| October wrap-up |
[Nov. 5th, 2009|03:46 am] |
October is clearly the perfect month for Halloween, since I noticed this year that the weather reminded me of it all month long. It's been a dramatic and exemplary fall from my perspective, with bright, wet, sploppy leaves, temperatures chilly enough to be demanding without being so cold I wish my face were covered, and just enough rain to keep things interesting. Now that it's over, National Novel Writing Month has once again begun, but I've been holding off on my novel until making this post. So far I've written just the minimum 2 words my Fibonacci goal sequence allows. So that I might free my creative passion, here was my October.
The month's first highlight was the Twin Cities Pagan Pride Festival, an event I attended with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) skylarker , who won a dealer's spot there for winning a contest to create art for their program book. I gave her a ride, helped her set up and clean up, and watched her tables intermittently, and in exchange she gave me some space for selling copies of my book--as well as the new experience of being behind a vendor's table. I sold five copies, and I enjoyed the music in the adjoining room, as well as the snippets of panel discussion I managed to attend. I saw a surprising number of people I know there. :) It was a delightful experience, as much fun as it was work.
I went to two meetings of my writer's group. At the first, the group critiqued a story I wrote a few years ago and had sent to three magazines. Some readers found it confusing; others found the structure choppy. I couldn't disagree. The story struck me as much weaker than it did when I wrote it, which seems to happen 60% of the time with me. It probably means I'm getting stronger as a writer, but it's also disheartening, since I can't leave a thing lying around without it degrading on me. The second meeting, on the 28th, was preparatory for NaNoWriMo. I enjoyed myself for the first half, chatting with the people near me about their ideas, but for the second half I sat alone in thought, listening to everyone in the distance, and eventually reading Time Magazine. I guess I was tired. The next night, after work, I made it to the end of the official Twin Cities NaNoWriMo Kick-off party, which was a blast. I met and re-met certain key regional figures, filled in the Self-Published or Non-Human Main Character lines on people's find-the-name activities sheets, and sold a copy of last year's book to an admirer, who warmed my heart by saying, having read the rough draft of my '06 novel, that I should publish that one, too. (After a good deal of revision, my friend.)
On October 14th, I made it past the Probationary period at my online job with Tutor.com! It was exciting to have managed that, but the sad truth is that I'm hardly less nervous about it now. I did a few shifts for a few days, and then got worked up over my spotty knowledge of Calculus and Statistics and wound up taking a break for two weeks while I studied up. Thank goodness for flexible scheduling. I'm now back at it and feeling somewhat more confident about my knowledge, but who knows how long that will last? I was pleased to find that my Calculus book from college is easy to follow and, in my opinion, quite well designed, despite the fact that it's printed in just four colors, without photographs. I don't have a Statistics book, though, so I've been relying on the internet, which has been shaky. I don't know whether the fault lies with the internet or the field of statistics itself. :\
Meanwhile, my tutoring job at the library has been challenging, but not too unpleasant. I've met a number of new volunteers, all of whom have been great--when they show up. That's the thing about a volunteer staff: attendance is quite spotty. Due to program cuts I'm no longer able to run a weekly game for the Teen Center's patrons. I did get two games in during October outside of Homework Hub time, though--one overdue game of Magnet Maze, since I didn't want to end on the disastrous one that happened during the summer, and one game of Secret Number which I ran on Halloween afternoon. (The secret number was 1331, and there were five pairs of bisected clues leading to it. The kids, even working in cooperation, were unable to solve it, but they did find all the hidden clue cards. I'll know to make the next round easier.)
If you recall the entry I made on October 6th regarding the three year anniversary of the demise of Endless Round MUCK, you may be interested to know that the former friend in question actually -did- contact me later in October, although apparently not in connection to the anniversary. He left several nostalgic messages for me on AIM but left me no way to contact him, which apparently is what he wanted. :{
The middle of the month was host to lovely ConVivial, a relaxacon that I enjoyed more than almost any fallcon I can remember. On Friday I enjoyed the amazing rendering of the musical automaton fantasia Animusic as well as various other intriguing animated shorts, redrew an author's goblin character for a T-shirt template (I'm kind of into goblins at present!), played the Steve Jackson classic Tile Chess, and watched as other con-goers assembled my mystery jigsaw puzzle, after which we puzzled together over its solution. On Saturday I went on a nature walk through the Minnesota River Valley, tasted some lovely apples, heard about good books people had read lately, heard some rockin' folk at the Brother Seamus concert, and played a bunch of games. I'd brought things to do on my own in case I got bored, but I never really did. Kudos to the organizers!
Speaking of games, I've been winning a ridiculous number of games for the last month and a half or so. I didn't keep a tally during October, but I'd estimate that I played about 30 games and won 27 of them. That's counting games of all sorts, so long as they're the type with a clear winner or winners. Including familiar favorites (like Set, Zendo and Star Traders), challenging games (like Princes of Florence and Uptown), games I'd never played before (like Time Pirates, The Stars Are Right, and new favorite Scrappers), one game of Tile Chess I should totally have lost by rights, and even the single game I'd played most often without ever winning (Blue Moon City, now 1-7). Woohoo! I don't mean to brag--I'm just saying, this is ridiculous.
I've been frustrated by my inability to get my ducks together enough to submit some poems to poetry journals and electronic magazines. I've got some issues here, apparently, since it shouldn't be that hard. I really wanted to have some stories or at least poems floating out there in consideration-space when November began, but I don't. Sad. Maybe a miracle will happen and I'll manage to revise and submit some during NaNoWriMo. :(
My air purifier died. The motor went dead, specifically. Capriciously, on the 27th I took it all apart, screw by screw and chunk by chunk, until I got down to the heavy motor in its core. Amazingly, once I'd isolated the motor, I was able to get it working again. But then I screwed up the job of putting it back together, fastening the wheel on backward, and by the time I'd gotten it apart and back on correctly, my finger was cut and the wheel was sticking enough that the motor could no longer turn it. The thing proved unsalvageable after all, which was really frustrating after I came so close.
The month ended with a stellar Halloween. The MN-Stf party at my house fell on Halloween proper for once, which seemed to boost attendance. I dressed in my beaded clock vest and black pants, numerous chains of paper clips, a little clock pin, four suction cup balls, and random bits of string, one of which served as a leash for my beanie scorpion, whose name is now Max (after Maxwell Planck). I told people I was dressed as the first experimentally verifiable result of string theory. I seem to have a propensity for costumes that are hard to maintain, and indeed, this one grew more and more tangled as the night wore on. My yellow 'fundamental particle' vanished entirely, and my scorpion became entangled with my attire. As I did two years ago, I spent some time on the porch roof, singing eerie songs to Trick-or-Treaters and occasionally tossing candies down to them at appropriate moments. My performance was a bit weaker than in '07, but I got just as much attention from onlookers, including a number of people who snapped my picture. I also enjoyed meeting kids at the door, bantering with them about their costumes or greeting them with kazoo and drum rather than voice. The party was a hopping good time, too, nearly lasting until Daylight Saving Time swept us back an hour.
And there you have it. Now it's time for me to go and write 49,998 more words. Wish my imagination fertile times, will you? :)
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