NaNo stuff recovered.

Thank you to everybody for your suggestions! You are awesome.

And, I carried on writing (in a diff. program, obviously) even though I was super down... so I should be able to submit it for validation tomorrow!

Yay!

So, like a damn fool, I've been working on my NaNo stuff for about a week now without updating my word count on their website. Partially it's because I'm lazy, and partially it's because I find the copying and pasting tedious. I've been keeping backups of my own, though, because I'm not stupid.

Except that I am stupid.

I've been writing the NaNo work in Scrivener. No prob. I've been backing everything up as .scriv files. No prob.

Unbeknownst to him that all of this was going on, the BL suggested yesterday that I should install the new Mac OS, Snow Leopard, on my system.

Okay, says I. Onto the system Snow Leopard goes.

And then: 'OH MY GOD MY NOVEL IS GONE.'

The Scrivener update for Snow Leopard is available for registered users. I was still using the 30-day trial. (I was going to purchase it after NaNo, because people who finish NaNo get a discount.) The version of Scrivener I have won't open on Snow Leopard.

So now, because I am a FOOL, I have no novel (40,000 words gone), no Scrivener, and no way to get the NaNo discount for Scrivener.

I have been trying desperately to retrieve the text in some other file format, but so far it is all gobbledy-gook.

What a clusterf*ck.

Tags: rants

I am so weirded out by the featured art at TPP this month:

'Danse Macabre' by *sullen-skrewt

It's an amazing painting, but creepier than all hell, inspired by the music by Camille Saint-Saens (which is, incidentally, one of the first things I learned how to play on the piano). Listen to it here. Look at another freaky piece of artwork whilst you listen.

I am reminded most unwillingly of a dream I had two nights ago, wherein some lady was buried alive by a bad guy, all of which I witnessed from the lady's point of view - and then, inexplicably, I became the detective who had to find her before her air ran out, sort of like in that episode of CSI when Nick gets buried alive.

Unlike in the CSI episode, my detective self didn't find her in time. Something like three weeks passed in the dream before I was smart enough to figure out the clues. Of course the lady was dead.

But then SHE WAS A ZOMBIE. And working in retail. I dunno WTF.

Anyway - go and look at the pretty artsy.

Tags: thoughts from indolence

Still ahead of the game, writing-wise, even after the BL's speech yesterday and the mini-bender that followed. Fireworks tomorrow, hooray!

Tags: thoughts from indolence

Woo-hoo - I've got 10% of my NaNoWriMo word count done! And I ran some errands I'd been putting off for ages. And I did some research for the BL's speech tomorrow night. And I cooked the BL a lovely supper (the asparagus was only a tiny bit squishy and past the use-by date). And then I did the washing up straight away, instead of waiting until being really too tired to be arsed. I am housewife, hear me roar. (I'd still rather be able to work. Hopefully it's only a matter of time until the border agency grant my visa and I can legally apply for jobs.)

Tags: thoughts from indolence

A pretty good day, considering that the BL and I had a huge argument, never made it to Bodiam Castle after all, and didn't leave his mother's house until 6pm.

Tags: thoughts from indolence

As moreteadk has reminded us all, NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow. I've had some good ideas and I really want to start, but of course it's against the rules to write any of your 50,000 words before 1 November. So I've been writing them in my head. :-)

The BL and I are leaving soon for a little trip to Kent to visit his mother. She, too, has aspirations to write, so I'm going to show her Scrivener (recommended to me by the lovely miamadwyn) and proselytise about NaNoWriMo. She runs a little holiday cottage, but this is the slow season, so maybe she'll be able to take part. We shall see.

Kent is not a part of the country I've spent much time in - in 2002, on my first visit to the UK, I went to Canterbury and Leeds Castle, which were both lovely. I loved that the gate to Canterbury Cathedral was flanked by a Starbucks on the one side. Lots of the other Americans were complaining that it was tacky and ruined the aesthetic, but for some reason it really pleases me to see the ancient and the modern so close to each other like that.

This time, though, the BL and I have planned a little excursion to Bodiam Castle, which was built during the reign of Richard II (so it's late medieval) and is one of the few castles that actually has a proper moat and drawbridge. It's a tiny version of the trip we hope to take in the not-too-distant future around the castles in the Welsh marches. Between us, we've seen a fair few of them already, but there's something really romantic about the idea of driving around the Wye valley, which is one of the most beautiful parts of Britain. Especially in the winter, when it's all bleak and cold, and going into a pub has an extra-cosy feel.

If anybody else is taking part in NaNoWriMo and wants to add me as a writing buddy, here I am.

Tags: objets d'homme, reminiscences

Okay, I'm doing it. I've signed up.

*faints*

50,000 words in one month, when I haven't managed 50,000 words in the past year.

When you join up, they send you a hilarious email, part of which says:

3) Tell everyone you know that you're writing a novel in November. This will pay big dividends in Week Two, when the only thing keeping you from quitting is the fear of looking pathetic in front of all the people who've had to hear about your novel for the past month. Seriously. Email them now about your awesome new book. The looming specter of personal humiliation is a very reliable muse.

3.5) There will be times you'll want to quit during November. This is okay. Everyone who wins NaNoWriMo wanted to quit at some point in November. Stick it out. See it through. Week Two can be hard. Week Three is much better. Week Four will make you want to yodel.

So, what, we're going with Catholic-confession style accountability here? Okay, I can handle that.

*faints*

Sweet Christ, what is JKR thinking?

I'd have bought my copies of Harry Potter used if I'd known that even so much as a tiny fraction of a penny of my money was going to be handed straight over to the fuckers trying to kick me out of the country.

I'd heard some time ago that she'd given them £1 million, but that was a one-off, and so little that I could console myself that not much of that £1 million came out of my personal pocket. But now she's going to '"support the party (financially) on a continuing basis"'?

Jesus.

It's her money, I suppose, and she can do what she likes with it, but I'll be damned if I ever buy another Harry Potter anything ever again.

Tags: rants

Is anybody else weary of the prevalence of cold showers in fanfic?

Seems like I've read at least three things today wherein Snape's libido is so out of control that he has to subdue it with the torture of frigid water.

I don't get this on two levels:

(1) I don't think people ever actually become so turned on (when not directly engaging in sex) that they can't calm themselves down with a bit of mental discipline. Usually, just doing something else - anything else - takes your mind off it. A quick (albeit small sample) survey suggests this supposition is more true than false.

(2) Even if people DID get that spontaneously, uncontrollably horny, why punish oneself with a cold shower? Why not just have a wank and be done with it? If you've got the facilities and leisure to get nekkid and wash, you've surely got the privacy and time for a bit of self-pleasuring. Which would be far more effective, and pleasant, than suffering under a torrent of freezing water.

And actually, the more I think of it, the more I'm minded that every time I have to have a cold shower (not through choice, but through boiler problems), I don't even feel as clean afterward as when I have a hot shower. It's as if my pores produce even more oil as a defense mechanism, the way Labradors have oily fur to keep them warm when swimming in the North Atlantic.

Tags: thoughts from indolence

Joined writingbuds this afternoon and hooked up with softobsidian74 for an hour and a half of writing this evening.

From my own perspective, it was an eminent success. I highly recommend this comm to yew.

UPDATE: Between us, softobsidian74 and I wrote almost 4000 words in two and a half hours tonight. This thing really works, yo!

Somebody posted a couple of weeks ago about a possible HP meet-up in the UK.

I meant to comment and add my support, but became distracted, and now I can't remember anything about it except that it had been proposed.

Could the person who posted about it - miamadwyn, perhaps? - please contact me avec les details?

Merci.

I feel very special. :-)

Tags: thoughts from indolence

As of 14 August 2009, the brain-lover is my husband.

Yay!

Tags: the brain-lover, thoughts from indolence

OMG, The Wayward Wand by Hechicera.

Stumbled across it by accident on TPP last night.

Awesome awesome awesome and hilarious.

And OMG too the illustrated cards on her DeviantArt site.

Go! Look! Adore! I command you!


Ahem. That is all.

Tags: thoughts from indolence