Random Raves ΜΔ: Crate Expectations

[Valka D'Ur]

So last night there was a thunderstorm and I spent some time staring out of the window shouting ‘BLUCHER!’ as closely timed to every roll of thunder as possible. I suppose I'm an incurable nerd.

I've had a couple random days of 4-5k words this year myself, but they were always self-contained stories. So, I'm taking my imaginary hat off to you.

Thank you!

This project is going to take quite awhile to finish, as I want to have it in shape to post it online (not many of my stories have ever been posted; I'm too particular about getting them just right). People have been asking, and that's the best answer I can give. There are passages and scenes I'm quite satisfied with, but of course those are just a very small part of the whole.

NaNoWriMo's main objective is to encourage people to sit down and write, period. They email pep talks and encouragement to the participants several times a week, and I am expecting something for the editing process that some people do in January (the expectation is that everyone's mentally worn-out and needs December off).

I'm still feeling good about the story, though, so I'm just going to keep on. What I do for the April Camp NaNoWriMo depends on how far I get between now and then. I've still got my notes for the project I'd planned to do instead of this one (see my thread in A&E; I switched projects 3 days in because of a bad case of writer's block with the previous project).

A writer's productivity is better measured in words read, not words written.

Writers have to write the words before someone else can read them.

Admittedly, this is a first draft. That's the expectation for everyone. I do go back and edit some things (did more of that this time than during any other NaNo competition, since I'm so invested in it), but usually editing comes later.

But I did a lot of reading during the past month, as well (basically every English-language Borgias fanfic on fanfiction.net, all the while telling myself "It'll keep, get back to your own story!" and then thinking, "one more chapter can't hurt..."). That's one of the reasons my first three weeks didn't go well. I was also spending time posting; then I realized that if I had time to do hundreds or thousands of words/day just posting either here or on the news site I read, I should put that energy into my story instead.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Aaaaaand, there's someone who completely missed the point. But, since you are perpetually mad at me I'll let someone else try to explain it to you, if anyone can be bothered making what will almost certainly be a futile effort.

"True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written, in writing what deserves to be read."
- Pliny the Elder

 

[bernie14]

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I figured out a neat little adaptation to get around my disability limitations. Even with those grippy cloths, I have trouble getting the caps off of soda bottles, so I use a pair of locking pliers. It works very well and now I don't have to go buy a separate tool for this.

 

[Takhisis]

Perhaps more accurate to say that I was not making that distinction, and perhaps should have been. But it will take some convincing to make me do it.

I am in no state of mind to do so (see below).

That's the spirit, except that the storm rained itself out so now it's a sunny afternoon which I've naturally spent inside staring at a few hundred job offers and finding out exactly why I don't fit in some important way or another (hooray for recession!). One of the worst things was looking at people demanding that I speak a language fluently and posting the ad in what I'd have to politely qualify as ‘broken’ language.

I figured out a neat little adaptation to get around my disability limitations. Even with those grippy cloths, I have trouble getting the caps off of soda bottles, so I use a pair of locking pliers. It works very well and now I don't have to go buy a separate tool for this.

on two accounts.
a) Creativity like this is a good sign for people with Parkinson's disease.
b) We've had a wedge-shaped jar-opener thing forever, but in a pinch a mole wrench will do too (this will help, too, with my relatives whom I mentioned last week).

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

When I was 12 or 13, once something got caught down the toilet and clogged it up. The plunger couldn't get it out, so I untwisted a metal coat hanger and sent it down the toilet to fish out the clog. The landlord was rather relieved to not have to call a plumber.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

When I was 12 or 13, once something got caught down the toilet and clogged it up. The plunger couldn't get it out, so I untwisted a metal coat hanger and sent it down the toilet to fish out the clog. The landlord was rather relieved to not have to call a plumber.

As an option, for those who want to put off the potentially inevitable coat hanger, some clogs of the 'slow drain' variety can be dispatched with boiling water. Wait until the level in the toilet bleeds all the way down, then rapidly fill it using as many pots as necessary. The hot water bleeding past the clog will tend to dissolve it.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

That's useful to know. The toilet in our current apartment is a low-flow one so occasionally even using two extra squares of toilet paper can make it clog.

 

[Takhisis]

You could also not use paper, but that's only practical if you have a bidet.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Bidets aren't really common in North America. The bathroom is about the size of a closet anyways. This has one small advantage: If I lose my balance, I'm more likely to smack into a wall than the floor.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I figured out a neat little adaptation to get around my disability limitations. Even with those grippy cloths, I have trouble getting the caps off of soda bottles, so I use a pair of locking pliers. It works very well and now I don't have to go buy a separate tool for this.

An ordinary set of pliers works for me. Mind you, it won't work for larger bottles or jugs of fruit juice (the 1.89 L kind), so I had to get one of those jar-opening tools.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Like this one? The advantage of the locking pliers is that it doesn't need much grip strength to close them, and that they stay closed.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

You could also not use paper, but that's only practical if you have a bidet.

As a North American barbarian with no bidet experience...isn't there still a need for paper, vis a vis drying?


Clearly unrelated:
Less widely known jar opening tip than I thought it was when I learned it:
Turn the jar over and rap it sharply against the counter, keeping lid flat (like, dont hit an edge, hit the whole flat lid all at once). It loosens the lid and makes it easy to twist off.

 

[Dachs]

As a North American barbarian with no bidet experience...isn't there still a need for paper, vis a vis drying?

a specter is haunting Europe

the specter of swampass

 

[Takhisis]

As a North American barbarian with no bidet experience...isn't there still a need for paper, vis a vis drying?

You haven't read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, then?

Bidets aren't really common in North America.

Apparently there's a law here stating that all inhabitable units have to have at least one bidet.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

You haven't read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, then?

Yeah, I did, but for some reason the proper process of bidet use slipped by me in the deluge of more useful information. Truthfully the only things I remember clearly are; bring a towel and don't panic.

 

[Takhisis]

Truthfully the only things I remember clearly are; bring a towel and don't panic.

And that's all you need to know when using a bidet.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

And that's all you need to know when using a bidet.

That's scary. So people in bidet land carry a butt towel around with them? A used, wet butt towel? Like, in a backpack or something?

 

[MaryKB]

I have a bidet installed in my home, it's a kind that you can have installed inside your toilet, so you don't need any extra space. I don't feel I could live without it now (it's also very convenient for feminine needs), but I do still need some bathroom tissue, just not nearly as much as before.

 

[rah]

I keep one of those small manual snake tools around for when the plunger doesn't do it. It has a plastic piece on the end so it won't scratch the porcelain like a coat hanger. (it's nice having a large garage to store all those specialty type tools so I usually have the right tool for the job)