A Good Name

Reading the local paper here in Raleigh, I ran across an article about rising fares for the city buses.  The transit marketing director said that only about 35 percent of riders wil pay the full fare.  The mass transit marketing director's name is.....wait for it....Stacey Carless.  No kidding.

J

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http://www.jasonmwilliams.com/

Not sure if I'm going to make it...

There is an awful lot of red over there in that graph.  I'm currently standing at 32,742 words in <a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/userinfo.php?uid=128318 ">my novel</a>.  I'm supposed to be at 50,000 words in two days.  I'm beginning to accept the fact that that's probably not going to happen.  However, I am determined to finish the story - maybe I'll shoot for 40,000 words instead.

I think looking back on it, I just cared too much about the story to JUST WRITE.  I kept editing what I had written and worried too much about what somebody may think of it when they read it in December.  Forgetting all along that this was supposed to be a ROUGH DRAFT.  I kept wanting it to be a GOOD rough draft - good enough that people would actually want to read it.  And that, I think, was the problem.

I didn't possess "literary abandonment" as the Nanowrimo website loves to put it.

Oh well, there is always next year!

J

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http://www.jasonmwilliams.com/

Watch "Resonance" on Google Video

Very cool video demonstrating resonance. Looks like it is a speaker under a piece of sheet metal with some sand sprinkled on top.

Resonance

2 min 4 sec - Oct 29, 2006
Average rating:   (245 ratings)

Picking up steam

Alright, the novel is getting back on track. I'm almost at the halfway mark, with 10 days to go. That's going to put me on a pace of about 2500 words a day. Definitely do-able. But with Thanksgiving coming up, it is certainly going to be a challenge. Definitely taking the laptop out of town with me and hopefully won't offend the fam that much.

Plot is coming together and just cranked out a painful passage where the main character has a big loss in his life. "What happened?" you ask? Well, if I told you that I'd spoil the surprise wouldn't I? You'll just have to wait to find out!

J

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http://www.jasonmwilliams.com/

Bad counter widget

Ugh.  I just realized last night that the widget to the right is not giving me accurate goals to shoot for.  I don't know if it is a bug in their software or it doesn't do what I thought it did.  In any event, this is the 10th day of the month, and according to the widget I'm only 1200 words in the hole which is not bad at all.  But, in reality I should be at about the 17,000 word mark about now.  Which is about 5000 words behind.  Big difference.

I know what I'm going to be doing this weekend!

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http://www.jasonmwilliams.com/

Novel is up and going

It's starting to get some legs.  I'm up over 4000 words now and chugging hard.  Hoping to use all this enthusiasm to build a good buffer going into week 2.  I'm thinking this weekend should be pretty productive.

J

Day One Over

Well, Day One has passed of NaNoWriMo.  I'm at 1300+ words.  Not a bad start, right?  Good news is I have my ending now in mind.  I like it a lot, so that's good motivation.  Last night, I was so sleepy I couldn't finish the scene I was working on, so tonight I think I'm going to treat myself to a Starbucks Frappuccino at about 10pm - that should keep the wheels turning for a while!

J

1 day, 11 hours left!!

Only 1 day and 11 hours before the madness begins. I've added a word count ticker on the sidebar so you can see my progress. I'm pretty pumped about the whole thing and eager to get started. I'm trying not to think too much about my plot because I want to be free to go where the character/story takes me.

I have a general idea of the beginning, a couple of ideas of how it might end up and a title: Singularity. I've also done a little character sketching (I guess that's what you call it) and have determined my main character's physical characteristics and personality.

Access to Healing

Jesus said "He who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do
also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My
Father." (John 14:12)

This has had a resounding effect on me during the past year. I have
long asked God to move through me in power. Paul declared that the
"kingdom of God is not in word, but in power" (1 Cor. 4:20). God has
been doing some incredible things lately. I've personally ministered
healing to numerous people for things like kidney stones, back aches,
eye problems and shoulder pains. It has been incredible to watch and
be a part of. Usually there is instant relief from the problem.

All this to say, I wanted to just take a moment here and ask whoever
is reading this blog: Do you need prayer? Is there something you need
healing for? Jesus said to "Ask, and it will be given to you" (Matt.
7:7)

Leave me a comment and I'll be glad to pray for you.

I'd also recommend the book "When Heaven Invades Earth" by Bill Johnson.

Grace.

Officially a NaNo

I am now a proud member of the NaNoWriMo community. Check out the nice participant icon on the sidebar and click through to my NaNo profile. You can check my progress there.

This is going to be insane. 50,000 words in 30 days. That's 1667 words per day. That's me typing 40 words per minute, non-stop for almost 42 minutes straight....each day....for 30 days. Now, I know that I'll have "good" days and "bad" days, but still...on the average this is what I'm looking at. It's also about 2 and 1/2 pages in a 12-point, single spaced Word document....per day. :)

Why am I doing this again? And will my family remember who I am in December? Better question...will they forgive me? Come Thanksgiving, I'll probably have a turkey leg in one hand and pencil in the other.

I took a typing test and my speed varied from 68 to 82 wpm. So, maybe it won't be quite so bad...as long as I can think of a plot that quickly.

NaNoWriMo

I've decided to write a novel in 30 days. A 50,000 word novel. The folks over at NaNoWriMo are to blame. It just sounds like a lot of fun and I hope to learn some things about myself over the process. Still trying to decide where to keep the daily entries. I like the idea of using a blog to do it, but I'm not sure yet.

I've bought a copy of "No Plot? No Problem!" by Chris Baty. He is one of the guys who founded the NaNoWriMo. Lots of helpful info there. For one, setting your expectations on the quality of your work very low. It's a rough draft, the operative word being "rough".

No sure of my plot yet, but will almost certainly involve time travel. A bit of mystery has to be there as well. We'll see what happens.

How Nerdy Are You?

This was fun to do. Good to know that I'm not quite as nerdy as I once thought.

Teen Buzz Ringtone

There is a new ringtone called "Teen Buzz" that uses higher frequencies so that adults cannot hear the ring. This apparently helps them to use their text messaging devices during class when they are not supposed to. The sound was originally developed by a European company to help store owners drive loitering teenagers away from the front of their store. See article at MSNBC.

Ummm... I could be missing something here but, couldn't you just set the ringer to "vibrate"? I guess I should not make the assumption that all phones and messaging devices have a vibrate feature.

Interesting technology nonetheless. If you want to see if you can hear it, go here.

J

Finally Moved In...

Here we are, we are finally here. We moved in the last week of April and are finally getting settled. Our computer is still on a piece of plywood (old computer desk didn't survive the move) but we have window treatments up and most boxes are out of sight.

Best of all, I have my Comet pinball machine back and its in the garage. Ahhh....

We have trees!

 
They did our landscaping this week. They are also installing all the trim stuff like lights, outlet covers, etc. The sinks are in and the floors are in as well! It's getting close...4 more weeks to go. 

Siding is on!

 They've put the siding on the house. The bottom half with no siding is where a stone apron is going to go.
 

New House Coming Along

 The new house is coming along. Closing date is set for April 11. We're getting excited about having more space!