End of October

Tomorrow is Halloween. For the first time in a lot of years, I don't really care. I'm not dressing up, not throwing a party for the kids, and don't have any one to bring trick-or-treating. What shall I do with myself?

Well, I'll probably work on homework, since I have a 4 page paper due next Wed that hasn't been started, a whole website that has barely been started, and 2 chapters in anatomy that need read. Blah. Oh, and then I'll be getting ready for NaNo, which starts at midnight on November 1st.

Mandy and I have a midnight NaNo date ☺ Of course, midnight for her is 1am for me. I'll still be there.

I'll also be worrying myself to a tizzy about graduate school. Just when I thought I had it all figured out (psycholinguistics at the University of Florida -- go Gators!!) it was brought to my attention that a theoretical/research degree is only really good for one thing -- research. Oh, and teaching. Which is fun, but not necessarily good for a lifetime career. Possibly, but not necessarily. So, I've been e-mailing some experts at the U of F to see if there is something better suited for me. So far, I have thought about:

cognitive psychology
speech-language pathology
psycholinguistics

None of them are 100% what I want. SLP is the closest to a practical solution as I can get, but I don't want to be JUST a speech-language pathologist. Actually, I don't really want to be one at all. I just want to know some of the stuff an SLP knows so I can use it for research. If I could get a clinical license with cognitive psych, I might go that route, but it's even more theory-based than psycholinguistics. Oh, psh. Just when I thought I was set.... plenty more to think about.

Then there's my NaNo novel. All I know so far is that my protag, Quinn, is a struggling full-time romance writer who gets dumped by her long-term boyfriend and high-tails it to the ocean for inspiration, where she somehow runs into the paranormal side of life. I think my mMC's name will be Joss. I even had a last name for Joss, but I have forgotten it.

Oh, in good news, I wrote a poem. And I won 3rd place in a poetry contest! Which entitles me to a $100 gift certificate at Barnes and Noble! Wooo!!!

Maybe I should by some books about choosing a grad program/career....

Blah-ness

Today is "blah."

I couldn't sleep last night; around midnight, after finishing my book -- which was the only reason I had managed to stay up as long as I had since I was dreadfully tired -- I had the realization that the end of October is near. I'm one of those people who hates when time seems to fly by so quickly I feel unaccomplished, so I started thinking of the goals I had set for this year. Namely, I had wanted to complete the 2nd and 3rd drafts of IE. I figured I would aim for 10/31 (so I could concentrate fully on NaNo in November) and whatever I didn't manage to get finished I could finish up by 12/31. This is exactly what happened last year during the first draft. I started in April and wanted to finish by 10/31. I didn't, but from 12/1 to 12/31 I did finish. I really didn't think I would be only 6 chapters into the 2nd draft at this point in this year. Blah.

So, the point is: up all night. Extremely tired. I get VERY cranky when I'm tired. I think I'm low on iron, which would explain the excessive tiredness for the past few weeks. Blech.

Anyhow, shopping went well today -- bought 3 pairs of pants and a pair of boots. This is a HUUUUUGE deal for me, as I wear a large size pants in tall, and when I can find the width/style that fits, I inevitably can't find them tall enough. I feel like I'm fighting floods all year. And, I wear a size 13W shoe, which makes it impossible to find comfortable shoes. Thus, I wear sandals most of the year. It sucks when it snows. But today, I managed to find not one, not even two, but THREE pairs of boots in my size!!! I bought the black ones because they made my feet look the smallest, and called it a day. Very exciting. Very exhausting.

Now I'm home. Psych isn't on (sad face), I can't seem to concentrate on endochondral ossification so save my life, I'm extremely anxious about my failure to finish IE, and all I want to do is go to sleep but I have midterms next week. Double blah.

It's gonna be one of those weekends, I think....

Stretching those creative muscles... kind of

My husband is teaching himself the art of graphic design. Recently, he went from making flyers and posters for his wrestling company to actually getting PAID to make a flyer for a tattoo shop. It wasn't a lot, but he got paid to do something he loves to do. I'm so proud of him! I told him he should come up with a name for his graphic design "business," make a logo, and stick that on his work -- especially since the tattoo shop wanted to put his name and phone number on the flyer since they thought it was so good! We spent last night and part of today trying to come up with fun, creative, but professional names.

This got me thinking. I want a cool business name. But I don't have a business. It kind of sucks. Even when (note I said "when," not "if") I become a published author, I still don't get to make a unique name and a logo. It bummed me out. So, being the creative type I am, I decided to just come up with a name for something anyhow. I thought it would be fun, and kind of flex those artistic pipes a bit.

Now, I have been dabbling in web design. It started as a class for school and I am really interested in it. I have moved onto a bigger project, which is still for school but will continue even after the class is over: hubby's wrestling organization's website. That's a pretty big deal, and I don't want to mess it up, so I'm working really hard to do a great job. Anyhow, in my name/logo-jealousy fit, I decided to come up with a name for my soon-to-be successful web design career (haha... I would love to make money designing web sites, but I do have a bit more learning to do!!)

Today, between classes (my nothing-to-do-with-design classes, which are currently depressing me due to lack of wholehearted interest in the subjects), I started googling my ideas. You know, to see if anyone already had web design companies with those names.

My favorite name, which I figured off the bat would be taken, was Tangled Web, or even Untangled Web. I just loved the wordplay. Well, of course, they are both not only very popular names for companies, they happen to be popular names for web design companies. I figured. Still, I was disappointed. But I moved through my other names, even though there were only a few.

Color9 -- from a song I love. I thought it was so original (despite being from a song, but the song is like 10 years old so I really didn't think anyone would have the name). Not only was it a company name, it was a web design company name. Damn.

Creative Type (yes, this was based off an internal dialogue about my thought process leading to coming up with a name) -- taken. By a web design company.

Relative Youth -- not taken, but reminds me of Electric Youth by Debbie Gibson. Plus, while it is applicable to me and fresh on my mind due to a creative writing assignment, it doesn't say anything about web design.

I love oxymorons, and one of my favs of the moment is Fine Mess. However, that's the name of a Kate Voegele album (which I love!) and a few other things, so of course I couldn't use that. I love the word Chaos. But I can only come up with Orderly Chaos -- and really, do I want to use an -ly adverb, when I try so hard to abolish them from my writing?

That was it. I'm bummed. But, I still want to come up with a name. I don't really need one, though I would love to create websites on the side someday when I'm good enough... but I want one. And I want to make a logo. And I want to stick it on the few websites I am making for school and personal projects. Just for fun. It really does stretch my creativity, and I think it'll be a good exercise.

Now, since my favorite names are taken, what should I use?

....

Columbus, Who?

Today is Columbus Day.

It is a day world-wide nation-wide where people celebrate the joyous occasion of the first discovery of North America select Caribbean islands. The wild partying begins with fireworks

turkey

a festively decorated tree

hidden eggs

a moment of silence

….

How the hell do you celebrate Columbus Day?

Oh yeah, but stopping the mail. And the payment of unemployment checks and child support.

Why? What did Columbus do to deserve such monumental holiday status?

He failed to realize the earth was round, instead insisting it was pear-shaped and as such he could reach Asia quicker by travelling west than east. What did he intend to do when he reached Asia? Enslave the people and get better prices on important fossil fuels silk and gold. What did he do instead, when he reached the Bahamas and later Hispaniola? He carried diseases to the natives, whom he incorrectly called Indians, directly leading to the demise of a whole population. He definitely deserves some celebration, people.

Christopher Columbus discovered an island in the Western hemisphere, went to his grave believing he had found a new route to Asia (even though he didn’t encounter any of the silk or other merchandise that had arrived from Asia in the past), and went down in history as someone who discovered a continent… that had already been discovered by the Vikings.

Granted, many important discoveries were made accidentally – Post It notes, for example. LSD. Plenty of other stuff, I’m sure. But do we give national holidays – days when the unemployed don’t get paid and the waiting don’t get mail – to Spencer Silver or Albert Hofmann? No, we don’t. Why? Because they don’t deserve them. And coming from me, who is obsessed with Post Its, that’s saying something.

Plain and simple, Christopher Columbus doesn’t deserve a holiday. I’m glad he started an era of discovery, but I’m pretty sure America would have been on the map without him… since Leif Erikson had already found it by the time Columbus ever got into his little boat. Really, does every naïve person who stumbles upon something need a holiday?

Next thing you know, we’ll be celebrating Paris Hilton Day, where everyone starves themselves, loses a few hundred brain cells, and proclaims “that’s hot” every five minutes.

Geesh.

Off-Task

Do you ever write something you've already done on a list just so you can cross it off? I just did that, and it felt pretty good. I looked at my academic planner for the week and realized I wasn't very accomplished so far this week because I hadn't crossed anything off... then I realized I had barely written much down to begin with. So I started writing in things I had already done, just to cross them off. Now I feel much more accomplished for this week ☺

In other news, the next 51 days will be pretty busy for me. NaNo starts on Nov. 1, and I haven't done a lick of pre-planning for it. This will be my 2nd year attempting (I finished last year a hair above 50K words) but my first year doing it while being in school full-time. Should be fun. And, to add to that, I don't even know what I'll write. I was sick for 3 weeks in September so I got behind on everything -- schoolwork, writing, housework, Christmas stockings... everything. So, I think I'm gonna wing it for NaNo! Also, I'm headed to Florida on October 22!!! Going to check out the UF campus and linguistics program and try to make a decision about my future after graduation -- which is exactly 7 months away. That's still a ways off, but much closer than I've ever been (obviously)!! We'll be in Florida (hubby and I, that is) over our anniversary too, but will most likely spend that day on a long-ass plane trip and in and out of airports (8 hours for a 1.5 hour flight... not much faster than driving, it seems). Add a couple of final projects, including a website for IPW (Insanity Pro Wrestling, my husband's wrestling company), and extra IPW shows that I must attend due to an arrangement with said hubby.... oh, and holiday dinners! I love cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the fam... well anyhow, the next 51 days are going to be super busy.

But for now, I'm just trying to get through my list and cross everything out. And maybe get some extra done. Oh, and head to Kokomo to visit my grandpa, who had a stroke on Sunday. :( Busy, busy!!