Lynn Daniels.com

Seen Any Centipigs Lately?

Lynn Daniels — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:39:28 +0000

NaNoWriMo Day 17

I’ve come to a conclusion. You see, every time I’ve predicted a good writing day here on the blog, it becomes a crap writing day. Crap writing day meaning I don’t get much written, not I wrote crap — that can happen any day and twice on Sunday. Of course, chances are one has absolutely nothing to do with the other. Or I could just be psyching myself out. Whatever the cause, I’m not doing it anymore. Not taking that chance. From here on out, I won’t talk about my writing day until after it’s occurred.

As you can see by my word meter, my total has gone up, but only marginally. In my defense, last week was a busy one with the tournament and all. And now that soccer’s over, it’s time for me to buckle down, BICHOK, and get Chester and Rube to the Land of the Larrys so they can finally confront the evil Centipig.

And speaking of soccer being over… We got no sleep this weekend, as we had early games, but the girls all had fun. They won one game and lost two, but they were still in great spirits at our little celebration on Sunday after the game. It’s funny; MiniMe has played soccer every spring and every fall since she was five years old. And every season, by the time we reach the end of the season I’m absolutely ready for it to end. Ready to get my weekends back. This season is no different; I was glad to see the end show up. Still, there’s a part of me that was sorry to see it go. A small consolation — MiniMe will be playing with some of the girls from this team this spring on the JV team. I’m still going to miss seeing these girls, though.

Now I have to go and steam my vegetables for tonight’s meal. And pray I get a lot more words in this week.

Saturday Shot 15 NOV 2008

Lynn Daniels — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:16:03 +0000

Back to Yellowstone National Park we go for today’s Saturday Shot. Welcome to Dragon’s Mouth Spring in the Mud Volcano Area. From yellowstonenationalpark.com:

Temperature 170.2°F Dimensions 18×30 feet. Depth 16 feet. Dragon’s Mouth is a turbulent hot spring with a cavernous mouth. Water sloshes rhythmically in and out of the cavern giving the impression of a large overflow; however, the actual discharge is quite small. Much of the activity and energy is located within the cavern. As hot water rises to the surface, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, and water vapor gases expand creating a pressure explosion in the cavern. The resulting activity is sloshing, belching, and steaming.

Yes, it’s cool to watch the water slosh in and out, especially since it’s in varying degrees; sometimes there are little sloshes, and sometimes the sloshes are so big they create a huge wake that washes over the shoreline. But the most fascinating part of this thermal feature is the sound, which is what gives the feature its name. As the water moves in and out, a roaring sound comes from deep within the cavern.

I tried to find a video on YouTube that had the sound, but in the videos I found, I couldn’t tell for sure if the sound was the spring or the wind. The wind is very strong in Wyoming. I’ll try and dig through my videos and see if I can’t find something to post later.

You might notice a couple of lens flares in this shot. I considered trying to remove them, but decided I rather like them. Besides, I did use my lens hood and got the flare anyway. See up at the top of the picture? That’s the sun itself just outside the frame — yes, it was really really bright.

And Dragon’s Mouth Spring, a thermal feature we’ve made sure to visit every time we’ve been to Yellowstone, is really really cool.

Have a great weekend!

Evil Plot Revealed

Lynn Daniels — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:56:11 +0000

NaNoWriMo Day Twelve

Didn’t make much progress over the weekend, but I didn’t expect to. The good news is MiniMe’s soccer team finished the season in second place after a lovely end of season party on Saturday. Soccer games and parties don’t leave much time for writing, though, so although I didn’t produce a big ol’ goose egg number of words, my weekend total was pathetic.

More good news, yesterday was a great writing day between LittleDude’s TKD lesson and MiniMe’s soccer practice (she’s playing a tournament this weekend and then we’re done!). I anticipate another good writing day today — LittleDude’s got a doctor appointment so he won’t make it to TKD, but MiniMe will be going to her lesson. And Wednesday’s usually a light day, so chances are LittleDude will get to take the lesson with her. So tonight, Chester and Rube will finally make it to Cranky Canyon on their way to the Land of the Joes. I’m thinking that while in Cranky Canyon, they’ll learn of the evil Centipig’s plot to take over Feckerson Forest.

This story has been fun to write and fun to plot, and MiniMe’s been a tremendous help with it. Bouncing plot ideas off her has been enlightening; she’s got a great mind for fiction.

And now it’s time to prepare for LittleDude’s arrival, after which I’ll whisk him away to the doctor.

Have a great day!

Saturday Shot 08 NOV 2008

Lynn Daniels — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 21:36:30 +0000

We’re going back to our vacation this summer at Yellowstone National Park for today’s shot. This is the Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, one of the most photographed features in the park. I’ve posted these falls before, but that photo was from a different vantage point — I believe the same Ansel Adams’ famous picture was shot from.

Unfortunately, when we went this summer, that spot was closed (actually, one entire side of Canyon was closed), and the only viewing spot of the falls was from Artist Point, which is where this was shot from. It was kind of a good thing for us, since we hadn’t been to Artist Point on our previous trips.

I kept looking at this picture — in particular, the white on the left side of the falls. I kept thinking that was really odd looking water, and I wondered how the spray managed to do that. Until I looked closer and realized it was snow. Not on of my more stellar moments.

Killer Calf

Lynn Daniels — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:44:49 +0000

NaNoWriMo Day Seven

I was only able to write during one TKD lesson yesterday, so I didn’t add as many words to my count as I’d hoped to. When LittleDude takes his class and MiniMe’s class, my word count rocks. But yesterday LittleDude just took LittleDude’s class and sat and talked to me during MiniMe’s.

Hey, I’ll take quality time with my kid over word count any day.

Today looks promising, though. Even though SoundGuy’s off work, he’s informed me he wants to go down to the studio — he’s got a drummer coming in to lay tracks. You know what that means? That means I can go with him, plop down on the sofa there, pop in my iPod (to block out the noise), and write write write. I’m pretty sure today I’ll be able to get Chester and Rube to Cranky Canyon where they’ll first hear of the impending doom planned by the evil Centipig and his army of pigipede minions.

I have no idea how my little Chester the duck with the smart blue felt fedora (and orange polka-dot belly and pointy green ears) and Rube the giant purple dinosaur will defeat the evil Centipig and his army of pigipede mnions, but I’m pretty sure it’ll have something to do with squishing. There’s already been a lot made of squishing and Chester’s reluctance to squish or allow Rube to squish for him, so I’m thinking that’s how it’ll have to be.

I guess we’ll see what happens when we get there.

In other news, I think I may have lost my mind. I’ve been frustrated lately with my weight and my fitness level and wanting to do something about it. The other night while surfing the ‘net, I found something to do about it.

Couch to 5K

I’ve never been a runner; even in school, when we were supposed to be running during gym, I was one of the people walking. And whining. I was an expert whiner.

The Couch to 5K program (to be known here as C25K from now on) is supposed to take you from couch potato to marathon by easing you in to running a little at a time — 20-30 minutes 3x/week for 9 weeks. I figured I could find 20-30 minutes 3x/week, and if I could actually run the track at the local high school instead of walking it, well, I’d feel like I really accomplished something. Plus I’m pretty sure it would help take my extra weight off.

A loss of 15 pounds would make me very happy. A loss of 20 pounds would have me dancing in my backyard naked. SoundGuy wants me to lose 20–not because he thinks I need to lose weight; he just wants to see if I’d actually dance naked in the back yard.

Some men can be so one-track.

I planned to start C25K next week, as I knew I didn’t have 3 workout days left in this week (gotta do it while the kids are in school and SoundGuy’s at work), but I wanted to give it a shot yesterday. A “pre-week one”, if you will. So I grabbed my iPod and a stopwatch, put a water bottle on top of my mailbox, and started walking and jogging the flattest part of my neighborhood, the street my house is on.

Week one, the program has you taking a 5-minute brisk warmup walk then alternating running 60 seconds and walking 90 seconds for 20 minutes. I made 14 minutes before my right calf started killing me. SoundGuy seems to think my broken ankle five years ago changed my gait and I’m still favoring that ankle, putting more pressure on my right foot. I’ll give it a little more time and see what happens with it. If it persists, I’ll have to look into a solution. Maybe see a doctor. Anybody have any ideas?

I think today I’ll close with a quiz I blognapped yesterday from Nadia:

Your Personality is Very Rare (INFP)

Your personality type is dreamy, romantic, elegant, and expressive.

Only about 5% of all people have your personality, including 6% of all women and 4% of all men
You are Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

Dinosaur Respect

Lynn Daniels — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:20:41 +0000

NaNoWriMO Day Six

I knew writing during the kids TKD lessons would help. Just look at that word count! And they’ve got TKD again today. I’m so looking forward to it. One problem I’m having, though. Rube was supposed to be a pompous dinosaur. He was supposed to have a major superiority complex and really look down on my little Chester the duck with the smart blue felt fedora.

He hasn’t come out that way.

I don’t know why, but I’m just having a hard time writing a character who’s mean to Chester for no reason. I’m sure that won’t be an issue once I reach the portion where he interacts with the evil Centipig, but the evil Centipig will be just that. Evil. Rube is to be Chester’s friend. He was a little standoffish at first, and he kind of thought Chester was a little–well–stupid, but he couldn’t be mean because of Chester’s childlike innocence and sweetness. And he actually ended up with an inferiority complex instead. He didn’t like to make friends with forest creatures because they all took advantage of his size. They used him to bully those who upset him, and Chester has refused to do that.

Chester the duck with the smart blue felt fedora earned the respect of Rube the dinosaur much sooner than I’d anticipated.

I keep thinking that one of these days I’ll post an excerpt. And I still might. But what stops me is the fact that there’s been so much free writing with the story, and it’s probably not very good writing. And although I called it fantasy, it’s more like a children’s story for adult-aged children. Does that make sense?

* * * * * *

And now, as promised, our first front yard photos.

Here’s my front yard. You can see a little piece of my driveway in the foreground and that’s my street on the right side of the photo. I’ve very helpfully labled our three trees: Huey, Dewey & Louie. Of course, SoundGuy simply refers to them as dadgumm trees, although he often substitutes a strong word for dadgumm. I took this photo on Halloween day; the leaves color hasn’t even started to change yet. Four days later, it was a different story. But we’re not talking about four days later, we’re talking about October 31st.

Here’s the yard again from a slightly different angle. The tree right there in the foreground is Huey, with Dewey behind him and to the right. It’s a bit harder to make out Louie in this shot, but if you look close, you can see his trunk. He’s kind of hard to see because our side yard behind him is all woods.

So there you have it. Our first month check-in with Huey, Dewey and Louie. My initial plan was to have the next photos the first week of December, but now I’m starting to wonder if there shouldn’t be a supplemental episode in mid-November.

Have a great day — I’ll be spending a little time pondering this one.

The Saga of Huey, Dewey & Louie

Lynn Daniels — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:20:16 +0000

NaNoWriMo Day Five

Yesterday was the big shopping trip. Converse for LittleDude. Of course, all the places that had good prices were out of his size. Some had every size but his. How does that happen?

I did finally manage to find him a pair. When we looked in on him last night, they were in the bed next to him, resting comfortably on his pillow and tucked snugly under the covers.

My front yard has three trees. Every year– Maybe I shouldn’t put it that way, since we’ve only been in this house a couple years. Rephrasing that to: The past couple years SoundGuy has insisted on waiting until they’ve dropped all their leaves before going out to pick them up. Unfortunately, while every other tree in the neighborhood drops its leaves early, those three trees insist on clinging to theirs until sometime in March. This frustrates SoundGuy to no end.

They don’t hold on to all their leaves, they drop just enough to make our yard look like it needs a good raking. They hold on to enough to make you certain that the moment you clear the yard of leaves, those trees will fill it right back up again. And they usually do. This year, I’ve decided to have a little fun with it.

Sometime during the first week of every month, I’m going to take a picture of my front yard and the leaves. I thought it might be a kick to see how those trees (to be known henceforth as Huey, Dewey, & Louie) and my yard progress throughout the season. Especially since SoundGuy has sworn that this year he won’t wait to clear the leaves. We’ll see. And we’ll have pictorial evidence.

I’m still making progress with Chester and Rube, and I’m still having a lot of fun. Unfortunately, yesterday’s shopping trip precluded the TKD lessons, which means I didn’t get my alone writing time. Both kids, however, will absolutely go to TKD today. Word count boost, here I come!

I’ve learned that since I’m not worried about my NaNoWriMo project being published, I’m not above a little word padding. Word padding is fun! In my story, Chester is most frequently referred to as Chester the duck with the smart blue felt fedora, and his new found friend Rube (yes, I did get that scene written yesterday!), until his name was revealed, was referred to as the giant purple not sporgled bloonk.

Trust me, it makes sense in context.

Today’s scenes will have to chronicle the growing relationship between Chester and Rube before they’re thrown into the fire and forced to save Feckerson Forest from the evil Centipig and his army of pigipede minions. We’ll also begin taming Rube and maturing Chester (the duck with the smart blue felt fedora), who’s still often distracted by shiny objects. And ants. And butterflies. And mud puddles…

Mud Bubbles

Lynn Daniels — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:08:15 +0000

NaNoWriMo Day Four

Whooda thunk writing could be so much fun? I certainly haven’t reached prolific status, but I’m sure making progress. And I attribute it all to letting myself go.

Wow. That just sounded wrong. But you know what I mean, right? Writing a totally different kind of story, in a totally different style, without regard for plot or rules or whether or not it makes sense. My only requirement is that it be fun. And fun it has been. Yesterday, I had the pleasure of writing a scene about a duck blowing bubbles in the mud. What’s more fun than that?

And I’m happy to report that Chester the duck with the smart blue felt fedora escaped the Red Trees and made it to the Orange Tall Grass without being attacked by sporgled bloonks.

(See what I mean? PAR-TAY!)

In other news, we’re fast approaching the end of soccer season. Three more practices, one more season game, and three more tournament games and I get my Monday nights back! Although I must admit, this season has been great for MiniMe. Playing with the older girls has forced her to step up her game, and she’s accomplished it with flying colors. She even scored a goal and a sweet assist in Sunday’s game.

If I’m reading the stats correctly, her team will finish second in their division. Not too shabby!

The kids are out of school today, so it looks like I’m taking LittleDude shoe shopping. He’s got his little heart set on a pair of Converse, so tomorrow continues the quest. At least I’ll get to spend their TKD lessons playing with Chester. Maybe I’ll finally get to write the scene where he meets Rube, the pompous purple dinosaur.

Don’t Forget to Vote

Lynn Daniels — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:48:28 +0000

It’s Election Day in the U.S. If you haven’t already done it, please don’t forget to go out and vote!

Please come back later for today’s regular post.

And I’m Not Even Margaret

Lynn Daniels — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 11:59:50 +0000

Last night, MiniMe convinced me to go to iGod. Have you done this chat? It’s hilarious. And a little creepy. Here’s an excerpt of my chat with God…

Me:
I’m typing something
God:
Why are you typing something.
Me:
Because my daughter told me to.
God:
Good reason. How many children do you have?
Me:
2. You?
God:
Two. ” Two.”? Me, ?
Me:
I mean, I have two. How many do you have?
God:
What are their names? Around 1000.
Me:
Fred and George. What are your children’s names?
God:
The ALICE chat robot can follow many things, like our discussion about typing something. But I did not get that. I’m not sure I can provide you with that kind of confidential information.
Me:
You can’t give me confidential information, but you expect me to give it to you?
God:
I can do whatever I want.

If you need a procrastination excuse, this one’s great. I can foresee myself wasting hours chatting with God.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Was the title reference too obscure?