Mental Meanderings

I'm still alive

Woo Hoo!! Celebration. lol Ok, so I know most of you didn't miss me (Hi Mel) but I wanted to drop in and let you know that I'm doing well and cruising along nicely. Feeling like I have something worth talking about each day had started to really become a chore so I stopped writing any entries at all in my blog which I suppose is even worse.

The good news is that I'm writing one today and I think that primarily it's because of NaNoWriMo. Hands up if you know what that is? For those of you who don't know, November is National Novel Writing Month (according to http://www.nanowrimo.org). I learnt about NaNo in December last year when people on WDC were talking about their results. Too late to join in the fun in 2004 but I've signed up this year and already made a fantastic start.

My novel Child of the Storm isn't as completely outlined as The Dating Game was when I started but the first chapter or so is well planned. I only remembered NaNo about a week ago and I had no idea what I would write. I did consider writing my other 'Storm' story but no matter how much pressure I put on that initial idea it just isn't growing. Perhaps it's destined to be shelved or perhaps it's only worthy of a short story (but then I have no idea how to do that either).

*sighs* Sorry, ramble, ramble. Anyway, I'm over 3,000 words into my NaNo novel after day one. And I'm feeling very confident at not only achieveing the 50,000 word count by November 30 but also having a substantial first draft at the end of it. I'm finally writing in the genre I want to write in (fantasy) and I've got a great story even if all the finer details aren't ironed out.

As for my other projects I'm still going strong there too. http://www.ipseitys.com is going very well and we had a fantastic 50 registrations in October with 8 characters approved for play. This is an excellent start for the site and I'm encouraged for the progress of the next few months. It can only get better from here on in.

I'm still going with Weight Watchers although it's much harder and very frustrating than I thought at first. My first week I was very annoyed to learn I had actually gained 0.1 kg's. Week two was better with a 0.5 loss and week three a fantastic 1.6. Then it all fell down around me with a gain of 0.5 and another of 0.9. I'm hoping week six (weigh in tomorrow) will prove better results as I've worked hard to evaluate my last few weeks and get myself back onto the right track.

It's certainly not easy. There is a lot to learn about maintaining a healthy life style and it's more than eating less. In fact, I've discovered I have to eat more and that is something that is the hardest of all. How does anyone eat that much every single day and not explode? Apparently by not eating enough my bodies metabolism drops to reserve my energy stores and thus stores fat instead of burning it. Still, it's a challenge but I'm dedicated to sticking to it and making it work.

Kaylie has nearly finished Pre-Primary. She's growing up so quickly. I can't believe that in a few short months she'll be starting year one. She be six in April. That means it's been six years since I was that foolish seventeen year old who believed I was prepared for anything life might throw me and that I wanted to be a mother. I don't regret that choice, Kaylie is a joy, but six years later and I realise how young and clueless I was then.

In the past weeks I've done some various work for people, editing more than writing. One in particular has English as a second language and is currently studying at a university in the UK. He's from India originally and struggles with the language. He hires me to proof his school assignments and in a sense there is a little translation work in it. Not so much from a native language to English but from garbled translated English to, well, normal English. lol It's fun to see the way non-native speakers write other languages. I remember learning French and being very confused because sometimes sentences were, um, backwards. It works in reverse when they learn English.

Josh has had two new teeth come in over these past weeks. Makes for a grumpy baby boy that is more tiring than usual. He's also starting to communicate, sort of. Still no 'real' words but grunts and body language is improving. His understanding is excellent however so I'm encouraged by this to believe that the words will follow. He loves animals and always points out birds, and dogs and cats when we are out walking or in books. He kind of says 'woof woof' when he see's a dog but I think it's mostly my wishful thinking translating because it's more of a "ooohhhhfff" with outstretched pointing hands. lol

Beyond that, not much to update. I suppose I could also mention "Invalid Item" . The response to this contest is still fantastic. I've just opened up round four and annouced the round three winners. To think this started as a 'what do you think of this idea' comment here. Thanks again to everyone who supported the idea. Your support has benefitted so many people already and I hope to continue this contest into the future to aid many more.

Anyway, time to get lunch into me then hop over to my personal site, 'Still Writing' (http://www.ipseitys.com/laffarsmith) to update some links and possibly add a few more poems. I really should get some articles, short stories, short shorts, and novella's written to fill that site out. But who has the time for that sort of thing with everything else I'm working on at the moment.

Hope you all had a fantastic October and are looking forward to the November ahead. Less than two months till Christmas. Has anyone else not even started shopping for the occasion yet? I'll have to get onto that ASAP. lol G'night everyone.