Etiquette

So I have learned a few things about etiquette lately. For instance, if you are getting married, you should send thank yous as soon as you can after receiving a gift. That means if someone can't go to your wedding, and they send you a gift a month before the wedding, you should send the thank you then, rather than waiting until after the wedding. This is apparently so that they do not need to wonder if you received the gift.

What I am still wondering about is if you are obligated to buy something at a business that lets you use not only their wireless internet connection, but also their electricity for your computer. I think I'm going to have to wing it on that one, because I am planning to leave pretty much as soon as I finish blogging.

Also, I think that I have a good start going on my Honeymoon Mix CD. My fiancee and I decided that we are each going to make a mix CD so that we can have some fun music to listen to on our honeymoon, and I decided to use my own computer so that I could by songs myself, instead of using hers and having to have her buy them for me.

Finally, I wanted to mention that at our last meeting with the pastor before our wedding, he asked what three goals that each of us had in the next five years are, and one of mine was to finish a NaNoWriMo novel and polish it up for publication. Hopefully that will motivate me.

Argyle

First off, it bothers me that video game publishers don't provide advance copies of most games to places that review games. It really bothers me that I have to wait up to a week or longer for games I am interested in to be reviewed. Specifically, I want to read a review of Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon. It seems like it would be a game that I would like, but it also seems like a game that I think that I would like but then would never play again after the first week that I had it. I think that a good review would help me figure out which it is before I buy it.

Second, I have decided that when I do NaNoWriMo this year, my main character will be named Argyle, because Argyle is my favorite color. I don't know what kind of person he will be, but I am leaning towards a silent, or at least not much spoken protagonist. This is mainly because I am terrible at writing dialog.

"Terrible at writing dialog! That's awful."

Yes, it is.

Anywho, I also think that I am better at a first person narrative than a third person one, so I might have the narrator be Argyle's friend or sidekick, or I might have the story be told through Argyle's journal. If I go with the journal, then I can avoid dialog pretty easily.

"Yeah, 'cause who writes dialog in their journal."

I don't know who you are supposed to be, but yes, that is why I could avoid the dialog with a journal.

"You do so know who I'm supposed to be."

Sorry, I really don't.

"I'm the other voice in your internal dialog."

Don't you mean monologue?

"No, because you don't have an internal monologue. Your thoughts occur to you as a conversation with yourself. That is why you mishear people so often."

That's very interesting. And thanks for explaining that. Don't worry though. No one reads this, so I don't think you creeped anyone out.

"What about that person whose comment said, 'I like meat'?"

I don't think people who say things like that get creeped out.

"Good point."

KOL

I have become mildly addicted to something called Kingdom of Loathing. It is an HTML-based MMORPG, and it is free. I really can't express how enjoyable it is. The best way to experience it is just to try it for yourself. If I did this right, the title of this post should link to it, but if it doesn't, the site is www.kingdomofloathing.com. Their logo is a stick figure holding a sword and a martini glass. The money in the Kingdom of Loathing is Meat. You can also make meat into meatpaste, and use it to combine objects. Like at one point when you have to make a meatcar. They have a store where they sell things like t-shirts and bumper stickers, and one of the bumperstickers has a meatcar on it and it reads, "my other car is made of meat".

I have to go and help hang a 16" KitchenAid Wall Rack.

I'm Back!

I don't know if there is some hardcore readership of this blog out there who have thoughts of rage and vengeance on their minds due to my long absence, but I have returned. At any rate, you can't have been too pissed, because I haven't been notified of any comments. My last post was made on the first day of my new job, now that I've moved in with my fiancee. That was more that two months ago, and since then, it's been a whirlwind of moving and showers and other crazy wedding plans. But that is not what is on my mind today. Those of you who have read my blog from the beginning know that I started it last year as a sort of prep tool for NaNoWriMo. That is what I am going to turn it into again now. So, without further ado, here are some of my thoughts on how to make this years NaNoWriMo a successful one.

First, I think that I should focus on characters and setting more than plot. I think that I could write better if I my novel was a series of vignettes about a single character or place.

Second, I should not fear incorporating the details of my life in my novel. I have taken quite a liking to Proust since last November, and I think that his style might work well for me. Which is to say that a series of roughly chronological recollections by a narrator who is quite similar to me is probably something I could do.

Third, I should write about what I know. That means that I think that I should write something with characters like me and people I know, set in a place that I am familiar with, using elements of my favorite genres. I guess that means I should write about an outbreak of zombies set in Minnesota, with about the tone of an Aaron Sorkin TV series (i.e.: The West Wing or Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip).

On a related note, I think it would be awesome if Aaron Sorkin's next project was about Zombies. I wonder how one would go about suggesting such a thing?