End of Semester Plans

My last week of school technically begins next Monday (theoretically). As a result, I'm spending all weekend confined to my apartment, churning out as many papers as possible until I'm either finished, or my head explodes. My phone will be off. Chat programs will be off. TV will not be turned on at all. Not even for meals. Meals will be spent in front of the computer. I have pitchers of tea and Kool-aid already made and some light snacks. I will be working almost non-stop, taking small breaks once an hour, until I am done, no matter how many days it takes. No going out. No drinking. No quick trips to the store. Nothing. I will be on full lock-down.

"But why would you have to kill yourself to do all of this? There's no way that any teacher assigned so much work that you'll need all weekend to do it?" Well, yes and no. A teacher CAN assign an absurd amount of work... over the course of a semester. I'm essentially doing a full semester's worth of writing (not from scratch, but a lot of things need to be redone, edited, revised, etc.) As to the why? Because I've spent almost four months dealing with these things, sitting in the library and going over pages and pages of articles and essays and research and notes and trying to find verification and collaboration on facts and etc.... I've stared at blank pages for hours on end. I've sat down to work at home, only to have lost five hours messing with my music collection (damn you, ADD). All the time I spent doing nothing with these papers is time I could have spent doing something fun with ANYTHING ELSE. So, I'm throwing the gauntlet down. I have a bottle of Aspirin, plenty of refreshment, and an emergency caffeine boost in the fridge. It's time to get this over with. I want as much time as possible between the semesters to make up for all of the time spent staring at a blinking cursor for hours on end.

Speaking of, this isn't a post about my nightmare of schoolwork. This is about what I'm going to do AFTER I'm done. On my other monitor, I will have a list of everything I'm going to do when I'm finished with the semester as motivation. It's like clipping a picture of your vacation destination on your monitor at work to remind you what you're working for. Some of these will make no sense. Others will make perfect sense. Without further ado, here is what I'm going to do after I'm done with school.

• Finish the following games I started this semester
• Castlevania (PS3)
• 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3)
• Alan Wake (360)
• Dragon Quest IX (DS)
• Guitar Hero: Metallica (360)
• Start and finish the following games that I bought this semester
• Dead Space (PS3)
• Assassin's Creed 2 (PS3)
• Play every numbered Final Fantasy game (except for the online ones) in reverse order, starting with 13.
• Possibly make a "Let's Play" out of one of the earlier ones. May have a vote to decide (might include Mystic Quest in the poll.
• Replay the following games
• Bayonetta
• Write a few short stories to submit to St. Ed's writing journal.
• Work on Maelstrom
• Read as many books on my "to-read' list as possible.
• Watch the following TV Shows
• Walking Dead (Season 1)
• Dexter (Season 5)
• Boardwalk Empire (Season 1)
• The Wire (Seasons 2-5)
• Battlestar Galactica (at least season 2)
• Doctor Who (finish rewatching season 2 and 3)
• Tochwood: Children of Earth
• Watch the following movies
• Scott Pilgrim
• Iron Man 2
• Zombieland
• As much as possible on my netflix queue
• Cancel Netflix Discs, move to streaming only
• Start walking every day again
• Clean the apartment (should do this first)
• De-stink the aparment (Where is that smell coming from?!)
• Get to 85 in WoW with two characters
• Get auxiliary cable hooked up to Tahoe stereo
• Fix the satellite radio that stopped working
• Try to have at least one date (low priority)

Wow. I'm such a damn nerd. I really should move these.

(UPDATE 1 - December 23, 2010: Marked off finished and played games. Got the auxiliary cable working in Tahoe, but somehow screwed up the satellite radio. Oh well. Removed Harry Potter, because I won't get around to seeing it until it hits DVD most likely).

End of Semester To-Do list (or, I'm going to spend 3 weeks playing video games)

My last week of school technically begins next Monday (theoretically). As a result, I'm spending all weekend confined to my apartment, churning out as many papers as possible until I'm either finished, or my head explodes. My phone will be off. Chat programs will be off. TV will not be turned on at all. Not even for meals. Meals will be spent in front of the computer. I have pitchers of tea and Kool-aid already made and some light snacks. I will be working almost non-stop, taking small breaks once an hour, until I am done, no matter how many days it takes. No going out. No drinking. No quick trips to the store. Nothing. I will be on full lock-down.

"But why would you have to kill yourself to do all of this? There's no way that any teacher assigned so much work that you'll need all weekend to do it?" Well, yes and no. A teacher CAN assign an absurd amount of work... over the course of a semester. I'm essentially doing a full semester's worth of writing (not from scratch, but a lot of things need to be redone, edited, revised, etc.) As to the why? Because I've spent almost four months dealing with these things, sitting in the library and going over pages and pages of articles and essays and research and notes and trying to find verification and collaboration on facts and etc.... I've stared at blank pages for hours on end. I've sat down to work at home, only to have lost five hours messing with my music collection (damn you, ADD). All the time I spent doing nothing with these papers is time I could have spent doing something fun with ANYTHING ELSE. So, I'm throwing the gauntlet down. I have a bottle of Aspirin, plenty of refreshment, and an emergency caffeine boost in the fridge. It's time to get this over with. I want as much time as possible between the semesters to make up for all of the time spent staring at a blinking cursor for hours on end.

Speaking of, this isn't a post about my nightmare of schoolwork. This is about what I'm going to do AFTER I'm done. On my other monitor, I will have a list of everything I'm going to do when I'm finished with the semester as motivation. It's like clipping a picture of your vacation destination on your monitor at work to remind you what you're working for. Some of these will make no sense. Others will make perfect sense. Without further ado, here is what I'm going to do after I'm done with school.

• Finish the following games I started this semester
• Castlevania (PS3)
• 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3)
• Alan Wake (360)
• Dragon Quest IX (DS)
• Guitar Hero: Metallica (360)
• Darksiders
• Start and finish the following games that I bought this semester
• Dead Space (PS3)
• Assassin's Creed 2 (PS3)
• Play every numbered Final Fantasy game (except for the online ones) in reverse order, starting with 13.
• Possibly make a "Let's Play" out of one of the earlier ones. May have a vote to decide (might include Mystic Quest in the poll.
• Replay the following games
• Bayonetta
• Write a few short stories to submit to St. Ed's writing journal.
• Work on Maelstrom
• Read as many books on my "to-read' list as possible.
• Watch the following TV Shows
• Walking Dead (Season 1)
• Dexter (Season 5)
• Boardwalk Empire (Season 1)
• The Wire (Seasons 2-5)
• Battlestar Galactica (at least season 2)
• Doctor Who (finish rewatching season 2 and 3)
• Tochwood: Children of Earth
• Last Exile
• Black Lagoon
• Watch the following movies
• Scott Pilgrim
• Iron Man 2
• Zombieland
• As much as possible on my netflix queue
• Cancel Netflix Discs, move to streaming only
• Start walking every day again
• Clean the apartment (should do this first)
• De-stink the aparment (Where is that smell coming from?!)
• Get to 85 in WoW with two characters
• Get auxiliary cable hooked up to Tahoe stereo
• Try to have at least one date (low priority)
• Go see Harry Potter

Wow. I'm such a damn nerd. I really should move the games to the bottom of the list... but I know myself too well.

And with that, good night. I will see everyone in a few days.

NaNoWriMo 2010: An Unfortunate End

Well, with 15 minutes left in the month, I'm going to sadly call my attempt over, falling short of 20% completion. I could make excuses, but honestly, if I had pushed myself, I probably would have done better.

Having said that, here are my excuses.

1) 2 Literature Classes and another class called "Research and Argumentation" which demands an 8 page research paper a week can really sap the drive and motivation to write something for myself.

2) I spent way too much time on my notes and not on actual writing. The blueprints are there, but the crew had to reschedule.

3) School. Again. School. Always. School.

4) It's hard to make progress when you have to edit what you wrote while drunk or sleepy. Or both.

So yeah. What it comes down to is school ate up all of my time. If I wasn't writing for a class, I wasn't writing at all.

What does this mean for the story?

Not a damn thing. I'm not stopping this one. I might put it on hold to work on a short story or two to submit to my school's writing journal, but Maelstrom (working title) will be finished. Probably better now that I'm not just trying to throw in as much as possible as fast as possible.

I'll keep posting the status of it as I make more progress.

And I look forward to trying again in 2011 with something brand new.

Oh, and before I forget.

NaNoWriMo 2010 Word Count: 7070 words.

Cooking with Goodwin: Steak

I know I should be working on something else. I have it open in the background, aching to be noticed. No, not my book. I am afraid I am talking about hideous schoolwork, with its opinions and soul-crushing. But if I don't do this now, I'll never get around to it.

Thanksgiving is fast approaching, where we can all spend time with our family at their house with their turkeys and fine china and place settings and, of course, grills.

Seeing as I live in an apartment and hate walking to our community grill (singular, but there's probably two), I am unable to really grill. Yet, I like steak. But without a grill, I am rendered steakless, like some sort of fish (note: fix analogy). This couldn't be further from the truth.

I will show you people how a simple student eats like a champion without having to deal with charcoal or propane or whatever. Keep reading to see how I, the amazing Goodwin, cook a ribeye with a cast-iron skillet. Fair warning, I have heard many ideas and rules on cooking steaks. I will break most of these rules.

Cooking with Goodwin: Pumpkin Bisque

Felt like having something different today. Here's a recipe my mom came up with that tastes pretty decent (if you don't add too much spice. Like I did). It's a pumpkin bisque. Don't be put off by the "pumpkin" part, it tastes nothing like pumpkins.

Recipe and pictures follow after the break.

NaNoWriMo 2010: Day One

I started at around 1:30 AM.

I had to rename a bunch of characters as well as invent a couple, but the prologue is basically finished, save for an un-fleshed out scene that I will improve. I've also reworked the third faction to be split into two groups, depending on their careers. Sor'ran will be the ones who live in secrecy, while Mystics are the ones that interact with the other groups.

I'm going to stop for now (seeing as it's 4 in the morning) but I might add more later today.



1559 words and counting.

NaNoWriMo 2010: SOON.

Less than a week until I start. Hopefully I'll be able to fill my major plot issues before I get to them.

Around 1000 words a day? I can pull this off. Brainstorming and planning alongside this while keeping up with my schoolwork?

..............We'll see.

Here's my page there (http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/546002) It'll show my progress as I go along. I'll see if there's a widget I can put up on the side of the blog.

Fiction: Convenience

I'm bored and trying to kill twenty minutes, so I'm going to make something up real quick and just post it without editing it. Let's see how I do. Feedback would be nice. And I'm aware this will probably be lame, but oh well. Enjoy.

NaNoWriMo 2009?: Last Year's Entry (UPDATED 11-20-2010)

After delving through Google Docs, I found last year's attempt at the book. It is the same idea that I'm working with this year, so any notes for this year apply. The basic outline is about 98% different. Link will follow after the break.

NaNoWriMo 2010: The Artifact

This is my MacGuffin, the thing everyone wants in my story.

NaNoWriMo 2010: The World

This is a basic description of the world. Will be updated as it goes

NaNoWriMo 2010: Solomon

Solomon is one of the main antagonists of the book. I don't know how big of a villain he'll be in the first part, though, or even if his name will stick (it probably won't). More will change as I go through it.

Full description after the break.

NaNoWriMo 2010: MacGuffin Mystery Solved

So my story has a MacGuffin.

"Goodwin, you devilish rogue! What is a MacGuffin?"

I'm glad you asked. A MacGuffin is a plot device that drives the plot in fiction. Sometimes it's an object. Sometimes it's a person. Think of the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, the maltese falcon from... The Maltese Falcon, or the Grail from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The term was popularized by Alfred Hitchcock.

Basically, it's something that characters in a story all try to get. It does something amazing, or something horrible.

NaNoWriMo 2010 and Current Work

This is a long one, so bear with me.

What is NaNoWriMo 2010? It is a contest. Sort of. It stands for National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to, from November 1st to November 31st, write 50,000 words. Let me spell that out for you. Fifty. Thousand. Words. That's over 1000 a day. Every day. For a month. The Prize? There is no prize. Except for the fact that YOU WROTE A NOVEL. Here's the official website

I tried last year, failing miserably with a paltry 2481 words. I thought I could pull it off by writing off of this idea I had, just making it all up as I went along, following a premise that I hadn't fully worked out yet. It was awful. I made up characters on the fly and I only had a vague outline to work with. On top of that, my outline included a plot line I had not even attempted to flesh out. Needless to say, It was a train wreck of amateurishness. Defeated by my own style of "make it up as you go," I shelved the idea, wanting to get back to it after writing other things.

Bugs

Writing this here so that I can remember it. I want to post more of my ideas online to show that I'm not just sitting around all day watching TV. I mean, I am just doing that, but I also write.


So here's a brief synopsis:

In the future, a man and his partner are caught stealing from a drug lord. He lets them keep the money but has them both injected with microscopic machines that are encased in a slowly dissolving shell in their bloodstream.

In 32 hours, the shells will be fully dissolved, and the machines will become active and begin to eat them from the inside out. To make matters worse, one of them was injected 6 hours earlier than the other and will die in 28 hours. Will they survive, or fall victim to a sadist's game?


(Another idea was to not use robots, but finely ground dust, which would shred them to pieces. I may still go with this idea.)

Sleepy Goodwin

Contains foul language, so don't read aloud to your children.

I am burning out at this moment with my education. I don't know what it is with this week, but I am just so tired. I can't seem to get enough sleep. I want to blame that bastard cat of mine, but I can't. I can blame the drinking. I am feeling restless and compressed. It feels like the center of my body is just pulling at my limbs, from my shoulders to my fingers and my waist to my toes, my collar to the top of my head. Elbows, knuckles, knees, neck, all of it just tense. I can't seem to stretch them out. My arms are heavy, and it is hard to hold my head up. Even when I'm not hungover (a rarity nowadays), I'm just exhausted. I am mentally exhausted. I am physically beaten down. I feel like I could fall asleep at any time, but can't seem to do it when it matters. My face is tired. I don't know what I want to do. I just stare out mindlessly in a haze. I have nothing on my mind. It's hard to think. But my mind isn't clear. It's just muddled. It feels like there is a muddy pond behind my eyes.

Even though I'm tired, I also kind of feel revved up, too. I'm like an old truck that has a fast idle. Beaten down, but tense. Anxious. I can't relax, even though I'm exhausted. My hands shake, even though they are weak. My legs twitch, and my feet hurt. I need a massage. I need someone to work my back with their hands while I lie there until I pass out.

I need that damn cat to stop being a jerk in the morning. He has never been this terrible. He won't stay out of things in the room in the morning, and he won't stay out of the room at all. If I throw him out, he'll leave me alone for the most part, but then he'll start howling and scratching at the door in the most obnoxious way. I finally break. I groggily assume that he needs to use the box, so I let him in. Instead, though, he jumps on the bed and lies down as if he's going to sleep. Cool. Alright. I lie down again. Within an hour, he is up and knocking things around on the desk, or smacking the blinds or my feet, or just screwing with one thing that he found that makes an obscene amount of noise. And then I throw his ass out again. And this repeats. Finally, today, I just got up after his howling and when I decided to just stay awake, I open the door and this time he goes to his box. Are you kidding me? Then he leaves. The worst part is if I stay up, I can keep the door closed and sit at my desk going through the internet with no distractions. He won't sit outside the door when I'm awake. That worthless bastard rodent of an animal.

I can't fall asleep at night. I will lie in bed and watch something on the computer, a video review of something, nothing of any real substance. Usually something I've already watched. I will start to feel drowsy, and I feel like I could just close my eyes right when it ends. But that doesn't ever happen. I am at my most sleepy when I crawl over and switch off the monitor and lie back down. And then I just lie there. No sleep comes. I stare at the wall. I stare at the ceiling. I don't feel any less sleepy, it just doesn't happen. I slept better when my wrist was busted two weeks ago. This happens sober as well as drunk. Drunk is usually worse, because I can't seem to get comfortable. It's hot, but cold. What the hell is wrong with me this week? Maybe tonight will be better. I don't have to read tonight (though I should), so maybe this will be the night where I reboot finally. Just defrag and shut down and wake up tomorrow feeling like a million bucks.

I have my doubts.

I know I'm not the only one that thinks this is good

I'm taking a quick break from reading for one of my classes to write some stress relief.

It's not exactly a secret that I like junk food. People around me also know that I like bar food (fried things, tiny burgers, etc.). What always has me wondering, though, is how some places haven't pushed the limits to deliciousness that they are so capable of achieving with things off their own menus!