I've been researching Australian Aborigines for a story idea. I found an archive of old newsletters (1969-1974) from one small community. The newsletters are a combo of typewriter and handwriting, and are always fascinating. Here's an ad from one of them:

Watched The Men Who Stare At Goats. It was funny, if occasionally filled with "oh, hippies, you hurt my brain," moments, some of which were unintentional. (Mainly at the end.)
Here's a nice review discussing the realities the movie was based on, which wasn't all psychics and woo woo stuff.
I was pleasantly surprised at the level of self-awareness. (They call themselves Jedi, in a movie starring Ewan MacGregor. Anyone who's read Sith Academy will have a "Mr Fluffy, noooooo!!" moment, not that the writers intended that.)

In other news, I'm indulging myself by writing about characters from my older books, which I probably won't get around to rewriting for years. I actually had a coherent plot in mind, but then this other character showed up, the plot went out the window and the characters went out for drinks. But if I ever do get the novels published, this will totally be an "aw, look at when they first met!" story that people will eat up.

Current Nano stats:
15,432 words total
857 words a day average (I need 833 to maintain my goal of half-Nano speed.)
Total stories completed: 4 (1,621; 414 ; 2261 ; 3481 words, respectively.)
Poems written: 3

One of my favorite writing widgets is available in a desktop, internet free edition!
You set a target word count and a time limit, and it forces you to keep writing or it yells at you. It's simple, but effective. At least for me.

Holy smokes! I just discovered an easy way to to make poetry.
Some of the seeds I generate from prompts are short and pretty, but I can't for the life of me imagine how to pull a 1,000-5,000 word story out of them, and there's not enough plot for it to be flash. That last poem I posted, though, came from me playing with such a seed and turning it to poem form. It sat. And sat. Months after doing this, I realize I actually have a poem.
So, I thought, why don't I do this for all those other orphaned seeds?
So yeah, I just wrote two poems in ten minutes.
One that I just did, I only had to add line breaks!

I go back and forth with my poetry. Most of my earlier stuff is just me playing around, and it only makes sense to me. Every now and then, I get the urge to send one out. It gets rejected, and I chicken out again. I'm back in send-it-out mode.
Looking at the pro markets, you can make like 300$ for a poem! Dude!
Of course, most of them also have response times of at least a hundred days, according to Duotrope.

And of course, I'm not likely to get 300$ But if I can get 20 dollars for a poem it takes me ten minutes to write, I'll feel good.

In other news, I think the Tuvan throat singing I've been listening to on last.fm is going to rot my brain. Mostly it's a pleasant drone, but sometimes someone pops up who sounds like a goddammed demon. Mind you, I like this music because it drills into your head. Like this singer. (Go to the Downloads to listen to her music.) I think part of it might be that the particularly creepy ones are women, since I'm not used to hearing them. Their voices are higher. Arjopa's particularly fun because her stuff starts out sounding all nice and folksy, and suddenly she turns into Mr. Hyde. Looks like she's just a German girl who learned from Albert Kuvezin of Yat-Kha (Who's also the shit.) Jealous!

Here's some videos:
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In other news, I finally got around to playing with last.fm. I'm listing to a Tuvan set. There's a guy singing the blues, but with the gravelly, barely-human sound of the throat singer mixed in. Also, I learned that at some point, two of my favorite things in the world got together, presumably because they want to see what the inside of my skull looks like after it explodes.
Huun Huur Tu AND Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares!!
One is Tuvan throat singing with a bit of a contemporary sensibility, the other's the assymetrical rhythms and dissonant harmonies of Eastern European folk music.
Hmpf. Now the station just jumped from Yat-Kha (Tuvan punk!) to just regular old punk. Hmpf.

Oh yeah, one more bit of hilarious dialogue from 2012:
Not-actually-a-heroine to her estranged ex-husband/hero in a brief lull between volcanoes: "Do you think you've changed?"
What Hero doesn't say: "why yes, I think facing the END OF THE WORLD HAS CHANGED ME QUITE A LOT, THANKS."

okay, okay, okay.
Keffy's going to write a magnificent post of joyous doom, ( he took notes. lots of notes) but I'm going to get mine up first, so it'll be quick.
First, you might want to wait until 2012 hits the small screen so you can MST the crap out of it. I almost hyperventilated not trying to laugh out loud. Second, there's a seizure-inducing lighting setup at the climax. WTF HOLLYWOOD?
anyway...
If you're a science fiction writer, you need to see 2012, because it is the greatest lesson on WHAT NOT TO DO. EVER. in science fiction.
This is high quality bad science. The highest I've ever seen. How high? As high as a boat getting smashed into the top of Mount Everest!
The blah blah emotional family plot is fine and standard and hits all the cliche notes except one which I was actually disappointed by, especially since that particular heroic sacrifice had a perfectly clear spot later in the movie.

It was good with the having lots of not white people, bad, bad bad with the not having a lack of sexism. Why the hell did they even have women in this movie? They only did any good when they were using their Magical Mother Rays to communicate. Oh yeah, the German Chancellor. She was worthwhile.

I'm sure someone somewhere will have fun breaking down the exact nature of the bad science somewhere. It would fill a couple volumes, though. I'll just hit my personal favorites behind the spoiler cut.

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The tiny town of Greensburg, Kansas was largely destroyed by a tornado, and now they've decided to rebuild in as sustainable a way possible.

To combat swine flu, some churches are replacing holy water fonts with single serving dispensers. So practical, but unromantic...

Finished my required short story for this week. It's definitely a plotless literary one. There's a story, to be sure, but I can tell I've written something I don't possess all the tools to evaluate.
Maybe I'll write full on plotted stories later with the characters from my literary ramblings. The Tangoing Psychiatrist Versus the Aliens!

Anyway...Nano stats:

Finished:
Winecask Bellies and owl Wings- 1600 words
Dead Angel Diana: 400 words
It Takes One to Flamenco: 2200 words.

Total words written:
8217 words on 13 different stories.
Average: 747 words a day.
(I'm aiming for Half-Nano: 833 words a day)

So I'm coming out of the upstairs bathroom, when charging at me up the stairs is what appears to be a giant, sodden sewer beast. I freak out for a split second before realizing it's Teisel, recently emerged from the bath.
He's been a busy cat.

When you start to type "nazi" into Google, most of the options that pop up are "nazi zombie."

For those who, like me, are looking to add some optimistic sf to their writing repertoire, here's some interesting inspiration. It's a surfing resort in Peru that offers "voluntourism" packages, where you help the local community.

The train I wanted to take for Thanksgiving/Orycon is sold out. ~>:(
If I'd just bought the ticket instead of contacting my dad about it first, I'd be fine. Instead, I'm stuck on the bus.

I bought a thumb harp for ten bucks. Maybe I'm crazy, but it makes me happy. I can play the opening bars of "Girls" by the Beastie Boys.

I realized today that I think I've barely read any new novels this year --China Mieville's The City and The City, Lightbreaker, by Mark Teppo, and The Steel Remains, by Richard K Morgan.

I have read a metric butt ton of short stories, however, and quite a bit of non-fiction as well. Oh yeah, and novels by friends in my writing groups--which is awesome because it's like reading a regular book, but if something bugs you, you actually get to scribble in the manuscript and tell the author!

But being at World Fantasy reminded me yet again of how many friends I have whose books I've never read (or whose books I've started and never finished because I get distracted easily nowadays, rather than any actual quality issues.)

Kitten is very excited about my beanbag chair, which is approximately the same color and texture as he, the shiny black thing. I think there's something about the shadows that constantly shift as he steps on it. He keeps attacking things in the folds.

In other news, I finished two short stories today. That said, I'm still super behind in Nano, and the stories were short (1800 and 400 words respectively). But if I write a short story a week, and I can pretend I'm in Clarion, I'll be happy. (If I really wanted to pretend I was in Clarion, I suppose I'd rejoin OWW and critique seventeen stories a week on there. However, if I was really in Clarion, I also wouldn't have a day job, and would be getting drunk more often.