my abc news "fame" and NaPlWriMo take 2
I have a few things to update/think about... first, most people have heard this already, but my most recent entry, in which I complained about how I seem to get sick when I stress out, caught the attention of someone at ABC News who must have been searching out blogs for a story they were doing on stress and illness. Someone sent me my first-ever private livejournal message and asked if I wouldn't mind giving the writer a quick phone interview, so after I googled out the writer's name to make sure she was legitimate and actually worked for ABC News, I sent her an email and we had our interview the next morning. I am terrible at interviews, especially over the phone. I like being able to think my response out and put it down in writing. So I never expected her to actually use my story in her final piece. But, to my surprise, I got an email from her that Monday saying that she had actually used me in her story. crazy! The whole situation was just random and bizarre. The story can be found here by the way. It was yet another case of my blog attracting attention of random people when I assume that no one outside of the small circle of friends reads it.
The first time such a thing happened was when I wrote this entry about a year ago on "National Playwriting Month" or "NaPlWriMo." An arts blogger from the Guardian must've come across my journal in a search for "NaPlWriMo" and quoted me in his article about it (horrible overly cute spelling and all). It was embarrassing and was the first time I ever realized that people might actually SEE what I'm writing. I've since cleaned up the cutesy spelling a lot even though I miss it. I reserve it for emails and IMs with close friends. So, I'm bringing that entry up because it was found again today, by a livejournal user who is involved with NaPlWriMo. She asked if I'd consider participating this year, and I took a look at their spiffy new website. I admit, it does sound like fun, and I do feel guilty for snarking on them last year. :) But do I have the time to write an at least 75-page play over 30 days, on top of my job and my UMass class? I do not know. It would be great though to get another play written, and having the community of the website might help me stay motivated. I wanted to have a few things to work with when I (hopefully!) start at BU in the fall, so I guess now is as good a time as any to get started. And I have had a couple ideas floating around in my head, but I haven't thought them through structurally at all yet. They're sort of mini-ideas. And I'd hate to start something and not accomplish it. I'd feel guilty and beat myself up for being a total NaPlFailure. But we'll see... I have tomorrow to think about it anyway.
The third thing I was thinking about was just the whole journal font size issue again. Livejournal screwed me up a few months ago when they added "smaller" and "larger" to their font size drop-down menu. I hate the way "smaller" looks on IE. But I used to use "extra-small" and that looks smaller than it did before and is unreadable. "Smaller" looks better on Safari than on IE, but I haven't checked it in Firefox yet. I don't know if I should go for "extra-small," which is bigger than "smaller" (this sounds completely stupid, I know) and increase the legibility of my entries while still having small font. But then it will look gigantic to me because I'm used to my teenyfont. So that's something else to think about. The "should I write a play next month?" decision is a bit more pressing though. :)
The first time such a thing happened was when I wrote this entry about a year ago on "National Playwriting Month" or "NaPlWriMo." An arts blogger from the Guardian must've come across my journal in a search for "NaPlWriMo" and quoted me in his article about it (horrible overly cute spelling and all). It was embarrassing and was the first time I ever realized that people might actually SEE what I'm writing. I've since cleaned up the cutesy spelling a lot even though I miss it. I reserve it for emails and IMs with close friends. So, I'm bringing that entry up because it was found again today, by a livejournal user who is involved with NaPlWriMo. She asked if I'd consider participating this year, and I took a look at their spiffy new website. I admit, it does sound like fun, and I do feel guilty for snarking on them last year. :) But do I have the time to write an at least 75-page play over 30 days, on top of my job and my UMass class? I do not know. It would be great though to get another play written, and having the community of the website might help me stay motivated. I wanted to have a few things to work with when I (hopefully!) start at BU in the fall, so I guess now is as good a time as any to get started. And I have had a couple ideas floating around in my head, but I haven't thought them through structurally at all yet. They're sort of mini-ideas. And I'd hate to start something and not accomplish it. I'd feel guilty and beat myself up for being a total NaPlFailure. But we'll see... I have tomorrow to think about it anyway.
The third thing I was thinking about was just the whole journal font size issue again. Livejournal screwed me up a few months ago when they added "smaller" and "larger" to their font size drop-down menu. I hate the way "smaller" looks on IE. But I used to use "extra-small" and that looks smaller than it did before and is unreadable. "Smaller" looks better on Safari than on IE, but I haven't checked it in Firefox yet. I don't know if I should go for "extra-small," which is bigger than "smaller" (this sounds completely stupid, I know) and increase the legibility of my entries while still having small font. But then it will look gigantic to me because I'm used to my teenyfont. So that's something else to think about. The "should I write a play next month?" decision is a bit more pressing though. :)