Monday, November 24, 2014

Weekend Review #16 {Homework, Portland, and NaNoWriMo}

On Monday, I went to school, volunteered at the library, and went to Irish dance class.

Tuesday, I did homework, and stuff around the house.

Wednesday, I had school, then went to Park Day, and then went back to campus later to work on a group project.

Thursday, I taught Latin, and did homework.

Friday, I had school, worked on the group project for a while, then went to hang out at a friend's house for a few hours, before going to ballet class.

Saturday, we left early for Portland, and got there close to noon. My mom went to a memorial service for a friend of her's from college, and then we all went out to dinner with some of her college friends. We stayed the night with friends in Vancouver. I had intended to do some writing while mom was at the service, but ended up playing Portal 2 instead, with the son of the friends we were staying with, who is about my age.

Sunday, we hung out with our friends for a while before heading back up north. We stopped at Seattle Children's Hospital on the way home to visit our friend there.

I finished reading Robinson Crusoe this week, and started Last of the Mohicans.

I'm at about 30k with my NaNoWriMo novel, which is 10k below where I should be at the moment. Today is my last day of school until next Monday, though, so I have high hopes for getting caught up over Thanksgiving break.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Weekend Review #15 {Veteran's Day, Pianos, and Seatle}

Here was my week:

Monday: There were not any classes at the college that day, so I stayed home and did stuff here. I went on a walk with some friends, went to the library and cleaned books, then went to dance class.

Tuesday: Mom was home since it was Veteran's Day.

Wednesday: I had classes at the college, then had lunch with my dad, and went to park day. I came back to campus later to work on a group project for my Study Skills class.

Thursday: Taught Latin in the morning, then had Current Events class at our house in the afternoon.

Friday: Had class at the college, and stayed late to work on the group project. Then I went to a friend's house for the rest of the afternoon. I was feeling really fluish and generally terrible, so I skipped ballet.

Saturday: Went to lunch at the Bagelry, then took a "behind the scenes" tour at the library. I then had a Nutcracker rehearsal for the rest of the afternoon/evening. 

Sunday: We had a piano delivered in the early afternoon, and then went down to Seattle to visit Spencer at UW, and see a friend at Children's Hospital. We went to dinner with Spencer and his family (who we went down with) and the family of our friend at the hospital.

That was what I did this week. Not super exciting, but there it is. I have two books I am reading that I will review once I finish them.

Monday, November 10, 2014

Weekend Review #14 {School, Writing, Pictures}

It's been another week, and now here I am to summarize it.

Monday, I went to school, volunteered at the library, and went to dance class.

Tuesday, I did homework, and really, nothing else. It was a kind of boring day.

Wednesday, I went to school, took a test in my Study Skills class, did much better on it than I thought I would, then went to park day.

Thursday, I taught Latin and had lunch with friends, then came home and did homework for the rest of the day.

Friday, I went to school, and then went to a friend's house for the remainder of the day. I also had a ballet class, which, since the normal teacher was unavailable, was taught by one of my best friends, which was fun.

Saturday, we did a Steampunk photoshoot involving all of us who went with the Steampunk theme for our Halloween costumes. I'll post a few pictures on here at some point, if I get them. I also then had a Nutcracker rehearsal that afternoon/evening.

Sunday, I did not do too much, but went shopping for coats in the evening. I spent a lot of time hanging out and talking to friends online.

Reading: I haven't done much non-school reading this week, but for school I read Pilgrim's Progress and Robinson Crusoe, both of which I'm almost done with. I also started Mort by Terry Pratchett after it was lent to me by a friend.

Writing: We are a third of the way through November now, which means that I should be at 16,666 by the end of today. At the moment, I'm at a little above 12k, and I'm hoping to make it to 14k by the end of the day.

It's a four day weekend (Veteran's Day on Tuesday, and no classes on Monday for faculty conferences), so hopefully I can get in at least 2k today and tomorrow, which would get me at least a bit caught up.

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Why I'm Doing NaNoWriMo

I was inspired by Ian's post today to write one of my own. He's admittedly got a much harder time this November than I do, but I just hit the slump. I know it typically doesn't hit until week 2, but I usually hit it a little early. It's the point at which I've exhausted all those fresh exciting story ideas (and now I have to actually advance the plot and add character development). It's usually the point where I get behind on my word count for the first time. Because I'm totally ripping Ian off, here are reasons I won't succeed at NaNoWriMo this year:

1. I am really busy. I have college classes, high school classes, dance, and various social events I'm too much of an extrovert to skip.

2. I have so far logged 8,173 words of the 10,000 I should have by the end of today.

3. I'm only going to get busier. As the Nutcracker and finals approach, things can only become more busy.

4. My mom's voice in the back of my head keeps telling me that I should do school before writing, and I keep listening to that voice.

Reasons why I will succeed:

1. I have a good track record. I've finished the last three years in a row, and the last two years I've finished early.

2. In 2011, I got behind on Day 4, and didn't catch up again until the 29th, on which I wrote 5,000 words. In 2012 I was behind from the 7th to the 27th, and in 2013 I was again behind from the 4th through the 29th. I have a pretty good track record with catching up. Speaking of past years, on the sixth I had 7195 words one year. At least I'm doing better than that.

4. I've told a lot of people that I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year, and I can't tell them I failed.

5. I simply can't fail this year. Each year is going to be more challenging than the one before it, but I am determined to continue doing NaNoWriMo.


What are your reasons you're going to fail and succeed at NaNoWriMo this year?

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Weekend Review #12 and #13 {Dracula, Steampunk, and NaNoWriMo}

I missed last week, so I'm just going to combine the two into one post.

Last week was very busy with school, and Dracula. We had performances Saturday and Sunday, and then the show was officially over. I had a test in my Study Skills class, went to the Dracula cast party, and probably did lots of other fascinating stuff that I actually can not remember anymore.

On Monday, I had classes at the college, volunteered at the library, and then went to dance. It was my sister's 13th birthday, so we came home and had cake.

Tuesday, I did homework and went out to lunch with my grandparents.

Wednesday was school, and park day.

Thursday I taught Latin, and then we hosted a Current Events class at our house.

Friday was Halloween, so I went to a friend's house to help my sister and her friends finish making their costumes, and then went to the trick-or-treating event downtown with them. After that, we all went to a party at a friend's house. We had an awesome time there, and did not end up leaving until after midnight.
A Steampunk Halloween

Saturday I had a meeting of the YA review committee at Village Books, our local independent bookstore, and then a Nutcracker rehearsal for most of the afternoon. It was also the first day of NaNoWriMo, and I actually did manage to get in time to write 1667 words.

Sunday, we went to our other grandparent's house for dinner.

It's been a long few weeks, and I don't think it's going to get any easier any time soon. Dracula may be over, but now there is NaNoWriMo to contend with, plus general stuff with my friends that have been coming up lately.

Speaking of my novel, I am (as of Tuesday morning) at 5,018 words, which is exactly on track. I usually like to get ahead a little in the early part of the month, to give myself a little leeway around Thanksgiving, but that's probably not going to happen this year. I do have a long weekend for Veteran's Day, and an even longer one for Thanksgiving, though, so hopefully I can get ahead a little on those days when I don't have college classes to be at.