Beginning Word Count: 48,246
I did not get to this yesterday. In fairness, there was a reason. Very busy at work, and last night was a once in a lifetime event -- the 50th Anniversary episode of Doctor Who simulcast across many theatres in 3D. Sorry, this Who Chick was not going to miss that! Unfortunately, the theatre in question was about 30 minutes from where we live -- so that was 30 minutes there and 30 minutes home. (In fairness, if we had not moved to Birmingham, that would have been one REALLY obnoxious road trip. So, we got home around 10:00, which is not ridiculously late, but as I'm not actually feeling well, it was more important to get some rest.
So, today I am writing my last blog piece.
I've learned a few things: most importantly, I do not care for blogging. It's always something I think I should do, that I think I should make time for. But, I really did not enjoy this challenge at all.
As far as what I've written this month, there are several pieces I am rather proud of.
I am happy with the pieces I wrote regarding religion and how it is being used as a weapon. I feel that each person does have a right to their religious beliefs, and that those beliefs should be respected -- as far only as the religious individual respects those outside of his beliefs. In other words, if every person practicing their faith would keep out of other people's business, that would be great. However, that is certainly not the standard. I am also rather proud of the piece explaining what I believe.
I am very proud of my creepy story about an encounter on the highway. It was inspired by a drive home from Montgomery one evening. While driving on the interstate, I kept seeing blobs of gray out of the corner of my eye as I was driving, and I imagined it might be interesting to write a story about this. So.... that is where it came from. I had initially planned on letting my main character out of the forest unscathed, and allowing her to go on about her life. But then I changed my mind. The fun thing is that shortly after I wrote this story, I read it to my husband, who had to drive to Montgomery and Prattville in the afternoon and drive home at night. He, too, saw the gray blobs. I had totally creeped him out with the little story. I find that quite humorous, but it also is kind of cool.
Writing down the story of how we met was kind of interesting. John knew the story from his perspective -- but not from mine. John read the story and saw it through my eyes for the very first time. He's a very sweet, very romantic, very sappy person. So he teared up while reading it. It was fun to watch him see how I saw him.
I wrote a Speed Racer fan fiction story, which was rather fun. It ended up being longer than I anticipated it would be, but I do like how it turned out.
I had a great deal of fun writing the report from our cats. Cats have such amazing personalities, and each of ours are very social. They also seem to have a great deal of responsibility which they have put upon themselves. The dynamics between the boys is fascinating to me, but they also almost certainly have voices of their own. Logan is rambunctious and playful, and just a little immature...but not mean or malicious. He is just young. Thames is a quite creature, who seems a little depressed, but is very affectionate. He's coming out of his shell and is a wonderful big brother. I think his depression was that he did not feel he was respected. He knows now that he is. Gus is our brave and intrepid leader. He is very serious, and very responsible. This cat is very diligent about protecting his family. Sam is a dignified cat. I always think of him as the type of cat who would wear a top coat, monocle and top hat.
I do like the imagery of my little piece - faces on the wind -- and in many ways it was an inspiration for the updated ending of my short story.
At the midpoint of the month, I finished the edit on my novel. To be honest, this is a true relief. I wrote a piece regarding that.
The Tarot Reading was interesting to me, and also the first full reading using that deck.
The piece I wrote about being a Military B.R.A. T. was very important to me, to explain something that, well honestly, unless you have lived it, it a bit difficult to understand. And there is a genuine feeling of anger with the military itself that I have, because of how the Military B.R.A.T. is treated.
And the final piece, a retelling of a story I wrote a while ago. I was surprised at how it turned out -- because I know this story very well. I know my story, my recasting of the Apollo and Daphne myth, extremely deeply -- it is a story I have always been very proud of. I am extremely happy with how this new version came out, and I suspect that editing with both in hand, it will improve the story completely and I cannot wait to see how it comes out.
So there have been a few interesting pieces, to me, throughout the month. There were a couple that I had thought about writing on. I had thought to write a piece at the mid point about the blog and how I felt it was going; however, at that point, it seemed a bit redundant to do it at both the mid point and write a farewell. So I scrapped that idea. I had thought about writing an ode to John of some kind on the occasion of his birthday. However, I did not feel up to writing one thousand six hundred and sixty seven words on the subject; I was sure it was going to fall flat.
Another topic I had thought about expounding on was the Smart Phone. I did not write it out, but my thoughts on the subject are pretty simple. The Smart Phone is the bane of human existance. It is convenient and is a wonderful tool. But we have allowed ourselves to turn it into an appendage. I include myself in this -- I am not innocent in this condemnation. The Smart Phone, with its ability to access information at a moment's notice, also provides constant access to social media and other frippery. We must be accessible to anyone who wants to talk to us 24 / 7 . I rather miss the days of going out to dinner, and spending time with the person I am at dinner with rather than with Facebook. I miss coming home to voice messages because someone wanted to speak to me and I was not available. We are so busy checking in and catching up and texting with every one except the person we are with. We go to events and record them, but do not enjoy them. We snap pictures of things and look at the world through the lenses of our cell phones.
I had also considered writing a comparison and contrast between movie and book representations. It is a very broad topic. I have a t-shirt that proudly proclaims "the book was better" and I have found that to be usually true. There are a couple of books that are exceptions to this rule, in my opinion (Shining Through and Three Musketeers). Now, one of my favorite vloggers (bandgeek8408) does a books versus movies review where he tackles them based on several categories - plot, character development, imagery, etc. Using a comparitive analysis, often the movie actually will beat the book; however, for a sheet enjoyment factor, I usually go for the book. I had not decided which book I wanted to do the comparative with the movie. There are a few that I have felt did as good of a job as reasonable. The one most recently that has annoyed me is The Hobbit.
I'm almost not sure that I want to see The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug. I was extremely disappointed in the first of the Hobbit movies, and I'm annoyed with Peter Jackson for it. Because he had done such a great job with The Lord of the Rings, it was almost assumed he would treat the source material with respect. Sure, he took a couple of liberties with The Lord of the Rings, but the story at its core was treated with respect. The same cannot be said about The Hobbit. Spoiler alert: If you've not seen the first of the Hobbit movies, just stop right here. The story of the Hobbit, as you might have guessed, is the story about a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins and his adventures with dwarves.
The movie started out innocently enough. There were deviations with how the dwarves were imagined -- but they were consistent with Gimli of "The Lord of the Rings", so I let that go. However, the arrival was wrong -- but that could be chalked up to cinematic time constraints -- except Jackson was taking one book and turning it into three movies, which makes 'time constraints' a non-excuse. Perhaps it was because the meeting of Bilbo and the dwarves was very comical in the book, and Jackson was going for serious. But still it is very irritating to see beloved scenes demolished. But we were given lovely music. But the problem I had that was most glaring was the appearance and prominant role given to Azog the Goblin. I think the worst scene translation was Fifteen Birds in Five Fir Trees. I just really am very disappointed in this sequence -- I'm not sure what book Peter Jackson is filming .... but it certainly is not the Hobbit!
So that's that. I wrote a blog for almost a month. The holidays are upon us. Tomorrow, my hubs and I are getting the place ready for Thanksgiving, which we will be hosting. He will be doing cleaning, and I'll be baking brownies, preparing a meatloaf, starting spaghetti sauce. I missed a couple of days, some from a sense of over stressing over it and malaise, and one from just being tired. But ultimately, for "stunt NaNo" it was not a total shambles. I hit my target far more frequently than fell flat. I wrote several pieces I am proud of and expressed a few things.
Still, I don't really feel like a regular blog is for me. I am impressed by people who manage to do it with frequency -- but I think they usually have a voice, something that they need to express -- like a particular life experienc that people share, or an interest, or an interesting point of view. Doing this, committing to this blog for NaNoWriMo, has shown me that this is not something I enjoy or am likely to do in the future.
Thank you for joining me on the Stained Glass Station Wagon.
Today's Word Count: 1,890
VALIDATED AND WINNING NANO WORD COUNT: 50,158
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