April or Bust

I had some goals for March. I didn't make a lot of them.

By Eirik Newth  [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

This might come as a surprise, given my sometimes-slacker 'tude and occasional failure to remember things, but it really bothers me when that happens. I don't like falling short. And that's sort of what I did, both in training and writing.


For training, I completed the National Half, but I was unhappy with my preparation and performance - more on that when I do the race report. 


For NaNoEdMo, I will be happy if I log 25 hours before the end of the month. It is not possible for me to finish 50 hours between now and then and remain sane. 


On the bright side...


I ran all 13.1 miles of National Half with virtually no knee pain. This is a vast improvement from three weeks ago. I will find another half to do in a few months and try for my goal time then. And until then, I will focus April on building strength, and building mileage in a way that does not re-aggravate my ITB.


For NaNoEdMo, much of the time I didn't spend editing, I spent either writing or reading. I don't consider this wasted time at all. It just means I will need to build editing time into April so I can make progress on this novel.

"Silver Lining" By ImUnicke (Own work) [GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

Brief Intermission...

It was a crazy weekend - crazy busy, not crazy Weekend At Bernies. The next few days will be just as busy. So while I have no shortage of things to blog about... I'll probably be off the radar for a few more days.


Until then... some stuff.


NaNoEdMo has gotten off to a slow start. Here's my progress as of Day 6. See the dark blue line? The sad looking one? Yeah... that's me. The few hours I have logged have not been focused on a single work. I feel like I should have gotten more today, but I feel weird about logging work stuff.

This might be, in part, due to some misspent time....


Pawn Stars is a great show - seriously, I know it must be somewhat staged but it's amazing what these guys know.

Still, I have questions...

• These people go in there and take a hit because the pawn shop has to be able to find a niche market for many of the items. In this day and age of the internet... WHY?
• How does one not notice the Made In USA stamp on the "original" French art?
• How much of that money actually leaves Vegas?
• Does anyone ever mess with Antoine?

Speaking of distractions...

Bucket List Blogfest is coming up - sign up today!


What else...

I made this for dinner last night. It also makes an excellent breakfast.

Pizza with fennel, pancetta, mozz, cheddar, and 1/2 with red onion.
Yes, breakfast. Don't judge.

I'll be at the Biophysical Society's annual meeting this week. I saw someone there today with something very much like this. I still am not quite sure what to say about that. I wish I had stopped and asked her about it.

Happy Monday folks. See you in a few days.

NaNoEdMo

I didn't really omit this on purpose. I just sort of... remembered... on Tuesday morning.


NaNoEdMo has begun!


What is NaNoEdMo you ask? Aside from a really cool name for a future rock band (I'll manage), NaNoEdMo is National Novel Editing Month. Participants commit to editing 50 hours for the month of March - that's something like 1.67 hours/day. I'll be tracking my progress using a handy spreadsheet a writing friend made, and posting updates once a week or so.


Most of my editing will be on my NaNoWriMo novel from last year. I went back to it a few weeks ago and did a read through and made some notes. I'm still really psyched about it, although I know it needs a ton of work. This is a great opportunity to focus on some of that.


I also plan to revisit 2 short stories that need major work, and to finish going through a manuscript sent out by a member of my writing group. 


All in all, it should be a busy month! (...I might.. already.. sorta be playing catchup. Oh well!)