Tauriasis

Here There Be Dragons

Ok, I know that in my last post I had mentioned updating this blog more frequently, but I’ve been busy lately.  All last week my mom was here in Alabama visiting me.  While that was really fun, we don’t get a whole lot accomplished when we’re around each other.  We ended up going to Barnes and Noble and stopping to get random groceries.  Last Sunday we watched the Colts (go Colts!) go to 5-0 while we ate chips and salsa and drank some mulled wine.  For the most part though we just sat around and watched As Time Goes By while we worked on some of our knitting projects.

We ended up going to Yarn Expressions twice, and we got some neat stuff to make socks and fingerless gloves.  I also ended up getting some artful yarns vineyard in the Bordeaux color.  I have no idea what I’m going to do with it.  I originally picked it up to make more fingerless gloves, but with all the yarn I got to make gloves I’ll have a different pair for each day of the week.  So, I decided I would do something else with it, and since I didn’t know that “something else” was, I got two skeins (take two, they’re small?).  I’m sure I’ll think of something cool to do with it.  I just need to ponder on it for a while.

As far as grad school things go, I mailed off my application to the University of New Mexico a week ago.  I knew that I wouldn’t have as much time to work on it with my mom visiting, so I made sure I got it done before she got here.  I still need to check with the department to make sure that they have all of my materials, but provided I didn’t do anything stupid they should have everything that they need from me.  I think my recommendation writers have it all under control too.

Still no word back from Purdue, but according to the FAQ on their website, I should be hearing back late October or early November, so I should know something *soon*, and it’s really starting to make me nervous.  It’s not really that I want to go to Purdue more or less than UNM, it’s more that I’d like to go somewhere.  At this point I’m far less concerned with *where* I’m going to grad school than *if* I’m going to grad school.  I don’t know when I’ll hear from UNM, but that application isn’t due until Nov 1st, so I’m guessing I’ll hear from Purdue first.  I’ll let you know as soon as I find out something one way or the other.

NaNoWriMo is right around the corner.  Two weeks from today thousands of people will commit to 30 days of being glued to their computers attempting to type 1667 words a day in a mad dash to complete a 50k word novel.  Actually, it’s not that hard of an attempt.  I actually found the 50k words to be a very achievable goal.  That’s why this year I’m teaming with my brother to write a novel as well as writing my own.  And this time I want to actually finish the story in my novel, which I’m guessing will take me past the 50k mark and more into the 75k-100k range.  I like a challenge though, so it’ll at least make November interesting.

I still have no plot or character ideas for either novel.  I think I worried too much about little details last year and not enough about the big picture.  This year before I start with my novel I’d like to have a good idea of a few characters, where the story starts, and where it’s going to end.  It turns out that the little twists and turns that you send your characters on are pretty easy to come up with, but you need a pretty good main problem to (a) get your characters going, and (b) have an interesting main plot/ending for your story.  My fallback is usually “random fantasy involving some prophecy about main good character(s) that main evil character(s) would like to exploit somehow”.  I’d like to try something different though.  Maybe a murder mystery or some sort of fantasy/horror thing with werewolves and witches.  I’ll figure it out as I go along if I need to, but I still have two weeks to come up with something.

NaNoWriMo, knitting, and worrying about grad school will take up the majority of my next month and a half, but there’s something else that I’ve been thinking about doing.  Next year my birthday is on a Saturday.  Not just any Saturday, but the Saturday that the Indy 500 Mini Marathon and 5k are being run.  I’ve always wanted to be a runner.  I hate going out in the heat and puffing and feeling like I’m about two steps away from death, but I want to like running.  So, I’ve decided that I’m going to run something next year.

I’m currently undecided between the 5k and the half marathon.  I ran (walked) the 5k a few years ago, and that was really fun.  The half marathon would be really cool to do though because part of the race takes you around the Indy 500 track, which I think would be really neat to do anyway, but especially cool to do on my birthday.  I know that preparing for the half would be pretty intense, but I have 4 hours to make it from start to finish.  I’m not looking to set any world records or anything.  Just finish it.  So, I’m pretty sure it’s doable by most people.  I’m just not sure if it’s doable by me.  My current idea is to start doing a run/walk plan next week, and see how far I get by a week before Christmas.  The half usually sells out around Christmas, so I figure that will give me enough time to determine if there’s any way I’ll be able to do it before they close registration.  If I can’t even run 3 miles at Christmas, then I’ll just sign up for the 5k instead.  Either way, I’ll keep you posted on whatever I decide to do.

This time I’m not going to promise to write more frequently.  With NaNoWriMo coming up, I know the chances of me posting more often are slim to none.  So, I’ll leave you with this little bit of motivation that I hope will help get me through at least the next month and a half (I’m doomed): “Try not.  Do… or do not.  There is no try.”

Until next time.

Not only have I managed to not write a post since mid-September, but I also haven’t read any more of my 2008 novel.  So, SeptNoFinMo has turned into OctNoMaybeFinMo.  I’m not very optimistic about finishing anything in October, the reasons for which will become apparent if you continue reading this post.

I just recently (like, 10 minutes ago) started my application to the University of New Mexico’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics for a masters in stats. All I’ve really done at this point is write to some of my college professors asking them if they’ll write letters of recommendation for me.  Tomorrow I plan to take care of getting my transcripts and GRE scores sent.  At that point all I should have left is the application and the letter of intent.  The letter of intent always scares me a little because it’s easily the most important part of the application, but sometimes my intentions don’t really make sense to anybody but me.

My mom is coming to visit me Oct 9 to Oct 18.  That should be fun.  She stayed with me for a week back in December of 2007 when I first moved to Alabama.  It helped to have somebody around and we ended up doing some pretty cool things.  Hopefully we can find some neat things to do this time too.

NaNoWriMo is just around the horizon.  The signup page went up just a few days ago (www.nanowrimo.org), so go sign up to write your novel now!  I’m still not sure what I’ll write about this year.  More than likely it won’t be a continuation of my 2008 story since I won’t have it finished by the time November starts.  I don’t think I want to recycle any of the characters either in case I somehow manage to salvage my 2008 novel.  This year my goal isn’t just to get the 50k words, but to actually finish the novel.  Ideally I’d like to aim for writing 100k words.

On top of that, I’m writing a joint-novel with my brother.  We haven’t discussed the terms yet of how we’re trading or how often.  I don’t think we’re going to discuss any story or character aspects before we start either.  My brother said he’s ok with fantasy and that he makes no promises that things won’t get silly.  I think for the most part he plans on giving me challenges to see how I get the character(s) out of things, and I’ll probably do the same.  So, that’s very vague but will be a ton of fun.

As you can see, my free time is pretty busy with applying for school, my mom visiting, and some minimal planning for November.  I may get around to reading my 2008 novel, but I doubt I’ll be able to write enough to finish it before NaNoWriMo 2009 starts.  Despite being busy, I’ll also try to post more.  I had a few posts planned out for the last couple of weeks, but never got around to writing them.  At some point I may write those and sneak them in to make the last few weeks look less lonely.  I’m not sure that I have enough readers that check often enough to actually notice their suspicious appearance.