50,333

50, 333 words.



50, 333 words in 29 days. I can't believe it either. I was going to write a very different result for this year's NaNoWriMo, but I somehow found the strength over the Saturday and Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend to go past the 45,000 I clocked in, starting last Saturday.



I did use a combination of paper, Dragon Naturally Speaking and typing to complete the 17 Days collection, which is a scruffy but suitable first draft. I hope to have the strength and desire to edit it.



This year's NaNoWriMo was tough for me. I really did not have it in me at times to finish. I experienced two very emotionally crushing blows. One admittedly was somewhat expected though no less painful. As each day passes and I try to make peace with what has happened though I find acceptance very hard and try to hope for the best, but sitting with the worst.



There was a week I didn't write. And the NaBloPoMo challenge? Fuggeddaboutit. This will be second year I was unable to blog for 30 days straight (unless you could my tweets and retweets). I simply could not channel my pain and frustration and other emotions-not into writing anyway. There are times I miss overnight stocking and outdoors work-I was more successful channeling there. I actually abandoned one of the stories I started, because the parallels were too painful and I knew that this story would not end happily ever after.



(Most of my past creative writing teachers would probably tell you that any fiction I wrote centered on lots of tragedy, sometimes flippantly, but it was there and I could distance myself from it enough to write it.)



I can't say why I picked it up again. I wish I could say that I didn't want to leave something undone, not completed. I wish I could say that it was another promise that I didn't want to lose out on. I can't say.



I just know that I picked up the outline and went over it the way I do at work; figuring out what needs to be done and what problem needs to be solved. Then I started writing. I was interested in seeing where it would go. I stopped paying attention to word counts and just wrote.



It didn't happen without pain, for the residual pain was still there as was the situation that was the source of the pain. Being annoyed with certain coworkers and client for jackassery that made my life more difficult didn't help either. I was tired. I would stop and not know how to continue. Then I would know and continue.



Somehow. I find myself here. On November 30, having written 50,333 words (so said the word validator at the nanowrino site).



So closes another NaNoWriMo for me. Five years of participation. One validated win (this one) that unfortunately I won't ever be able to savour as much as I imagined I would back when I started on November 1st.

Soundtrack of the day

On Twitter, I decided unconsciously to tweet the song that played in my head at the moment. Selections have included "Jacob's Ladder," the "theme from the first season of Pokemon," and "Atomic Dog."

It's amazing what songs will waft through your head at odd moments. I get some interesting responses, since my tweets are also displayed on Facebook.

Veteran's Day and other thoughts

Today marks the 90th anniversary of the "War to End All Wars," (or so everyone at the time thought) also known as World War I. This is a war that the USA partcipated in, albeit towards the end and a war that is definitely seen as being more of a European matter than an American one, even though President Wilson had a lot of input into the events that laid the groundwork for World War II.

The Korean War is often times called the "Forgotten War" because it had the misfortune to be sandwiched between World War II and Vietnam. I think World War I is more of a forgotten war since we don't think of it as much as we do the others and we have a vague idea that it started with the assassination of some royal person in Austria. In school, World War I (WWI) was usually passed over so that we could speed the 1920s and then spend some time in the Great Depression, before we hit World War II (WWII).

According to the article posted at Yahoo, for many of the WWI veterans ('many' being an ironic term here) this will be their last milestone celebration of what was known to them as 'Armistice Day.'

The article can be found here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081111/ts_afp/wwi90yearshistory_081111182918

What we now call 'Veteran's Day' was known as 'Armistice Day,' which commemorated the end of WWI at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. As time went on and more wars sadly were fought, this holiday became 'Veteran's Day' and is a day usually set aside for honoring all veterans.

Usually.

Until September 11th and then until the beginning of the wars in 2003 in Afghanistan and Iraq, Veteran's Day had more resonance for those who lived through past wars. Those who were a generation or two removed were taught by example that this day was a day off to sleep in or catch up on things. I remember that news broadcasts would make "drive by" mentions of Veteran's Day, such that you hardly knew it even happened.

It's different now, with more veterans from the late Boomer, Gen X and early Gen Y generations swelling the ranks. I also think that many of us are realizing that those who came before-the WWI, the WWII and the Korean vets-are leaving us all too soon and they still have stories to tell.

Though the veteran that I had in the family died long before I was born, I did take a moment at 11:00am to think about him and to reflect how he would have thought about how all of the stuff he took as a Black man in the army of WWII would have been worth it since his granddaughter got to grow up in a world with more possibilities than he had and got to vote for a man of African and American descent without any problems. He would have been pleased to know that in recent years, the country whose freedom he defended, even though it was not always good to him, appreciate even more than before the duty and sacrifice that he and his fellow soldiers of all races made on their behalf.



And now for the totally unrelated-I can't resist a good Sulu vs. Kirk grudge match:

http://www.popeater.com/television/article/william-shatner-cant-let-go-of-his/244366

Sarah Palin, motherhood and Alaskan women

[Below is an exchange that I entered into regarding an article about Sarah Palin on Facebook.]

They Raise Children, Pray and Support Palin - NYTimes.com
Source: www.nytimes.com
Gov. Sarah Palin has a following of Alaska women as dedicated to her as others were to a very different politician, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"These are women who dip in and out of the work force, believe in prayer and spend their days trying to keep the crayon off the walls. They feel they have been looked down on by Clinton feminists and ignored by the power structure in the Republican Party. The fact that Ms. Palin has five children, including Trig, a newborn with Down syndrome, only makes her that much more part of the sisterhood.“I’m not that into politics,” said Delores Field, an Alaska Inupiat from Eagle River, near Anchorage, who does not consider herself a Democrat or a Republican.

“I’m just going to vote for Trig Van Palin’s mom.”

Add a comment1 comment


Tara at 10:11am Sep 5
"I’m not that into politics; I’m just going to vote for Trig Van Palin’s mom."Oh god. What a great reason to cast your vote...

Kitlat at 1:33pm Sep 5

It actually is a valid reason. We vote for who we think can represent and do the most for us. Some people vote for the President that you feel you can have a beer with vs. the other guy who knew the job better than anyone, but had a hard time connecting with people and inspiring them until he did a little film called "An Inconvenient Truth."

Kitlat at 1:34pm Sep 5

Some people vote for the little Midwestern haberdasher who was never rich or privileged, who had experienced more failure than success, who was left in the dark by the predecessor who overshadowed him and didn't think much of him, but who was around to cleanup the end of a long war and who believed in something as unfashionable as giving everyone a "fair deal" and having the buck stop with him-qualities that those voters felt represented their idea of what America is supposed to be. People follow, endorse and vote for people that they feel connect wth them, whether it is a connection based on being one of them, understanding their needs or because they represent an ideal they connect with.

Kitlat at 1:35pm Sep 5

Policy is important. Issues are important, but they mean little if the people that they affect feel that you will not represent their interests because you cannot connect with them, cannot understand them-again, as a certain VP learned during his campaign for president and during his subsequent campaign against global warming.

Kitlat at 1:35pm Sep 5

I respect a lot about Sarah Palin's background-I don't agree with many of her positions and many of the decisions she made on behalf of Alaska and I will not vote for the ticket in November, but I connect with many things in her experience-including mothers who dip in and out of the work force and try to keep crayons off the walls and food on the table and who find enjoyment in soaps and may occasionally play the lottery and who have to balance childcare and work-especially without the help of a partner. I also feel there is some truth to the idea that some of the women who fit the profile of a Clinton feminist do look down upon such women and belittle them and well, women's groups and other groups have paid for it at the ballot box ever since