Monthly Updates are So Hot Right Now.

[kungfuwaynewho]

I could have sworn I'd posted sometime more recently, but I guess not.

Anywho!  My November final NaNoWriMo word count total was 31,000.  Which I was totally happy with, and is a good, sustainable monthly average for me.  I'm at around 13,000 thus far, which is actually pretty good considering how much time I've spent editing Part One.  Which is still going on, as I decided after reading through it that I needed one more chapter at the end.  Originally it was just going to be 3-4 pages, a character-based chapter rather than a plot-based one, more in the line of an epilogue than anything else.  It's about five times that length now, and I finally finished it yesterday.  So now I need to edit/polish that up, and maybe give a quick once-over to the last quarter or so of Part One.

But it's coming along!  I'm well-pleased.

About halfway done with Christmas shopping.  I don't understand how it, like, sneaks up on me each year.  I've got three stores to hit this weekend, and my goal is to get up early Saturday morning and get going, try to beat the crowds, if that's even possible the weekend before Christmas.  I decided to make gifts for my co-workers, and was planning to be done long before now, but I'll have to finish them up tonight.  Mini-pallet coasters! Though I made mine with popsicle sticks, cut to length and then glued together double or triple thickness.  A box of popsicle sticks is a lot cheaper than buying like actual wood.  A pretty easy craft, even for someone as relatively uncrafty as I am, but it took much longer than I was anticipating.

I finally saw Gravity yesterday.  I'm glad I got to see it on the big screen, and it was a really great movie, and Sandy did a wonderful job, but I guess my expectations were way higher, because I wasn't particularly wowed.  Beautiful, and science-y, and it's nice to see a clear, simple, straightforward story for a change, but it wasn't the technological oh-my-God marvel everyone had blown it up to be.  But still very good, and the clear winner this year for SFX.

Speaking of awards, I'm pretty happy thus far with how the award season is playing out.  I don't really have a favorite I want to win everything, except maybe Cate Blanchett for Actress, and that seems in the bag.  I haven't seen a lot of the major contenders yet, either because they haven't come out (American Hustle, Her), I don't really care (Wolf of Wall Street), or I'm not comfortable seeing it in the theater and will wait till DVD (12 Years a Slave).  I feel like the upcoming Oscar nominations won't have a huge amount of surprises, but this year that doesn't seem to be a bad thing. 

Comments

[la-loony.livejournal.com]

I was lucky and didn't have many people around me to hype Gravity (and I tend to ignore critics when I can so I'm not too influenced before seeing a moviexD).

Who else is rumoured for best actress? A lot of movies that most likely get noms still have to hit the theaters here :/

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

Right now the Best Actress winners/nominees I've seen at the critics awards and such are: Emma Thompson, for Saving Mr. Banks; Meryl Streep, for August Osage County; Brie Larson, for Short Term 12; Sandra Bullock, for Gravity; Amy Adams, for American Hustle; Adele Exarchopoulos, for Blue is the Warmest Color. That's who I've seen pop up the most, but Cate has definitely won most of the time. I'm guessing Cate/Sandra/Emma as locks for an Oscar nom, Meryl as a likely, either Brie/Adele for the "young newcomer" slot, and then Amy/someone else as a spoiler.

[la-loony.livejournal.com]

Still have to see most of those! Saving Mr Banks comes here in January, August Osage County and American Hustle don't have a release date for Germany yet. And I probably missed Short Term 12, have to check. Still not sure if I will go to see Blue is the warmest colourxD

[hollywobbles.livejournal.com]

Monthly updates are the best. (Better than my never updates. I feel like if I were to update now it would just prompt half my "friends" to realize they weren't sure who I was anymore or why they were friends with me, and then unfriend me.)

Cute coasters! I've been avoiding Gravity -- I'm not a big fan of either Sandra Bullock or realistic, stomach-churning terror.

How's the basement coming?

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

Sort of stalled on the basement. My dad got into making cutting boards for the December craft fair, and he works a lot harder in the winter, so he's less likely to want to come over to our house on the weekend and work more. Laura pulled down some old ceiling one day, and my goal at some point is to clean up so we can start putting up walls. So slowly but surely.

[ghanimasun]

I am pretty much the opposite of a writer, so that sounds pretty damn impressive amounts of writing to me. Awesome job :)

Also I was totally unaware how close Christmas is too, I haven't done one single holiday thing yet, so I definitely know that feeling. That is really nice of you to make so many gifts for your coworkers, clearly your work place is a fairly nice place (I'm jealous!).

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

Hee, thanks. I need to get better about writing every day, though, instead of writing in bursts.

I really like everyone in my department, which is very nice. We're all a pretty easy-going bunch, and it makes a big difference in morale, I think.

Gosh, speaking of being behind on buying presents, my sister and I were wrapping presents this weekend when I slowly, slowly realized I had forgotten to buy her ANYTHING. It was terrible. I spent the rest of the evening on Amazon and found some stuff and paid for 1-day shipping so it would get here before Christmas. The worst!

[vjs2259.livejournal.com]

Haven't made it to Gravity yet. I'm a little afraid of heights :)

I had hoped to do my NaNo editing over the holiday but there's turning out to be lot of work-work to do this year. Christmas is turning out nice though. We decided to play it very low key and that's kept me from going crazy.

I like updates, once a month is a fine interval. Not too often, not too far apart.

Have a great holiday!

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think Gravity would play much less terrifying on DVD at home. I don't really have a problem with heights but I had a few moments of eek throughout, more about scale and vastness and such.

Merry Christmas to you, too!