June Words and the Outdoors

I've written 14,764 words in June and my story is now 173,783 words in total. The characters refused to all spontaneously die at once no matter how I prodded.

In other news Ann Arbor has something of a famous Summer Festival with outdoor concerts and movies and shows. I have been to none of this. Not because I couldn't but because after some soul searching I realized it wouldn't make me happy. Yes, I do need to get out of the house more but I'd rather get out so that I can get into other places. At the age of 22 I've accepted that I'm not an outdoor person. Now, this does not mean I hate the outdoors or that I'll say no to all outdoor activities. But it has to be worth it in my opinion. I have to have a good companion (or companions) or be going somewhere like RenFest to make me feel the time spent being chased by bugs and aggravating my allergies has been worth my time. I was going to go see the aerialists (some kind of Cirque du Soleil type act of gymnasts suspended in the air) but couldn't find anyone else interested and I wasn't personally motivated enough to go by myself. I also just watched the preview and I'm don't really feel bad about missing it. Not that it doesn't look interesting, just that I still feel my time was better spent lazing around. I think it also did me good because my eye twitch seems to have gone for now. I think it's been at least a couple days now so that seems to support the cause simply being overwork.

Anyway if I really want to see something I will go by myself and not worry about that sort of thing. Just like when I spent three days touring just the Louvre and was quite happy not to have anyone else there to complain I was taking too long. So not going is almost always a sign I'm not interested enough to do it myself.

As for the movie I was thinking of going to tonight I just got that same movie on DVD at the grand opening of our new library branch (an event I am glad I went to) so I can now see it in the comfort of my own home.

So there's my psychoanalysis on why I'm a Hobbit.

Extraordinarily Moving Commencement Speech By J.K. Rowling.

While I love the Harry Potter books I had never pegged Jo Rowling as the world's greatest speaker. She always seemed so shy, and she is not the type to enjoy the attention she gets which tends to dull, in her public appearances, the vivacity that we see so much in her writing. I've also always thought of Harry Potter, and its writer, as having a better story than philosophy. Her themes are not bad--they are timeless--but we take timelessness for granted. I have. And even though she is still clearly shy and still clearly part terrified, I was riveted.

I have greatly underestimated her.

http://harvardmagazine.com/go/jkrowling.html

Friends of the Week: Sarah and Dejah

Return of the Videos!

Friends of the Week: Brian and Dejah (you guys get to be at the top this week due to technical difficulties)

But there almost weren't any more videos ever (or at least for some time) for the reason described in the video below:



And finally another video response! But you might not see it in his responses for a bit because he has to approve it (understandably so because I've seen some really questionable things in his responses before he started making them approve only deals). Anyway, video responses are the best way to YouTube fame (or at least reasonable acknowledgment) and I've been meaning to more for some time, but this is the first one in a while. (The other's still in production as it ran too long and I either have to learn how to edit or make a new one.)

Punishment/Challenge #2: Be Sociable

Or, as put in the words of the sweet and lovely Mag:
ask somebody you sort of know (a classmate? somebody in your department?) for lunch/tea/dinner/a walk or whatever. The report doesn't have to be super duper detailed. Just tell us how it went.

This one's more of a challenge since I actually had (and do generally have) a good time being social. I just hadn't gotten around to it recently.

So this Monday Dejah and I went out and got some bubble tea (or rather I had bubble tea and Dejah just had tea). We talked a lot and then we went over to the grad library and looked for an exhibit they said they had but got sidetracked by several shelves of free books they were giving away. I am inspired by a similar remark Dejah made that passing up free books for most people in our field would be like a drug addict passing up crack cocaine.

So the books I have adopted are pictured above. No pics of our nice outing, unfortunately, because I forgot to bring my camera but if you don't believe it happened you can just ask Dejah.

May Words, Weird Dreams, Flowers, and Birthdays

It's time for a story status update! I wrote 14,253 words in May which is pretty good and more than the other months this year by about 4,000 words, but I'm a little disappointed it wasn't at least 15,000 because I definitely feel like I had enough free time this month to write every day. There were just a few days it flat out did not happen. Like yesterday when I passed out at 7pm after staying up about 24 hours.

Anyway, the novel's now 158,751 words. (Why won't it end?! Argh!) And 268 pages on the words processor I'm currently using (Open Office). But on my Dad's Open Office, if you'll remember, my 800+ page fifth draft was over 1,000 pages, so apparently page count can vary even in the same word processor. I know you can mess with the margins but this isn't something my dad does... Anyway if any of you think I'm worrying unnecessarily about length then I offer something a comparison of just how insanely long this is. According to this one website The Grapes of Wrath was 200,000 words long. My last draft was more than 500,000! AAAAHHHH!! *Bangs head against wall* Steinbeck ain't got nothing on this girl's insanity. And knowing myself I'll be lucky if I only have about 41,000 words to go. That means if I write everyday I should be done in less than three months. I wish I could see that happening.

Sigh...but at least the flowers are all blooming and beautiful. I didn't take this pic but I could have. Sadly I didn't have my camera today or I could have taken a picture of people morris dancing!

In random news, I think my subconscious also tried to give me a nightmare recently but I'd previously watched a whole bunch of episodes of Ouran High School Host Club which is the happiest anime in existence (without being nauseatingly happy) so there wasn't much for it to scare me with and it tried to do so with Ouran characters which admittedly kinda worked when I was asleep but once I was awake I found it hilarious.

Finally, I would also like to extend birthday wishes to my Mom whose birthday is today and to my friend Punya whose birthday was May 30. I already sent Punya something but I thought I'd mention it in my blog as well.