2 Wins & A Fail*

Since disappearing for (almost) the entire month of November for NaNoWriMo, tons of things have happened.    I'll have to use a few blog posts to explore all of them, but the biggest is that Annie and I are leaving downtown Oakland, CA, and moving to the not-so-bustling college town of Lexington, KY.  Annie's job is transferring her there for a temporary assignment, and aside from Zumba, I've got nothing that I'm attached to in CA.  In fact, I'm super excited to not live in CA.  Yes, that means that I have to return to the ranks of unemployed until I find something there (but at least it's dramatically cheaper to live, and Annie will be making more $$).  This brings me to the wins and fails.

Win:  I found a job that I can do from home that pays better than my work at the wind power plant.  (Thanks, Jill!)  It involves editing online homework/tutorials for engineering textbooks.  Currently, I'm working my way through Alexander's unreleased 5th edition of Fundamentals of Electric Circuits.  I'm pretty much being paid to do engineering homework, and it couldn't be a more perfect job for me.  It will also allow me to bring in a little bit of income during the transition so that I'm not 100% relying on my sugar momma.

Fail:  For the first 10 days of November, I was on track with NaNoWriMo.  I wrote over 20,000 words, covering 40% of the competition's goal.  At one point I told Annie that "it's writing itself".  It had direction, and I was piecing together a fictional story that was feeling very new and interesting.  It wasn't perfect, since it was practically a continuous word dump, but I was enjoying it, and I was going to win.  Then, I found the job above where I could make money from home.  I had to start a few days a week, immediately, and my novel took a back seat.  Here we are at the end of November, and I haven't written a single thing after the first 12 days or so.

Win:  Pentatonix won The Sing Off last night, and they deserved it!  Unrelated to me, yes, but relevant.

Pentatonix: 5-member a capella group from Arlington, TX.

At the beginning of the season, I posted how Delilah blew my mind.  That was the last time that they impressed me.  *Lied, ♪ Dream On ♪ was bomb ass.*  I'm still madly in love with Amy, the girl who sang the lead in ♫ Grenade ♫, *and I just found out she's Mormon*.  In the background of the first few weeks, Pentatonix continued to impress more and more.  At a disadvantage compared to groups with tons of people for big harmonies, their futuristic a capella sound was original and consistent each week.  I found myself watching their youtube videos over and over again.  Here are some of my faves:

I was posting individual videos when I came across that one with most of their best performances.  ♫ Video Killed the Radio Star ♫ was their best performance of the season.  I find myself randomly singing the chorus of ♫ Love Lockdown ♫ now.  Best Youtube comment:  "I heard Kanye covered this song."

Most true Youtube comment:  "That's one bad white boy..."

This is only on the list for the ♫ Motownphilly ♫ riff.

Just like The Voice, it's really refreshing for the best talent to actually win.  Thank you for ruining that concept for half of a decade, American Idol & the Bible Belt.  Granted, The Sing Off episodes are an hour too long, but I didn't listen to a single intro or any of the judges comments, so I got all of the episodes down to about 20 minutes.

I'll be doing a 12 Days of Xmas Music Videos, so start tuning back into the blog every day starting December 1st,
~RoB

NaNoWriMo & Recent Books

I'm a lover and avid reader of Fantasy Fiction.  Something about magic really does it for me.  I think part of it has to do with breaking the rules of physics that have been ingrained in me since high school.  Another part is just how unlike this world the stories end up becoming.  It's a little mind vacation for one who used to be so imaginative (I'm referring to me, ask my childhood collection of stuffed animals).  It's an Aquarius thing, I've heard.  But I've also heard I'm not an Aquarius anymore.

Anyway, I've been getting back into reading since leaving UCLA.  And my priorities are the opposite of non-fiction.

Last week I finished The Wise Man's Fear:  Day 2 of the Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss.

This is the second book in Rothfuss' new series.  It's fun, in a kind of continuously-sidetracked fashion.  At the end of two 1000-page books, I don't feel like we've gotten very far.  You're stuck wondering if this person really is who he says he is ('cuz every time they take a break from telling the story, he looks less and less like the person he talks about).  All you want him to do is tap into all of the power that he claims to have (like Taborlin the Great) and start whipping the shit out of people.  At least I'm totally fascinated by Elodin.  He's such an interesting character.  If this kid's story isn't done by the end of the 3rd day (as we were initially promised), I'm not sure I'll read many more.

Last night I finished Storm Front:  Book One of The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher.

This was a ridiculously fast read.  It wasn't very deep.  It was just a fun story combining an openly practicing wizard (who typically helps with crime investigations and finding lost things) with the real world.  Not great literary value, but it was like watching a movie.  There was one great scene where a nearby girl accidentally takes a love potion in the middle of a big fight scene between the naked wizard and a demon, making for extreme awkwardness.

Tonight, I'll start The Magician King (Sequel to The Magicians) by Lev Grossman.

The Magicians was one of my favorite books in the past year.  Maybe longer.  Annie and I got to see Lev at a panel discussing the attempt at making fantasy fiction worthwhile literature.  I think he succeeded.  It explores what it would really be like to learn magic at a magical school, but with real death (death never felt very real in Harry Potter) and accidents and tedious memorization and sex and heart-wrenching relationships.  It also breaks down the awe-inspiring magic that we all saw in Narnia as children.

Why am I reading so much?  The same reason I've been blogging so much.  I'm going to attempt to start writing stories.  I heard from somewhere recently that Stephen King claimed that a good author has to read 4 hours a day and write 4 hours a day.  I'm in no way that dedicated.  Nor do I consider myself a good writer. I do, however, find myself analyzing things like how characters are introduced now.  I also think that my blog has been great practice at creative dumps and writing regularly.

So, when Annie showed me the NaNoWriMo challenge, I accepted it.  For the month of November, I will attempt to start and finish a 50,000 word novel.  Or just a story.  Not sure the fine line between them is very distinct.  That's almost 2,000 words a day.  Needless to say, my writing will be devoted to the story for the entire month of November, and my blog will be skimpy, if existent at all.

Early next month, I'll reach 20,000 pageviews of this blog.  Though I still have much to work on, I feel like that's enough to say that there is sufficient interest in hearing the way I tell stories.  I've also had a story in my head that I've wanted to start developing, so there is no more perfect time.  It's likely I'll fail, but maybe I'll actually get a jump on my 30 by 30, or on being less jealous of this chick.

So, thank you for all of your support so far.  I'll start apologizing for my November absence now.  At least I've given you fair warning.  When I start putting up whiny, agitated, mind-numb statuses on facebook and twitter throughout November, your kind words of support will be thoroughly appreciated.

I hope this doesn't flop as badly as the last time Annie and I tried to co-author a book,
~RoB