It's July Already?

My July goals:

1. Get a fresh start on my fitness program. On the one hand, I finally found challenging workouts that worked for me. On the other, I slipped back into my bad eating habits.
2. Continue to learn Japanese. I've made good progress, and I'd like to keep up the pace.
3. Try out JulNoWriMo, see if it has the NaNo magic.

Hmm alright, I'm new to this monthly thing.

Do I list what I've accomplished so far and what is in progress now and then what I need to get done in the future (this month or beyond).

Because while I have a fair number of projects left to do on my BFSC for the year there are also a number of projects from other places (43things.com) that I'm working on.

This month I hope to really take care of:
1) pin hole camer (BFSC)
2) Make a web page for myself (43)
3) Message in a bottle (both)
4) set up a community benefitting project (both)
5) Study some of the mathmatics and language [computer and sumerian] I'm trying to teach myself (both)
6) and finish some maps (bfsc)

I'll likely get others done first and some will combine, some will split. I tend to be very organic with these things.

Right now what I'm thinking is that If I can get myself over the anxiety of it and build a web site, compile my mazes into e-books and draw my maps for gaming and stories (offering commissions), I can sell those two from my site and generate income form a creative venture toward a wireless capable laptop (that will increase my ability to work online on these projects) which is another of my BFSC. I can also start up the message in a bottle project and do some simple merchandise for it through cafe press, that I might be able to link back to my site.

If I can beg or borrow or buy a computer by the end of the month I will be challenging myself to write 31 complete 1-3000 word short stories in multiple genres in thirty one days on my thirty first year of life. Which I can advertise on my website and point people to the charity site where I hope to set up a sponsor my challenge for charity event.

If I do it well enough The charity will gain profits, I'll challenge myself and hopefully get 31 works to submit to publishers, and increase traffic past my creative works for sale. There is a charity that is connected with one of my other BFSCs but the material isn't ready to make that a valuble connection yet. Maybe this month iF I rush and push things.

So I've got these things to put together and they are interwoven so that once up they should support eachother. It's just getting it all up at once will be the trick.

The website is the start, then the crafty process, then the linking and the prep for the big event. Then Sell sell sell (or more acurrately draw attention to the charity and my web page), before we write write write.

I also worry that I'm getting my expectations a bit high, but I've been so pleased with what I've been able to acheive so far.

Sorry to eat up so much with this post.

My goals for this month include:
1) Attain all star rank in the neopets.com's altador cup
2) Get back on my exercise routine (been sick, had houseguests. Starting to feel better.)
2) Get my weight down to 195 (It would be sooooo good to see a 1 as the first digit on my weight. :P)
4) Get the kids a dental appointment so they'll have their records for school this fall
5) Finish rewriting three chapters on my '05 Nano novel

If you are ever tired of life, come to Haven. And someone will kill you.

After a few days' delay, which seems to be becoming traditional with me, here are my goals for July:

1. Finish the second draft of '07 NaNo novel Bad Company this month for JulNoWriMo.
2. Rewrite the first issue of Spanner. Also, finish learning how to draw at least the human head.
3. Write at least 10 songs for 50 Songs in 90 Days. Also, learn how to sing and play the guitar and understand music better (more than just reading sheet music).
4. Learn enough HTML so that I can set up my own website.
5. Get back to writing both my blogs regularly, especially the project blog. I neglected both last month.

Since the BadCo plot has finally been finalized -- the reason for my all-consuming effort last month -- I'm now in a better position to not only finish BadCo but achieve my other goals this month as well. Some of them are holdovers from last month. This time, the only thing that can stop me is my old enemy, procrastination.

NaNo '06: Black Science
NaNo '07: Bad Company
NaNo '08: Points of Authority
Script Frenzy '08: Spanner
Project Blog: Spanner's World

My goals for this month:

>Finish the first draft of my socnoc novel
>Catch up with all the schoolwork I neglected last month

That's it. Keeping it simple!

JulNo?! Ok then,
1) Write a novel: Write every day.
2) Get back in shape: Do pushups every other day & walk every day.

This is kind of embarrassing/scary. I don't think I've ever posted on here. And I've certainly never said to anyone that I would write a novel!

right well I've started my little website, and bumped into a problem along the way. I've got a minisite.com site. You should be able to find it by following http://minisite.com/rovingjack
it gave me a bit of trouble the first time I tried it but I think I got that worked out. Something about not liking caps and a dot com after my part. so now that they are gone it should work fine

If anybody else is interested in starting to put up a free web page it's a great way to try it out. If the link takes you to my site there should be a lil thing at the bottom of the window that will refer you to how to get your own. It gives me special perks like changing my site color if I refer people.

If the link doesn't work just go to minisite.com and search for Roving Jack.

Now I've got to get some of those others things underway.

That wasn't so bad. I think I can do this. I don't know why the anxiety and procrastination monster have come calling lately.

I haven't got back to my exercise yet. I think I'm worried my muscles still aren't ready, but I know they won't ever get ready unless I get back at it. I'll try to squeeze some in while the kids are napping.

I'm rank 15 in the AC, going for 16. All Star rank is inching its way closer.

No progress on any of my other goals... Whee, lazy.

If you are ever tired of life, come to Haven. And someone will kill you.

Hmm. Monthly goals, that might work, so here goes:

1. Get the cat off my keyboard. (no kidding, his paws get in the way)
2. Write at least 7 more blog entries this month. Try and get into a groove.
3. Research and compost my half-baked nano '08 idea. Anyone know how to 'compost' ideas for a novel? I know how I do that for paintings, but not for writing. Guess I'll just have to feel my way around that one.
4. Compost a series of paintings in my sketchbook during my travels.
5. Note down ideas for articles I could submit to magazines.

http://carolineroberts.blogspot.com/

The holiday weekend was exhausting for a whole list of reasons. I am looking forward to an extremely quiet rest of the month.

I did manage to work on the revisions to my SoCNoC novel, and now know exactly where I need to add a scene. Convenient. It would be more convenient to know what that scene is going to be.

Finally got around to rewriting Bad Company. Current word count is up to 10,345 (using the Google Docs counting method). However, this number will fluctuate at first as I rewrite the existing scenes I've left in it so far. But I'm well on my usual pace: slow at first, then frantic toward the end. ;P

I haven't started plotting the first scenes of either Bad Company or Spanner yet, nor have I started writing any songs (though some song fragments have come and gone without coalescing into a single actual song). However, I did get a book of guitar chords, which should help me write the melody. The words are more of a challenge, however...

Today I discovered Google Pages. It has a site builder, of course. But I haven't yet given any thought to how I want my page to look. It'll be a temporary site, however, since I intend to get a domain name this year.

Last thing for me to do is update my project blog for the first time in however long. The new post is about my July goals.

NaNo '06: Black Science
NaNo '07: Bad Company
NaNo '08: Points of Authority
Script Frenzy '08: Spanner
Project Blog: Spanner's World

Alrighty, I better follow this one!

1) Continue my novel, I doubt I'll be able to finish it this month, but hopefully at least only have 5 chapters or something left.
2) Make sure I put a lot of hard work into ALL my subjects for the final grades in my last year of highschool (act schooling)
3) Work on getting fit
4) Finish New Moon

Let's see:

1) Wrote two personal finance blogs and posted one. I'm on schedule again.
2) Wrote the romance blog and posted it. On schedule.
3) Am working on a graphic novella plot.
4) Got my NaNo novel rejected by a major publisher with a badly photocopied form letter, unsigned. Well, at least it only took them two months to do it.
5) Have scheduled revising same novel in September if I can finish revising the current one by then.
6) Made progress on the various house and garden projects.

and

7) Came in from the brutally hot outdoors and am laying low with the AC on.

Got back on the workout bandwagon after a hit and miss pattern over two weeks. (Hit and miss meaning I tried to workout last Thursday and ended up wobbly. Decided to take another break.) Another workout coming up in a couple hours, then it's time to go to the Wednesday activity at the library.

Going to hit rank 17 today. After that I'll only have three ranks to go to hit all-star.

Novel is still on hold until after the tourney, then I'm going to really tackle it.

If you are ever tired of life, come to Haven. And someone will kill you.

Heat stroke? Or was it the humidity? No progress with writing since an afternoon and evening of outside work in brutal summer conditions. My brain would not function.

So I did something revolutionary. I read a book by someone else.

My new Bad Company word count is not much higher than the last recorded one: 10,851. But there's one crucial addition: the opening. I now have the final opening, the first part of the novel I believe is worthy to send to agents and publishers. The first obstacle is now cleared!

NaNo '06: Black Science
NaNo '07: Bad Company
NaNo '08: Points of Authority
Script Frenzy '08: Spanner
Project Blog: Spanner's World

1) A terrible glitch on Neopets that randomly affected users whose identities started with certain letters (including mine) kept me off the site for most of the day, but I was really busy and wasn't going to be on the computer much anyway. Today and tomorrow I'll be playing catch up since I don't have to go anywhere.
2) I didn't exercise this morning. Nickelodeon has butchered Nick Jr to appease the older kids who are home for the summer and today was a special morning on Nick Jr with new episodes of the kids' favorite shows. So I'll do Cardio Shimmy while they're napping.
3) Tied in with that.... Two weeks of no exercise put me up around 202-203 again, so I'm trying to work my way back down to 200.
4) I'll be calling the dentist this afternoon. I programmed the number into my phone and when I called yesterday, they said they were so backed up that they couldn't take calls until today. Meh.
edit- Well, I just made an apointment for my kids for next month. They sent me straight to an answering machine and then called me back in the middle of my workout, but this goal is history! *dropkicks goal in the face* (1 down, 4 to go...)
5) Still on hold, but I will be buckling down on this goal in about a week. I want to get it finished and send it to an agent by this time next year, and that means getting my novel rewritten, printed, and reviewed to see where it could be stronger. Then a round of editing, more printing, then agent research and a lot of praying... I'm going to do it, though.

If you are ever tired of life, come to Haven. And someone will kill you.

I've been having some difficulty writing the opening chapter of Bad Company. I have the attention-grabbing opening with 2 paragraphs separated by an email (to Charlie from another major character, Scope). But then come the three video clips Scope attached. I've been lacking sleep in a major way this week, especially with my grandmother having an operation across a long ferry ride away in Seattle. So I'm sleeping in on Saturday. Maybe my brain will recover. Meanwhile, due to deleted 1st-person narration I'm completely replacing, the word count is down to 10,541.

Meanwhile, I came up with two killer story ideas: an ecothriller pitting our heroes (I haven't started coming up with a suitable roster yet) against both ecoterrorists and the government, and a new BadCo sequel that may or may not replace Points of Authority, or bump Black Science out of its place in the Dictel trilogy (which, by the way, should have a much cooler name), or just be a side story. Plus, I have solo starring vehicles planned for the BadCo trilogy sisters, two for Charlie and one (so far) for Desiree. Depending on how quickly I get the hang of writing novels, I could do one per WriMo. Still, my plan this month is to finish the BadCo second draft this month and the first draft of Black Science next month.

I'll get the scratch paper, index cards, and pens ready. I'll plot both those video clips and the opening scene of Spanner, and write my first song. I'll write my next blog entry. And I'll get back to learning the guitar and finishing my current drawing lesson. That's my agenda for the weekend.

NaNo '06: Black Science
NaNo '07: Bad Company
NaNo '08: Points of Authority
Script Frenzy '08: Spanner
Project Blog: Spanner's World

1) pin hole camera
why, why can't I just do it. It's not rocket science, though I do keep trying to make iit overly complicated.

2) Make a web page for myself
I can call this done I think. It's just refining it and expanding my use of it from this point on.

3) Message in a bottle.
This is another one of those things I over complicate and fear succeeding at. Buckle down and do it man. Just to check it off, you can always do better ones as time comes on.

4) set up a community benefitting project
Just about ready to set this one in motion. The first week of the project is going to be hard and may give me a bit of a lesson in humility to boot. But I hope that any little success will come and make it beneficial. Again I can always do it again better with what I learn.

5) Study some of the mathmatics and language [computer and sumerian] I'm trying to teach myself.
The math I have done some. I've got some tools to help with more, the sumerian is going to be the hard one, and the computer language may be a bit tricky too but I have everything I need for it but confidance, time, and momentum.

6) and finish some maps
This is really such a simple thing. I should spend some time in the next few days when not preparing for my cousins wedding, the used book sale, hospital day, my convention, and the crafts fair. Oh and my mazes, cards origami, sleep eating and waining finances.

Wrote up a storm this weekend. Several different essays. But zero progress on the current novel. And maybe some of the writing was more rant than objective essay. Sigh.

1. Work on my on-going story series project
2. Go to Akcerly and work( I think I spelled it right)
3. Start looking at colleges!!! I'm gonna be a Senior this year so I need to start looking at colleges.
4. Find something to major in. Maybe I should find out what I want to actually do with my life before I decide on a college
5.Complete my manga/comic thing. I had wanted to try and create a full manga by the time summer had ended, but I don't see that happening any time soon
6. Work on my next cosplay costume. I have no time for it during school so I need to find time to do it.

"Everything has a color. Except water. It's clear."-My eight year-old cousin.

Now I'm back on track. The ideas are starting to come. In Bad Company, anyway.

I changed the BadCo opening. Chapter 1 is now preceded by an Intro. The opening image (the Dictel logo looming over the big protest outside Dictel HQ) mirrors the closing image that ends the Outro (the same sign spray painted with a slashed red circle, right over the logo). I've got some interesting cyberpunkish stuff in the Intro now. It's in 3 parts, and I'm only halfway through the first.

My muse got me writing Charlie and Desi's psychologist aunt Willa's anticapitalist arguments. The first, still incomplete, is against the record company exec who's trying to get Charlie onto his label so he can exploit her notoriety through record sales. But his is a Faustian bargain, and Willa -- a former pop singer herself -- slaps him down, metaphorically speaking.

The new BadCo page count: 12,084. Next word target: 16,000.

Now to get back to replotting that script...

NaNo '06: Black Science
NaNo '07: Bad Company
NaNo '08: Points of Authority
Script Frenzy '08: Spanner
Project Blog: Spanner's World

Now I'm back up to a more normal pace writing Bad Company. Today it was 1,930 words for a total so far of 14,014. I did some more rewriting of the first chapter, and added a new chapter combining Charlie's release from jail with the first appearance of the hacker crew who will later team up with Desiree. However, I might need to change that new chapter some when I write another new chapter, this time involving Drusilla forcing her daughter Desiree into a public confession (Dru is a cult guru, after all) before she imprisons the poor girl in a Dictel-owned boot-camp school for rich juvenile delinquents.

Also, I finally posted the last essay in my "political horror" series to my project blog.

NaNo '06: Black Science
NaNo '07: Bad Company
NaNo '08: Points of Authority
Script Frenzy '08: Spanner
Project Blog: Spanner's World

My SoCNoc novel is now 107,000 words and change, with the addition of a new scene, and more meat added to another. The new writing is rough, and maybe too sex-filled for this story. I'll need to revise.

Rewrote a blog essay I wrote over the weekend, and it ended up less a rant. Which is good. Posted it.

I finally started up the bathroom project again by applying some joint compound to the chipped walls. But I think I need a larger tool to get a smoother result. Still, I'm encouraged. It's going to look good eventually.

Tonight I want to edit a nonfiction article I also wrote over the weekend.

I'm kind of stuck on my graphic novella plot. I just don't like it much. Dang. I was on a roll this time last year. I'm just not in the groove anymore. My mind is more on novels now.

During this busy day, I took a break from actually rewriting Bad Company and simply wrote down some ideas for my next series of writing sessions.

I've started plotting the opening scene of Spanner that I neglected in the first draft. The easy part is the climax: if you remember the original Macintosh commercial from 1984, with the shattering of the giant "Big Brother" screen, this is a variant. The hard part is plotting the leadup, which is basically an escalation of the 1999 Seattle WTO riots threatening to turn into another massacre like that which begins BadCo.

I've started work on the title songs for my albums: "Enter the Fist" by the Sonic Disruptors and "Mind Virus" by the Memetic Terrorists. (Both bands still consist of myself, without instruments.) But I haven't yet resumed my guitar lessons, nor have I yet acquired a keyboard.

What I did acquire is one of my crucial sourcebooks for my fiction, Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme by Richard Brodie. It remains the one popular book on the fledgling science of memetics yet published.

And, of course, I corrected my NaNoWriMo/Script Frenzy signature so that it shows all three of my current projects and not just the most recent.

It's the middle of the month already, and I've started preparing for the inevitable come-from-behind victory I'll be pulling off yet again. It's about this time of the month that I start the real work. And so it begins. Again.

NaNo '06: Black Science
NaNo '07: Bad Company
NaNo '08: Points of Authority
Script Frenzy '08: Spanner
Project Blog: Spanner's World

well okay I'm not any too fast about it, seeing as the month is half over but...

hope fully that comes up as a ticker/botton for http://www.firstgiving.com/rovingjack.

EDIT: alright maybe it won't (how about this: ) if none of this work just follow the link above. I'm not playing around for hours again trying to get these silly things to work.

My community benefitting project. I'm having difficulty getting that to show up on other sites. ah well. Now to update my web page, try to figure out where and how to blog about the experiance and figure out how on earth I'm going to write the first three days of august while being out of state in a hotel without owning a laptop.

Oh and I have to try and figure out where to get those word count tickers/counters. But first I've got some electronis to jerry ring to transfer some important stuff from one outdated peice of equiptment to another. Then finish a handcrafted peice of jewelry I'm giving my cousin as a wedding gift. (It might just becaome the first in a line of jewelry designs I'll make and sell on my site.

Then some time soon I have to invest the time in finishing at least five cards for my line of cards for adoptees to gentic family, related to my charity above then link that to my site; blog; and charity.

Not to mention the other things I blisted for this month. Which escape me at the moment. something about the pin hole camera and map I'm sure.

Oh lords of mercy, and I've got to get my e-book of mazes going soon. I was thinking of offering a discount to anybody who donates to the write-a-thon.

I sure know how to make my life bussy.

Finished two writing articles.
Wrote that query letter draft.

Continued to work on my June novel, adding text, researching, revising.

Stayed in and enjoyed the AC.

I got all star rank last night on neopets, so knock that one off my list.

My weight is down around 200 again, from the 205 it got up to when I was sick (and lazy). Hopefully the numbers continue to go down.

If you are ever tired of life, come to Haven. And someone will kill you.

Opened out another scene in my June novel, which now is over 110,000 words.

Went to see the Sex and the City movie as research. Loved it! Every single moment of it. Me and the two other women in the theater. Movie theaters are weird. Why run a movie for three customers? What we paid for tickets wouldn't even cover the wages of the employees for an hour.

Wrote two blogs today, and worked on the novel some. The worst thing was not being able to sleep last night because I realized I didn't have a logical transition from one part of a key scene to another. I did have a transition, but a reader probably would not think of it as logical. So I'm going to have to rewrite the whole darn thing.

And then I was reading some published books and all the dialogue was very short. But all my characters like to say about three sentences at a time. Must do more research before I turn everybody terse. On the good side, there was a lot of internal monologue in the published books, and I've got plenty of that.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I would like to see this novel published by an established print publisher some day. So I have a lot of work ahead of me.