If I've done this right, this should crosspost among all three regional forums that are in a semi-unofficial war with one another. Finland, meet Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh, meet Finland. Both of you, meet Sacramento. :)
Basic rules here is the regional average divided by the number of participants. The region that wins gets the warm and fuzzy bragging rights [nearly wrote "writes" there, heh] and the losing regions gets to stew in the cold harsh fact that they weren't good enough to win. (And who knows. There may be more awesome prizes, if we can be bothered to come up with any.)
Anyway, the tale of the tape under the regional tab seems to be that on this, the fifth day of November, the head of our leaderboard goes to....*drum roll please*
FINLAND!
Yes, those plucky Finns are out in front, having a large (but possibly not insurmountable) lead.
Here are the standings:
- Finland -- 425 Wrimos in this region (active and homed) - 42% are new. Wrimos in this region have written 2,022,416 words (5,879 per Wrimo with wordcount) [89th overall in words per wrimo]
- Sacramento -- 470 Wrimos in this region (active and homed) - 45% are new. Wrimos in this region have written 1,526,457 words (5,088 per Wrimo with wordcount) [229th overall in words per wrimo]
- Pittsburgh -- 422 Wrimos in this region (active and homed) - 40% are new. Wrimos in this region have written 1,303,952 words (4,690 per Wrimo with wordcount) [341th overall in words per wrimo]
Or shorter version, with the important numbers:
- Finland: 5,879 words per Wrimo
- Sacramento: 5,088 words per Wrimo
- Pittsburgh: 4,690 words per Wrimo
May this inspire you all to newer and higher wordcounts.
I'll be back on the 10th for a status update.
-kat
----------
Kat Templeton, Sacramento Region co-ML * http://www.retstak.org
"If I have weaknessess, don't let them blind me now." --Paul Simon




9,450 / 50,000
nov. 5, 2009 - 07 51
I didn't realize we were battling Finland! My favourite band is from there!
Check out my page for their name. lol
35,468 / 50,000
nov. 5, 2009 - 10 56
I didn't realize we were battling Pittsburgh. :D But OK! It's so ON!
----------Nano09: Juoksijat
Nano08: Horjuva sirkus (50138 words)
Nano07: Horjuva sirkus (50010 words or so)
Nano06: Horjuva sirkus (50001 words)
Let's encourage him until he hurts himself!
43,701 / 50,000
nov. 5, 2009 - 11 38
I figured a three-way word war would be even more fun. Sorry for bringing the surprise to everybody. :)
-kat
----------Kat Templeton, Sacramento Region co-ML * http://www.retstak.org
"If I have weaknessess, don't let them blind me now." --Paul Simon
39,337 / 50,000
nov. 5, 2009 - 12 09
This outrage cannot be allowed to stand!!! C'mon sactown let's get down on it!!!
----------Meddle not in the affairs of dragons
for thou art crunchy
and good with ketchup
60,038 / 50,000
nov. 5, 2009 - 12 34
Please, there's no need to apologize! Thank you for this delightful surprise ^_^
more competition = more fun
----------"When in doubt - eat more chocolate."
41,133 / 50,000
nov. 5, 2009 - 13 12
*cracks knuckles*
----------Bring it!
33,773 / 50,000
nov. 5, 2009 - 13 19
ok, we need to start cracking the whip on those low word counts.
54,250 / 50,000
nov. 5, 2009 - 13 25
17,657. How do you say "read 'em and weep" in Finnish?
"Yinz are going down" works for the Pittsburghers ;)
Phyllis
----------2007 (winner) - untitled contemporary romance (never finished)
2008 (winner) - Victorian English romance novel (finished, still editing)
44,766 / 50,000
nov. 5, 2009 - 14 21
We're close, and tomorrow is yet another furlough day for the State Government Worker-Wrimos.
Let's get our words down tomorrow, and greet the weekend from First Place!
K'PLAH!*
*Victory is ours - if we want it!
----------44,130 / 50,000
nov. 5, 2009 - 14 23
Aww man, Finland and California~! <3 This sounds pretty awesome to me.
----------46,892 / 50,000
nov. 5, 2009 - 17 50
B-b-but where's Philly? And we get to beat the Finnish too, awesome!
----------Dreamer of Inescapable Nightmares -- Vu

ぜつぼうした!
And I will look at these scars and shove my despair aside, and forthwidth shall come a grand total of 100,000 words!
33,773 / 50,000
nov. 5, 2009 - 18 01
oh yea, i hope to be up another thousand by the end of the night, and have nothing to do tomorrow but write write write!
41,133 / 50,000
nov. 5, 2009 - 22 19
In your dreams, sweetie. ;)
(By the way, is it even possible to beat Philadelphia? I just saw the 150k shoutout and discovered that Kateness is from Philadelphia. Dear gods, that woman has fingers of steel. o_0 )
----------47,551 / 50,000
nov. 5, 2009 - 22 22
Phyllis
It's "Lue ne ja itke".
Phah, We Finns are gonna win anyway. we're so goood...
Actually so good, that we need a handicap (the Finnish language usually expressing things with far less words than English: my favorite example is "Mäellä seisoi kivitalo" = 'There was a stone house standing on the hill'.) so as not to be overwhelmingly superior!
35,468 / 50,000
nov. 6, 2009 - 01 51
Or "Illastin jokirannassa." -> "I had dinner by the bank of the river."
Someone calculated once that 50k in english is about 30k in finnish. So there! We kick butt!
----------Nano09: Juoksijat
Nano08: Horjuva sirkus (50138 words)
Nano07: Horjuva sirkus (50010 words or so)
Nano06: Horjuva sirkus (50001 words)
Let's encourage him until he hurts himself!
33,773 / 50,000
nov. 6, 2009 - 02 41
hey, it is not our fault that we were thinking of nanowrimo when we invented our language, to help our word counts fly, while the finns, on the other hand, write two words and their novel is done... :D
47,805 / 50,000
nov. 6, 2009 - 02 44
I feel proud of us Finns. :) Let's write some more!
33,773 / 50,000
nov. 6, 2009 - 02 46
i am proud of you finns too... you deserve a nap. ;)
47,551 / 50,000
nov. 6, 2009 - 03 19
Hey! Don't you try to fool us!
(and now back to writing...)
39,337 / 50,000
nov. 6, 2009 - 03 31
yay! We're doing great!
Hello to Pittsburgh as well! Nice to meet you!
Hello again to Sacramento! We won't forget you even though you try to distract us with Pittsburgh.
19,552 / 50,000
nov. 6, 2009 - 10 52
Pittsburgh's gonna WIN!
*dives into Write or Die to singlehandedly raise the regional word count*
----------Year 7 of NaNo... 6 years of avoiding the end results!
37,020 / 50,000
nov. 6, 2009 - 11 01
I knew we were battling Sacramento but Finland? And what happened to Philly? Oh well, Pittsburgh is still going to win. It is, after all, home of the CHAMPIONS.
You non-Pittsburghers are so going down!
----------2009: Bounded
2008: Make Me Fat! (won)
2007: Cream Cracker Tinker Knacker (won)
2006: Love Thy Sister, Love Thy Home (won)
"Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead." - Gene Fowler
33,773 / 50,000
nov. 6, 2009 - 12 03
Hey! Don't you try to fool us!
(and now back to writing...)
hey, i was just trying to be encouraging! i thought you might have been tired... oh wait, it was 2am over here in sacramento when i wrote that, not in Finland. my bad. ;)
46,892 / 50,000
nov. 6, 2009 - 12 30
Hey! Don't you try to fool us!
(and now back to writing...)
hey, i was just trying to be encouraging! i thought you might have been tired... oh wait, it was 2am over here in sacramento when i wrote that, not in Finland. my bad. ;)
Me thinks you Sacramentians need some rest too after reading that! ----------
Dreamer of Inescapable Nightmares -- Vu

ぜつぼうした!
And I will look at these scars and shove my despair aside, and forthwidth shall come a grand total of 100,000 words!
47,551 / 50,000
nov. 6, 2009 - 12 49
It was one PM here. ;-)
You still häve Daylight saving time? I can still remember an embarrasing situation a looong time ago: I was trying to send a fax to someone in Berkeley (I don't remember why it had to be a fax, but it was urgent; maybe a signed paper or something), and it just didn't go through... It was about 4 PM Finaly I tried to call the number - and woke up some poor wretch at 6 AM... The number was correct, but there was some relay in the wrong position or something.
43,701 / 50,000
nov. 6, 2009 - 13 55
Heh, Philly is something Pittsburgh's doing on its own.
This came about because I challenged your ML based on general similarity of region statistics from last year. Actually, I challenged you guys first, but through various quirks, Finland accepted our challenge first. And since they're also a similar region statistically, I figured it'd just be fun to combine them into a three-way winner-take-all quest for glory. :)
(Good luck in your regional war, though! I tried to challenge the closest region to us geographically and never heard from them at all, so you're a step up on us.)
-kat
----------Kat Templeton, Sacramento Region co-ML * http://www.retstak.org
"If I have weaknessess, don't let them blind me now." --Paul Simon
33,773 / 50,000
nov. 6, 2009 - 13 56
pour guy... beening woken up like that. you should be ashamed of yourself!
and i feel rested enough, i slept in till 10, so i am allllll good.
so, what do you guys do to motivate yourselves to write?
43,052 / 50,000
nov. 6, 2009 - 14 02
Trying to steal strategies are you?
I haven't needed much motivating this year. My plot and characters are interesting enough and since I love writing anyway, it isn't that hard to keep on doing it. :)
----------"I know there are people who don't read fiction at all, and I find it hard to understand how they can bear to be inside the same head all the time."
-Diane Setterfield
33,059 / 50,000
nov. 6, 2009 - 14 05
I just think of Finland and Pittsburgh and start typing away... just banged out another 1000 on my lunch break.
----------It takes a heap of loafing to write a novel. --Gertrude Stein
www.shimmerzine.com
33,773 / 50,000
nov. 6, 2009 - 14 06
I haven't needed much motivating this year. My plot and characters are interesting enough and since I love writing anyway, it isn't that hard to keep on doing it. :)
i was just trying to make friendly convorsation. :(