I Love November

The weather in Central Texas FINALLY cools off. Ok, yea, not til mid-November, but still...

And there's that holiday with the big bird... Yea, that's nice, too.

And, for the 10th year in a row, there are crazy people ALL OVER THE WORLD writing novels! Whole 50,000 word novels in a mere 30 days. For those of you who do not participate and therefore have not done the math over and over, that works out to 1667 words a day.

Want a reminder or two? I dug through the NaNoWriMo.org calendar forum and found links to several different desktop NaNo calendars for you to download that will flog you into writing more encourage you along the way. If you use one, remember to send it's creator a note saying "Thanks!"

Cool space pic with Carl Sagan quote calendar.
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Simple calendar with daily word count requirement in green, blue, pink, or orange.
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Basic white with encouraging words - Be warned though, this one looks odd because the weeks go Monday-Sunday rather than the more traditional Sunday-Saturday.
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Several basic ones with daily word counts (both 50 & 100k) & various background images and resolutions.
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Orangey Woodgrain with word count only
Orangey Woodgrain with counts AND inspirational quote (I like the quote on this one, fwiw)
Candle with word count only
Candle with counts AND inspirational quote
I shouldn't say anything since I do NOT have the skill to make one of these at all, but that candle pic makes my eyes hurt
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For the truly ambitious, here's an eye-strainingly blue one with daily word counts for those foolish enough to attempt 100k words in November!
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Open Book: 800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x800

Cup of Coffee: 800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x800

Computer Keyboard: 800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x800

Tea and Book: 800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x800

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50k is just Beachy
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Desktop Style - I admit, the first thing I thought when I saw this one was that someone spent too much time at J.K. Rowling's website waiting for HP7 hints, but it is spiffy nonetheless.
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Several pretty ones, but they are very slow to load. You've been warned.
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Inspired by an old noirish-Nano poster in800x700 |1024x768 |1280x900
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There is a "Twilight" movie one, but I have standards, if you want that one you have to go find it yourself.
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Speaking of which... When I wrote this post (10/10/08 - you don't really think I'm wasting precious words BLOGGING on November 1st, do you?!) there were the above, and then some, in the forum. I'm stopping here because I've been writing this post for an hour now and I'm tired of scrolling --it's a really full forum, you'll have to scroll through the chaff and comments to find the links (sorry)! I'm sure there will be more by the time it really is November 1st.

Go Nano! See ya'll in December!

I'm So Proud!

My 7 yo got her first email account this week. Heavily controlled through a site with awesome parental controls, but yes, her first email acct.

She got an email this afternoon from an acquaintance in the UK and called me over to see.

"Mom, she spelled color wrong!"

It was colour. I explained about Brit spellings and she was okay with it, but still. A proud moment for Editor Mom.

Modern Arght

I'm not really a huge fan of modern art, preferring Impressionism to Surrealism, and Caravaggio to Klimt. Yes, I know those aren't overly modern examples, but most truly modern art, pretty much anything 20th century, leaves me scratching my head and wondering whether or not my 6yo had at it while I wasn't looking.

This, though. THIS, I love. The sculpture is by Olafur Eliasson and installed at KPMG headquarters in Munich, Germany.

The first link is to the sculptor's portfolio with its little tiny pictures. The second is to a blog with much better pictures.

I think I love this sculpture mostly for the ironic conjunction of title and form. It's called "Rewriting" and seems to personify how rewriting feels. Now that I've blathered, go look at the pictures :-)

Seeking out... New markets?

Apparently the world is not enough for Doritos.

In June 2008, Frito Lay, the parent company of Doritos, is sponsoring the first ever interstellar advertisement.

Once you stop laughing (or maybe that was just me), you can check out the full article at Science Daily.

The star system they are aiming for is about 42 light years away and scientists theorize that some of its planets may support life forms similar to those on Earth. At 84 years round-trip, not including time to pack and plan, it seems a rather long ROI for Frito Lay.

Theme Song?

omigosh, I laughed so hard I cried. Mostly because it is so true.

Check out: www.straightouttawinston.com

Track Two, my new theme song!

Cool Site!

Learn something new and help save the world!

www.freerice.com/index.php

Learn some new words, prove to yourself how smart you are, and they donate rice through an international aid agency. How cool is that?

That time again...

Well, technically not for another month, but still...

National Novel Writing Month is less than a month away! The 2007 NaNoWriMo site is up and running as of this morning for returning participants to sign in/up again or for new novelists to join the fun. Try it, then you, too can have one of these nifty icons on your website/blog/tattoo:

Lovin' LibriVox

Did you read Jane Austen in school?

I didn't, not even once. Apparently this is a rare thing. It's made books like "The Jane Austen Book Club" really hard to enjoy because I had no idea what the heck the characters were referring to.

No more!

Thanks to LibriVox I can listen to Jane Austin in my car, for the cost of burning the CD.

LibriVox is a project to record all the public domain books of the world into audio files. The catalog of completed works is extensive and growing all the time. I'm even thinking of volunteering, if I can get a halfway decent mic for my computer.

Volunteering? eh? Yep. All the content at LibriVox is read into audio files by volunteers! I think it's pretty cool, but I'm a self-acknowledged book geek.

Check it out & download a classic today. I'm off to get "Moby Dick", another one that I seem to the be the only person on Earth who did not have to read it in high school.

Ah, Editors!

I have to admit, I live for stories like this one from the Entrepreneur.com blog.

Nothing says, "yes, editors really do have a purpose in life," like a little commercial embarrassment for the people who didn't use one. Localization is also a GOOD thing :-)

Just in case you want to cut to the good parts, here are the sites the Entrepreneur blog links to. Be warned, they are a bit irreverent and the ad content (not the articles, just the ads) may or may not get you in trouble at work.

The top 10 unintentionally worst company URLs

Top 13 Worst Slogan Translations Ever