Posted on 29 October 2006 @ 22:32 in Writing
I spent mine keeping mother company at the hospital. She’d come down with vomiting and purging; all the residents at GT Heritage caught it, beginning with Madam K who’d been in the hospital and brought it back with her, and infecting even two of the workers, one so bad she had to be hospitalised.
Two days after mother was hospitalised, she passed it to me so, yeah, I spent the long weekend sick.
Apparently, it was going around, and there was even an article about it in the New Straits Times.
What was it? Gastroenteritis, aka gastric flu.
So, no, I didn’t get to work on my NaNovel during the long weekend.
It’s three days to the start of NaNoWriMo 2006. A few months back, it hit me what my NaNovel will be about this year. I was so amazed I started writing up notes about the main character and her story. Then, the preparations got put aside. That’s how it’s always with me - start something in a fit of enthusiasm and then … nothing.
Actually, this year, I’m a little more prepared than previous years’ NaNovels. Apart from the characters, I have more than an idea of what the story will be about. I even have some situations, conflicts, etc.
Now that I come to think of it, I haven’t done much beyond the first burst of enthusiasm because I was afraid I would end up writing the story. And we all know, for NaNoWriMo, the actual writing doesn’t begin until the stroke of midnight on 1 November.
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Posted on 20 October 2006 @ 23:58 in General
It’s a long weekend here in Malaysia. Deepavali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, is tomorrow, while Hari Raya Puasa, which commemorates the end of the Muslim fasting month, is next Tuesday and Wednesday (a two-day holiday here). Sandwiched between the two festive holidays is lone Monday, which a lot of companies, including mine, have “declared” a holiday. For sure the Malaysian Government has declared it a public holiday for its employees (aka Government or civil servants), and many companies in the private sector are following, altho not completely, e.g., where I work, we have to take compulsory leave next Monday, meaning one day gets deducted from our annual leave. But I digress …
I don’t go back to work till next Thursday. What will I be doing all those days? I’ll be house-sitting … no, wait, actually I’ll be maid watching.
My sister and family will be away, leaving her new maid alone in the house. This new maid has said she’s not afraid of being on her own, but this new maid has also been known to spend her days watching TV and generally not doing what she’s employed to do. Imagine what she’ll be up to 24 hours a day unsupervised. So just to let her know she can’t get away with not working, there’ll be someone to keep her company during the day, and me to sleep over at night.
Should be interesting. Net access is limited at my sister’s house (no wireless router), and I can only read, or watch so much tv, at a stretch. Well, with NNWM 2006 just 12 days or so away, I should be spending some of the time doing prep work for my NaNovel. On my AlphaSmart Dana, of course.
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Posted on 14 October 2006 @ 22:16 in Writing
All those posts about AlphaSmart on NaNoWriMo’s NaNo Technology discussion forum have finally paid off. AlphaSmart has donated 25 Neo’s to the NaNoWriMo Laptop Loaner programme.
Read all about it here:
Breaking News: Wee Machines
Way to go, AlphaSmart!
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Posted on 12 October 2006 @ 22:06 in Reading, Writing
I discovered this book through either the Moleskinerie or Notebookism site, and immediately set about looking for a copy. It’s one of those rare, out-of-print books so I headed straight to my favourite rare book site, Alibris, found what I wanted and ordered a copy. That was more than a month ago. I almost thought it got lost on its way to me, but this evening, arriving at my sister’s, I found a brown envelope waiting for me. Yay! My copy of Howard Junker’s The Writer’s Notebook is here.
What drew me to the book is not just the opportunity to read about how writers work, but also to see pictures of actual pages from their journals. The book was mentioned in a discussion about contemporary obsession with how we write, or rather what we write with. This is one of many discussions at the NaNoWriMo site’s NaNo Technology discussion forum - participants discussing what they plan to write their NaNovels with. I, of course, am an active participant, telling the others about my wonderful AlphaSmart Dana. But I digress …
A total of 16 writers are featured in Junker’s book. I am only familiar with five of them - Kathy Acker, Dorothy Allison, Maxine Hong Kingston, Martin Cruz Smith and Gary Snyder. I read the Dorothy Allison article while waiting for dinner at my sister’s, and then started reading Maxine Hong Kingston’s on the way home - literally reading it while waiting for the lift at my apartment block and even in it, too.
I love seeing pictures of how writers work. A while back, I found and bought a copy of The Writer’s Desk - also from good old Alibris.
I only wish reading about how and where writers work, I am inspired to write better, or at least to write more.
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Posted on 9 October 2006 @ 22:32 in Personal, Stress Busters
First, I made a graphic of her name after writing it in NJStar:
Then I found a web site that paints Chinese names and made one for her, putting her name in a bamboo painting:
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Posted on 9 October 2006 @ 12:58 in Personal, Stress Busters
Please meet Forever Peace, the little sister of the cub with harelip who I adopted through Pandas International:
I just received the picture from Suzanne Braden, director of Pandas International.
I’ve named her Yoong Ping (Mandarin pronunciation) for both my parents and my niece.
“Yoong” , the first part of her name, is the character for “forever” and it’s also the first part of my niece’s name. My niece battled leukemia for 4 years before succumbing to it this past March.
“Ping” , the second part of the name, means “peace” and was the nickname my parents used for each other. They met in the late 40s when there was quite a bit of unrest in our country and peace was what they wished for the country.
Yoong Ping - Forever Peace
I hope to visit Wolong next year and hold her in my arms!
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Posted on 7 October 2006 @ 21:00 in Writing
*points to new icon added to left sidebar*
Yes, that time of month again.
The Flickr nanowrimo group that I belong to has seen a sizeable increase in new members in the past week, and it’s due to a link from the official NaNoWriMo site! Yes, 2006 NaNo’ers are looking for places to share their excitement.
At the site itself, the forums have been activated since 1 October. I usually hang out at the NaNo Technology forum. In addition to writing my 50,000 words, I also have a mission to share about AlphaSmart products in that forum. And the feedback has been mostly positive. Quite a few people have an AlphaSmart product to help them NaNo, and all of them have good things to say about how they’ve managed to finish 50,000 words thanks to the product. Such positive response should help those non-users who have posted questions about AlphaSmart to make up their minds to get one!
I also hang out at the Malaysia forum, but that one seems to be a little slow waking up. We’ve only had 3 or 4 veterans post there. Maybe closer to the start date, we’ll have other Malaysian NaNo’ers stumble in to grab a seat.
Do I have a story for my NaNovel 2006? Sure I do. I have the characters and an idea of a story, but I’m trying not to outline too much (or at all), in case I start writing it! I have to wait for midnight, 1 November 2006, to do that!
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Posted on 1 October 2006 @ 23:36 in The Working Life, Writing
That’s all I can think of to post. Have been very busy, working past midnight at least three nights in the past 10 days. Not at home but overseeing production of the annual report at the colour separator’s. ‘Nuff said.
Yeah, I’ll probably NaNo again this year. Shouldn’t be hard. The trick is to just write every day of November and be a little ahead of the word count each day. Couple of other tricks I’ve found that helps - start at the stroke of midnight on 1 November and keep writing early in the day during the month, and break the writing into a few sessions each day. It’s easier to write three 600-odd words three times a day, and to have the first session early in the day when I’m fresh and before other stuff overwhelm me and zap my energy, than to sit down at the end of the day, trying to fulfill the 1,677-word requirement for that day.
I’ll be out of the country for about 10 days during NaNo month, but with my Dana, that shouldn’t be a problem, or an excuse not to write!
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