Off For The Holidays

Well, pretty much off. I'll still be writing because I really want to get the rough draft this book done by the end of the year, and in case you haven't noticed, that's going to be kind of soon. I'm still going to post something on Thursday, of course, because I do love my stick figure comics. Just don't expect me to be lurking around your blogs.

If you're celebrating Christmas, I hope you have a happy holiday. If you're not, I still hope you're having a happy day.

Hugs!

The Holiday Season

Honestly, I really thought the informal polls would be more fun than they've turned out to be. It doesn't help that I had a bunch of questions in mind and then the second I started doing them, totally forgot them all. I'll keep them up for the next couple of weeks, but in 2014, I'm trying something new. Keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't turn out to be a big dud like this one.

So...how's your December going? Are you Christmas-celebrators doing a lot of shopping?

December Goals

Well, this was another month that went by fast. But maybe that’s because I spent the last few days in a food coma. Ooh, and the same thing is going to happen at the end of this month, too! I love the holidays!

Anyway, let’s see what I was supposed to be doing…

November Goals

1. 20K in my paranormal apocalyptic story! This is the more important project, so I really want to focus on it. I think some of the reason I’ve been having trouble is because I’ve been working on multiple things. It’s time to stop doing that.

            Yes, I did this! It’s over 50K now and getting close to the end. But this doesn’t mean it’s nearly close to finished. There’s a bunch of stuff I have to go back and fill in as whenever I got stuck, I skipped the part that was troubling me. I’d peg the “final: first draft as being somewhere over 60K.

2. Be more active on social media. Of course, since everyone is off doing NaNo, it’s not like anyone will be around to notice.

            I wasn’t bad. I didn’t slip at least, and I’ve been working on being more active on Tumblr and while visiting other blogs. I could have done better, though.

3. Learn more about computer coding. Yes, really.

            Yeah, I didn’t do this. I didn’t have time. Weekends (and the holiday week, of course) are my only free time and I tend to spend them doing, you know, fun stuff. Maybe next month?

Not bad. I’m especially pleased with my writerly goals. And now for this month:

1. Finish the rough draft of my previously mentioned paranormal apocalyptic story.

2. Think about ways to make my blog more fun for my readers. I’m not good when it comes to things like this, so it will take some work.

3. Screw it, it’s December, I’m taking the last week off. Yes, this is totally a goal. Even though I just took a week off in November. Ah, screw it.

What are your December plans? Are you totally getting overwhelmed with the upcoming holidays? Are you ready to say goodbye to 2013?

Off For Thanksgiving

Read the title. But here's something for you...

The only thing that isn't true is that I don't have a clock behind me when I'm at the computer.

Happy Holidays!

For me that means Christmas. For you, whatever you celebrate. Have a happy and safe holiday and please remember not to drink and drive.

As always, I’m going to post something special for Christmas and I figured, why not now? I’m not going to be around on the 25^th, so I don’t expect you to be either. I figured I might as well leave this up until etymology Thursday and not have to come up with a new post. It’s called efficiency laziness. No, wait, I was right the first time.

Anyway, here’s the Seven Deadly Sins (Of Writing). As always, click to embiggen.

Fact Check Fail

Critiquer Flaming

“Die for not understanding my vision!”

Sales Envy

Review Padding

Word Abuse

Solitaire

Advance Greed

“Five hundred dollars? For giving you the privilege of publishing my work I should be getting five hundred thousand dollars!”

 

PS. This is my 500^th post :D. I think it’s pretty well representative of the whole.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Since I’m not around to tell you in person, I leave this message for you: Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you have a fun day.

As usual, I’m posting something different for the holiday. The first year I did this blog, I posted The Writer’s Flowchart, still one of my all-time favorite posts. Last years was The Alphabet Family Tree, which I think was pretty cool but of course I’m me.

This year, don’t expect anything so fancy (and considering those previous attempts, I mean keep that bar low). It’s more stick figures and cut and paste because I can’t draw.

Click to embiggen.

If you’re wondering about the amount of writing actually taking place...you’re right. It is too much.

Byesie-daisies!

The Storm Approaches

And by that I mean, of course, Thanksgiving. You Canadians don’t know how lucky you are to have it over and done with. Since I started this blog, I have had two horrendous Thanksgiving experiences and I have to admit, I’m on edge about the whole thing even though, thank Great and Mighty Cthulhu, most of my relatives aren’t coming.

But that’s boring talk. Mostly I want to wish you guys a happy Thanksgiving since I’m not going to be around Thursday, and possibly not Wednesday and/or Friday as well. If you don’t celebrate the holiday (or already have)…happy Thursday? It’s a pretty good day. Weekend is coming. That should be fun.

Yeah, this post isn’t one of my more interesting attempts. I think the impending holiday has made me lazy and I’ll scold myself later, I promise, then get back to work updating the content you all know and love. Or maybe some pictures I pulled off Creative Commons. Probably the latter. In fact, to get you started, here’s one now!

You can tell I didn't draw it because it's good.

Cute, isn’t he? Well, he’s going to be eaten.

I’m out. Have a good week if I don’t talk to you again. I really do promise to work on more interesting content. Hugs!

Influential

From what I remember about school, there are three types of teachers. There are the good ones, the ones who take the time to connect with you and are passionate about their work. Then there are also the bad ones. They leave an impression for basically the opposite reason. Perhaps they are good educators but kind of jerks, or perhaps they’re nice enough but you don’t learn anything. Worse, maybe they’re both incompetent and mean, pulling you away from laughing with your friends to ask you if you enjoy being mean (seriously, where the hell did that come from?). Finally there are the ones that don’t leave an impression either way. I’d talk more about this kind but I don’t remember much about them.

No matter the variety, each teacher has done something to shape you. But for most, good, bad, or indifferent, it’s just a dent. For example, I remember all the way back to kindergarten, where the teacher was a good one, if strangely uptight about some things. She affected me, yes, just not to the degree of, say, my fourth grade teacher (in terms of ugh, e-gad!) or my eleventh grade English teacher (best ever, by the way).

My point is that teachers are extremely influential people. My not-remarkable teacher is another’s great one, or maybe someone’s biggest frustration. The worst teacher I ever had may have actually had a positive impact on someone’s life (although for various reasons I won’t get into that involve some very bad stuff, I strongly doubt it). And as the holiday season approaches, perhaps it would be nice to do something in memory of a teacher (a donation to an educational organization) or if you have school age children, one of their teachers (not a scented candle; from what I heard, that’s the go-to gift and they have enough to get them through power-outages for the rest of their lives).

What were our most influential teachers and what lessons did you carry away? If you’re a teacher, what kind of gift do you suggest?

A Brief Word (Or Two)

First of all, Michael Hayes gave me a Versatile Blogger award last week and I’d like to thank him for thinking of me. He’s a great guy with a cool blog you should go check out.

Yes, I took Tuesday off. I’m feeling a little burnt out and figured, hey, it’s the holidays. Probably a lot of people could use a break.

I really enjoyed Christmas this year. I hope yours was great, too. Mine was soooo much better than Thanksgiving was, probably because there were fewer relatives. And also presents. And food that I’ll be exercising off until well into next year.

Enjoy the rest of the year. I'll be reading as much as I possibly can and as always, lurking around your blogs. But when January 1 rolls in, no more procrastination. It’s time to finish those edits. I’m holding myself to that.

Did you get anything good for Christmas/Hanukkah/whatever? How’s the writing going?

I hope your 2012 is full of a lot of words.

Merry “Holiday”

Recently, there’s been a lot of talk about what to call the tree associated with an impending holiday. In the United States, separation between church and state is taken very seriously. To the point, in fact, where the tree-lighting ceremony where I live was for a “holiday tree.”

Some people were upset about it. They felt it was part of a war on Christmas and while I don’t believe in such an attack, I think they’re right about the nonsense of it all. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet and a conifer decorated with lights and ornaments is still a Christmas tree. But since a Christmas tree can be considered endorsement of religion, they adhere to the letter of the law, but not the spirit, by making it a Holiday tree. For all the other December holidays that use trees.

I don’t want to exclude anyone, but is it really so terrible to call it what it is? I know the tree and Santa Claus are both enmeshed with the religious aspects, but they are also icons onto themselves. I’m not Christian (although I’m descended from Christians who aren’t observant) but that doesn’t mean Christmas doesn’t have special significance for me.

What do you think about the whole debate? If you live outside the US, how does your country deal with religion and government? Do any non-Christians out there want to weigh in on whether the tree and Santa can stand alone? And for Christians, do you think it matters if those symbols are separate from the religious aspects of the holiday?

Yeah, a lot of questions. But I’m very curious to know.