Everything's Waiting

GIP.

btw its my birthday

btw happy thanksgiving americans

21038. So behind it hurts.

Friday's Write-In was AWESOME, though. I got to borrow a laptop which was appreciated and we all sat in a lecture hall at tables and there were snacks and there was a big screen projecting plot bunnies and cool words and triggering word wars. AWESOME. And there was a white elephant auction benefiting Office of Letters and Light.

In other news, I finally saw the video of Lady Gaga speaking at the HRC dinner and playing her cover of Imagine and I've been telling people how it's increased my respect for her. Her cover wasn't spectacular but it didn't really matter -- I felt that the choice to not do one of her songs was wise and that her words and performance were charmingly sincere and, especially in contrast to her usual style, very... conservative. I felt she really showed that she was not there to show herself off and that it would've been disrespectful if she came and did this big performance or something. Instead she just sat at a piano and spoke and sang. Classy.

In other other news, someone I know on Twitter saw Addams Family in Chicago (GRRRRR I AM SO CLOSE AND YET SO FAR AND SO BROKE) and if you didn't get the memo, Krysta Rodriguez who I HATE FOR BEING SO PRETTY AND SO TALENTED is in it. And I have this feeling that most people know her for understudying the leads in ITH, but I, and I'm sure a lot of you on my flist, first knew of her for being an SA ensemble member... so as I was being bitter about not seeing Addams Family I was listening to her Wendla for the first time forever (her voice is odd for the role, true, but her acting is intriguing). I remember noticing this way back when I first heard it but I'd forgotten all about it -- in the hayloft, when he gropes her, her lines, from the libretto, are "No. Don't." which I know was always a teeth-grinding moment in the scene for me. I don't hear Krysta's Wendla say no -- in 4/8 I hear, "Wait! Wait." and in 4/11, "Don't -- wait!" Are there any other audios of her? Anyone else hear that? I don't know how on earth she got away with changing the line (or if it was a mistake that she managed to make twice on two different days, seeing as Wendla's next line after that bit is actually "wait"), but... I think just that one tiny change just totally changes the way I look at that scene. She doesn't tell him outright no but she's still clearly conflicted and I think that works better for her character and makes Melchior not a rapist (or... well... moral complications aside.). If only Michael Mayer read my LJ.

I am obsessed with this channel.

I ACCOMPLISHED SOME STUFF TODAY. My word count is at 18378 and I'm feeling like I'm getting over the second-week rut and things are easier again. How? I had my character acknowledge in the story that she felt her life was in a rut. And then go, "I think when things really turned around for me was when..." and then introduced this entirely new plot line I hadn't thought up before.

I'm annoyed at my class register-ing. Some classes I'm supposed to take this semester -- and by some I mean HALF -- are available neither at my campus nor online. They're only available downtown. I can't get downtown. I thought that since my program is listed as being offered at my campus that means that THE ENTIRE PROGRAM IS OFFERED AT MY CAMPUS? Grrrrrrr. So now I'm in a weird situation and I need to talk to my advisor ASAP even though priority registration is already ending today boooo. So hope and pray that that goes well.

I heard on the Twitterz that today was the 3rd year anniversary of Spring Awakening's first performance for the public on Broadway (not their opening night but their first preview). Cah-razy. And it's only appropriate that msmoocow also linked me to some videos of Groff performing at a concert tonight.

I have mixed feelings on Groff in general -- he is such a strange man in that he flops between being really attractive and unattractive all the time. I remember... I swear we must've thought he was really cute as Melchior back in the day, and then by the time he left the show we didn't think so anymore. I don't know. And he doesn't even have that great of a voice, really, it's pretty unremarkable I feel. (And also very theater which makes me wonder what the hell he's going to be like on Glee.)

But I think there's just something about him that is so... charming. I don't know how many of you I showed, but there's a video where the comedian Demetri Martin is going on about how incredible Groff is that he's one of those people that "makes you feel like you're the only one in the room." I owe a lot to Groff, I think, because I've developed such a fascination with Melchior over the years, and I think we watched 6/9 and listened to 12/18 so many times that no matter how many men play Melchior and how well they do with him (and Groff is really somewhere in the middle of my favorites) a part of Jon Groff will always be Melchior to me. (Even if that part is a bit of a creeper.) Same for all those actors in the OBC -- such an effing talented group of kids, really, geeze. And now John Jr is in the Green Day musical, American Idiot, which is coming to Broadway. And I go around LJ and see people with Lea Michele as their icons that have probably never seen her play Wendla. Three years ago I don't think we could've imagined these things.

THAT MAKES ME WANT TO REWATCH 6/9 SOMETIME. LET'S PARTY THAT SOMETIME, GUYS.

Anyway. Video for the day.



I'm also obsessed with the voice of the woman he's dueting with in that video. Gorgeous.

Wow. Day 12. THIS MONTH IS GOING BY SO FAST.

Current word count is 14057.

I've been listening to a lot of Hello Hurricane today. So good. So good. AND Switchfoot performed on Jimmy Kimmel tonight and they sounded really great. Jon sounds a little odd in parts, particularly the lower stuff, like not himself -- anyone else hear that? Edit: Switchfoot Expert Bertha did. She commented right away that Jon was sounding like he needed to clear his throat or something.



(And I can usually admit when they don't sound great -- and they tend to have bad luck playing talk shows and things, so, this is good.)

The description says "Switchfoot Perform "Mess of Me" on Jimmy Kimmel Live." *PERFORMS ? And this is like, the show's official channel.

I WROTE A LITTLE TODAY.

Pathetically not enough, but I wrote SOMETHING. Unfortunately I couldn't go to the write in because it was too much of a hassle for Mom to pick me up and such :(

AT LEAST the worst part of my week is over and over the weekend I have no excuses not to be productive.

My word count is now 12292.

IN OTHER NEWS I've been listening to Hello Hurricane, Switchfoot's new CD. OVER 10 YEARS AND THEY ARE STILL KICKING ASS. And Jon Foreman is still one of my favorite songwriters ever. The first standout song to me (besides Mess of Me and The Sound which I already was familiar with) is "Yet".

Yeah, if it doesn't break your heart it isn't love
Now if it doesn't break your heart it's not enough
It's when you're breaking down with your insides coming out
It's when you find out what your heart is made up of

Very "The Beautiful Letdown."

ALSO "Always" which was the song whose preview clip thing on their vlog made me most excited for this album.

In other other news, several things:

1) HSOWA lmao what
2) I've been OBSESSED with Regina Spektor's cover of Hallelujah and also School Is Out (again).
3) MELCHIOR
4) My e-mail is being weird today. Just a warning. I'm getting e-mails from like this morning trickling in still (not just LJ e-mails, all e-mails) and haven't gotten some LJ notifications yet, and may not be getting new ones on time either -- right after writing this I just got a notification from around 2 PM on the 11th. It's currently around 6 am on the 12th. Yeah.
5) I think that's all I wanted to share

I READ REGRETSY AND MADE ICONS AND PLAYED POKEMON TODAY INSTEAD OF WRITING.

I AM ASHAMED.

I'M SORRY I FAILED YOU, NANOWRIMO.

Geeeeeeeeze.

I made myself Write or Die my 1667 today, at least. Current word count: 11750. Boooo behind.

HOWEVER, I went to check and I am definitely doing better than I was this time last year. By far. And last year I won anyway. Even if that meant I wrote 14.5k on the last day last year. But I won't get complacent. Though then again this time last year I was in performances for the school play. WHATEVER.

Now I sleep.

So sleepy... Socializing AND shopping today makes me exhaaausted... but I did have fun at the write-in for the short time I was there and I got a new winter coat that is adorable.

I passed the 10k mark today!

And now I must sleep uuuuugh...

Have decided I will attempt at all possible to suck it up and stay at school until the 5:30 write-in there on Wednesday, even if this means I will have been at school for like 9 hours by the time the thing even starts. Ouch. But hey, I dealt with much worse in like... hell week of the musical last year, so I should be able to SUCK IT UP for one day. I can sleep at school. Alternatively, I CAN SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD. But today I am giving in and sleeping despite being alive.

Goodnight.

WORD COUNT: 9077

So I didn't catch up but I MADE SERIOUS PROGRESS TOWARD CATCHING UP.

Tomorrow is the write-in! For those in my area it's at the Borders by Southridge from 2-7! (If you're in my area and doing NaNoWriMo why the hell aren't you a part of our region and come to our parties?! It's my first year being social about NaNo and thus far I like it and it excites me. Especially since it seems like fewer of my friends are doing it recently. Except for p4tta and distant_flicker -- and onceinspired but WE DON'T REALLY TALK MUCH.

Also, guys, the Q&A boards at the NaNo forums... are so incredible. I've asked three questions there so far this year (I can't remember the last time I posted anything there...) and it amazes me what people know.

Now I need sleep.

People of my flist...

I am a horrible, horrible person.

I didn't write today. The document has been sitting open all evening (and into the early morning) untouched.

Even the guilt of this blog of my progress was not guilt enough.

AND IT'S STILL WEEK ONE. Sigh.

Tomorrow I will write. Tomorrow I will not only write but I will catch up to where I'm supposed to be for the 6th (10k!). I have no school and so no excuses. You will come yell at me if I'm not writing, right?

Rent commercial just came on the radio. One of these times I'm going to count the number of times they say "Adam and Anthony" in it.

I did get a lot done in the way of school-y things today (well... I have a bit of -- OH MAN I was supposed to submit an essay in Blackboard but forgot, I'll go do that now -- work I really need to do and haven't started yet...) even if I did that instead of writing and it wasn't urgent.

Speaking of school I have to write an essay on a controversial topic (SERIOUSLY HOW MANY OF THOSE HAVE I WRITTEN IN MY SCHOOL LIFE? SIGH.) I'm doing... abstinence-only vs comprehensive sex education. Unfortunately I don't think "SPRING AWAKENING!!!" alone works as an argument against abstinence-only sex education in my English class like it does in every day conversation in my life. I also don't think my teacher will appreciate if I cite seeing Spring Awakening three times in my Bibliography.

When I wake up I'm writing. When I wake up I'm writing. When I wake up I'm writing.

WELL I got a solid day's worth of word count in today (thanks to Write or Die!) so at least I am no more behind than I was yesterday. I'm annoyed that p4tta is so far ahead of me. Boo.

My total word count current is 5826. (For those not playing at home, for day four I should be at about 6668.)

Need to stop doing tags this early in the morning, really. I feel so out of it while I'm doing them but a) I feel guilty if I do them before I NaNo and I've been failing at NaNoing at a decent time b) then when I go to bed I feel guilty if I didn't do them so I quickly do them before I write these posts. THE MONTH IS YOUNG. I need to manage my time better.

My soundtrack for this novel has been pretty depressing. Today I had to write (or, start writing) a huge evacuation scene so I pulled out some of the more depressing tracks from the Titanic soundtrack. Yeeeeah.

OH today in class I was productive, though. If you're following me on Twitter, you know I was pulling my hair out over this issue with a site I was designing and I asked the teacher for help and he couldn't figure out the problem either, and then before the end of class I managed to figure it out. The problem (or benefit?) of having two classes specifically about web development is I have two big projects that hit me at the same time, so while I figured out the beginnings of that site I also have this other site (which I talked harbek into letting me do for her) that I need to figure out what to do with.

Also had a discussion with my teacher today about PNG transparency and whether it's acceptable to use it on account of IE 6 not supporting it -- we eventually decided that I would use it anyway because GIF was just looking unpleasant and there were some significant issues that would arise if the images weren't transparent (basically I'd have to consider a redesign). I don't think I really have any web design geeks on my LJ flist but if there are any and you want to give me your thoughts I'll take them. I'd link you to the site in question but my full name is involved in the URLs for my pages for school and I don't want to flock a NaNoWriMo-related post :P

I hope to get caught up on my word count this weekend. There's a write in at the Borders near me on Saturday and I'll probably be able to go (though I'll be stuck with pen and paper) and hopefully that will get me into gear. I am disappointed by the other scheduled write-ins so far, unfortunately. There are two at my school, but one is starting at 5:30 on Wednesday (and again for those not playing at home I have class from 8:30am - 3:00pm on Wednesdays when I am a person who, as you can see, most other days of the week has a schedule where I go to bed at like 6am. Wednesdays kill me. Staying late on a Wednesday might extra kill me) and another is on a Monday (I don't have classes on Mondays). But hey, just making one will be cool. I hope. Since I've never been to one before. I had fun at the kick-off party, so -- it's nice to be among fellow AWESOME people and I didn't feel too awkward or anxious there, so hopefully write-ins will be the same.

I am ashamed to say I didn't write today :( I'm just tiiired and I have to go to bed like, now. Tuesdays are always my shortest days because they sort of rely on me failing so badly at sleep Monday night than I can manage to go to bed like 5 hours early on Tuesday night to survive the 8:30 class I have on Wednesday. Yeah. I fail at... scheduling. And possibly life, a little.

Tomorrow I am determined to catch up. I WILL.

If you've ever been evacuated you should respond to my post about it at NaNo forums.

I was about to go to bed and report that I hadn't written anything today when I decided that was embarrassing and unacceptable so I did some Writer or Die-ing and managed to blow my way past the day two goal to end up with 3925! lol wow Tomorrow is my first day of class in NaNo this year, so we'll see what happens. I'll plop my NaNovel onto Uncle Klaus and take it with me, though I'll also take a good ol' pen and paper, and see if I can't churn out some words at school.

Speaking of school, I need to go sleep so I can be sufficiently awake to function in it.

IT IS NOW NOVEMBER 2ND. I HAVE SURVIVED DAY ONE.

This is the first year where I'll regularly be going to bed in the wee hours of the morning, so this sort of messes with my ideas of what is day one, etc. And even after I write this post I might try and write a little more before bed. BUT as of writing I have 2669 words when, as we all know far, far too well, the minimum for day one to be on track is 1667 words. So that's about 1k over, which is good, but not great -- the best option is to try and get together as many of them words as possible in the first couple days.

Though, TMI, I got my period tonight and it was like, killing my soul, and I wasn't writing for a while simply because I wasn't feeling good. But at least the worst is over as far as my body is concerned.

As for my novel? It's trucking along. I'm finding that maybe all that TV Tropes reading -- more on that in a second -- is good for me. Today I ended up in a spot where I was like GOD THIS SCENE IS SO STEREOTYPICAL BRATTY TEENAGER TALKS BACK TO OVERPROTECTIVE PARENT and it was bothering me that my characters were already crumbling like that so soon, so I let my protagonist lightly lampshade it, and let the bratty teenager involved respond to that accusation of his bratty-teenagerness and in the process a) set up for a scene coming up soon and b) let it be put out there that this was uncharacteristic for this character and a hint that something was really putting them on edge.

The plot of my novel, as currently planned? I tend to believe that it's better not to ramble on in detail about these kinds of things, especially about things yet to be written, but I'll sum it up: a group of teenagers struggle with being uprooted after their city is the center of a nuclear disaster.

As for my inspiration for this NaNovel, I need to give out three shoutouts: first, to this person at singitdj whose post made me go OH! THAT'S IT! MY PLOT! second to p4tta for originally linking chat to the Wiki article on the Chernobyl disaster which lead to my morbid fascination with it, and to distant_flicker who in response to that linked to Centralia, Pennsylvania.

Thanks to TV Tropes I also was educated about Big Rigs Over The Road Racing, which GameSpot called, "So astoundingly bad that it manages to transcend nearly every boundary put forth by some of gaming's absolute worst of the worst and easily makes it into that dubiously extraordinary category of being one of the most atrocious games ever published." The existence of this game in the universe has improved my life much in the way of the Gollywog and Rob Devaney.

So here we are, in the first hours of November 2009. And so begins NaNoWriMo, where I get to join over 100,000 writers worldwide attempting to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. And we all know, as we set out on this journey together, that whether we win or lose, we will not be quite the same people on December 1st as we are on November 1st.

It is a tradition of mine that every year I put a quotation at the top of my document. It often changes as the month goes by, but it's important to at least have one to start, so I don't have to face a wall of white.

This year, my first quotation is:

Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable. ~Francis Bacon

In 50,000 words I will introduce people. And then I will lay them open, turn their worlds upside down, and bang them against each other. And if come December 1st I won't be the same person I was November 1st, well, neither will they.

See you on the other side.

Before I was complaining that I don't get the point of the internet cafe, but I am currently embracing it.

The guy at the computer next to me is on his phone talking loudly as though he didn't notice that it is otherwise silent in here.

These computers have IE 6 on them. No, really. My LJ layout looks like shit in it. Also it's surprising/funny how many websites yell at you that you shouldn't be using IE 6 when you try and view them with it. It makes me cry inside and want to go back to the computers in class where I can use Firefox (and the IE is updated anyway).

I'm surprisingly not sleepy despite being sleep-deprived two days in a row now. It'll probably set in soon. But while I'm awake I shall go answer tags.

Yes... I think I can embrace this room. This chair is like half stool half chair and it is awkward and I feel hunched over at this computer BUT the colors in here are warm and pleasant, there are plants (they appear fake but none the less, plants) (actually they apparently are real because someone just came and watered them), and it's warmer in here than the Cafeteria. Which I am now rejecting because it's cold in there and I was sick of shivering while eating my lunch so I took my lunch upstairs instead today. And I'm sure people thought that was weird. But not as weird as sitting in the cafeteria and being the only one shivering for some reason. And it has comfy chairs I can nap in. I think on Wednesdays it will be my new chill spot since going down by the pond is now literally a chill spot and as previously established, I don't like being cold. Even if I miss visiting the ducks, but the cold will make them go away soon anyway :/

I'LL GO ANSWER TAGS NOW.

1. Man. Groff/Creel? Impressive, Groff, impressive.

2. We got three Trick-or-Treaters today and I got to give them candy.



3.
( HALLOWEEN DECORATIONS )

Arqueete *naf says:
*JUST IMAGINE
Jaymee says:
*I WANT A SNOWGLOBE WITH MELCHIOR IN THE WOODS
Arqueete *naf says:
*THE SNOWGLOBES
Jaymee says:
*RUNNING
*FOR DAYS
Arqueete *naf says:
*OH GOD XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDd
*WHAT MUSIC WOULD IT PLAY?
Jaymee says:
*IDK, BUT IT'D BE ON THE WORLD'S TINIEST VIOLIN
*AND IT'D BE SOME EMO SHIT
Arqueete *naf says:
*XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDd
Jaymee says:
*MAYBE DEATH CAB