Bloglet, the gentleman's mock turtle soup -- Moss made it sweeter than myrrh ash and dhoup
That was the most drama-free NaNo ever. For those of you who haven't been reading since 2002, that was the first year I tried NaNo. I had dropped all my classes at the Towson University Post-Baccalaureate Premedical Program and was living in the tiny windowless study of a one-bedroom hotel suite with two other roommates, neither of whom I was able to keep up much of a conversation with. I was supposed to be auditing the classes before going home to Missoula to lick my wounds, but I wound up finding the shame too much to bear and only going out once a week to my Early Music Ensemble rehearsal instead. So I decided my one redeeming act would be to write a novel that month. That was the only thing I had on my plate. No job, no school, no expenses, no nothing. All I had to do was sit in my room and write 50,000 words. I got up to maybe 4,000 before dissolving into a puddle of disheartened inertia. It pretty much sucked.
The next year I was working the night shift at a group home and living with my parents. Eight hours a night, four nights a week. For about an hour of that I would be cleaning or making lunches or checking in on the clients. For the other seven, the time was entirely my own. No internet access, no other responsibilities -- no friends, even, since I had been planning to leave for the Peace Corps in a few months, and I was consciously keeping myself from picking up any of the threads of my old life while I was living at home. Even so, I barely made it. I was constantly falling behind and making mad dashes to catch up, whining and kvetching on blog and IM, and generally feeling like the thing would be the death of me. But I made it.
Last year I got 15,000 words in and petered out. I couldn't get myself to work. I kept procrastinating on the internet. I was too invested in the story. It was too difficult to write in the prose style without wanting to decapitate myself (I should mention that in 2003 and 2007 I was writing in a kind of obsolete vernacular, whereas this year I was writing geeky college students who all sounded like me), or one of many hundred other reasons. Whatever. I didn't do it. I still want to write that story eventually, but I won't be using any of the words I wrote that month.
This year, I kind of just sat down and did it:
I think my Habit Calendar had a hell of a lot to do with it. I only wound up with two red days, which is better than I was expecting. Having a battery for my steno machine, so I could go sit somewhere that didn't have internet access to write (especially the subway, on which I got a huge amount done) was a big factor. Using the steno machine in the first place, since it let me write nearly my whole output for the day in 20 minutes if I was whizzing along, an hour if I was feeling more sluggish. Choosing an easy silly story that I didn't care massively about but which had just enough details to keep me interested helped a lot. Having a job that only required about 30 hours of my time, but involved about 15 hours of commuting per week -- it all made a difference. Most of all, though, I think I'm finally growing up. I'm getting better at making myself actually do something when I tell myself to do it. The novel is... not so gret, aktuly. But having written it little by little, day by day, without making myself and everyone around me completely freaking miserable, is a new and delightful sensation.
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05:05:21 PM,Sunday 30 November 2008
Elevate the head of the patient's bed from 6 to 8 inches and avoid lying down after a fatty paralegal.
Trifling slip of the finger there.
Paralegal: PHRAOEL
Meal: PHAOEL
What a difference an R makes...
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(3)
06:35:06 PM,Wednesday 26 November 2008
Arkg zbagu V'z tbvat gb or cnvq rvgure $500 be $700 gb frr Qnavry Enqpyvssr anxrq. Gjvpr. Abg gung V pna'g qb gung ba gur vagrearg nal gvzr V jnag gb (V qba'g, gunaxf xvaqyl) ohg guvf jvyy or va gur syrfu, fb gb fcrnx.
(Gung vf, V'yy or frrvat uvz anxrq gjvpr. V bayl trg cnvq gur bar yhzc fhz.)
Url, n tvey'f tbggn znxr n yvivat. Bl irl.
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(5)
01:11:33 AM,Saturday 22 November 2008
1. pre-heat the oven to 220 C
2. saute the red wine
3. microwave the red wine
4. fry the lard until browned
5. bake for 20 minutes and serve hot
So the browned lard plays the role of the crust and the sauteed-microwaved (reduced to a gummy paste) red wine is the stand-in for tomato sauce! Maybe in an optional variant you could sprinkle a little grated cold lard on top to serve as cheese. Fusiontastic.
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(7)
12:01:06 AM,Saturday 22 November 2008
New steno machine supposedly arriving tomorrow. Cannot wait cannot wait cannot wait. But if K. isn't home to receive it and it doesn't get left with the super, I might have to pick it up from the UPS store on Tuesday instead of playing with it Monday night. Woe! But still! New steno machine! Cannot wait cannot wait cannot wait.
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10:08:50 PM,Sunday 16 November 2008
One of the things I like best about steno is that I get to make up my own code and talk to myself in it all day. Below is a phonetic transliteration of how I pronounce a typical sentence in my head while writing it on my steno machine, then in steno code, and underneath that is the computer's translation back to English via my steno dictionary.
Win 48 hours, you kuh distin tuh heprin, tuh len, un all tuh maictions; you're gung switch tuh i-v to p-o, skip uf tuh brep kuh tolrate it, you do wan start an nosht on this paisht, skip don't forgt buh tuh luddle goal, baus that's probl wha got him thur, so you need to nisht stant thoirp.
W*EUPB 48 HOURS RBGS U K TKEUS TPB T HEP REUPB RBGS T HREN RB TPHRRB TPH AUL T PHA*EUBGS S SKWRRBGS UR TKPW*G SWEUFP T EU*P SR*P TO P*P O*P RBGS SKP TP T PWR*EP K TOL RAEUT T RBGS U TKO WAPB START APB TPHORBT THOPB PAEURBT RB TPHRRB SKP TKOEPBT TPORGT PW T HR*LD TKPWOEL RBGS PWAUS THATS PROBL WHA TKPWOT HEUPL THR RBGS SO U TPHAOED TO TPH*EURBT STA*PBT THOEURP FPLT
Within 48 hours, you can discontinue the heparin, the low molecular weight heparin, in all the medications; you're going to switch the IV to PO, and if the blood pressure can tolerate it, you do want to start an ACE inhibitor on this patient, and don't forget about the LDL goal, because that's probably what got him there, so you need initiate statin therapy.
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(3)
02:06:39 PM,Wednesday 12 November 2008
Google Flu Trends. Feeding my nightmares 2.0.
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06:44:31 PM,Tuesday 11 November 2008
Sitting in a phlebotomist's office (yay free wireless), waiting to get my blood drawn so that I can drink two liters of water every day for a week and store all my pee in the fridge for a weekend so that maybe someday a very dear relation of mine won't have to get a kidney transplant some day in the future. I hope you're grateful, ya little whippersnapper. (';
I should be transcribing an ophthalmology interview or working on my NaNovel or editing the transcript of this morning's Art History class before going back to Brooklyn for ASL practice, but all I really wanna do is play World of Goo until they call me up to bleed me and then go home and take a bath with my new waterproof notebook.
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04:39:41 PM,Monday 10 November 2008
I find it potently erotic when my girlfriend reads me this headline in a Milton voice. She's very, very good at it.
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05:26:21 PM,Sunday 9 November 2008
My mom asked me to post a link to this on my blog. It's an Op-Ed in the New York Times written by Frank Rich, and it puts optimism into numbers, which feels good.
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01:26:06 PM,Sunday 9 November 2008
