Just Keep Swimming

Don't forget to watch the new episode of Stargate Universe, tonight on Syfy at 8 pm Central Standard Time!!!

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I think I am finally starting to get the hang of the time change, thank goodness.  I don't know why it hit me so hard this year.  Once I actually got moving yesterday, I actually started feeling much better.  Maybe all of the extra rest was a shock to my system or something.  I dunno.  My Monday did get considerably brighter when both of my British DVD orders (Doctor Who season five and Sherlock season one) showed up a whole day early.  That was pretty spifftastic.

I also, in addition to rocking the laundry (despite a few recalcitrant socks that refused to use the buddy system during the process), managed to get a complete crochet project done, huzzah!

Filosophy Tam by Cori 2010.

Pattern:  Angora Tam (available for free at Lion Brand)

Yarn:  Red Heart Super Saver in Aruba Sea (1/3 to 1/2 a skein)

Hook Size:  I-9

This is part one of a two part gift I am making for Flick Filosopher just because she's awesome and I want to show my appreciation of her.  Her site is one of my absolute favorites and I am on it many times a day, but from the sound of things she is going through a rough time of it lately.  She recently gave away a bunch of goodies to her subscribers, and I got a stuffed golden snitch.  I saved the return address so I could send her a little bit of good cheer (assuming I can decipher it).  Today I'll start on part two of the gift, which is a matching scarf.  I'm going to mirror the pattern in the hat to make it a nice matched set.  I don't know if I'll get that finished today, but it should still be a pretty quick project. 

I somehow managed to get as much writing done yesterday as I had hoped to do.  It didn't look like I would, but last minute inspiration struck, I suppose.  I was tackling my first big "action" scene of the story, so getting it written was a bit of a challenge.  I have a little bit of a cushion built in, because I am still a bit ahead, even with having two days over the past week when I did no writing at all.  But I am trying very hard to keep that cushion in place and not let it be an excuse to get lazy.  Ideally I can hit 50,000 words and be almost done or be able to start wrapping up the story by November 21.  That's my personal goal.  But if I have a few off days, then I am still okay, as long as I keep at it.

That's my motto for this month, to be sure...just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming....

Sing it, Dory.

Word Count Watch:  17,266/50,000

Minutiae

And another week has found us.  Dang it, I guess I need to find a new hiding spot.

Actually, things aren't going badly at all, I just got really screwed up by the time change yesterday for some reason.  Isn't an extra hour a good thing?  Shouldn't I feel all rested and raring to go, and super excited about entering week two of my novel-writing experience?  Instead, I just feel like I want to pass out.  Sigh.  I was exhausted all frikkin' day yesterday.  It isn't like I stayed out late on Saturday--I did go to a party, but I was home by eleven, and in bed by midnight, because that is sadly just how I roll.  With the time change, I even got that much lauded extra hour of sleep, so my getting up early for church actually equated to getting up at my normal time.  I don't get it, I really don't.  Oh well.  It will get better, because it must, yes?

Even though Sunday was a total bust, I did have a lovely and productive Saturday.  I finished up my very last "have to" crochet project of the year (a birthday present).  I have a few things I want to make for other people for Christmas or just to be nice, but they are all two day projects, tops.  If I was really motivated I could get them all done within a week, I am sure.  Heck, yesterday wasn't even that wasted, I just felt like I was in another reality zone or something.  But I made some pretty decent progress on my second read through of The Gathering Storm (which is very good because my husband finished Towers of Midnight last night and from the hints he's been dropping all week I am ready to get on that), and I even got some writing done, yay!

I am currently at 14,723 out of 50,000 words.  That's 29% completion after one week.  Huzzah!  Of course, that percentage is just out of the minimum required word count.  I am not sure where I am on the completion percentage of the story itself.  But it feels like I am making good progress.

Last night I watched what was, apparently, the season finale of Sherlock's first season on PBS.  Holy crap.  I can't believe they ended it like that!  I mean, I can't believe they would end an episode like that, let alone a whole season.  That's just mean, BBC, mean.  On the plus side, I got my shipment notice from Amazon on Friday that the DVD of Sherlock (and season five of Doctor Who) had shipped, so it will be arriving tomorrow.  Awesome! 

I also found out last week that NBC's Undercovers was canceled, which is a bummer, because it was one of my favorite new shows.  But, that is the way the television ball bounces, I suppose.  I am pretty used to the shows I enjoy right off the bat because of their quirky humor getting axed with ridiculous swiftness. 


I have a few links for you that I was thinking of centering blog posts around, but now I think those ships have sailed.  So I thought I'd just share the links so you can still enjoy the articles.

Jo Walton did a really interesting response piece about the genre of science fiction and how it might not actually exist.  That's right here.  I feel like I kind of agree with her on this, I've been thinking for a long while that I enjoy a lot of extremely different things that are all classified as science fiction, and sometimes it seems like the only thing they have in common, apart from being smart and entertaining, is that they are classified as science fiction.  Anyway, it's a pretty interesting read, give it a go. 

And, finally, someone over at Tor.com did a really interesting article about Star Wars, examining how the current generation of fans is kids, and how they are being introduced into the universe through the cartoon series.  That's here.  It's a great comparison of how people from different generations of the fandom see the series, and who they identify with, and who they want more of, and what they think is "silly" and "awesome." It's an amusing read, especially if you've ever gotten into a conversation with another fan about Star Wars and wondered if the two of you were actually talking about the same franchise.