Sunday, October 31, 2004

NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo is Here!!!




November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). During these thirty days, hundreds, maybe thousands of participants from all around the country (maybe even the world) will each attempt to write a complete novel of at least 50,000 words. Not everyone will succeed.

I will.

I've actually done it once before. I've participated for the last three years running, and completed a novel in the 30 days once (back in 2002). So i am committed to doing it again this year. If you're interested in signing up, taking on this challenge, go to the National Novel Writing Month web site and check out the details.

Meanwhile, i'll be drinking a lot of coffee. Look for me to be up late online.

Tuesday, October 05, 2004

Crackheads Will Steal Your Garbage

So Troy and i are moving. (Gawd, this has been the longest, most tedious process i've ever been involved in.) We set an assload of garbage out at the curb during our last foray into the old place. A couple of homeless guys came by and started going through the shit looking for buried treasure.

No problem.

They were neatly moving things from one rubbish container to another, sifting through stuff and asking if they could take whatever. "Sure." So why did i swing by there last night to pick up more boxes, only to find the front of the driveway and on into the street looking like the aftermath of Hiroshima?

I mean folks had gone digging through every bit of paper, every discarded personal item they could find. And they didn't put shit back in the bins. I spent a good twenty minutes sweeping and scraping up the flurry of crap that had been strewn across the sidewalk and into the street, reaching as far as my next door neighbor's drive. (He just happens to also be my lame-duck landlord.)

The good news is that all the heavy items i thought i was going to have to call special pickup services to come get has magically vanished. The bad news is i ended up taking all the garbage back into the garage and locking it up in there so i wouldn't have to clean up again tonight. So now i'm going to wait until tomorrow morning (collection day) to take it all out to the curb again.

Can you say pro-rated rent? {sigh} Pieces of my life scattered in the street and all i could think about was, "I gotta clean that shit up again?" I'm so over it.