And then there was my one class this semester.  I’m not complaining, since it is only one class, but my professor decided that he wanted to drop a couple of projects on us, since “I haven’t given you enough work”.  My point exactly.  Why didn’t NaNoWriMo come last month?

My story is coming along pretty well.  I will have a TON of editing to do after this is done, since a few people want to read my convoluted fantasy.  There will be a lot of plot twists, I think.  And none of them will make sense.  What matters is that I have been enjoying myself, and I really like my characters so far.

If you want to track my progress, just come back here daily and check out my word count on the top right side of this page.  I am currently far enough behind that I need to write twice as much as I have just to catch up.  But so is everyone else.  It’s the beauty of NaNoWriMo.  Now that this word count is well over 200, bordering 300, I must go and write some more of my novel.  Wish me luck.

If you have about 80 minutes to blow, I recommend going back to a time when zombie movies weren’t flesh-eating gore-fests, but thought-provoking stories of love and voodoo.  Plus, the white zombie is a classic blonde bomb-shell.  There isn’t much of that these days either.  It’s free, and ad-free.  Have a quick view.

Excerpt from: Addicted to VHS

“If you could be in any movie in the history of the world, which one would you choose?” Caleb said breathlessly. Seth shifted the weight of his book bag slightly.

“I don’t know. I mean, I don’t normally think about that kind of thing. You’re the one that wants to be a movie star.”

“No, I don’t want to be a star… but that’s beside the point. I’m sure you’ve thought of it at some point. Haven’t you wanted to stand next to a beautiful leading lady and speak the words ‘I am here to rescue you’? Or barely make it away from a burning car before it explodes? Come on, what movie would you be the hero in?” He knew he sounded just a little crazy, but he had to tell someone. He had to release his excitement somehow.

“I guess I wouldn’t mind being in a kung fu movie? Those crack me up, but I would love to kick some butt. I mean, who wouldn’t want to take on 200 samurai with their bare hands and live to tell about it?” He couldn’t help cracking a smile

This probably won’t make it into the first draft, but it was fun to be able to explore a small piece of dialog.  Okay, now forget it all, or I might have to kill you!

Since I have never written anything beyond technical papers and short stories, I am going to play it safe and aim for a Young Adult novel. My wife always tells me that I’m such a kid. We will be walking through the local bookstore and the first thing that will catch my eye is a colorful book cover with dragons and kings and queens on it. Maybe this year’s NaNoWriMo will capture some of that sparkle and ignite my imagination.

I do have a small idea for the plot, but it’s small enough that I don’t want to write it down. I might scare it, or squish it. I’ll just let it fester a little bit until I can put it into a framework that makes sense. Here is a small teaser though:

VHS Rental

Okay, that’s enough! I’ve given away too much already! Now mind your own business!

When the typewriter was first invented, the arms that held the letter stamps were not spring loaded.  The keyed letters would fall back into position using nothing but gravity.  That is to say, the mechanism that made the typwriter useful was slow.  The original inventor found that when he layed out the keyboard in alphabetical order, he would press certain keys too quickly and end up jamming everything up.  In order to fix this problem, he studied how words were formed, and rearranged the keyboard so that there were fewer errors.  This was long before anyone knew anything about typing, so he might be called the father of the keyboard.  The same QWERTY keyboard we use today is the one he devised so long ago.

Soon after pitching his ideas to Remington, the original typewriter was redesigned to have spring-loaded arms.  This made the letters snap back into place no longer jamming except when the fastest typists were goin’ to town.  Now that the typwriter was more capable, the inventor realized that the keyboard could be redesigned to be more efficient.  He attempted to show the people at Remington his new idea, but they turned him down for the fact that everyone was already using the QWERTY keyboard, and they didn’t want to be the ones to bring typists to a screeching halt, let alone change a perfectly good design.

At around the same time, another intellectual named Dvorak was designing his own efficient keyboard layout.  Dvorak’s design was based on the idea that your fingers should rarely have to leave home row.  Therefore, with the Dvorak Simplified Layout you can type more than 3,000 words without ever leaving the comfort of the home row.  As a matter of fact, the left side of the home row only contains vowels, while the right side only contains consonants.  This forces the typist to alternate hands more times per word, crunching out words at amazing speeds.  After perfecting his design he tried it out on some people who had never even touched a typewriter before.  These new typist learned the Dvorak Simplified Layout much faster than others learned the QWERTY layout.  Also, Dvorak tried his design on some people who were seasoned QWERTY enthusiasts, and after some painful reworking of fingers, they were much faster and more accurate than they were before.

Sadly, news never spread of the new Dvorak layout because people simply don’t like change.  Just imagine you touch-typists having to completely relearn all that you know about using a keyboard.  AHA!!!

I challeng you now to rewire your brain.  Become a child again, cover your keyboard, and figure out just what this Dvorak thing is all about.  That’s exactly what I intend to do.  I already have the home row down, and I am about to move beyond it to the more obsecure letters of the alphabet.

You don’t have the resources you say?

REJOICE, FOR I AM THE BEARER OF THE GOOD NEWS!  READ THE DVORAK ZINE AND REJOICE!

——–> http://www.dvzine.org/ <——-

Now, go forth and spread the good news.  Read the zine, give the zine away, do the tutorials, and become a better typist.