Iesus Non Amat Me

It's the end of November, which means it's the end of NaBloPoMo so you won't have to suffer my posts quite so regularly after this. At least not until next November!

I had hoped to have Mum's advent calendar made up and ready to go by now, but I had unexpectedly longer shifts at work so I haven't quite put all the final bits together. It's still on track though, so should be ready for tomorrow. Just maybe a bit later in the day than I'd planned!

Also tomorrow is the start of Christmas jumpers at work. I look forward to cycling through my rather extensive collection!

As you may have worked out from my uncharacteristically regular posting, I am attempting NaNoBloPo again this year. That's where you have to make a blog post every day for the month of November. Although I think the original expectation was that these posts would be detailed, insightful, and have actual content and meaning and not just be whatever random nonsense you can think of to fill a few sentences just so you can say you've posted something.

Oh well.

I'm not doing NaNoWriMo. Mainly because I already have so many unfinished fics I need to work on. Which is the exact same reason I gave for not doing it last year and I don't think I've actually worked on any of those stories in the meantime. I want to work on them but I feel completely uninspired and if I try to make myself write anyway it's like my brain doesn't work properly and I can't make the words come out like I want them too. It's really disheartening cos when I first started the main fic I'm working on I was so inspired for it. I was thinking about it all the time, the scenes popped into my head so easily and any spare moment I had I'd get my laptop out and just write. I even started carrying around a notebook for when ideas came to me and I didn't have access to my laptop, which happened often. The words just flowed, almost like the story already existed and I was just the one typing it up. But that's all come to a grinding halt.

I don't know. Part of me wonders if maybe I should post what I've got so far and hope that kicks my brain back into gear and encourages me to finish the rest. That might be the only way of solving this.

My basil plant was getting out of control, so I've stripped a load of the leaves and made pesto. I didn't really follow a recipe, just threw things together and hoped for the best. It tasted ok when I tried it, but the real test will be this evening when I have it with dinner. If I don't post tomorrow it's probably because I've poisoned myself.

I think I am going to attempt NaBloPoMo this year and, as I'm not sure I can think of enough things to talk about to fill 30 journal entries, rachg82 has very helpfully given me a list of topics to talk about.

( 30 Topics for November )

Today's topic is favourite song. It's a tricky one because there are quite a few songs I love, but whenever I answer this question I usually go with After All by Dar Williams. I've loved it for many years and it means so much to me that, even now, it still has the power to make me cry.

I win.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

I carved my pumpkin on Saturday while watching Strictly Come Dancing and drinking wine. Maybe that's why he looks so happy:





Such a happy pumpkin.

He's currently sitting by the front door, ready to welcome any trick-or-treaters who might come by. So far no-one has appeared, possibly put off by the rain, but the night is still young.

I went to Starbucks earlier and tried a pumpkin spice latte. I was a bit wary at first but it was actually really nice. When I got home I made bat cookies and now I'm drinking a jack-o-lantern cocktail. It's quite strong and I still have to make dinner later. Hopefully I'll be able to stay upright.

I'm also dressed up, complete with witch earrings and Elphaba necklace. I mention this because no one else is. I'm really the only person in my family who gets excited about things like Halloween and Christmas. Clearly I need to get some children. Or find some friends who live close enough that I can force them to celebrate with me.

In other news, it's November tomorrow and that means I have to decide if I want to do NaNoWriMo and/or NaBloPoMo this year. I'm pretty certain that I won't be able to write 50,000 words, but I'm thinking it might be good to try and write something. And I hardly ever come on LJ any more, so NaBloPoMo might be difficult to achieve. Or it could be my triumphant return. I see I'm not alone in drifting away from this site though, so if I do end up posting every day I'll probably end up filling your friends pages with nothing but my pointless ramblings.

Second day of November and I'm already struggling with what to post. Maybe I should give up on NaBloPoMo as well.

But if I do that then who will inspire spam accounts to blog about barrie dentist? Clearly there are important issues to consider here.

Hmm...

Here it is, the last day of November. Now, where are we?

Snow - finally here! Not too much of it, so travel wasn't disrupted, but enough to leave a very pretty white blanket over everything and more flakes falling from the sky almost constantly. It was like a scene from those Christmas films which are always so unrealistic, showing people doing their Christmas shopping in the softly falling snow!

NaNoWriMo - 43,104 words. So technically I've failed. But I feel very accomplished because I have actually finished the story this time! Usually what happens is that I reach the end of November and lose all my momentum. All my other NaNo stories just stop suddenly with no resolution and it never really feels right to go back and continue them so they just stay like that. But not this one!

NaBloPoMo - This post marks my success! I'm sure you will all be pleased that it's coming to an end and you will no longer have to suffer my stupid rambling every day. Rest assured, the stupid rambling will be more spread out from now on.

I think my brain is sabotaging itself. I decide to do NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo and suddenly I find all these other things I would rather do instead. Most of which don't even involve me using my computer.

I'm currently on 2683 words for NaNo. That's far behind the 8334 I should be on now but I'm hoping to catch up at the weekend when I have more free time. Assuming that I don't find something else to fill it with, of course.

Thank you to everyone who replied to my last entry. I really do appreciate your kind responses.

I know I've been rubbish at commenting lately and I promise to try and do better. I just have to silence that little voice that always pipes up to tell me that everything I write is stupid and the person whose journal I'm replying to will judge me and hate me forever because of it.

It's that same voice that stops me posting as much as I would like to. But I actually have a way of dealing with that. I'm doing NaBloPoMo again, which means I have to post an entry every day of November, no matter how stupid it may be.

I think I have a better chance of winning that than NaNoWriMo. At the moment I really don't feel in any kind of mood to write anything. I mean, it's taken me the better part of an hour to write this entry alone!

Still, I can but try. Maybe once I've started I'll get into the rhythm and it'll be easier. Now I just need to work out where to start...

Happy Halloween for yesterday! I hope everyone had fun. I had a great time carving pumpkins and watching Halloween episodes of TV programmes. I also ate more chocolate than I probably should have.

And I'm still eating the chocolate now. It's brain food. And why do I need brain food? Because it's the 1st of November and that means it's NaNo time! So far my story has, uh, zero words because I'm still not certain what I'm going to write. But I'll think of something. I will.

I'm also planning to do NaBloPoMo again, where you write a journal entry a day for every day of November, so expect to be hearing a lot from me from now until December.

And lastly, I have a cold. I'm telling you this because, well, I think it's important to share.