(Posting from my phone, since A) I'm still visiting fam and sans my laptop and B) I'm too lazy to see if I can sneak a log-on at another computer. This chair is comfy. So deal with phone post, which means no nifty embedded links.)
***EDIT: added linky-links! Made the post all pretty-like!***
I thought NaBloPoMo, National Blog Posting Month, was a November thing (the blogger's NaNoWriMo...ish), but just a few minutes ago I came across a Tweet by @ecollins pointing me to this blog post.
I don't know if other people are NaBloPoMoing in January, but @ecollins is good enough for me. Plus, I have neglected this blog the past few months, so this will be a good way to get my lazy bum back into blog-writing gear.
Look forward to more blog posts (many of them probably consisting of some viral YouTube video everybody's sick of watching.)
***OTHER EDIT: So, turns out NaBloPoMo is now a year-round theme, you just pick which month you want to do it. Coolio! I officially signed up. Here's my profile page and everything!
Watch out, soon I'll be asking for hand-picked monochrome M&Ms in my dressing room.
(Or blogging room.)
(Whichever.)
Did you see all the wonderful bloggers I'm among in both those lists?
It's like I'm Helen Hunt at the 1997 Oscars, nominated along with Dame Judi Dench and Julie Christie and Helena Bonham Carter and Kate Winslet... it's an honor to be nominated, and to be nominated alongside those iconic actresses kicks the honor up a notch or two. Or seven.
(Let me take this moment to point out the above statement is in no way intended to diminish Ms. Hunt's amazing body of work previous to As Good As It Gets. Let us not forget her unrivaled performance in Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, otherwise known as THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER PERIOD END OF STORY SO SHUT YOUR FACE.)
Marcy said it better than I could. So go read her post about CPSIA and how it's going to destroy libraries as we know them, and obliterate handmade toys.
I think the word nerd in me needs a few of those titles: Alphabet Juice (Roy Blount, Jr.); Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue(John MrWhorter); The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English (Henry Hitchings); and Verbatim: From the bawdy to the sublime, the best writing on language for the word lovers, grammar mavens, and armchair linguists (Erin McKean).
*Now, I myself never did the hiding-under-the-covers-with-a-flashlight-just-to-sneak-some-extra-reading-time thing, but isn't this the most romantically apropos blog title?
Okay, so you "responsible" people probably are all done with your Christmas shopping already. Because you're overachieving teacher's pets and all. Fine.
Now, for the rest of us... friends, procrastinators, lazy men (uh... and women), lend me your ears (uh... eyes)! Books make great gifts.
Really. books are awesome. It's so great to have them. To touch them, to smell them, to look at them all lined up so pretty on the bookshelf, and to read them. Owning books is fun. It's also expensive, if you're much of a reader. Especially if you're a fast reader, and finish the book in one weekend.
When you think about it, books are the perfect "pamper yourself" gift. It's something you'd like to buy for yourself, but you don't want to spend the money on it because you can just as easily get it from the library (of course, then you have to pay late fees, if you're like me, and forget to ever return the books on time). But owning a book of your very own? It's so much nicer!
They also make great personalized gifts - write a special note on the inside cover. But, please, write legibly, because when I find that book in my grandmother's collection or at some Half-Price Books or other second-hand store, I want to be able to read what you wrote. And please put the date, because that makes the find that much more fun.
If you're looking for some books to give, you can check out Meg Cabot's, Justine Larbalestier's or Moonrat's suggestions (courtesy of my Google Reader subs). If I have time this weekend I'll set up a Shelfari account (I have one under my teacher persona, and thought I was too lazy to make another one for myself as a person but then I decided I wanted to anyway) and you can see all the lovely things I've read that I like. Or the things I want to read, if you're looking to get something for me.
Because, yes, so many of you are - I can tell.
If you are shopping for Harry Potter fans, according to this blog J.K. Rowling is donating all proceeds from The Tales of Beedle the Bard "to an east European children's charity chaired by Rowling, called the Children's High Level Group." So there - the gift that keeps on giving.
The past month or so, I've been seriously reconsidering my career choice. You know, that same career I decided to leave for good a year and a half ago... but then came back to six months later. I've been back for almost a year, and I'm doubting again whether I belong here.
I'm a pretty angry, negative person to begin with. And there are quite a few major problems with the public education system, so there is plenty to be angry and negative about.
Today I was having a particularly end-of-my-rope day, and thinking I was done for good with this (however, given the nature of my day job, I can't put in my two weeks' notice until two weeks before the school year's out). My mood lifted slightly in the last hour or so, then I read this post by Janet Reid, about the publishing industry and its naysayers, and the last two paragraphs struck me:
If you've worked for ten years in an industry you don't value or respect, with people you find distasteful, that says more about you than it does about the industry.
So take a piece of advice from me: quit your job. Leave the work to those of us who love this damn industry more than we should, despite its myriad flaws, against all odds and really for no good reason.
Shut up and get out.
I'm a couple of years shy of ten, but everything else fits. Is God trying to send me a message? (If so, he's pretty nifty - I clicked on her blog post link on Twitter.)
I have a bit of sorting out to do. And I have plenty of time to do it in, since I can't change my job status until June. But I think I should keep these words in mind as I sort.
Twitter emailed me today, letting me know Heart_song was following me. So I followed back. And I found these two blog posts of hers, which I feel need to be shared:
I think I've slowly gotten over my perfectionism (I probably have NaNo to thank for that), but I could always use more help in letting it go. Now, the groan-up issue... this one is a bad weed. In early college, I think I was reading Don't Sweat the Small Stuff and read the chapter on negativity, where the guy suggested for every negative thought you have, you have to think of a positive one: if a guy cuts you off on the freeway and you call him a jerk, you have to think of three positive things to say about him. "He drives a fuel-efficient compact car, which is better for the environment;" "he might be late for work;" "his car is a pretty shade of blue." Yes, it can be hard to come up with three, but after a while your brain starts to think more positively (either that, or it learns to not think negatively, because then you have to pay for it with three nice things). I remember doing this and it working, but then I stopped... and went back to being my regular grumpy self.
The groan-up/grin-up thing is the same idea - replace your negative thought with a positive one. This is my challenge to myself. Lately, I've been griping about my job a lot. And it's easy to do, when other people gripe with you. But I like my job. I have fun there, most of the time. I like working with the kids, and I'm lucky that I do not teach a TAKS-tested subject, so admin leaves my department alone most of the time.
At times like this week, when grades are due, it can get hectic and stressful. Kids coming in Thursday afternoon or Friday morning, asking if there's anything they can do to bring their grade up... when the six weeks ends Friday at 3:45. Parents can see their kids' grades online, but not all of them know this or have signed up for it, so I need to call parents and let them know Johnny never turned in that big assignment. Do I have enough grades this six weeks? Do I have enough test grades? Did I call that parent to make sure she knows her daughter is failing because she sleeps in class or, when awake, plays Tetris on her computer? Why is it my resposibility to keep up with these things, when I have 179 students but the parents only have 2-4 kids each? Shouldn't it be the parents' responsibility to keep up with the kids' grades?
I get to work by 7:00 and usually don't leave until after 5:00, most of the time it's closer to 6:00. We do have meetings all the time (2-3 a week, most weeks). This cuts into grading/lesson planning time. There is not enough time in the day to do everything I want to do... Freddy and I had a more concrete (ie: we've set a tentative date) conversation about having kids; how's all that going to work, working this much (and still not getting it all done) and having a newborn? Will I be able to handle it? Will things get better next year, after I've taught a full year in this school, in this subject (I have a nasty habit of jumping grade levels or subjects every few years, which is starting over all over again)? Or am I just telling myself it will be easier?
It's easy to drown yourself in a glass of water... especially for me. I like drama. And personal pity parties. And I like to complain about injustices in the world, percieved or otherwise. The science department has to contact 2-3 parents a week, and TeleParent (and automated calling system with pre-recorded messages - student didn't turn in major project; sleeping in class; made an A on a test - doesn't count); the math department has to offer tutoring every day from 4-6 (don't know if they're getting paid extra; our contracts end at 4:00). My department doesn't have to do any of that, but I'll sit and whine about how unfair it is that they are required to do that - which is unfair, on top of everything else. And why doesn't TeleParent count as a way to contact parents about their kids' progress? The district is paying good money for it, we should use it! It's a great system/tool! Uh... but do I use it? It would be very easy to keep up with those parents (or cover my butt about keeping up with parents) if I used it, but I don't. Then, at the end of the six weeks, I complain that the parents should be checking up on grades, I shouldn't have to call each and every parent... when, really, all I have to do is click a few buttons on the computer. I focus on whining about things, instead of looking for solutions or focusing on the things that are going well.
And so we arrive at the end of my rambling. I should read over all this and check it for coherency, but I have to finish grading a few assignments for my level 3 classes, and I would like to hit 40K by tonight (probably won't happen; I'm at 34,356 at the moment). I'm still about a week ahead of schedule, but I want to keep my lead!!! (Have I mentioned how much I love my AlphaSmart? Because I love it lots.)
Or, if you're too lazy to click on that link, just go to this one directly.
In other news, NaNoWriMo is going stunningly well. I'm at the half-way point already, almost a full week ahead of where I'm supposed to be. This has never happened before.
Another thing that has never happened before? Barely a blog post all November. As Marcy pointed out to me last year (when I was still a loyal Xangan), I tended to blog more in November than any other time of year - because I wrote on my laptop, usually at places with Wi-Fi. So... I would hop on over to the blog between scenes, or in the middle of scenes, or after writing one sentence, or after writing no sentences because I needed to whine about the writing not going well.
This year?
This year, I haz an AlphaSmart. It haz no Internetz. Just wordz.
I lurvez it.
And, on a side note, I believe it is more ergonomical than a laptop. It feels more comfortable to write with the AlphaSmart on my lap than to write with a laptop on my lap.
So, Internetz peeps, I'm off to get another thousand words or so in before bedtime. 'Night!
Slowly clearing out my Google Reader backlog, I came across this post on The Swivet, regarding Prop 8 in California. I couldn't have said it better myself, so I won't try (aren't you relieved?) But I wil quote:
Let me be perfectly clear: Nobody who would truly claim to be a Christian would ever support such a proposition. Why? Because it's not something that Jesus Christ himself ever would have supported. The dude was a radical, remember? He partied with whores and tax collectors and slept with twelve other men for three years. I'd say he was pretty much okay with the whole same-sex thing, wouldn't you???
Ah, the wonderful world of links! It's six degrees of separation on acid. And hours and hours of time INSTANTLY GONE.
You see, my sister recently introduced me to the world of Google Reader (you can see part of the results at my nifty Shared Items widget to the right). Which is nice. Unless you feed it after midnight and then let it jump into an Olympic-sized pool.
I have come across a couple of writers' and agents' blogs through random chance or friends' blogs, but my lovely friend Google Reader has been so kind as to suggest MORE. The first day I started clicking around, my eyeballs slowly became suctioned to the screen - only to be pried away by the lure of Swiss chocolate and ice-cream.
Now, really, I can't really be faulted for this. I'm learning about The Business. What do agents like? What do they absolutely despise? Should I send blueberry or orange-cranberry muffins with my query?
The main thing I've been reading up on is, in fact, The Query. See, before, I had a vague idea of what this was. I knew I needed one. But it scared me a little. So I put it off... indefinitely. (Not that this was going to be a problem, since before I get to the point of querying I need to have a finished, polished, ready-to-submit novel... and the Edit Faeries have been seriously slacking on the job.) After all my late-night reading, however, I'm all pumped to write queries for my novels.
(BTW - my favorite agent blog right now is Pub Rants - which is not about drunken Irishmen. If you scroll down, you'll see her Labels, or you can keep scrolling down... way down... until you get to the last two sections, that give you examples of queries and her workshops on queries.)
I'm a Pantser. I try to outline, but it just doesn't work for me. My characters are way too rebellious (and they have better ideas, most of the time). So, no outlines, no plotting, no premeditation - just writing. Which works great, until you need to edit the whole thing into a coherent novel.
Writing queries and synopses for my novels should help me organize what I want my novel to be, what the key elements are, what needs to stay, what needs to (*sniff*) go, what needs to be highlighted, etc.
The plan right now: finish the editing/re-translating job (which might be a little challenging, considering Brainiac LEFT THE ORIGINAL TEXT ON THE PLANE this morning...), finish and submit my dissertation, then focus exclusively on Life Choices (my very first NaNo. Ah, memories...) I had already gone through about half the novel with first revisions, but that was so long ago I'll just have to start all over. Which is good, because I have all this New Knowledge now.
