~Kostopia~

2010-01-18T01:11:00.001+08:00

Hi all

after a long long absence, I am trialling a new blog idea at http://kosmosuniverse.blogspot.com/

Life from my cat's point of view :)

I hope it's fun and I hope to see comments on it :)

If you like it please share it with others.

2009-08-27T16:10:00.001+08:00

OPPOSE INTERNET CENSORSHIP NOW

I am faxing this letter to my MP via the Getup activist site.

I would like you as my elected representative to be aware of my opinion on the issue of Internet Censorship within Australia.

I do not wish to live in a totalitarian state. I understood we were a democracy in this country, though this attempt to censor the internet makes me wonder.

I would like you to strenuously oppose Internet Censorship within this country. It is unnecessary and will cause far more problems than it is alleged to solve. We also do not have particularly fast internet in this country as a general rule. I do not want to have a slower connection while the government filter decides whether the page I requested is allowed to be viewed or not.

Please make a stand for the rights of the individual.

thank you

2009-08-16T12:03:00.001+08:00

Message to all people who want the laws changed with regard to Cannabis in Australia.

The 1st National Cannabis Expo Rally
Is being held outside the POWERHOUSE MUSEUM in Sydney (500 Harris St., Ultimo, NSW)

9am onwards on the 7 & 8th of September 2009.....

This is because the NCPIC (http://ncpic.org.au/) are having a conference there on these dates.

BE THERE if you want to protest the laws in this country.

2009-03-25T20:21:00.002+09:00

The world according to student bloopers - an email i got today

2009-02-28T21:54:00.000+09:00

One of the fringe benefits of being an English or History teacher is receiving the occasional jewel of a student blooper in an essay. I have pasted together the following "history" of the world from certifiably genuine student bloopers collected by teachers throughout the United States, from eight grade through college level. Read carefully, and you will learn a lot.

The World According to Student Bloopers

The inhabitants of Egypt were called mummies. They lived in the Sarah Dessert and traveled by Camelot. The climate of the Sarah is such that the inhabitants have to live elsewhere, so certain areas of the dessert are cultivated by irritation. The Egyptians built the Pyramids in the shape of a huge triangular cube. The Pramids are a range of mountains between France and Spain.

The Bible is full of interesting caricatures. In the first book of the Bible, Guinesses, Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree. One of their children, Cain, asked "Am I my brother's son?" God asked Abraham to sacrifice Issac on Mount Montezuma. Jacob, son of Issac, stole his brother's birthmark. Jacob was a partiarch who brought up his twelve sons to be partiarchs, but they did not take to it. One of Jacob's sons, Joseph, gave refuse to the Israelites.

Pharaoh forced the Hebrew slaves to make bread without straw. Moses led them to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread, which is bread made without any ingredients. Afterwards, Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the ten commandments. David was a Hebrew king skilled at playing the liar. He fougth with the Philatelists, a race of people who lived in Biblical times. Solomon, one of David's sons, had 500 wives and 500 porcupines.

Without the Greeks, we wouldn't have history. The Greeks invented three kinds of columns - Corinthian, Doric and Ironic. They also had myths. A myth is a female moth. One myth says that the mother of Achilles dipped him in the River Stynx until he became intolerable. Achilles appears in "The Illiad", by Homer. Homer also wrote the "Oddity", in which Penelope was the last hardship that Ulysses endured on his journey. Actually,

Homer was not written by Homer but by another man of that
name.

Socrates was a famous Greek teacher who went around giving people advice. They killed him. Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock.

In the Olympic Games, Greeks ran races, jumped, hurled the biscuits, and threw the java. The reward to the victor was a coral wreath. The government of Athen was democratic because the people took the law into their own hands. There were no wars in Greece, as the mountains were so high that they couldn't climb over to see what their neighbors were doing. When they fought the Parisians, the Greeks were outnumbered because the Persians had more men.

Eventually, the Ramons conquered the Geeks. History call people Romans because they never stayed in one place for very long. At Roman banquets, the guests wore garlic in their hair. Julius Caesar extinguished himself on the battlefields of Gaul. The Ides of March killed him because they thought he was going to be made king. Nero was a cruel tyrant who would torture his poor subjects by playing the fiddle to them.

Then came the Middle Ages. King Alfred conquered the Dames, King Arthur lived in the Age of Shivery, King Harlod mustarded his troops before the Battle of Hastings, Joan of Arc was cannonized by George Bernard Shaw, and the victims of the Black Death grew boobs on their necks. Finally, the Magna Carta provided that no free man should be hanged twice for the same offense.

In midevil times most of the people were alliterate. The greatest writer of the time was Chaucer, who wrote many poems and verse and also wrote literature. Another tale tells of William Tell, who shot an arrow through an apple while standing on his son's head.

The Renaissance was an age in which more individuals felt the value of their human being. Martin Luther was nailed to the church door at Wittenberg for selling papal indulgences. He died a horrible death, being excommunicated by a bull. It was the painter Donatello's interest in the female nude that made him the father of the Renaissance. It was an age of great inventions and discoveries. Gutenberg invented the Bible. Sir Walter Raleigh is a historical figure because he invented cigarettes. Another important invention was the circulation of blood. Sir Francis Drake circumcised the world with a 100-foot clipper.

The government of England was a limited mockery. Henry VIII found walking difficult because he had an abbess on his knee. Queen Elizabeth was the "Virgin Queen." As a queen she was a success. When Elizabeth exposed herself before her troops, they all shouted "hurrah." Then her navy went out and defeated the Spanish Armadillo.

The greatest writer of the Renaissance was William Shakespear. Shakespear never made much money and is famous only because of his plays. He lived in Windsor with his merry wives, writing tragedies, comedies and errors. In one of Shakespear's famous plays, Hamlet rations out his situation by relieving himself in a long soliloquy. In another, Lady Macbeth tries to convince Macbeth to kill the King by attacking his manhood. Romeo and Juliet are an example of a heroic couplet. Writing at the same time as Shakespear was Miquel Cervantes. He wrote "Donkey Hote". The next great author was John Milton. Milton wrote "Paradise Lost." Then his wife dies and he wrote "Paradise Regained."

During the Renaissance America began. Christopher Columbus was a great navigator who discovered America while cursing about the Atlantic. His ships were called the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Fe. Later the Pilgrims crossed the Ocean, and the was called the Pilgrim's Progress. When they landed at Plymouth Rock, they were greeted by Indians, who came down the hill rolling their war hoops before them. The Indian squabs carried porposies on their back. Many of the Indian heroes were killed, along with their cabooses, which proved very fatal to them. The winter of 1620 was a hard one for the settlers. Many people died and many babies were born. Captain John Smith was responsible for all this.

One of the causes of the Revolutionary Wars was the English put tacks in their tea. Also, the colonists would send their pacels through the post without stamps. During the War, Red Coats and Paul Revere was throwing balls over stone walls. The dogs were barking and the peacocks crowing. Finally, the colonists won the War and no longer had to pay for taxis.

Delegates from the original thirteen states formed the Contented Congress. Thomas Jefferson, a Virgin, and Benjamin Franklin were two singers of the Declaration of Independence. Franklin had gone to Boston carrying all his clothes in his pocket and a loaf of bread under each arm. He invented electricity by rubbing cats backwards and declared "a horse divided against itself cannot stand." Franklin died in 1790 and is still dead.

George Washington married Matha Curtis and in due time became the Father of Our Country. Them the Constitution of the United States was adopted to secure domestic hostility. Under the Constitution the people enjoyed the right to keep bare arms.

Abraham Lincoln became America's greatest Precedent. Lincoln's mother died in infancy, and he was born in a log cabin which he built with his own hands. When Lincoln was President, he wore only a tall silk hat. He said, "In onion there is strength." Abraham Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg address while traveling from Washington to Gettysburg on the back of an envelope. He also signed the Emasculation Proclamation, and the Fourteenth Amendment gave the ex-Negroes citizenship. But the Clue Clux Clan would torcher and lynch the ex-Negroes and other innocent victims. On the night of April 14, 1865, Lincoln went to the theater and got shot in his seat by one of the actors in a moving picture show. The believed assinator was John Wilkes Booth, a supposedly insane actor. This ruined Booth's career.

Meanwhile in Europe, the enlightenment was a reasonable time. Voltare invented electricity and also wrote a book called "Candy". Gravity was invented by Issac Walton. It is chiefly noticeable in the Autumn, when the apples are falling off the trees.

Bach was the most famous composer in the world, and so was Handel. Handel was half German, half Italian and half English. He was very large. Bach died from 1750 to the present. Beethoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so deaf he wrote loud music. He took long walks in the forest even when everyone was calling for him. Beethoven expired in 1827 and later died for this.

France was in a very serious state. The French Revolution was accomplished before it happened. The Marseillaise was the theme song of the French Revolution, and it catapulted into Napoleon. During the Napoleonic Wars, the crowned heads of Europe were trembling in their shoes. Then the Spanish gorrilas came down from the hills and nipped at Napoleon's flanks. Napoleon became ill with bladder problems and was very tense and unrestrained. He wanted an heir to inheret his power, but since Josephine was a baroness, she couldn't bear him any children.

The sun never set on the British Empire because the British Empire is in the East and the sun sets in the West. Queen Victoria was the longest queen. She sat on a thorn for 63 years. He reclining years and finally the end of her life were exemplatory of a great personality. Her death was the final event which ended her reign.

The nineteenth century was a time of many great inventions and thoughts. The invention of the steamboat caused a network of rivers to spring up. Cyrus McCormick invented the McCormick Raper, which did the work of a hundred men. Samuel Morse invented a code for telepathy. Louis Pastuer discovered a cure for rabbis. Charles Darwin was a naturailst who wrote the "Organ of the Species". Madman Curie discovered radium. And Karl Marx became one of the Marx Brothers.

The First World War, cause by the assignation of the Arch-Duck by a surf, ushered in a new error in the anals of human history.

181 dead as police hunt fire suspect

2009-02-10T22:17:00.001+09:00

POLICE are hunting down the arsonist believed to be responsible for lighting one of the worst of the Victoria fires.

Police have confirmed that they believe they know the identity of the man who allegedly contributed to the Churchill-Jeeralang blaze in Gippsland. Twenty-one people have died in the region.

But the Country Fire Authority said the firefront could have included towns further north, including Kinglake, St Andrews and Strathewen, where dozens more died in the firestorm.

The fires killed 181 people according to the last official death toll. The death toll from the bushfires is certain to rise further. .........................................................

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25036683-29277,00.html

I am just horrified.... Cannot understand arson at all.

If you are reading this, please pray for the victims.

Some pictures of my Furry Ferals :)

2009-02-05T18:07:00.002+09:00

Taffeta is a chocolate thief .....

And a basket case LOL

A sticky beak too ..

Satin is a stretchy cat

And again Taffeta thinks she can fit in ANY box

If you are a catlover you have to see this :)

2009-02-04T17:07:00.000+09:00

http://eclecticcatladyland.blogspot.com/2009/01/cats-in-stroller-and-silver-spoon.html

This lady's blog is amazing. A worthy read for cat lovers.

2009-01-13T01:48:00.000+09:00

aaargh aaargh aaargh

LIFE SUCKS

2008-12-21T02:27:00.000+09:00

see more pwn and owned pictures

2008-12-04T13:17:00.002+09:00

HELP US STOP COMPULSORY NET FILTERING BY GOVERNMENT

yes I mean in AUSTRALIA... not China or North Korea.... here in my country !

2008-12-03T11:12:00.004+09:00

Snicker, Snort, PMSL

http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/category/covers_gone_wild_non_snoop_dogg_edition/

This is the funniest site I have seen in a long while. It snarks at the covers of 'romantic' fiction.

OMG talk about taking the piss out of something, the people on this site are experts in their field.

I had tears of laughter rolling down my face reading the first ten pages of comments... It is SO worth the read ! ! !

2008-12-03T08:11:00.006+09:00

2008-12-02T23:12:00.003+09:00

I found a forum devoted to NaNo participants who want to finish the writing they started in November.

As I did meet the NaNo goal but did not finish my story, I am joining this forum to get the incentive to finish

http://www.nanofimo.org/forums/index.php

and they have a badge.

2008-12-01T12:45:00.001+09:00

TV Reviews

Damn MUST try harder ;)

2008-12-01T12:35:00.000+09:00

53%

Created by OnePlusYou - Free Dating Sites

something I found via another blog LOL

How reassuring/not!

2008-11-27T07:26:00.003+09:00

50.326

and I am a winner !!! with a two thirds or maybe three quarters finished novel. I hope to keep writing til the end of the month and see how far I get. It is getting complicated with a sub plot or two but it is also getting more interesting to write.

I hope I can keep going with the novel

Good luck to all the other participants :)

2008-11-26T17:59:00.003+09:00

WOOHOO

45,016 / 50,000

So close ! Fortunately/Unfortunately I have a lot more to write to finish the story. I have mostly enjoyed the process and the deadline aspect of NaNoWriMo. My partner was also inspired to work on a fictionalised autobiography, and I hope she keeps writing it after the month is out. I think she has an important story to tell as a male to female transexual lesbian. It is a hard concept for most people to get their head around, so maybe if she can tell her story we can spread some more understanding out into the general population.

My plot has changed over the course of the month, and I think I was trying to work too many elements into the one novel. I have dropped one sub plot entirely for the moment, and I don't think I will be putting it back in later. I probably don't need the wordcount, and I think it makes the story over complicated.

I hope all the rest of the NaNo writers are doing well.... if you aren't at 50K yet there is still time !!

2008-11-23T02:02:00.002+09:00

38,343/50,000

Wow what an interesting day. I was having a problem with my plot and was lucky enough to get in a chat with another writer who pointed out some things about one of my characters and the bit I was missing just fell into place. I now know who sabotaged the ship, how, why and who was pulling their strings. I have no idea if I will be able to wrap the plot up in 12000 words though. I'd like to get to 75,000 really, in the hope I have some left after editing LOL. I don't think I'll get that far in the next week though LOL. Never mind, I do still want to hit the 50K and am still basically on track to do so. Fingers crossed I get there.

Good luck to the other NaNo participants :)

By the lame duck god of duckweed ! ! I think I can do this ;)

2008-11-21T00:19:00.003+09:00

36,116 words now

I am working on this still.... though some times I wonder why as even I find it dull. I have to cling to the hope that I can edit and rewrite this in January into something worth reading. I am pretty sure I need to work on the dialogue. I am not sure I am using it effectively to illustrate the right points in the plot. I still have a saboteur with no motive LOL to sort out as well, and some alien technology to figure out how to use and what it does. Not sure I can wrap it up in 14K remaining words, but that's not a problem as long as I either finish at however many words within a month or keep writing EVERY day until I do finish. And no editing until the draft is complete !

Sigh. I must be nuts ....

I've been testing Aussie jokes here and there in forums and it seems some of them just don't work away from home :( Pesky Aussie refugees on the moon will insist on trying to share their humour.... It's a shame that in my novel America has been annexed into the Occupied Zone of Southern Canada. Otherwise I'd use some American jokes ;)

2008-11-15T23:47:00.007+09:00

I have lost the plot.... I mean it has run away from me altogether and I am chasing it as hard as I can but it's getting very weird in here now.

I have written about 5,000 words in the last two days trying to get this plot back to serious sci-fi but I am losing hope.

My self propelled electronic suitcases have been turned into alcohol stills by a group of Australian refugees from the next Ice Age, living in the mines on the moon. Said suitcases are now drunk on alcohol fumes and causing brawls among the Aussies by running into their ankles.

This is the same group of refugees who said they would not evacuate Earth without taking some kangaroos, wombats, emus, platypus and rabbits with them. Bastards are making it so much harder to plot. And WTF with the rabbits they are an introduced species damn it ! ! I am surprised they haven't asked for a bunyip.

HELP MEEEEEEEEE LOL, no on second thoughts this is way too much fun ;)

Though I am worried that I am crossing two genres and making life hard for myself.

30013/50000 - 5,000 words today ! and it still doesn't make sense :O

"Holy Goat Ears of Doom, Batman." ... "Yes Robin, Holy Goat Ears of Doom, indeed."

2008-11-15T02:38:00.003+09:00

OMG OMG OMG LOL

CRAPTASTIC !! I am over half way now, and still plotting along in the dark while my characters order me about the place. I must be a masochist or some such, to have such demanding characters. Not one of them has turned out to be who I thought they were when I began outlining. Also I am only loosely sticking to the thirty chapter outline I had.

So this is a great ride and even I don't know how it ends yet :)

25297/50000

2008-11-14T16:25:00.001+09:00

Holy alliteration Batman !! WTF was I on when I wrote this !!

"She had been staring at these maps for hours and still she had no answer for the apparent aberration from the precise pattern that had so far revealed itself as a series of concentric circles."

When does the editing month start !!!!

2008-11-14T01:17:00.003+09:00

23565/50000

WOW It's working today, I think I have done about 3000 words. Not all good, but at least I know what's happening at last !

We had a write in today, and that helped more than I thought it would. Sometimes it is possible to write in company ;)

I hope all the other nanoers are going well ! Keep clicking those keyboards, perseverence pays off.

2008-11-12T02:18:00.002+09:00

Part of me is finding this harder than I thought, as I keep tripping over plot holes. I have to have a severe talk to my brain one day, when it comes back again. My way of dealing with it at the moment is to keep writing in scenes, and worry about putting them all together later on.

I am watching a really bad movie about Mars on tv for atmosphere while I think and type. It's calle Crimson Force and I reckon there's more plot holes in that than my story so I feel a bit more confident. I've worked out some more details and I think I'd better get typing right now !

Good luck to the rest of you NaNo entrants.

17913/50000

2008-11-10T04:16:00.002+09:00

I just feel like I am banging my head against a wall tonight. I just don't know why this isn't flowing well. My MC is not quite who I thought she'd be. Her partner has a better grasp on what needs to be done ... and the guy who is organising civilian rescue is stoned on the sofa and doesn't care who survives the end of the world. He is quoting Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" !!!

I figure there has to be a food replicator .. but I don't have a clue how it works. And the meteorite shields are a mystery, and a Faster Than Light ship. I think I have stuff happening in the wrong order and that's why I am finding it so hard to write the stuff I need... my characters haven't invented it yet.

I have the time to add scenes so let's hope they come to me soon ;)

2008-11-09T07:03:00.003+09:00

Here's an extract from my NaNoWriMo novel.

Some time later, Mary raised her head and stared out the window to the blackness beyond. Something had caught her eye. Again she saw a sparkling light flash across the window. She turned to Star and woke her up with a smile like a kid at Christmas.

"There's a meteor shower going on over Earth. Want to watch for a while?"

"Sure. Let's just put it on the screen instead, we'll see more."

Mary came back with some drinks, and they lay back to watch the show.

"How long do you think this will last?" Star asked as she finished the drink.

"I don't know, but it can't be much longer."

"Wait! What's that?" Star was pointing to a prolonged flare that was visible as a band across the Earth.

"That must be a larger meteorite. It's burning up slowly as it enters the Earth's atmosphere. The observatories in Earth orbit will be ecstatic. GIve me a moment, I have to get Einstein to monitor this. There'll be some great data about meteors from this shower." Mary collected Star's glass and went to the main room. Star heard her voice as she contacted Einstein and arranged for the shower to be closely monitored.

"I hope you didn't offend Aphrodite when you got her to call Einstein."

"Aphrodite is a computer interface, Star. She doesn't have feelings."

"Sometimes I think you are a computer, too. You only feel things when you want to."

"Star, that's just not true. I love you, and think about you a lot when we are not together." Mary let her voice trail off as she heard Star's sudden intake of breath. She turned to look at the screen, following Star's gaze.

The image of the earth was changing from a blue globe covered in swirling white patches of meringue, to an agitated one being bombarded by orange flares. The sky above Africa was almost incandescent. Her eyes locked with Star's in a mutual sharing of the horror being witnessed.

"Einstein. Tell me what is happening to Earth. Access all resources, using Administrator override G47521."

"Acknowledged" The view screen in front of them split into six large images, with each of them reflecting a different version of hell.

"What's happening?" Mary's voice sounded timid, afraid to hear the answer.

"The images on the left are from the main observatories on the Earth's surface. On the right, the images are from three main geostationary sattelites. Data confirms there have been several meteor strikes on earth. I am still calculating the location of some of them but there have been verified strikes on the North and South American continents, Africa and Europe. There are indications that these strikes have triggered seismic activity along the Pacific rim, and the North American Pacific rim is showing signs of severe stress and imminent instability."

"The planet is turning brown!" Star exclaimed in horror.

"The meteorites that have hit the planet have the combined impact of a small sun. The brown colour is the debris of the multiple explosions casting itself adrift within the atmosphere. There will be millions of tonnes of debris. The planet is going to cool, rapidly. Shortly it will not be able to sustain human life, or many other forms of life."

"What? Einstein, what are you saying?" Mary sat abruptly on the end of the bed. She pulled a swaying Star down next to her and kept a firm grasp on the gentle hand she held.

"I am running analyses to confirm, but a meteor strike of this magnitude is believed to have happened many times in Earth's history, and the profound climate change it causes has brought about the extinction of many species from the planet. The most widely known case was the extinction of the dinosaurs. This time the quantities of debris that is being recorded by the atmospheric sampling monitors is already in the extremely high category, and it has not even finished rising. To put it quite simply, the Earth will enter another ice age. Very little will survive."

Mary and Star sat in a kind of anesthetised silence. Their eyes were fixed on the images that assaulted their minds. To see the horror unfolding yet be so remote from it was almost unendurable. Mary turned to Star and saw each single tear being shed as a brief reminder of the globe being destroyed before their eyes.

2008-11-05T09:19:00.006+09:00

7156 words so far... and a runaway plot LOL.

The guy who was going to be the hero has turned out to be a saboteur. He is a Christo-Druid of times about 300 years ahead of us. Yet he is a luddite, refuses to have a machine for a secretary. Believes firmly that the earth is Mother and God is Father, and therefore there can be no life on other planets. ie he is a nut job LOL.

He was easily converted into a holy saboteur by our MC's estranged father who wants a spectacular failure to the interstellar exploration plan that the MC is in ultimate charge of.

And that's just the sub plot. The main plot has to start in a chapter or two at the most.

AAARGH lol.

2008-11-02T00:43:00.003+09:00

Day one of NaNo..... 1514 words down, and just over 24 hours in.

I think I am writing crap LOL. It is so hard to not edit what I am writing but evey time I do change someting I end up making it shorter, not longer so I am trying to resist the urge.

My MC has turned out to be an adamant ice maiden to men and a steamy lesbian in private .... rather unexpected, and now I have to thaw her out somewhat so that she ends up bisexual by the end of the book... as that will help the human race repopulate. AARGH, why did she have to decide to be difficult, and so early in the writing too. She has to calm down or else I will have to change the genre from sci fi to erotica.

I finally got my cordless keyboard to work today so I can type a bit more comfortably, as the laptop keyboard drives me nuts after a while and makes my shoulders hurt.

I have learned I can't write without Iced Coffee. Upon learning this I went to the two nearest supermarkets today to discover they had both run out of the only two brands I will drink. Which forced me to go to two petrol stations on the way home from the wasted supermarket trip and buy 6 X 600ml cartons of Iced Coffee at each ..... that should last me 4 or 5 days I hope, so I don't have to emerge again from writers hibernation until midweek. Or that's the plan at least.

Must keep typing LOL Must keep typing NOVEL oops LOL not blog posts. cya later

2008-10-31T13:09:00.002+09:00

OK freaking out a bit now LOL..

11 hours til midnight and the writing can start. The NaNo forums are down. My characters refuse to talk to me. The house needs cleaning :S and I know I ought to do it today BEFORE I start writing, but feel very uninspired.

Have had a run in with a moron on another forum I help to moderate ... I'd like to tell that creature to make like a gerbil and crawl up her own orifice and die.... , but that would not be polite. I think I am beginning to be frustrated with the dumbing down of society as a whole.. it just seems to give the idiots more scope to run their mischief.

Hopefully I make it to midnight and actualy manage to get somewhere .. Will let you know ;)

2008-10-29T18:15:00.000+09:00

NaNoWriMo Synopsis:

Earth's colonies orbit the moon which we are strip mining for resources, having mostly depleted our own planet. A cataclysmic event occurs, leaving the earth uninhabitable in a matter of months. The refugees are installed in temporary living space on the moon while a portion of the survivors seek a new star with a planet that can support human life, intending to scout, establish a base, then come back to rescue the survivors. Meanwhile archaeological discoveries are made within the surface of the moon, and it becomes easier for humans to live there. Conflicts emerge, mutiny entails, and the survival of the human race becomes a choice of destination .. the moon or the unknown star system.

2008-10-22T20:48:00.004+08:00

OK this is all starting to come together.

I found some prepsheets on the NaNo website to help with planning the plot and characters, and they are a great help. There are even worksheets where you can select the personality traits of your protagonists, so you have a clear idea on who they are and then where they can go.

So I went mad ticking boxes and have now painted a larger than life plot, that can hopefully carry me through at least 50,000 words.

Still pestering my poor partner for ideas.... might be divorced by the time the month is out :O

Pre NaNo Plotting

2008-10-22T00:05:00.005+08:00

AARGH lol

This is doing my head in. I have a setting in mind for the novel, but I am struggling for a plot. Hmm. I am sure if I keep thinking I will get there, I just hope it doesn't take too long.

There is a pre-NaNo coffee meet this Sunday in the city so I think I will go to that, and talk to the people who have done this contest in previous years. I am a bit worried I will get bogged down in details. Since I like to know how things work, I am also tempted to tell my readers too much information about technology. My partner says I should explain nothing and let the readers imagine everything ... not sure about that either but there must be a happy medium somewhere.

I am really fortunate in that I tripped over a writing site I like, http://www.thenextbigwriter.com and several members there are entering NaNo. So if all else fails I might get some moral support there.

Here is a copy of my preparation list for NaNo:

1. Nag partner to let me buy a new computer ;) am now typing from my new laptop (downside .. now have to learn to use Vista )

2. Look through music collection and make up playlists of tracks that make me think.

3. Stock up on groceries so I don't have to go out in the heat and shop. For a month (I wish).

4. Tell the cats they are not allowed to disturb me for a month... no hairballs, no clawing the furniture... (Likelihood of success is somewhat less than zero)

5. Test airconditioning. Summer has come early this year, it's been 36C last 2 days (97F)

6. Last LOL Find a semi plausable plot, or if all else fails wing it ;)

:S perhaps point 6 should have been point one !!!!!!

Stay tuned for my next update ... hopefully an Eureka moment !!!

2008-10-20T21:14:00.004+08:00

I am just starting up this blog. Probably so I have somewhere to come and whinge at while I attempt this year's NaNoWriMo. Not at all sure whether I can write fifty thousand words that even make sense within a month.

I am thinking of a science fiction plot because at least I can make up the stuff I don't know ;) Never let facts get in the way of a good story :)

Luckily for me my partner is a geek and an electronics engineer. I can always get ideas there and get some of my theories checked for obvious errors. Failing that, we also have some great debates about sci-fi tv shows.

I am thinking about using NaNo to expand a short story I wrote in 1999 into a novel. But I am not sure if that is within the rules.

I have joined the perth group in the forums for moral suport. Maybe I will meet up with some of the other writers. The group for my side of the city meets somewhere terribly inconvenient, so I am still undecided.

wish me luck :)

Kosmos