Wednesday, November 08, 2006

22,906 words in my increasingly frustrating NaNoWriMo novel so far, though the word count through NaNoWriMo, MS Word and Google Docs are all at least 100 words off from one another.
I'm about to have to call for a hand re-count. What, is Google Docs powered by Diebold?
Speaking of miscounts, I voted yesterday. Shana and Gwynyth waited for me to get home before we all stood in line in an elementary school.
"Does everyone have to vote?" Gwynyth asked us.
"No, but everyone should."
"Why do you vote?" she continued.
"Your mom and I like to complain about politics. A lot. And if we skip voting then we can't complain for a year."
I'm not sure that sold the concept to her, so I told her to crouch on the floor and continue her homework.
Mild political spoilers follow:
Yesterday was the first day I consciously and purposely flushed my ballot down the two party system. This was the first election since I turned 18 where I didn't vote for a single Republican.
To compensate, I didn't vote for any Democrats, either.
I scrolled right past anyone running un-opposed and voted independent everywhere I could.
Why do I have to vote for the lesser of two evils? A person should be able to vote for the good. Or, if they want, the greater of two evils.
Also, writing a name in on the automated polling machine was non-intuitive, so I either voted for the low-budget candidate or not at all.
At least I voted, so my right to complain is secure for another year.
What voting did not accomplish was progress on my novel. I didn't want to be that guy standing in the voting line typing away on my laptop and muttering curses.
I chose to be the guy standing in line, tapping his foot and muttering curses.
22,906 words, everybody. Can the story support the full 50,000? I don't know.
I've chosen to structure the story around Joseph Campbell's Monomyth, which is the theory that all great mythic tales share the same core elements.
Star Wars was written using the same template plus ripped off Samurai movies. And laser swords.
It always comes back around to laser swords.
All things do.
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5 comments:

Garrick said...

Laser kittens with chainsaw launchers?

12:46 PM
Andrew Moore said...

Me, I voted for Arnold again.

I just can't get past the novelty of having Governor T-100!

(If only Danny DeVito had run for Lt. Governor. Or Kuato. Yeah. Lt. Gov. Kuato.)

2:14 PM
Anonymous said...

I won't tell you what I've been calling all you people who made such decisions yesterday.

But suffice it to say, none of the words respect the inherent worth and dignity of those who chose to let the antichrist (Yea, and he shall come to thee, full of charisma and garbed in khaki, with hair most perfect and smile most gleaming...) be reelected as governor of this state.

My kids asked why they had to wait to be 18 to vote. I told them it was because we want an educated electorate to make the decisions. And I felt dirty.

And now I'll stop with my political kvetching.

3:14 PM
Garrick said...

OMG! Did you just lump me into a "you people"?!?!? ;)

I voted for the most qualified people I could find in all cases, but the pool is extremely shallow.

Our beloved governor lost it for me when he tried to drum with ZZ Top. There is too much wrong with that to get into.
Also, he cited his excellent record on border security as part of his platform. An informal survey I tried with the 300 or so illegal immigrant day laborers who hang out at the gas station across from my office (none of them can code java script, BTW) leads me to believe (in spite of the pronounced language barrier) that Perry is a lying asshat of the worst order, even for a politician.

I hate that guy with the burning intensity of a thousand white-hot desert suns over our largely wide-freaking-open border or a million surgical lasers employed in Texas hospitals that provide millions of dollars a year in tax-payer funded "free" medical care for people that broke Federal law even coming here.

Governor Perry is an administrative failure and a blight on the great state of Texas.

I'd have voted for Bell, the Democrat, but after the nasty crap both parties pulled in this election (and over the past . . . well, as long as I can remember) I could not bring myself to support either one.

Sadly, I knew going in I was wasting my vote, effectively eliminating the benefit the right to vote I am guaranteed by the Constitution (May she be protected from the on going assault from the GOP) provides to me and those who may think like me, but the ballot I filled out had no 'against' check box, which would have been my preference.

But I think we are totally on the same page about Perry. The guy didn't even drum well.

Are we beating the crap out of Maryland in NaNoWriMo yet?

3:39 PM
Anonymous said...

Better yet, a drumstick with a picture of rick perry on it.

And yes, Garrick, on last count, the Houston-Austin metro totals were about 200k over the Maryland state total. Not sure how this compares to the people who signed UP for the challenge though. And since folks can drop out anytime before the 15th, we won't have a good idea for a while.

11:12 PM

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