NaWriSoMo Day Fifteen

[kungfuwaynewho]

The Orphan Queen: 32908 words --> Daily Total: 1251 words

I almost didn't write yesterday.  I was just feeling really blah at work, and I read Sherlock Holmes instead.  When I came home, my Gamps was out for dinner, and we watched like three episodes of Storage Wars.  Then I read about Penn State (why, I don't know, since it just makes me so angry that I end up just ranting to the empty room), and then I watched the first half of the KU-Kentucky game.  (KU lost, I am Not Happy at all, especially since we do the same dumb shit every year.  Why is Coach Self incapable of getting these guys to throw clean passes and get offensive rebounds?  Why do we have a point guard every year who just runs pell-mell down for the paint, into a cluster of three defenders, like a goddamn fool?  Why can we only score in brief little offensive bursts that punctuate long, long stretches of no offense at all?) 

Anyway, I was ready to call it a night.  Then I was like, ugh, I won't have anything to post tomorrow.  Do I make excuses?  Do I lie?  Do I just not post and hope no one notices?  And this is even being fully and completely aware that none of you actually give a shit.  But this is exactly why I was doing this, because it makes me accountable to myself, even if it's kinda dumb.  So I got out my laptop and sat up for another hour in bed and finished the section I was on.  And it was awesome, and I figured a character thing out that I think will be a big deal later on.

I have a lot of goals for today, since I don't go to work till 5pm.  Like most days I have grand goals, I will be happy if I complete one.  My goals are: to incorporate all the notes and edits to the Screenwriting Contest from reading it at writer's group Monday night; to write at least two more scenes on The Fall; to write at least the opening scene of my untitled zombie screenplay; to work on my Latin for the first time in two weeks.  If I'm feeling especially ambitious, I might go get my flu shot.

Comments

[singer-shaper.livejournal.com]

I may not be commenting on your updates, but I'm really impressed that you made yourself write last night. I wish I could do that.

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

Hee, don't feel you have to comment. I know if someone else on my flist were posting like this every day, I would probably be scrolling, so I don't expect anyone else to do otherwise.

I think I only really was able to make myself because of the weird psychological set-up of this exercise. Once November's done and I'm not doing this anymore - because trust me, I'm starting to get as sick of it as I expect you all are - that impetus won't be there and there will be plenty of nights where I just say "fuck it" and go to bed or watch more TV, heh.

[hollywobbles.livejournal.com]

\o/\o/\o/*applause*

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

Thank you, MMD. XD

[la-loony.livejournal.com]

Go you for pushing through the blah feeling of the day and sitting down to write =)

I'm curious to read what you got done today.

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

Hee, thanks. I think I might post this screenwriting contest first 15 pages this weekend, see if anyone has a few thoughts. :D

[styromgalleries.livejournal.com]

I've been meaning to comment on your update posts, at least with a little Woohoo or some sort of encouragement. So consider yourself encouraged? Haha!

Seriously, though, you're doing great. I think it's cool you decided to accept the challenge but just work on a whole bunch of different projects.

Latin? Learning on your own or what? I keep saying I'm going to pick it back up and really learn it. I took a little in high school and three semesters in college. Don't remember a whole lot.

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

Encouragement! Thanks! But seriously, don't feel obligated to comment or even to read. I know seeing a bunch of numbers every day is kind of boring.

I'm learning Latin on my own. I've been working on it an embarrassingly long time (three years at this point), and I keep letting it drop by the wayside for a few months and have to start back over with review. I still have yet to make it out of Wheelock. My goal is to at one point be able to sit down with actual Latin texts, and not just the excerpts in all my various textbooks, and do some reading, but I don't know. It's really tough. I'm hoping by the end of the year to be back to the point where I can write in a journal in Latin; I was there about 18 months ago, but again, quit doing it for awhile and lost so much of my vocab and some of the harder grammar. (Like stupid subjunctive, ugh, it's the worst.) So anyway, yeah.

[styromgalleries.livejournal.com]

WHEELOCK!!! That's the book I have too. I even pulled that sucker back out of storage, but, like I said, I have yet to actually do anything with it.

I bought a used copy of some of Catullus's poems because they put the Latin alongside the English, so I was thinking I could try reading those one day. They were supposed to motivate me (ignoring the fact that I hardly ever read English poetry or feel like I can make sense of it. Ambitious much?). >.>

Subjunctive is evil. I don't remember how I scraped by with it in college. No idea.

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

The other book I've been having a lot of fun with is the Lingua Latina (http://www.amazon.com/Lingua-Latina-Illustrata-Pars-Familia/dp/1585104205/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1321540109&sr=8-2). It's immersive, all in Latin, and I find that it really forces me to think in Latin instead of just translating everything into English, which I think is the biggest obstacle in learning a foreign language. It's fun, too. But I think of all the Latin books I have (and I've picked up a lot), Wheelock is still by far the best.

Ugh, Catullus. He is...not my favorite. I don't do well with poetry? Where the words will all be separated by the whole sentence and such? I think, if I ever get myself ready, I'm going to start with Caesar's commentaries on the Gallic wars.

[styromgalleries.livejournal.com]

I'll have to look into that. :D

Yeah, I don't think I'm going to love it. It was just so cheap at the used bookstore and I felt, in that moment, that I'd be able to conquer!

Ooh, could be fun! When I took the third semester of Latin, it was just the prof and me getting together to work on translation. I b.s.'d my way through the whole thing. We worked on the Aeneid. The Aeneid. No please. It was brutal. I don't think I was near ready for Virgil.

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

I had a hard time with the Aeneid in English, dude. Ugh.