writing

I need to post on here more often. Yep. Humm.... well ive been working on a novel for National Novel Writing Month. http://www.nanowrimo.org/ Im at slightly more than 30,000 words and only a few thousand behind my target for this far into the month. Im hoping the book will end up at about 100K but thats gonna take some serious effort. I know that most people tend to write way too much and then go and delete all the extra crap in their revision. Me I tend to have my characters walking and talking on an empty stage, no scene description, no environment, and minimal characterization at least on the first time through. I mostly focus on dialogue and getting the characters where they need to be at a given time in the story and seeing what happens next. For me the first re-write is adding in a lot of that detail that I skipped the first time because I tend to write fast. Its at least the second or third re-write before i start taking stuff out. So for right now im just focused on getting words down on the paper, getting the word count up to some semblance of something and exploring my outline enough to know what needs to be added in the next draft. Dont mistake me, the prose is terrible, I realize this. but im having fun and thats what counts right?
in other news my first race (5K) is this sunday evening. Im getting nervous, kinda worried im gonna be the last one across the finnish line and everyone will be laughing cause i have to stop running and walk so much. Im pretty sure thats not how it will really go.. but there's that little voice in the back of my head already laughing at me. Oh well. wish me luck.

tthoughts on running

some thoughts on running (heaving yourself down the sidewalk while gasping for air and promising yourself you will never do this again.... at least until tommorow)

1) If you know its gonna be a hot day (80-90+) and you are awake early in the morning... go running then.. right then.. not later.. not a lil after noon when its offically baking outside with no breeze. Cause that would be silly. And Painful. and boy did it suck

2) light weight socks are a must... big thick padded suckers while adding a nice layer of cushion will feel like your feet are on fire and transmitting that heat to the rest of your body while you drag your 500 pound shoes just another few steps

3) dont significantly up your running time on said hot day when you've been training on days in the 60's up to this point. you will regret this.. trust me

4) but if you do all these silly things, and still manage to finish your run without dying, you are allowed to feel proud of yourself while at the same time admitting it was mostly pure stubborness and stupidity that got you into said situation

so... started at 10 min walking, 2 min run then 2 min walk X 3, then 10 min walk
then upped it to 8 min walking, 3 min run, 2 min walk X2 then 4 min run, then 7ish min walk
then today upped it again to 7 min walk, 4 min run then 2 min walk X 3, then 7 min walk.
ill do the new workout a few times till it feels comfortable.. cause today wasnt

Of goals and other things....

So fall is officially here in Florida. This means we had two whole days where they high didn't reach the 70's. I think tommorow its gonna be back into the actual 70's and low eighties by the weekend. However this is still considered Fall in Florida. This is why you should move here. I have terrible problems with seasonal affective disorder (get gloomy in the fall and winter) when I live up north. Down here I can still feel the seasonal shift but its not anywhere near as pronounced as up north. So for many people Fall is a time to shift life indoors and start all those projects they put off over the summer. I have 2 projects that are lurking in the wings. Both have been fliting around the edges of my life for years, picked up and dropped periodically as life gets in the way of the best of intentions. So here's to yet more good intentions. We shall see how successful I am this go around.
The first project im working on is running. Or maybe that should be Running or even RUNNING!!!! As in im going to torture myself for fun and profit... oh wait.. theres no profit (in a financial sense) and at least at the beginning there is likely to be little fun as well. So running. I need to get into some sort of habit of exercise. My joints and muscles start to hurt if i stop exercising for about 2 weeks. I get grumpy(er) as well when Im not getting any exercise. So.. ive toyed with running over the years. It hurts like the dickens when i start... then about when i kind of/almost/sort of start to enjoy myself I find some reason or life finds some reason for me to quit. I have several family members that run. My parents both have gotten pretty serious about running over the last several years. I have siblings that are in dramatically better shape than I and im jealous. Especially of their ability to climb stairs without huffing and puffing. But there's almost no stairs in Florida so why should i worry right? Er... right.. Running is good for you. If you take it slow enough it shouldnt hurt. Serious runners can eat (almost) anything they want. I should do this cause im not getting any younger and now (or last year or the year before) would be a good time to start. So im starting. Ive had minor luck conning people around me into joining me. My goal for right now is to be able to run for 30 minutes straight by mid december (two months). However Im going to be on a cruise in mid december so im hoping to push it slightly and be able to run 30 min by thanksgiving weekend. To this end I think Im going to sign up for a 5K race that weekend. It may be the slowest 5K in history... but the goal is finishing, not running fast so it might even be an achieveable goal.
The second project invloves a more under the radar hobby of mine. Writing. Im going to try (again) to participate in National Novel Writing Month.. which is when hundreds of thousands of people all over the world each try to write 50,000 words in the month of November. The goal is not quality, its quantity and being able to say i finished. Editing comes later for some, but since its impossible to edit a blank page, first comes the writing. No im not likely to show anyone the results, and yes i acknowledge it will most likely be complete crap... but it will be 50,000 words of my very own, written in a month. Wish me luck.

BUGS!!!

One of the very few reasons not to like florida... BUGS!! (yes they deserve the caps) We have big bugs, little bugs, flying bugs, not flying bugs... and more bugs... Honestly tho.. most places have a shit load of bugs.. we just dont have a winter where we can pretend they dont exist and forget the ants at the picnic, the mosquitos at the ball game, the flys in the kitchen and all that stuff that goes along with warm weather. So ive been trying to grow tomatos for some time now.. with little luck. Here in florida the tomato plants seem to get every disease you can imagine... and every parasite you can think of. So i decided to try the topsy turvy (upside down tomato plant grower-thing a ma bob). Overall its worked pretty damn well. My tomatos have been less than stellar because if it doesnt bark at me to tell me to feed it i kinda forget it exists once in a while... The upside (or upside-down-side) of the inverted growing style is that the vast majority of the insects that attack the tomatos come from the soil.. so since the plants arent really in the soil.. it works great.. also cuts down on soil born fungus and virus's since youre using potting soil. However.. today i went to water my tomatos.. and ACK! BUGS!!... freaking 4-5 inch long (kinda pretty) green stripy catpillers were going to town on my vines... bastards.. went inside to ask the internet what on earth these monsters were... and bingo... Tomato Hornworm

all i can say is please get the bloody hell off my tomato plants... and dont come back!

new car and other things

So i bought a new car a week ago today. Ive never had a new car before and its kinda cool. Its also terrifying. I find myself wanting to be 'that guy' who parks his car at the way back of the lot so nothing scratches the new car. I dont want anyone to eat in said car. I dont want tree branches to touch the paint job. Im even cringing when i put my dogs in the car (ack how in the hell did i turn into this person that i made fun of for so long). Its kinda humbling. I too am that twit that we all secretly laugh at for being so fussy over a CAR, a vehical for getting us from one place to the other, for moving crap hither and yon. For taking you and all your buddies hither and yon and hopefully back again. Or moving you, your surfboard, your beach umbrella, a cooler and about 3 cubic feet of sand yon and hither and all over the place. And yet, i dont want your dirty shoes or my furry (beloved) dirtballs or your stinky fast food anywhere near my new baby. Im hoping this feeling wears off soon or I may have to go mud bogging just to force myself to get over it. And i dont want mud and such all over my shiny new hamster mobile. (look up the kia soul commercial on you tube).

I do have to say the car rocks. Its black and red inside, black on the outside (i know i know, black in florida is about as stupid as wearing a bikini in alaska in january.) It was the only one they had and i got a pretty good deal if i do say so myself. I wanted a slightly less spiffy model. but of course the only one on the lot when my beetle decided to go into death throes was the all tricked out, every option, super spiffy version. So basically i sat there and kept saying 'no, this isnt what i want' until they lowered the price to where it was the same price as the lower end version. So it ended up being what i wanted. I will say i was very impressed with the local Kia dealer. No heavy pressure, no strong arm techniques, no arguing with me. I said what i wanted and they did it. Took a lot of the stress out of buying a car. It wasnt anywhere near as bad as I was expecting based on previous experiences and friends and familys tales of car buying disasters. There was one minor blip on the radar screen. 3 days after I drove off the lot with said spiffy-mobile the check engine light came on. I of course assumed the worst, that i had bought a lemon that would be no end of trouble, that the dealer would tell me to stick it in my ear, that the end of the world had in fact arrived (im not dramatic... i swear). So Jeff in all his totally awesomeness took me to work yesterday and then drove the car to the dealer and had it checked out. The dealer of course got him right in... hooked it up to the machine... and (drumroll please.... )i hadnt tightened the gas cap enough. Thats right. It was MY FAULT. oops.

anyway car is all better and i feel a little sillier but overall life is good. So im off to go spend my day off tooling around town in my hamster mobile.. Wish me luck, and no more warning lights :)

i should post something. It should be terribly interesting and witty and ... you get the idea. However I really don't have that much to report. Jeff and I are about to take the dogs down to Cocoa village for some espresso and rambling about. We are pet sitting a small and adorable kitty cat for a client of mine and even Jeff (notoriously anti-cat) seems to like her. He said something like "this would be a great cat for some friends of ours to have, so we could go visit her and play with her." I thought it was cute especially since he said it with her upside down on his lap purring her little heart out with him rubbing her belly. The birds are working on some new phrases but they aren't clear enough to translate yet. Its a lot like having a two year old... they speak but sometimes you have to know what it is that they are trying to say to understand it. It does make me more aware of how i pronounce things because they are mostly mimicking me. My favorite lately was when one bird (Juju) said 'how are you?' and then the second bird (Pulo) replied 'I'm good, how are you?'. They are often better than TV. Jeff and I are still... still... still... working on the house. Its a lot like those games you played as a kid where it was a bunch of tiles in a square and you had to move one tile so you could move the next tile so you could eventually make the picture. Thats what my house is like at the moment. A work in progress..
time to head out.. more later

running

trying this running thing again/more/still etc. Mapped out a 3.1 mile route from my house and back. made it in 45 minutes... not gonna break any speed records but i did it. Kate (the poodle) thought it was a good time even if i did have to walk here and there. i even did a few pushups and dips when i got back home.. now im TIRED.