Luke and Sam are now parents

I just got a call to say that everything went well today, and Luke and Sam's daughter is healthy and beautiful and has a full head of hair, and Sam is recovering well. Yays and congratulations!

More baby photos

These are from round one of the second scan. Apparently junior wouldn't stretch out in the right way to have his spine measured or something, so Debbie has to go back for another scan soon.

I drew some guidle lines on one picture to help people like me who find it hard to make heads or tails of these pictures sometimes. Apparently the light blobs at the front of the eyes (orbits) are the lenses.

Boy baby and writing

Our second scan claims that we are going to have a boy. These things are never infallible, but the sonographer seemed pretty sure. Also, I have finished my kiwinowrimo novel. It came in at 50,777 words. So wasteful, I could totally have left out some adjectives or articles along the way ;)

Scan today

I have reached 48,000 words. Mayhaps I will try to reach 50,000 today? I don't want to exhaust myself though... Also, today be second scan day. Yays! I must miss a meeting after school to go - oh noes! he he. Now I go to prepare Asttle test for period 4. See me go! woosh!!!!!

Novel writing

The kiwinowrimo challenge finishes on Wednesday. The idea was to write a 50,000 word novel in one month (31 days). Two weeks of the challenge were the school holidays, so despite the added pressures of the last week of term 2 being the first week, and the first week and a half of term 3 being the final bit of the challenge, I decided to give it ago anyways.

I am writing a novel about a group of students doing a Shakespeare short film contest. It's pretty squarely aimed at the teen/English department market, and I am on track to be finished by Wednesday, all going well. It's been a really fun challenge, with the camaraderie of a livejournal community to post progress to, and the discipline of a 1,612 words a day target. There were a few days when I didn't get any writing done, a few where I wrote a lot, but mostly I've been tortoising along. I will post an update if and when I do actually finish, which will hopefully be within the next few days!

44,601 / 50,000
(89.2%)

Off to collect glasses

I wonder how much of a difference they'll make? I have slightly blurry vision when reading stuff off the whiteboard from the back of the class, and I find driving in the rain at night stressful, and occasionally subtitles on TVs that are distant are hard to read. Should be good for those sorts of occasions! I also wonder whether the occasional headaches I get (like the bastard headache I had yesterday that tried to make me do no writing) are eye-strain related, and will be lessened by glassesness. Off I go to find out!

Moviefest filming: Phase One Complete

On Saturday Debbie and I headed out and did some filming for our Moviefest entry. We have completed Phase One, and have Phases Two and Three to complete. Phase Two involves each of us doing a short scene, and Phase Three will involve Gino (all going well) tieing everything together as the host.



As you can see, it's a very serious film, that's going to be totally hot.

Writing going well

Have reached the half-way mark for my teen novel that I'm writing for kiwiwrimo. It's developing nicely - I don't think there'll be much needed in the way of editing before it's submittable. In other news, planning for Moviefest is going well. We're hoping to get some shooting done this weekend, in Wellington. It's a piecemeal affair, so there's less pressure to get it all done on one day. I'm thinking I might record the host's parts myself for timing, and then see if someone with slightly better acting chops (and slightly more TV presenter looking) is available to do them properly. Now, I go in to school to carry boxes around, pick up marking (wah!), and maybe print off the first 25,000 words of the novel. I do find rereading easier with a printed out version (and when combined with the second half, I'll probably want to get some feedback, and it's quicker to give someone a printed off copy that they can write on marking style). Right, I'm outta here!

Emoetry

Two works of genius from two of NZ's emerging Emo Poets: eyes_of_winter Blood Haet LOVE. You never understand Hate LOVE Blood when I say what I want Love Hate Blood EMO ------------------------------------------------- jenni_talula Late at night Midnight in the Dark I linger, in the cemetary No one will ever understand me. Midnight. Alone. I weep. I cry. I cry because nobody in the whole world understands me. At Midnight.

Holiday times are good times

Ah, no conference today. No students. No work at all (except the mountain of marking that I'm ignoring). Instead I have written a moviefest script (first draft), pottered away on my kiwinowrimo novel, and done some shopping. Did I mention that holidays are awesome? I've also watched the third episode of Flight of the Conchords, which continues to be very good. More laugh out loud moments in this episode, but the songs didn't come across quite as well. In the recordings of live performance situations the vocals are always loud, and full of personality. The studio recordings seem to be mixed with the vocals significantly quieter, and the performances are less energetic/immediate, which is a shame because the songs are so damn awesome. The TV show is still boss, but when it comes to the songs my preference is for the live stuff. And now, I think I will do a little more writing. The target for kiwinowrimo is to write 50,000 words in one month, about 1,600 words a day. I'm currently a couple thousand words short of where I should be (I've written 13,900, should be reaching 16,130 by the end of today), so if I get a little bit done now, plus another batch after dinner, I should get close to the mark. Sunday was my most productive day to date - something like 4,000 words written. Yesterday was my least productive day - zero words written. I'm enjoying the challenge, and it's great motivation to see how other people are doing. It's all goods, I tells ya. PS: The moviefest script is not a musical. It's a retrospective about the life of a dead princess (killed by monkeys) who raised money for charity through cage fighting, and had a royal stalker. It's in the kicking it around to make it better stage. There are roles for extras, such as papparazi and fans and 'gets punched in the nuts' guy. Yay!

Awesome youtube parody

I am enjoying a very good workshop - I'm just finished the task part a little early and am also enjoying some 'free time'.

Just seeing if this slideshow works

My thrilling presentation for a conference at my school.