her "Day of the Dead" teenytheater (those interested can find it, I believe at www.teenytheaters.com). Last night we rented Serendipity, the romantic comedy in which John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale try to find each other years (and two fiances) after a chance meeting, but my wife fell asleep after a half an hour or so, which was probably a reasonably wise reaction to the film.
Today our church's service was a Days of the Dead theme, and, as is often the case, the "children's sermon" part of the presentation, in which the holiday is broken up into little bite-sized chunks for juvenile consumption, was wiser than the thoughtful and wise "sermon" (or talk or message or what have you--I'm never very PC about my liturgical terms) on inherited tradition and dysfunction. I did like the part when the minister asked during the grown up sermon "Did anyone here come from a FUNCTIONAL family?", and no hands raised. I told my wife that I thought it was unique and novel to actually have a Days of the Dead themed service, but then she reminded me that our church in California had one a few years ago.
We headed over to Mimi's Cafe, where they have a special on pumpkin pancakes now, but the wait for a table was 30 minutes, and the pancake has not been pumpkined for which I will wait 30 minutes for a late breakfast. We therefore headed instead into the older part of town to the Allen Cafe, the wonderful breakfast and lunch neighborhood place located in an old Dairy Queen building. I had pancakes, scrambled eggs and sausage--it was heavenly. I noticed that one of the menu items was "Albanian Salad", which probably marked the first time I knew what the ingredients of "Albanian Salad" might be.
I roused myself from the Cowboys game on television to drive down into north Dallas to one of those Barnes & Nobles the size of a high school gymnasium for a meeting relating to nanowrimo.org. For those who have missed the enthusiasm brewing in this journal and in my friends' list folks' journals, National Novel Writing Month is the project in which participants try to write a 50,000 word novel from 11/1 through 11/30. Seven hardy souls, including myself, popped up at the bookstore for a "meet up" to discuss our as yet unwritten masterpieces. Everyone was really cool, if cool is the right word. I was really pleased that everyone had really fun ideas, and nobody seemed too into the "pretension" of being a novelist. I was so impressed by how many people had weblogs, did art, participated in nervousness.org and did extensive gaming or web-based things. I found myself to be remarkably chatty, rather in the way this journal can get wordy and chatty, but hopefully just shy of being a "chatty Cathy". I stayed over two hours, which is rather longer than any social outing I usually undertake among strangers. We all plan to try to meet up again on 11/10 to see how our drafts are coming.
I'm pretty energized about seeing how far I can get with this writing deal. I'm not really that "into" the word count, and I'll count the matter a success if I get 1200 words as well as if I get 50,000. Indeed, as we all discussed matters, it seemed to us that it would be cool to have start an alternative contest/website, National Short Short Writing Month, or Na-sh!sh!wrimo.rog. All of the creativity, none of the pressure. I still plan to just write a long bad poem about my defective little sci fi premise, and see where the stars take me. It'll be much easier writing poetry without having to put in all the artificial line breaks that usually haunt my verse.
Now I'm in my office trying to get a few things done to make an otherwise hectic Monday slightly less hectic. On Tuesday I must travel to Santa Rosa, so I've got much to do.
nquisitiv1 and marstokyo. The former was a really neat artistic rendering of the lyrics of a New Order song, while marstokyo's was a really cool photo of her "Day of the Dead" teenytheater (those interested can find it, I believe at www.teenytheaters.com). Last night we rented Serendipity, the romantic comedy in which John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale try to find each other years (and two fiances) after a chance meeting, but my wife fell asleep after a half an hour or so, which was probably a reasonably wise reaction to the film. Today our church's service was a Days of the Dead theme, and, as is often the case, the "children's sermon" part of the presentation, in which the holiday is broken up into little bite-sized chunks for juvenile consumption, was wiser than the thoughtful and wise "sermon" (or talk or message or what have you--I'm never very PC about my liturgical terms) on inherited tradition and dysfunction. I did like the part when the minister asked during the grown up sermon "Did anyone here come from a FUNCTIONAL family?", and no hands raised. I told my wife that I thought it was unique and novel to actually have a Days of the Dead themed service, but then she reminded me that our church in California had one a few years ago.
We headed over to Mimi's Cafe, where they have a special on pumpkin pancakes now, but the wait for a table was 30 minutes, and the pancake has not been pumpkined for which I will wait 30 minutes for a late breakfast. We therefore headed instead into the older part of town to the Allen Cafe, the wonderful breakfast and lunch neighborhood place located in an old Dairy Queen building. I had pancakes, scrambled eggs and sausage--it was heavenly. I noticed that one of the menu items was "Albanian Salad", which probably marked the first time I knew what the ingredients of "Albanian Salad" might be.
I roused myself from the Cowboys game on television to drive down into north Dallas to one of those Barnes & Nobles the size of a high school gymnasium for a meeting relating to nanowrimo.org. For those who have missed the enthusiasm brewing in this journal and in my friends' list folks' journals, National Novel Writing Month is the project in which participants try to write a 50,000 word novel from 11/1 through 11/30. Seven hardy souls, including myself, popped up at the bookstore for a "meet up" to discuss our as yet unwritten masterpieces. Everyone was really cool, if cool is the right word. I was really pleased that everyone had really fun ideas, and nobody seemed too into the "pretension" of being a novelist. I was so impressed by how many people had weblogs, did art, participated in nervousness.org and did extensive gaming or web-based things. I found myself to be remarkably chatty, rather in the way this journal can get wordy and chatty, but hopefully just shy of being a "chatty Cathy". I stayed over two hours, which is rather longer than any social outing I usually undertake among strangers. We all plan to try to meet up again on 11/10 to see how our drafts are coming.
I'm pretty energized about seeing how far I can get with this writing deal. I'm not really that "into" the word count, and I'll count the matter a success if I get 1200 words as well as if I get 50,000. Indeed, as we all discussed matters, it seemed to us that it would be cool to have start an alternative contest/website, National Short Short Writing Month, or Na-sh!sh!wrimo.rog. All of the creativity, none of the pressure. I still plan to just write a long bad poem about my defective little sci fi premise, and see where the stars take me. It'll be much easier writing poetry without having to put in all the artificial line breaks that usually haunt my verse.
Now I'm in my office trying to get a few things done to make an otherwise hectic Monday slightly less hectic. On Tuesday I must travel to Santa Rosa, so I've got much to do.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2002-10-27 08:12 pm (UTC)i do like the alternative short short project
right down my alley that one is
tho' i'm still interested in seeing what becomes of your novella task
i don't wait 30 minutes for any kind of food
no subject
Date: 2002-10-28 04:15 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2002-10-28 09:06 am (UTC)like Annie Lamotts bird by bird
no subject
Date: 2002-10-28 09:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-10-28 06:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-10-28 06:06 pm (UTC)