NaNo Oh No!

Actually, it’s not that terrible….I’m just melodramatic.
So, it’s the day before NaNoWriMo starts and I’m full of ideas! Too many ideas. I really need to pick one thing to focus on, but I can’t seem to narrow things down.

“That’s a Novel idea!”

1. Young woman has spent the last several years caring for her aging grandparents. After their death (or after they are moved to nursing home) she struggles with acclimating to life as a young adult. Shenanigans ensue: dating, workforce, interpersonal relationships with people under 80. Maybe romance? Certainly comedy. Heartwarming level…eh…upper 70% range.
2. New family visiting a church notices that beyond the surface of happy hymns and yummy potlucks, a deep evil lurks. As they begin the process of becoming members they are thrust into a world of secret leaders, shady ceremonies and dangerous practices. Will they be able to free the church and themselves from “The Right Hand of Fellowship?” *
3. Group of 30-something friends/coworkers are forced/challenged to end their lukewarm ways and start being passionate. Or, you know, the opposite. Pros: Get to put those Revelation Sermon Series notes to good use. Cons: Forced/challenged how? Contest? Dying wish of friend? Hunger games-type fight for ULTIMATE SPIRITUAL CHAMPION?

“Procrastastic! – Abandoned ideas ripe for reuse!”

1. Wikikiller – Serial killer who edits wikipedia entries BEFORE he kills. Armchair detective catches on when he sees an note in an article about his town that states a gruesome murder happened on this day. He watches the news that night and realizes murder happened after the entry so it could only be done by the killer. The police either don’t believe him or think he’s a suspect. His friends are scared for his life. He just wants justice. – When I started this story, the main characters were teenagers. Then I discovered that I can’t write teenagers so I quit.
2. A really great action story that involves tanker ships, custom agents and explosions. Unfortunately every time I try to write characters for this it just ends up being Hawaii Five-O fanfiction. As much as I love me some Danno…I don’t intend to write that.
3. Amnesia fic! – Woman gets into car accident and loses ten years of her life, including her intro to church, exploration of faith and decision to become a Christian. As she struggles to relearn about the last ten years, what she’s most shocked by is herself. Her responses, attitude, even her feelings are so different. Can it just be ten years of maturity or is it this ‘holy spirit’ that she’s apparently accepted? – I’ve always loved the concept of amnesia and mind/muscle memory and the influence God has on a person’s life.

“That’s so random!”

1. Time loop. TIME LOOP! My favorite trope ever. I enjoy reading any and all time loop story I can get my hands on so it would be fun to write one!
2. Nonfiction? Not sure what to write about…and every other time I’ve tried this I’ve just ended up blogging instead. Yay for easy formats!
3. Joke book. (why hello, it looks like we’ve reached the point of our program where Jen has run out of ideas and is just typing random things down. Elephant. Tractor beam. Fluff.)

Between now and the birth of November, I will need to pick an idea and write. Or I could pick a couple and write for both until one looks better? Is that allowed? Are there rules for this? Do I care if there are or not? ANARCHY!
*in other words, Jen gets confused reading church bylaws and has late-night-pizza induced nightmare. Seriously, it was like B-Movie scary!

Favorite Things

My friend is running the youth lock-in at her church tonight and I promised I would pray for her. Apparently that means that I need to stay up all night to do so. Seriously, I am thankful that God gives me opportunities to pray for my loved ones…even when those opportunities give me insomnia.

November is just a few days away and my mind has been busy trying to come up with ideas for NaNoWriMo. Unfortunately almost all my fiction ideas have turned out to be plagiarized from movies I’ve seen over the past decade. (No kidding, I came up with a lovely idea about an aunt adopting her niece and nephews and all the pitfalls of childrearing and it wasn’t till I was thinking on titles that I realized it was the plot of Raising Helen) I may end up doing nonfiction this year, which wouldn’t be horrible. I tend to get all ADD about halfway through the month anyway and abandon whatever I’ve written to troll wiki and edit pages to spice up historical figures.

Apropos of nothing, I’ve decided to make lists tonight. It’s like writing with no actual talent needed! Yay!

Favorite Real or Fictional Animals

1. Hengroen – King Arthur’s horse. I have no idea how this is supposed to be pronounced (is it Welsh?) so I say “Hen-Grrr-En”. If I ever had a horse, this would be its name and together we would conquer our enemies for the crown!
2. Ham the Astrochimp – The first chimp launched into space. There was a time in my childhood when I wanted to be the first kid in space. I imagined the experience would be much like Ham’s…adorable spacesuit, tiny helmet, hilarious pictures of scientists training me to push levers for banana pellets. (like you wouldn’t have accepted candy as salary when you were a kid?!)
3. Curious George – Cute monkey who gets into everything and causes problems but still is loved by his ‘dad’ at the end of the day. Substitute ‘plagued by daddy-issues Jen’ for ‘monkey’ and you’ll see why these books appealed to me.

Favorite Random Movies That No One Else Watches

1. Ladyhawke – I first read a movie novelization (a total guilty pleasure) of this and searched for the movie for years before I saw it one night on television. Michelle Pfeiffer plays a woman cursed to be a hawk during the day while her love is cursed to be a wolf during the night. The reason I love it is Matthew Broderick who plays Mouse, a skinny little thief who is roped into helping the lovers and manages to be both adorable, hysterical and earnest.
2. Surf Ninjas – You know those things that are so woven into your life that you can’t remember where or when you picked them up? My siblings and I have quoted this movie so often at each other that we should probably pay royalties to the actors. “Money can’t buy knives!”
3. Congo – This movie has scary gorillas, diamond laser guns, a character named Herkermer Holmoka, a volcano and a hot air balloon. It really doesn’t get any better. It also encouraged me to read H. Rider Haggard’s works which was an unexpected but awesome bonus.

What is up with polo?

Polo. The sport of kings. Several men riding horses and hitting a ball with sticks. I'm sure there's more to this game but that's really all I know. 

Oh...and it's haunting me. 

Yup, that's right. The sport of polo is following me wherever I go. I thought it was just a TV thing. You know how television works, one person has a good idea and other people think it's awesome and the next thing you know every show has a character with a brain tumor. Half a dozen shows I watch have mentioned, shown or been focused around polo this season like it's the most common sport in the world. (disclaimer: I don't think its all that common but my knowledge of sports is small). But it turns out it's not just TV with the horsey-sport obsession. 

Two movies I've watched in the past week have had passing mentions of polo, neither of them particularly large mentions...but they were there. Later I was reading a book about Nazi gold and all of a sudden the characters were at a polo match. I escaped to the internet only to find polo on my tumblr dash and in my reddit feed. 

I have a couple of theories as to what is happening. 

a.) God is obviously trying to get my attention with this whole polo thing. Maybe the odd trivia of knowing the rules of polo will solve a dispute. Maybe I'm about to get trampled by a horse. Maybe I need to buy more polo shirts?

b.) Polo has always been prevalent but due to a horse-related incident as a child I have had some sort of mental block. I've been walking past polo matches for years but instead of yuppies on horses I've just been seeing...I don't know...prairie dogs or something. Due to maturity and personal growth, I've started to overcome my mental polo block and have been able to see the world around me as it has always been...full of polo. 

c.) Aliens. 

(okay, that last answer may be a little vague but I think it has merit. If aliens had abducted me and recreated an artificial environment for me, it only stands to reason that there would be abnormalities. Glitches in the matrix. Why couldn't one of those glitches be the over abundance of polo?) 

So...has anyone else noticed this? Is polo haunting more than just me? 

Either the smoking man in the peacoat is messing with me or he is stuck in a time loop.

Things NOT to do before you go to bed...

Browse through a Reddit post on the most disturbing articles people have read on Wikipedia.

I probably would be less disturbed if I had just marathon-d horror movies all evening.

Fall's many splendors would be more easily enjoyed without its abundance of spiders. Never again, pile of freshly raked leaves. Never again.

Yum!

Sunday school: achievement unlocked!

A Reminder

The Peace of Wild Things - Wendall Berry

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Vile Rat – Sean Smith

http://themittani.com/news/rip-vile-rat 

I don’t even know what to say about this, I’m in tears here. I don’t understand the violence or the motives behind it. I’m just so sad.

o7 VR

Housework Fail

There were some…issues with laundry. On the plus side, I found two socks that matched! Or at least they used to match!

Whoa!

Harvest from the garden was big today! (which is after a weekend of giving away tomatoes to friends and family) Our pepper plants aren’t producing as well as what I thought, but we have gotten a few good-sized peppers.

This is probably the biggest tomato so far. It’s huge and super healthy. I picked tomatoes today for taco salad, but I think I’ll save this one for burgers. Perfect size for a nice cheeseburger!

For scale, this tomato is bigger than a horse! Okay, that may not be as helpful as I would like to illustrate the size, but trust me…it’s a big tomato! It’s also a very small horse.I found this in the garden today…weird. I’m not exactly sure where it came from, but I thought I’d wash it off, pose it next to a giant tomato before tossing it out. Because that’s my sort of nutty.

I love Michigan

Kitty photobomb

Cubby occasionally sits like a person and it’s hilarious. I always want to dress him in little pants and shirt and take pictures but it’s Cubby, who is terrified of person al contact, so I am restraining myself to photos.

Of course Hunter couldn’t let Cubby hog the camera lens. The little princess is pretty sure that whenever the camera comes out, she should be in front of it.

And when I try to move away…this happens-

 

“Excuse me, Jen, I’m not finished being cute yet. Bring that camera back.”

I love The Big Bang Theory

“Or thinks Don Quixote is a book about a donkey named Hotay.”