'Twas the month before christmas...

Visited a place called Tehachapi for my Mom's birthday where we had a Thanksgiving dinner in a house decorated for Christmas. It was a wonderland of sorts... I took pictures.

Pixar and Story

This was so cool I had to share...

Pixar's 22 Rules For Storytelling.

By

Emma Coats  
@lawnrocket

Graphic made @ PBJ Publishing.
Go download a free hq JPG of it!

OR you can buy a print and make your wall much more awesome!

Giving Thanks

Today I am thankful for:

Friends (new and old, future and forgotten).
Family.
Life.
A place to live.
Food.
Water.
Dipping sauce.
Dance.
Movies.
The new golden age of TV.
Old TV.
Cheers.
Black & White.
Boston.
Earth.
Disneyland.
Pizza.
Memories.
My hair.
Health.
Clothes.
Coitus.
Video Games.
Apple.
My camera.
My future.
My past.
My present.
Presents.
Empathy.
Generosity.
Coconut water.
The five senses.
Motivation.
Happy.
Fun.
Vaginae.
My Penis.
Sunscreen.
Boots.
Underwear.
Intuition.
Muppets.
Joss Whedon.
Music.
Monkeys.
Ukulele.
Pizza.
Novels.
Storytelling.
Air.
Hope.
Faith.
Wine.
Weed.
Magic.
The Unknown.
Ampersands.
Randomness.
NaNoWriMo.
Sports.
Invention.
Modern Medicine.
Eastern Medicine.
Alternative Medicine.
The Moment.
Electricity.
Love.
Like.
Like Like.
The Obscure.
Women.
Computers.
Compassion.
The Rain forest.
Forest Gump.
Bigfoot.
Ghosts.
Destiny.
The Force.
Haunted Theme Parks.
Sunglasses.
Really Cool Jackets.
The Bottom of the Ninth.
The Lakers.
The Dodgers.
Stop Motion Animation.
Traditional Animation.
Computer-ie Animation.
Teeth.
Functioning Body.
Pizza.
Creativity.
Opportunity.
Pistils
Stamens.
Honey Bees.
Documentaries.
Rain.
Sun.
The Earth.
The Universe.
The Multiverse.
Sheldon Cooper.
The Princess Bride.
A Christmas Story.
Danny Kaye.
Steve Martin.
Bill Cosby.
Consciousness.
Art.
Comedy.
Headphones.
Fantasy.
Science Fiction.
Jean Shepherd.
Blankets.
Imagineering.
Writing.
Calvin and Hobbes.
Socks.
Spirit.
Books.
Farscape.
Bargain Theatres.
Chance.
No. 2 Pencils.
Zeal.
Built in Bookmarks.
Beginnings.
Satisfaction.
All Body Parts (inside and out).
Neil Gaiman.
Ray Bradbury.
Writers.
Dogs.
Soul.
Rock N Roll.
Possibility.
Good People.
Nature.
T-Shirts.
Jeans.
Dreams.
Shoes.
Duct Tape.
Soap.
Trees.
Used Bookstores.
New Bookstores.
Publishers.
Editors.
Toilets.
Showers.
Plumbing.
Headache Medicine.
Windows.
Doors.
Nubbs.
Filmmakers.
The Little Guy.
The Underdog.
Ability.
Luck.
Obi Wan Kenobi.
Chefs.
Money.
The Moops.
Brains.
No Zombies.
Buffy.
Ballads.
Billiards.
Baking.
The Letter B.
All the other letters.
Cats.
The Beach
Pachinko Machines.
Pinball.
Poetry.
Backpacks.
Laptops.
Pizza.
Other.



...andtomorrowi'llbethankfulformore

Truth & Fiction

Epiphany & Sunscreen

Another bit of NaNoWriMo inspiration fodder:

I had an epiphany. It came at an odd time, as epiphanies love to do. It came when I was answering a question. The person who I was talking to was worried about being original. To be honest, originality has always been very important to me, so I'm not entirely sure where this came from, but I said, "Don't try to be original. Just be honest." Like all epiphanies it wasn't original, but it was the truth...

"Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it." 
-C. S. Lewis

And now we have an oldie but goodie! (great... a cliche after my originality and honesty epiphany.. well two steps forward ones step back.. Damn! I did it again!)

If you have never heard the Sunscreen Song, which actually started out as a commencement speech, you should definitely check this out..

Gaiman and Palmer

I am doing NaNoWriMo this year. We are 4 days in so far, so there is still chance to get in on the action if you have the metaphorical balls. If you don't know what it is then check out their website here. Or type www.nanowrimo.org into your address bar and hit return. Basically what it is is this. Write a novel in one month. 50,000 words in 30 days.

But instead of doing it on your own the site provides a forums for support, tips for completing and other helpful tidbits. They have Write-Ins where you can go and write with other WriMos. And my favorite: a little stats thing that tells you how much you have written, what your average word count is per day, when you will finish based on what you've written so far, etc. Wait, I take it back, my favorite is when they send pep talks from successful writers. Every once and a while you get a piece of writerly-nano-advice from somebody in your nano mailbox. Last one was from Kate DiCamillo. I wouldn't mind if they did this daily. #hinthint

Well, it is tough to do something as big as a novel without some encouragement. Some inspiration. Some laughs. And there are a couple of things I wanted to share since they provided me with all these things and more. I found them at different times although they go very well together... almost as if they were meant to. Or as if the two who created them were married or something. They are commencement speeches given by Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer. Collectively they clock in at under 30 minutes and no matter who you are I think there is something in it for you. In fact I think they should each do a TED talk. Thank you Neil Gaiman. Thank you Amanda Palmer.

Anyway, here are the links to the speeches:


Amanda Fucking Palmer Commencement Speech
Neil Gaiman Commencement Speech


Oooo. Another thing I really want to mention is Mur Lafferty. I usually listen to Writing Excuses (which comes out today). If you are into writing, if that's your bag, check out www.murverse.com. Especially her podcast I Should Be Writing (ISBW). It is a great parallel to Writing Excuses. Where as they usually focus on technique, Mur has a more emotional approach to her podcast. She has nice meaty interviews with writers and does a feedback show where she answers your emails. She also has some good insight into depression and writers. Check out ISBW located in Podcast System of the Murverse. Also available on iTunes.



PS I have a little word ticker at the top of my page here to show my up to date word count for this National Novel Writing Month.