Mostly NaNo, a little bit other stuff
So...wow, it's been too long since I updated. I think I relied on Twitter too much to keep everyone updated on the state of me and then my Twitter importing thing died a horrible, miserable death (not sure what happened...haven't bothered to find out if the site just went down or if I had to renew it or what). Believe me, it wasn't that I stopped tweeting or anything...it's just that there's been very little happening in my life that's been worth posting about.
Notable things to happen to me: I have been promoted to Parking Services Officer II (because I'm just that awesome at writing tickets), I've had sinus surgery to correct a badly deviated septum (oh, the pain, but my, the drugs), I've gotten an iPhone (oh, the shiny), I've made a firm decision on grad school and am working on the applications and getting that stuff done before two days before the application is due, I've been on allergy shots and had two anaphalactic reactions (yeah, not on allergy shots anymore since that tends to happen with greater frequency and intensity) and, most recently, I've been dealing a new coworker dying and various stuff in my head that has accompanied that (no, I don't really want to talk about it, but suffice to say that she was older, very frail, really shouldn't have been working at this job and still I feel bad because I trained her like I would train any other officer).
And the most important update: I've decided to do NaNoWriMo again this year. I didn't last year because, yeah, working between 50 and 60 hours a week and going to grad school and with terrible health (see sinus surgery above). It just wasn't in the cards. I wanted to. Especially since I won in 2008 and got a fuck ton of work done on one of my biggest original projects (which has only gotten bigger since then) and was psyched to maybe get more done. As much as I wanted that, it just wasn't possible.
This year, I am still working the same job, but the football schedule falls such that I won't have to work quite as much on weekends and UT has the curse of dealing with it all on Thanksgiving. I have not had Thanksgiving off for the last five years...I'm not sure I'll know what to do with myself that day. Plus, my health is ten times better and I'm not in school. The only thing that would make it better is if I were still working night audit and had six hours with nothing to do but write. Ah, those were the days.
Something new about NaNo this year: I was browsing around the forums earlier and I stumbled my way into a discussion about a software package called Scrivener that has previously only been available for Mac users but will go into Windows beta testing in time for NaNo. What makes this software potentially awesome is that it's designed with writers in mind and helps organize all the various files that are sometimes involved. You can outline in it, storyboard, edit, do the actual word processing, keep your research contained and associated with specific files and concepts and generally do on the computer what sometimes takes a stupidly huge number of index cards and files. You can move entire scenes around or compare two scenes side by side. In the end, you can compile all of the various chapters and what not into a finished manuscript. I cannot begin to tell you the awesomeness that this software is made of. Furthermore, it looks like the perfect package for academic writing, be it thesis, dissertation, paper or whatever. I will be beta testing this package and, assuming that it is as awesome in Windows as Mac users say it is for them, I will be purchasing it (the Windows edition is pretty cheap, considering what software costs tend to be nowadays, plus there's a 50% discount coupon should you complete and verify NaNo).
Depending on how the software goes, I'm thinking I'll be reviewing my usage of it here. My main problem right now is that I really wish they could release the beta a bit earlier than the 25 October iffy date they've given us right now. Mostly, though, that's because I plan to do my outlining and planning now, while I've got the chance. That will need to be transcribed into Scrivener once everything is up and running. If the software lives up to it's hype, that will be a one time thing that will be worth it to have a working version for Windows. It's still an irk. But I won't hold it against the developers, especially since they're giving us the chance to work with it a good four months before official release in 2011.
Tomorrow, I plan to seek advice about what to write. I have three possibilities all with various challenges.
Notable things to happen to me: I have been promoted to Parking Services Officer II (because I'm just that awesome at writing tickets), I've had sinus surgery to correct a badly deviated septum (oh, the pain, but my, the drugs), I've gotten an iPhone (oh, the shiny), I've made a firm decision on grad school and am working on the applications and getting that stuff done before two days before the application is due, I've been on allergy shots and had two anaphalactic reactions (yeah, not on allergy shots anymore since that tends to happen with greater frequency and intensity) and, most recently, I've been dealing a new coworker dying and various stuff in my head that has accompanied that (no, I don't really want to talk about it, but suffice to say that she was older, very frail, really shouldn't have been working at this job and still I feel bad because I trained her like I would train any other officer).
And the most important update: I've decided to do NaNoWriMo again this year. I didn't last year because, yeah, working between 50 and 60 hours a week and going to grad school and with terrible health (see sinus surgery above). It just wasn't in the cards. I wanted to. Especially since I won in 2008 and got a fuck ton of work done on one of my biggest original projects (which has only gotten bigger since then) and was psyched to maybe get more done. As much as I wanted that, it just wasn't possible.
This year, I am still working the same job, but the football schedule falls such that I won't have to work quite as much on weekends and UT has the curse of dealing with it all on Thanksgiving. I have not had Thanksgiving off for the last five years...I'm not sure I'll know what to do with myself that day. Plus, my health is ten times better and I'm not in school. The only thing that would make it better is if I were still working night audit and had six hours with nothing to do but write. Ah, those were the days.
Something new about NaNo this year: I was browsing around the forums earlier and I stumbled my way into a discussion about a software package called Scrivener that has previously only been available for Mac users but will go into Windows beta testing in time for NaNo. What makes this software potentially awesome is that it's designed with writers in mind and helps organize all the various files that are sometimes involved. You can outline in it, storyboard, edit, do the actual word processing, keep your research contained and associated with specific files and concepts and generally do on the computer what sometimes takes a stupidly huge number of index cards and files. You can move entire scenes around or compare two scenes side by side. In the end, you can compile all of the various chapters and what not into a finished manuscript. I cannot begin to tell you the awesomeness that this software is made of. Furthermore, it looks like the perfect package for academic writing, be it thesis, dissertation, paper or whatever. I will be beta testing this package and, assuming that it is as awesome in Windows as Mac users say it is for them, I will be purchasing it (the Windows edition is pretty cheap, considering what software costs tend to be nowadays, plus there's a 50% discount coupon should you complete and verify NaNo).
Depending on how the software goes, I'm thinking I'll be reviewing my usage of it here. My main problem right now is that I really wish they could release the beta a bit earlier than the 25 October iffy date they've given us right now. Mostly, though, that's because I plan to do my outlining and planning now, while I've got the chance. That will need to be transcribed into Scrivener once everything is up and running. If the software lives up to it's hype, that will be a one time thing that will be worth it to have a working version for Windows. It's still an irk. But I won't hold it against the developers, especially since they're giving us the chance to work with it a good four months before official release in 2011.
Tomorrow, I plan to seek advice about what to write. I have three possibilities all with various challenges.