6/30 Out of Season

So for today we were challenged to post a picture of something "Out of Season". I chose a Thanksgiving/Fall angel that my mom sent me just before Thanksgiving in a care package. Thanks Mom!

NaNoWriMo 2012: Days 21 - 23 and Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy belated Thanksgiving! I spent the day hanging out with family and generally stuffing myself with delicious food. It was a good trip and I enjoyed seeing everyone (especially the cousins' four cats!). But, as anticipated, I wrote hardly anything.

However, I planned ahead for this, remember? So I'm still technically on schedule! I was able to write in the car on the way there and back, hence why I managed to stay on track and am ending the night slightly ahead.

Day 21: 593 words written

Day 22: 0 words written (but a fun photoshoot!)

Day 23: 880 words written

Total words written: 38,517

Excerpt:

Clasping my hands behind my back I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. Be careful, Alice. “Since the tech department is so busy I’ve been trying to handle all the minor problems in MLab.”

 His left eyebrow twitched.

“However, I ran across an odd glitch that I can’t solve.”

I had his full attention now and I thought I could feel several more pairs of eyes and ears trying to listen in.

“What was the glitch?” he asked, switching from bored to full troubleshooting mode.

“I ran into it while checking the recordings we have. You remember the big fuss recently because we recorded signals which sounded like a language?”

“Of course. Please continue.”

“I went to pull up the first recording to analyze it once more and it wouldn’t play properly. The file kept jumping and skipping so much that the audio was garbled.”

“Isn’t that just a case of a corrupt file?” His interest was visibly draining.

“That’s what I thought at first as well. So, of course we keep multiple copies of our recordings. However, when I checked each of these files they also exhibited the same behavior. Even my own personal copy was damaged. I thought that perhaps the recording system was at fault. But every other recording before and since then is fine—except for the other two recordings we have on file in the same language.” I sketched quotation marks in the air around the word with my fingers.

“That is certainly odd.”

“But the oddest part is that each of the other two recordings exhibited less noticeable glitching with the most recent being the clearest. And when I checked every copy they all exhibited the same level of glitching as the original file.”

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 20

Today wasn't the sprint that I hoped it would be, but I still wrote more than I've ever written on a Tuesday for the entire month. (On a side note, I'll be leaving on our Thanksgiving trip tomorrow so I doubt I'll be able to post until we get back on Friday.)

Words written today: 1,970

Total words written: 37,045

Excerpt:

I blinked in the strong light after the dimness of the lab. When I looked down, Kitty was rubbing her eyes and squinting.

"Here's your rock" I handed her the two pieces. "Aren't they pretty now?"

"Yes, they are." She caressed the smooth surface. "Now they don't look dirty and they're so shiny."

She turned first the large one, then the smaller one over in her hands, examining them while we walked. Before we entered her family's quarters she held out the smaller stone.

"For me?"

Kitty nodded. "I don't need two. I want you to have it."

"Thank you!" I took it and hugged her. The stone covered about half my palm and was crisscrossed by veins of different color. It was also roughly tear drop shaped. "I'll make sure to put this in a special place and keep it safe." I beamed down at her. "But it's time for you to go back to your Mommy. I have a lot of work to do." Struck by a desire to warn her, I knelt down to look her in the eye and whispered, "I might be able to talk your Mommy and Daddy into letting me take you down to Earth for a visit in a week or two. Why don't you pick out some things you'd want to take and some clothes and pack them? Just in case I can convince them."

Her eyes lit up. "Sure. I wanna come!"

"Okay, but don't tell your Mommy or Daddy about it. Pack your bag secretly. You can do that, right?"

"Mhmm." She nodded enthusiastically.

"Good girl. I'll tell you later whether I can take you or not. Be a good girl today!"

NaNoWriMo: Day 23, Day 24 and Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! Or turkey day, or any other nickname you have for it. Mine was full of food and tinged with sadness (see my last post about Anne McCaffrey). And it was lacking writing. Yes, I'll admit it, I still haven't stopped slacking for writing and it's getting me further and further behind. I need to do something about that, like actually write.

Words written the past two days: 328

Total words: 33,736

Words behind: 6,264

Until next time...

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to wish all you a wonderful Thanksgiving. Make sure you think back on the true reason for this holiday. It's not a day to stuff ourselves but rather a day to remember all that we are thankful for. As for me I'm thankful for...

1) my wonderful friends who have been so supportive of me with my crazy desire to do NaNo
2) my roomate who, though we are not best of friends, has been a good teaching moment for patience and learning how to deal with people not like me
3) my little sister who loves me to death (though she may annoy me to death in the process of showing her love)
4) being able to go to college

and the list goes ever on. You should try listing out what you're grateful for. You'll be surprised at how many things you have to be grateful for and it might just make your day or week or even year!

One more thing that I'm grateful for, is finally being able to write again after a stretch of being unable to write this past week. 50k looks closer than ever!

Until next time!