nanowrimo is back! woot.
for those of you who don’t know nanowrimo stands for NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth — november! there’s an official organization called nanowrimo (nanowrimo.org), and they host a month-long endeavor for all those who will. the goal is to write a 50,000 word novel between november 1 and november 30. strictly speaking, i don’t follow their path, because one of their few rules is that you can’t use something you started writing before novmeber 1 — and i am going to be doing that. also, i’m aiming to finish a novel, but not with a set word count (if i finish at 45,000 words, so be it — etc).
those caveats aside, i AM on board again this year. my aim is to write 1,000-1,500 words a day every day in november. if at the end of the month, that’s not quite a complete novel, i figure i’ll have made such a dent that finishing it won’t be too hard.
as usual, my excitement got the better of me, and i started a few days ago – i have just over 2,000 words written, and i’ll be posting the piece here on the blog as i go along .
many thanks to all of you who have already voiced your confidence in me for this project. with this sort of thing, discipline is my worst enemy, so i need all the encouragement i can get — not necessarily encouragement that what i’m writing is any good; i’m a big believer in revising, so i’m not worried about the fact that my first draft will mostly be rubbishy — but encouragement to keep writing. if you see me in november, feel free to ask if i’ve written my words for the day yet :)
and so… here we go!
a good overview of what could happen next with the healthcare bill (a look at the potential outcomes and what votes might get what)
http://keithhennessey.com/2009/10/28/five-important-upcoming-senate-health-care-votes/
nanowrimo09 is coming.
bring. it. on. :)
a perfect october day: cool (not cold), crisp, sunny, and the supreme court has a shiny new case on the docket. what more could a girl want?
The Supremes have decided to hear a case about 17 Gitmo detainees, “to decide whether federal courts have the power to order prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay to be released into the United States.” Although it’s been decided that these particular detainees pose no threat to the US, there’s some debate about whether or not they can be let into the US to live here. They don’t want to be sent home to China, because they’re seen as terrorists there (ummm), and some lawyers argue that US immigration laws shouldn’t be so easily bypassed. Those lawyers argue that it’s one thing to judicially determine that we can’t hold them at Gitmo. It’s another thing to say we have to let them stay. I guess the other side is arguing that, aw, they don’t have anywhere else to go. Don’t get me started.
Wait, this is my blog! I can get started all I want! At this point, I have mostly questions: so they don’t pose a threat to the US, but do they pose a threat to another country? ‘cos I still don’t want them here. They’re terrorists in China… so we want to help them out? And what does it mean they have nowhere to go — no other country will take them? because they’re terrorists? Or they have no homeland? I’m curious. And what about immigration laws — we’re going to let ex-prisoners bypass the system just because they dont have somewhere else to go? The same system that MILLIONS of honest, hardworking foreigners spend their adult lives trying to get through?
I realize it must be more complicated than this, so these are just my initial feelings. The supremes are set to hear Kiyemba v. Obama, 08-1234 in early 2010. Go team!
for a more… realistic overview of the healthcare reform debate/process, nytimes.com offers this blog: http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/ (like all things NYT, you should be able to get the facts — just be careful about tripping over all the biases).
it snowed last night (not in cambridge, technically, but in a suburb not far), and with that, the last remnants of autumn and my sanity are gone. at 9:30 this morning, as i walked to work (i have a late start on some fridays), it was 36 degrees out. i’m sure some of you are romanticizing winter as you read this, but let me tell you – it’s not what you think. winter is nice when you have a good heating system, and house that’s effectively heated. i wear gloves in my bedroom. and winter is nice when you live near everywhere you have to be – my roommates and i have to walk at least 10-15 minutes to the nearest T stations, grocery stores, coffee shops, and farther to anything else. and winter might be nice after a long, hot summer, or even a short, hot summer — or any summer at all for that matter.but we had the darkest, coldest june since 1904, and summer didn’t feel like it started until august. autumn started predictably in september; so you can imagine my despair to find winter this morning, mid-october. i wore my peacoat or down coat through april and a light jacket through june; i started wearing a light jacket again in september, and donned my peacoat early october. if you think autumn is at least beautiful, you’re wrong there too. for some reason, there’s not that much foliage this year. whether or not this will hold true in the long run, as it stands today, i hate this place.
want to know what’s going on with healthcare reform? well, this is my brief, over-simplified take on what’s happened to date. I tried to mix in a little pop culture to help assuage all the technical terms (heh heh heh):
It is like standing in the eye, amidst torrents of devastation and destruction, with the shrapnel of debris leaving small welts all over my heart.
i’m telling you – it’s better than reality tv.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/health/policy/14health.html?_r=1&hp
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/13/AR2009101301771.html?hpid=topnews
dear y,
you and i are old friends, and i know we’ve been spending even more time together these past few weeks… so i don’t want you to take this little note the wrong way, but… i’m really glad you aren’t the end, the conclusion, the finale; i am grateful that after all the y’s, we catch z’s.
n
