NaNoWriMo
Another Random Day, IPv6 and NaNoWriMo
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 11/10/2008 - 23:21Today was another day of random geeky and NaNoWriMo stuff. I helped configure a Windows 2008 Server. It provided a good opportunity to test out some more IPv6 stuff.
Out of the box, Windows Server 2008 seems to be working with IPv6 and I briefly connected via IPv6 from the Windows Server 2008 server through a couple IPv6 tunnels to my Linux box. I access both web pages and used SSH. Google Chrome and Firefox both connected to the Apache web server that I have running and PuTTY, a windows client that supports SSH and IPv6 connected to the sshd on my linux box.
Unfortunately, the IPv6 tunnel that the Windows 2008 Server seems to be using is slow and flaky. I kept dropping connections. I want to see if I can find a better tunnel for the Windows 2008 Server.
This took, traveling, and random house keeping tasks took up much of the day. I did manage to visit my quota of blogs today, but didn’t end up leaving as many comments as I normally would. I also managed to get a little farther in my novel. It is going well, but today I didn’t even make 1,667 words, let alone what I figure I need to do to make up for lost time. Tomorrow, I have some personal issues to deal with, but hopefully I’ll get more interesting writing done, both here and in the novel.
#nanowrimo The Week Ahead and The Week Behind
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 11/08/2008 - 13:11Last week was a difficult week for me to write. I spent Tuesday electioneering and then going down to the NPR Studios in Washington to blog about the election results. Since then, I’ve been trying to catch up on my sleep, fight a cold, and try to make sense of the week that was.
This coming week is going to be equally challenging. I have a tentative client visit on Monday, some personal issues to deal with on Tuesday, and some important blogging events the rest of the week.
On Wednesday, at 10 AM, in front of the New Haven City Hall at 165 Church Street, Barb and Robin Levine-Ritterman of New Haven, who were plaintiffs in the Kerrigan case will be applying for a marriage license. Love Makes a Family is encouraging people to join in the celebrations on this historic day.
Then, at 2:30 in the evening, there will be oral arguments in Doninger v. Niehoff et al on a motion for a summary judgment. It should be interesting to hear the arguments in light of emails that have been disclosed as part of Freedom of Information Requests, which the Plaintiffs claim demonstrate that one of the defendants lied on the stand.
As a side note, the link to the document listed above is only available to people who have PACER accounts. Pages accessed this way are charged $.08 per page. I include this link and a comment about it because, I believe that as part of open government, which I hope the new administration will be bringing, we should do away with fees like those on Pacer and make information about our government more readily available.
On Thursday, there will be a conference at Central Connecticut State University on Journalism-- Where We Are; Where We’re Going. Speakers include several friends from online media, and I hope to make it up to the conference.
Friday, I will be speaking in Second Life about the relationship between Second Life and other online media. Then on Saturday, the Investigative Reports and Editors will be running a workshop at Southern Connecticut State University entitled Watchdog Workshop which will combine elements of two different workshops. The IRE is a great organization and I hope to be able to attend. Unfortunately, I only heard about the workshop after online registration had closed so I am not clear if I will be able to attend.
As with last week, the coming week doesn’t leave a lot of time for novel writing. On top of that, my initial idea for my novel just wasn’t coming together. It was too close to a memoir, and too far from being a novel. I didn’t find the experience engaging, so I abandoned it. I’ve started off on a new track, but I’m several days behind now and the writing is hard. We shall see if I can catch up during a busy schedule.
November
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 11/01/2008 - 09:02Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit. For all the saints, who from their labors rest. Four more days and the election will be over. It will also be the anniversary of when Kim and I were married and the anniversary of Fiona being baptized. I will be in Washington to cover the election returns. NaNoWriMo, and of course, the top EntreCard droppers of the month. November will be a busy month.
As a kid, we were told to shout Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit out when we first got out of bed at the beginning of each month. Now, as an older blogger, I like to start the first blog post of each month that way. It ties blogging back to the stories of childhood, and that is important, I think.
Today is also All Saints day. It is a holiday in the Christian tradition that I greatly honor. It is a reminder of all the saints that have gone before. For All The Saints (Sine Nomine), is one of my favorite hymns typically sung on All Saints Day or the Sunday immediately following. I flip to an online hymnal to find the words and search for a quote to add, yet the hymn is full of so many wonderful verses. So, I’ve chosen two which capture for me some of the spirit of the hymn and of All Saints Day.
O blest communion, fellowship divine!
we feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
all are one in thee, for all are thine.
Alleluia, Alleluia!And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
and hearts are brave, again, and arms are strong.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Yes, the strife is fierce, especially as we lead up to election day, and the election warfare has seemed very long indeed. Over the next few days, we will be doing our final push of what we can to get out the vote. There are difficult questions. Where do we spend our time? Do we drive up to New Hampshire as a key battle ground state? Do we call from our homes or at gatherings? Do we focus on races that are more local, like a very important congressional race in the neighboring district, a key state senate race a district or two away, or a state house race in our own back yard?
For me, I plan on voting first thing on Tuesday. I would think about voting earlier, but Connecticut is part of the minority of states that do not have early voting. After voting, I plan on poll standing and talking to voters who have not thought enough yet about the state legislative races or the questions on the ballot. Then, I will hop on a train down to Washington where I will blog the election returns from NPR studios.
There is a group of bloggers that will be there and I’m honored to be part of the group. Some of the bloggers are writers I have read for a long time and have great respect for, such as Liza Sabater of Culture Kitchen, Faye Anderson of Anderson at Large, Jill Zimon of Writes Like She Talks, Laurie White of BlogHer and Jill Foster doing Mobile podcasts from Utterli. There are several other bloggers that I look forward reading more of and then getting to meet in Washington.
It has seemed strange to go down to Washington to blog. After all, I can probably blog better from my office at home. I have many more resources at hand. Yet there is something special about gathering with other writers. This leads me to two other topics for the month.
National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo starts today. I’ve been to one NaNoWriMo kick off dinner, and I expect that over the coming month I’ll find a few chances to gather with other people trying to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. I wrote a novel last year for NaNoWriMo. I’ve done a bit of editing of the novel and it sits quietly on my hard disk waiting for more editing or for me to decide what to do with it next. It will have to wait. Soon after I finish this morning’s blog post, I will start writing my 2008 NaNoWriMo novel. This year’s novel has the working title ‘Starting Over’, which will be a fictionalized semi-autobiographical recounting of my divorce, career change, foreclosure on my house and bankruptcy.
As to the top EntreCard droppers on me during the month of November, several of the blogs are ones that I regularly read, and I suspect are found on many similar lists, like Worldwide Travel Blog, Shepard Family Values, verITableLIFE, and Turnip of Power, which is running a Social Networking Contest. I’m normally not a big fan of all the contests designed to get links back to a website, but Turnip of Power is a very good blog which I enjoy reading.
Some of the other top droppers for October include rambling stuff with a beautiful picture of a hammer dulcimer at the top of the page, Weather for Headphones, which is a great title for a blog, and Kitchen Retro. Kitchen Retro has lots of great memories from yesteryear. The author of Kitchen Retro is also participating in NaNoWriMo this year, so we’ll see if they remain a top dropper during November.
Other blogs include Technically Easy and Random Ramblings.
So, with all my shout-outs for the beginning of November completed, it is time to begin “Starting Over”. Wish me luck. If you want to read parts of the novel as I write it and offer constructive comments, please let me know.
Foreclosure Day
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 03/29/2008 - 08:30It is a bright and sunny day, a little bit chilly. I woke up early, tossing and turning. Today is foreclosure day. At noon, the house will be sold in an foreclosure auction.
I need to head down there soon to let the court appointed auctioneer in so that the house can be shown to any potential bidders. As I tossed and turned, I thought about how I should write about this. Blog posts here? Right now, my mind has settled on a short story. I’ve wrote parts of it in my head as I tossed and turned.
“It wasn’t a typical foreclosure, but how many of them really are?”
I check my email. Log in to Second Life to see if there are any messages there that I need to respond to. It feels like I’m trying to put this off, yet at the same time, I will be glad when it is over.
I need to get ready now. More later.
TGNaNoWriMoIO
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 12/02/2007 - 19:21Thanks God, National Novel Writing Month is Over. Yup. That’s the party Kim and I went to this afternoon. We sat in a room with about twenty other NaNoWriters and their significant others and talked about what worked and what didn’t in our novel writing experiences. We ate Mexican food, joked about “quotation” marks and misused apostrophe’s. We glanced at the omnipresent televisions in the background and our choice of watching The Nutcracker on Ice, with the great Mice on Ice section, he-man carrying cars and kegs in some bizarre strong-man competition, or wiry men arm wrestling on what must have been the Arm Wresting Sports Network.
Meanwhile, the ice was starting to form on the roads at home. Our ride home was tense, with more slipping and sliding than I would have liked to have seen, yet we got home safely. Now, we need to tune into WFSB and see if Darren Sweeney will declare a “snow day”.
There is a stereotype of novelists as being slightly eccentric and the lunch, at least for me helped reinforce that stereotype. Between the jokes, you could here potential themes for more novels than novelists at the table. It was great fun and inspirations for next year’s novel writing. I hope some of you consider giving NaNoWriMo a try next year.
