Just a Quickie

I'm still ahead on my Nanowrimo, but I'm certainly aching to finish it up. With only about 15000 words left to go, I hope to have it finished before Thanksgiving. Speaking of which, Turkey Day is a week from today, so there is a chance I won't be posting. We'll see. I have some interesting things to write about on Twilight and the Matrix, but those will have to wait till after Thanksgiving. I've also decided I need to leave my current job at the company and plunge headfirst into substitute teaching. The headfirst plunge would be easier if all of my free time not spent working for said company I'm leaving wasn't taken up by trying to keep my wife from going crazy over the lack of money, house and numerous other things. Plus I think I have the flu or something like it, as this cough/cold has only become more troublesome over the past few days.

The Ongoing November

It's a tough time right now, as the full weight of my student loans is about to come to bear on me starting next month. As it stands, I don't make enough at my current job to pay my loans per month, much less everything else I need to spend money on. This biweekly payday is a killer as I am always out of money within four days of my payday.

Slight progress on the sub front, basically a half application to Seekonk. The Veteran's Day holiday messed it up as the schools and admin office were closed on the one ideal time I had to drop off my finished application.

I stalled out on Nanowrimo a tiny bit, thankfully my stupidly high word count has sustained my lack of time to write these past three days. I am about to see if I can get back on track and regain the lead on the word count I've been enjoying. I stopped updating my word count on the site, as it seemed to be an annoyance and distraction to the people I'm writing with.

Debt Worries

It certainly seems that November will go better than Octobor, but there is so much ground to cover and so little time to move forward. I'm haunted by my school debts, a ghost I let linger on the back burner for several months too long. I also remain stuck on moving my career forward. I have done nothing since last week to sign up for substitute teaching. Beyond that, I have found my current retail job increasingly difficult to work at, now that I've finally realized how fruitless it is.

On the other hand, the work towards my real career continues quite well. Five days into NaNoWriMo and I'm still far ahead of the daily word count. I can only hope this momentum can sustain me to the end. Still got 38,000 words to go. The story I settled on was the Harry Potter inspiration, but it has moved so far beyond my wildest expectations. The opening has transcended all my hopes and will easily surpass the 15,000 word count I had planned for it. It takes the three viewpoints and weaves them together, adding new details that utterly change the previous writing.

Harry Potter and the Nanowrimo

As October comes to a close, I have few things to talk about. My lack of a Halloween costume, for one. However, the two main focuses of this post will be about my thoughts after rereading the Harry Potter series and the upcoming challenge that is Nanowrimo.

Harry Potter was well worth the second read. Although the spoilers were all known, the intricacy with which the stories were woven come out much clearer on the second read. The absurd Hallows seemed to fit into the story better than before, and my much dreaded fifth and seventh books were surprisingly good to read. Although, the fourth and sixth were even better than I remembered, and easily take the top to slots in my order of preference. The sixth is above and beyond all the other books, in terms of content and entertaining. I still dislike the idea of Tom Riddle being a person too far past the point of redemption, a villain that can never become more than a villain. It speaks to my Catholic sensibility that no person is beyond the redemptive power of God, and this sensibility reflects in my writing.

As to my writing, I am faced with a difficult choice in the next few days. With the Harry Potter series behind me, I am faced with the choice of writing my magic-based Nanowrimo without the aid of those books. A lot of inspiration and ideas have emerged from those books, and it is difficult to write those down and move on, yet I worry I will lose interest and patience for that story very quickly. Of course, my main goal in the magic story would be to tell a story about wizards that is more based upon the variety and complexity that is seen in the D&D series. My other option is the Patagonia story, which involves psions and two interlinked but separate stories, a before and after story lines which could be confusing and difficult to pull off. This was my initial plan for Nanowrimo, until I got the idea for my magic story, which is a much more interesting idea. Then there is the third option, a story about a successful book writer and his personal assistants, whom inevitably end up quitting as they find themselves characters in his stories. The plot for this one is ultimately irrelevant, which scares me as a plot based writer. The only real interest in this story for me is trying to capture and focus solely on the characterizations and the interactions of these two main characters and a recurring third character. Small cast, limited plot, are all things I dislike and avoid in my writing, which are two of my greatest faults as a writer at this time

Ultimately, I see myself as a writer, and nothing else. No job, no vocation has spoken to my experience the way that writing has. I would not go so far to say I have a gift to write, but rather an inevitable draw to write. I have realized the one thing I will do consistently for the rest of my life is make up stories in my head. I will always have my stories, which vary in flavor but revolve similar ideas. I only wish I was capable of getting some of them published, to be one of those lucky people that gets paid to do what they would do with their life anyways. It is certainly my hope to be that lucky.

Lisa: Phrank's Hero!

Title suggested by Francis himself : )
So Frank's computer has a virus that has disabled his internet, so it's up to me. Hi guys!!
Ummmm, what to write about. Well, Francis went to a play tonight called Pericles: Prince of Tyre. Apparently is was very good, nice and entertaining, and even better than the Patriots game.
NaNoWriMo!! My story is almost at 6,000 words, and I am way far behind. Frank has a but more written than I do, but we're not sure how much yet cause part of it is not on his computer. We're having a writing marathon this weekend. We both have to write nearly 20,000 words to catch up. That's a lot.
I guess I could write about wedding stuff, but there's nothing really exciting to report, except that my dress came in : ) Other than that, we're basically waiting until we have more money to do anything. It kinda sucks. Oh well. We're getting married this summer, even if the reception doesn't have any food. At least there will be cake though.
I recently moved to Uxbridge, which is really spiffy, cause the house is great, and I'm closer to both Holy Cross and the good ole' NA. Super!!
I'd really like a puppy, or a kitten. I have a fish, a betta named Kirk that Frank actually bought for me, from his school, just about two years ago. He's red. Kirk, not Frank. So the other day I was cleaning his water, and I could have sworn he only had one fin!! The right fin was nowhere to be seen. I completely searched him (at least as completely as one can by looking through a fish bowl) and there was no fin. I was kinda sad, and a little disturbed that he was randomly missing a fin. And then, when I went to feed him that night, the fin was back! It was so weird. I'd even checked earlier to see if the fin was pressed against his body and it wasn't. Strange Kirk, odd just like his namesake.
Anywho, this post is kinda long, so I'll go now.

Placeholder for a real title

Boy howdy, little bro Frank swooping in to save the day. Greg texted me earlier today to post for him. So here I am. I'm way behind on my nanowrimo, though after the 4,000 words I wrote today. There were space pirates, and Greek gods and evil clones. What else more can you ask for in a story? A guy named Gilbert that talks to much, which my story has! Greg should be posting something later, but he's covered for this week. Here's a video for you:

Phrank: Let the Good times roll, in case...

God does show, in the end, but that's not really what my post is about.

First and foremost, a non-binding resolution for every member of the Walek estate to participate in National Novel Writing Month, this November! Basically, the point is to write 50,000 words which is 175 pages, from November 1st till midnight of November 30th. The goal is quantity, not quality. Now we can all be novelists! I'm signed up and I'm pretty sure my fiancee, Lisa, is going to be signed up as well. It'd be cool to have a bunch of us siblings doing it to. Just sayin'
Speaking of Lisa, she's moving to Uxbridge! That makes her about twenty minutes closer to HC! Lisa and I are going to be featured on the Kimball dining room menu for Family Weekend which is Oct. 25th, I believe. Perhaps you'd like to attend HC for this crazy weekend. I know I'm going to be nonstop busy, but it'd give you a chance to see what HC life is all about.
I'll be home at some point for Columbus Day weekend, not decided on that quite yet, I have a football game on Saturday, but after that, who knows! Speaking of football, I bought Madden 06 for $2.99, having a blast playing it and Spore.

One other crazy thing I'm doing during the month of Movember is letting my mo grow to raise money to combat prostate cancer. Quite a month coming up!