Of Goals, Objectives and Gremlins

During my perusal of the blogs I follow, mention was made of the annual event, NaNoWriMo, which I've taken part in every year since 2005. Got me to thinking that I have no plan for this year. Rarely had much more than a picture to begin with. I have a few ideas for this year, most of which introduce new characters in my world.

I've spent quite a bit of time developing that world. I have vague plans for a whole bunch of books, most of them stand alone. I thought about trilogies, series, etc. No can do. Unless following one or two people throughout their life is a series. There is so much more I have yet to learn about writing, genres etc.

Since I am a family historian of note within my family, I have a handy, dandy program called Family Treemaker. I've put most of the characters in there, added placeholders for a family which spans 20 generations. Fact I made sure to add: book/s I included them in. There is a section for notes which I have filled out with different items. I have included such things as news articles, photos of places and flora, fauna and sky shots for different characters.

When I think of the years I spent looking for a program to help me keep track of this family's books, I can only shake my head. The program has been sitting on my computer for the same amount of time that I have been doing NaNoWriMo. "Can't see the forest for the trees" or could it be "making a mountain out of a molehill." The only problem I have to deal with so far is whether or not to get another storage device to keep just this info and all my plots and schemes on. Now, I wonder about the makers of that program. Are they shaking their heads at some of the occupations-dreamcatcher or education-Protector?

Man, it's Thursday already. Four days left before I start the trip. My sister has kindly let me borrow her camera seeing's how the gremlins haven't returned my USB cord. I thought I had a button where I could "share it on FB." That button is nowhere to be found. Besides, the camera needs to be recharged. No charger either. I looked online for an extra one. Wouldn't you know it? Everyone in the United States who has bought this particular model also needs an extra charger/USB cord. Nary a one to be found anywhere until I happened to remember I have an ebay account. Yep, there is a couple there.

Makes me think someone had the foresight to buy up all the extra cords and chargers for this model expressly to sell them on ebay. Did those gremlins give that someone a hot tip after their various experiments with that black hole? Suspiciously close to the end of their tournament held a couple months ago.

Things happen for a reason

A little more about the activities is in order in the event some of things may help you if you get the chance to travel. I've posted before about my dream of traveling to England, Ireland, Scotland and possibly Wales.

I've always read ever since I learned to read back in first grade. Books were a constant companion. What really impressed me was when one of my teachers read "Charlotte's Web"-E.B. White to the class. I looked forward each day to class time. And in high school, I came across a book about Tzu Hsi. I read another book about Stonehenge. By the time I entered 10th grade, I had made up my mind that I'd like to visit England. Thus, was born a determination to go. Up until about 5 years ago, I'd always felt this was out of my reach.

For some reason, I thought it cost about $20,000 to take a trip. To a rez girl, that's a whole year's wages before taxes and whatnot. When I revived my dream of writing a book, my dream about travel to England was also given more thought. I started researching. When I found out the trip was doable in terms of money, like about two to three thousand, I started thinking about taking my mom with me. My sons had already said they wouldn't go.

Well, then she got double pneumonia and ended up needing oxygen at home. Still, I started saving money and thinking about things we'd need. Special considerations would have to be planned for. The concentrator she used was bulky, heavy and hard to transport. The portables only lasted for a few hours and wouldn't be allowed on the plane anyway. She started to give up on that also.

One of the items listed on the Trip Memo was for those who need oxygen. $400 was needed to rent a Portable Oxygen Container. We'd seen people carrying these at the various casinos. Still thought they'd cost lots and they do. About $3000 for one of those babies.

Mom called the oxygen supply company to find out about the POC. Well, they have one already approved for airline travel, it was already paid for and we got extra batteries. The airline's webpage had a Special Needs page and the last thing we needed was the letter from the doctor for her to be able to use the POC on the plane. When we got that part of the plan in motion, it dawned on me. "We can go to England." Her eyes lit up.

Fiction is the theme for August

I was able to post my blog link on Nablopomo to begin posting every day for a month. The theme for the month is Fiction. Fiction is what I want to get published. Yay. I've posted a summary of the projects I am currently working on earlier. I have a total of 43 posts since I started way back in 2008 or thereabouts. Should have 76 or so by the end of August. I know there are prizes for people who do post every day. Will I make it? "Only the Shadow knows" as my dear dad likes to tell me.

I'm giving fair warning what my posts will be generally. This is like being in school, getting the assignment, planning, wondering how I'm going to fill up the space with the required words. Luckily, this theme doesn't have a required amount of words. I have all sorts of ideas pushing themselves around trying to get my attention. Fiction can mean so many different things.

There's the fiction one tells one parents when one is out past curfew. Fiction is usually the basis of explanations for why something is not done. {Lies, all lies. You know who} Fiction is found in all areas of life. The one I will focus on is the fiction I write in the hopes of being published. This will entail self publishing because I don't have the patience to send out queries, wait for a rejection, send out again. That is a loop that weeds out those less serious about writing. Then again....One needs to decide why one writes.

Fiction also means books, image on the badge for the month. I may or may not write about fiction books, because those books can be so boring when they're written to a formula. Or if the world they build is not believable. Or if the writer tries to hard. I have taken the time in the past few years to analyze writers whose work I admire. I've checked how they did what they did, why they put this and that in the story. All the elements that in high school, I found so tedious when I had homework assignments. {the reason it's taken me 30 years to read Pride and Prejudice. I noted 40 years earlier because I have been reading books since I learned how to read in first grade.}

Besides, the hallmark for me is if I find a book I like, I read til I finish it. Thus, depending on the number of words, I may find myself reading when I "should" be writing. That would put me in a terrible dilemma. It would be a battle between reading and writing. I'm not sure I want to find out which would win; reading or writing. Cause I have the feeling that reading just might win out.

Changing habits

I spent several more hours checking out the new site.  Found out the theme for the month is "fan" and thought "there goes that.  No mention of the word fan in my post."  Read further and found it was only an objective.  Well, thank goodness.  One thing at a time.  My objective is to post daily.  

I see the logic behind the 30 day Blog posting.  I read somewhere that it takes about 21 days to form a habit.  The extra seven days will be reinforcement.  Yeah.  Then I can add another objective.  Hopefully, I will be caught up and can get to the monthly theme.  Most likely not though.  I have several other habits that I want to follow through on, change or drop.  

It's a mite harder to drop a few habits.  That's when I discover how much I really use those particular habits.  When I finally decide to drop one, I need to find one to replace it.  Then a quandary takes hold of my attention, slowly throwing me into a panic.  What am I going to do about a new habit.  I spend several hours, days, sometimes months checking out new habits with which to replace the one I want to drop.  That's when I discover that I really didn't want to drop that habit.  I hope Blog posting will not be one of the "drop" variety.  I want it to be the change variety.  It's certainly not the follow through variety; I do have annual posts for that.  

I checked out some of the other features such as groups.  Most have't been active for at least a year.  No "change" support there.  I progressed to reading the posting for the past few days.  Found a couple that I just had to comment on.  Then couldn't find the button for following the blog.  Drats.  This morning when I logged in, I saw that my comments are tracked.  Yea.  So, in between shifts today, I will be checking on those interspersed with trying to find that button again.  Methinks I'll have to spend some time on my own blog to hit those buttons.  

There was mention of Facebook's 30 day challenge on one.  I found the Facebook page, checked out the comments on the feed.  Logged in to that account this morning, found out I forgot to hit the like button.  Another search today with the sole objective of hitting the like button.  

One thing that I caught myself doing while I was logged in to Facebook.  Automatically going to my cafe and farm.  Now, there's a habit I need to think about.

11 June 2011 Getting to be Annual Blogpost time

Aaniin,  greetings one and all.  I lost my password, then had to work on getting my website back up and running.  Found my password.  Then had to find the site I looked at earlier in May.  Went to my website to get the necessary admin stuff out of the way so I could access my blog.  After all that, I found out that I had a regular account.  Hah.  Then had to find the site that was supposed to help me get in the habit of posting every day.  Missed the deadline of June 5 for the "Blogroll".  Looked at the prompts, looked at a few of the blogs.  Found my Blog, read back over what I had previously posted.  Now here I am.  Only took roughly 2 weeks.  Ahh well, didn't let you know about the daily excursions to Cafeworld or semi-daily trips to Farmville.  These two games have been taking up the majority of my off-duty time. 

I found out one of the hazards of cooking dishes in the fantasy kitchen of Cafeworld is the discussion with my sister concerning what to serve next.  Do not discuss what is being cooked when there are several hungry people in the next room who can hear what you're saying.  

"I'm cooking the pot roast."  ends in "I hate you.  I hate Cafeworld." when it is discovered that the pot roast will take two days to cook.  Discussions of French toast and Eggs Benedict end in groans from the next room.  "You got my  hopes up and all set for good food."  when it is discovered that I just served 40 of the required 80 Toasts and still need 165 Eggs Benedict. 

And the hazard of farming is forgetting the time of the crops planted, going to the site, waiting several minutes for it to load, only to find the crops had wilted.  Now, I'm delaying visiting my farm until I hit the required time for one of my goodhearted neighbors to unwither my crops because I ran out of Farmville Cash with which to unwither them myself for the hefty price of 5 FV.  Hahhnhh.  

Now, I've added another objective to my long list of things I want to do when I find the time.  Daily blogging.  This objective is to turn the Annual Blogpost into one of the following varieties:

  1.  monthly at the least

  2.  weekly for a lessening of the "oh drats, what did I do with that password" 

  3.  daily for the great sense of accomplishment I just know I will feel seeing my blog added to daily.  

Gathering all the necessary items takes up several minutes.  I just have to have chips to chomp,  coffee to slurp, an open path to the door for my, oh horrors, dare I say it?? Yeah.  My twice hourly cigarette.  Ahh, there it is.  In reality, my twice hourly cigarette is both halves to make a finished one.

That leads to thoughts of my son's comments which leads to the hankering for the real thing.