My Desktop: February 2013

Take it as it is: here’s the desktop I’m sticking to this month – by the artist 3day Weekend on deviantART.  I didn’t even attempt to put any files away or try to hide anything- so there’s the unvarnished me.

See the real pic by click the artist’s name; or here.  To see the big version of my screen, click the image.

I found this art by doing a search based off a particular song.  It’s the same title as my song, so go discover some new art while trying to get the answer to the track I don’t get out of my head this month of the year.  If you like the artist, don’t forget to say how you found out.

My Gaming: December 2012

The plan was to make a tease sort of post; but things didn’t go off as I hoped.  In fact, much of this concept didn’t go off as expected…but I hope it will be a recurring segment.

Since I spend a lot of time talking about (or actually playing) my PSP, I thought this year I’d use my modified handheld to not only showcase some of the silly games I play, but also prove there is plenty of reason not to jump to the “PSV” quite yet (even though the PSVita will have a theoretic life of at least two more years, but I digress…).

With emulators and homebrew, all sorts of things can still be accomplished on a PSP Slim [2k of 3k] such as mine: despite Plagueis the Wise and Palp the Craggy corroborating my firmware being “unnatural” in a word.

Originally I hoped to have a slideshow each month, but flash doesn’t work here.  Then I hoped to do a gallery here, but things weren’t working as I hoped.  Then I planned to make two galleries: one showing my screenshots for that month, and another linking to each game (for deeper investigation) – but ImageShack doesn’t let one image exist in two albums.

Hit the jump to figure out the solution…

Literary Road to Glory: 2013

Mesnard’s “Glory Road” progress:

Lat year I had delusions of ambition.  Not only did I make a whole slew of writing goals, but I wanted to formulate a system where I could fail and still succeed: so I wouldn’t fall into the trappings of a majority who make resolutions for a new year.  Thus, I adopted this Road to Glory point system and progress meter…heavily stolen inspired by the PSP game NCAA Football 2010.

My version entailed a month-by-month roadmap: with secondary goals to help bolster any months which I faltered; or rather, my endeavors proved too ambitious.  To top it off, I made a more long-term (and secretive) goal which I gave myself a decade to accomplish.

What’s my secret agenda?  That’s still a pinky swear with Palpatine shrouded with secrecy.  Life would be boring without secrets, don’t you think?

Though my output was abysmal a few months (and then some), writing in December rather than enjoying Nanowrimo burnout was what finally helped me amass enough points to pull off a Road 2012 victory.

Since things seemed to go so well, I decided to definitely do it all over again for 2013.  Raising the stakes higher, I even altered my long-range goal (which is the second progress bar at the top of this post) to drive myself a tad harder.

What’s in store for me this year?  Hit the jump to get the month-by-month breakdown.

My Desktop: January 2013

Since I wanted a theoretical clean sweep, I decided to try to organize the iBook’s desktop and downloads folder – but before I did it, I decided to take a pic for a quick digital time capsule.  See?

Yeah – I still need to change that wallpaper from December…though it’s so sad when Life Day ends.  Know what I mean?

Ask what you want about what you see.  I don’t think I have anything to hide.  Do I?  What could be a better conversation starter than letting someone openly spy on your computer screen?

 

2012 in review: Oh, Mesnard via WordPress

I received the following writeup from WordPress about my blog in 2012.  Following the link it provides even gives you a firework show.

 

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 3,700 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 6 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

Literary Road to Glory: 2012 Recap

The dorm room is packed and cleaned; which brings my foray into literary ambition to a close…at least for this year.  I didn’t plan to give up after a single year of making resolutions.  The big question is how I fared.

Before I cap things off, here’s a look at the cryptic “score sheet” I scrawled out to help become my roadmap. [click to enlarge]

How cryptic was it?  I tried to decode it on at least three occasions.  The sheet of notebook paper made a lot of sense at the time, but I made alterations as the months rolled by…a bit because the unexpected cropped up, but mostly to make things more challenging for myself.

After the jump is my 2012 progress report.

Rate me Highly (or Lowly) Now!

My latest blog feature is a rating system for posts and pages.

Why now?  I wanted to “branch out” a while.  Writing is still the main focus here; and the “Road to Glory” feature is now a fixture; but an experimental expansion has been in the works.

As Jules Winnfield might ask, “Example.”

Many know I spend time on my heavily-modified PSP.  I thought a while about a monthly visual gaming feature.  I often play in cycles, and most titles fall outside the realm of popularity: especially since many games are imports or via emulation; which could keep things unique around here.

Going in another direction is a sports recap.  I played in various Yahoo Fantasy leagues more than a few years now, and this NFL season I started my own small league; emphasizing on luck and fun rather than aggression or hyper-competitiveness.  Yahoo added automated weekly recaps (which I found highly amusing) of head-to-head team match-ups; which I want to retroactively post.

[Note:  If any of you have a Yahoo account and want to get in on future action, let me know.  I still have a college bowl "pick 'em" league with open slots too at this moment.]

Incorporating other interests can showcase my other facets without perpetuating blogging tropes relying on personal dramatics or day-to-day struggles to keep things interesting.  My goal is to keep this place entertaining above all else.

Other past ideas were things like older album reviews or canceled television shows; but working on novels, scripts, or short stories seem a better way to spend my allocated writing time for now.

Many renovations got made to the blog this year, but I want much more: even if things seem at a standstill for now.

What else for the future?  I wanted more than just a sidebar and the About heading at the top, such as a contact or feedback area; offering an easier way for people to get in touch or ask questions.  One long-in-the-making addition has been a supporter section to thank followers; or paying time and mind to this blog.  A timeline or achievements section has personal appeal, but hinges more on my free time.

Some of the above will likely be incorporated into my 2013 resolutions.  On that note, a Road to Glory tab would be a great addition to help keep me accountable; since those monthly goals play part in a decade-long plan.

Hopefully the ratings addition proves a great way to see where to occupy my time when not writing; or even what to procrastinate with.

As always, comments (and now ratings) are welcome.

Nanowrimo 2012 recap

The 2012 OLL season came to a close now National Novel Writing Month has ended.  I did more than the goal; as quantity was concerned.  My novel is insanely long, but for the moment I sort of like it that way.

Proper tone; cadence; length; narration are all things I can figure out later when I work on a real draft.  My chapters aren’t traditional at this point either, but I like that for the moment as well.

On the bright side, I can safely say the story is past the halfway point.  After this current section gets finished up…there are maybe four major things before the ending.  Rather, four or five locations, then the big ending.  Sorry to all who want to read this while waiting for that Transformers reboot: no explosions at the end of this book.  Maybe a faint trace of saltwater, but the lead doesn’t end up having a day at the beach.

Then again, there is this…

No, nope – never a part of my plan.  I didn’t plan on her leaving Scottsdale in the story.  Then again, anything can happen when writing a novel in the Nanoverse.

Back on topic: here’s an auto-generated chart from the Nano site; showing my daily progress in November:

So close to sixty thousand, I know.  Maybe next year?  That giant bump in my stats was thanks to our Day of Writing Safe and Warm, which is our region’s version of the Night of Writing Dangerously event held in San Francisco.  Ours may not be as swanky, but sure can be a game-changer for a Wrimo’s word count.

My favorite way to keep track of November is with this widget:

This has been my word barometer for a few years now; and this season it was on display in this blog’s sidebar.  The colors can range from red to green, as I recall.  A green box means the daily word count was reached.  All the other colors represent a word count below par, so to speak.

My personal hope was to write two thousand words a day.  Now my plan is to make up the combined difference of all those non-green days with a newer December goal.  This means 2013 will be the time to see if I’ll avenge those orange and yellow boxes.

When I verified my win, I decided to make my forum signature a little easier to see.  Here’s what it became:

In case you’re wondering, all the black print and handwriting were lifted from the project I was writing for November.

Since I’m sharing images, here is something I received at the TGIO [Thank Goodness It's Over] party for our region:

One of these days I’ll open the pack up, but I haven’t had a special enough use yet.

That about wraps up why November is a tough month to keep my attention.  Now maybe one of these days I’ll finally finish one of these novels.  April and July are the Camp Nano sessions for 2013.  Maybe then?  Oh, wishful thinking…

Related links:

• my NaNoWriMo profile
• get a taste of my Nano novel (draft zero)
• my StayClassy profile (OLL fundraiser)

NaNoWriMo: 50k Reached!

With around an hour left in the day, I hit 50,000 words on the twenty-first of November.  My personal goal was to hit the mark before Thanksgiving, so I guess I cut it close.

Still more to go.  It’s like this novel won’t ever have a final chapter…even though I have some of the broad strokes for the end in my mind.  I’m doing my best to make it a payoff worthy of all the words which precede it, but I’m taking it a step at a time.

This is still draft zero.  Nano is very run-and-gun for me.  It causes a lot of word padding, dynamic shifts, and tangents.  I don’t even consider these first drafts anymore.  Often the speed and creative process causes a major shift in story or tone.

If none of that scared you off, a great deal of this draft can be found here.

 

Calling a Sidebar & Update

This it to let it be known I did a little work on the layout again; mainly updating the sidebar.

For the sake of NaNoWriMo, I added a progress bar (with extra tags) to show not only my daily performance by color (green being hitting the daily word count – and orange, yellow; then red if an abysmal word day.  It also displays the total word count and my percentage of 50,000 words complete at the top.
But that’s not all!  I also redid my “Road to Glory” progress bar.  Though not all my true progress has been totaled in, clicking the meter will bring up my original post about my monthly goals – which I updated through November.

On top of that, I rearranged the order of projects displayed in the sidebar also; with at least one updated cover.  If anyone wants to read more of any of them, I can reply back with links.

Sorry for what may seem like a boring post, since I don’t have crazy linkage or any of the usually-expected things.  I’d try to get my sponsorship info up, which is a little bit out there.

As a bonus, here’s the signature I’m using in the Nano forum this year.  Once again, I’m trying for a little bit of the lunatic vibe when I did it.

Nano 2012: Story Update

The image is taller than what I usually show, but I’ll try to make it a shorter post to compensate.

Still writing this strange November.  Much has been different for me compared to a year or two back.  I’m sticking with my story from last year, and [so far] staying on-par with my personal goals so far.

I usually do some things to get ready for the Nano season.  This year I hesitated; whatever that reason was.  My updates here and my sponsor page have been sketchy at best.  Today I updated my Figment page (sorry for not mentioning updates there for at least a month).  There also hasn’t been an explanation for why I am writing what I am this month.

So what’s with the pic?  I did an earlier post showing the main character’s “last known whereabouts” when I was writing.  If you where she was as it happened, that could only complicate things for her.  The image is an indication of where she’s been.

What’s happening now?  Well…  According to all, she is ending her journey.  Kadie, the man from the establishment, and also-  That reminds me, maybe I’ve been letting her get a bigger lead than intended.  Here is the “establishment” in question:

That chapter did go much longer than intended, but that’s what the magic of a second draft is all about.  It’s all about quantity over quality though: in the month of November.

Officially Announcing my Nano-Nonsence

Most everyone knows my drive in November is more than my childhood dream of getting to eat a drumstick off John Madden‘s backup bird.  It’s writing like a fool for the sake of delusional diversionary some sort of literary endeavor.

There was a fantastic idea which came to me in early October: adapting a screenplay I did a lot of prep work on but felt too intimidated to quite write.  Ends up, I don’t want to even try tackling it at this point – knowing it would take a month of prep to organize into something I would feel confidant enough to execute as a novel.  So scratch that one…for now.

Then a friend of mine contacted me out of the blue in hopes I would finish my story which started out as a 2008 Nano novel (and later was worked on for part of Nanowrimo 2010 also).  The notion felt like the perfect excuse to shelve my new and likely way-too ambition project (due to circumstance)…but later on I realized something.

If I worked further on the 2008 story, some stuff would have to be put in place before November.  I would have to gather up all my notes; being sure to have my “backstory” writeups to work off.  I planned to have at least one chapter where the whole truth was laid out for the reader [despite what any of the characters of the story may know] — which would come up in the first week of November; should I keep writing the story in order…or at least the book’s order rather than actual continuity.  On top of that, I still felt a need to finish the chapter I left off before November; more for my own sake, but also because I had minor notes to pull up.  This is also the chapter which I employed one of the region’s Municipal Liaisons as a character in the book.  Due to all of those things, I decided to jettison the notion of continuing it at this juncture.  Which lead towards my final idea.

So much chaos has been thrown my direction, it’s not even worth bringing up.  Maybe when I am one day disassociated with it, there will be some sort of wide-reaching drama of Sorkinian proportions: followed by mild accolades.  Until that point, I won’t bother speaking about it in this venue.

I needed something to write as quickly as I can with the least amount of brainpower as possible.  I won’t call this a weak story or a consolation prize, but I knew it would be there for me if all else failed.

Not that I don’t like the story.  I have high hopes for it and think it has a lot of merit: once I hit the actual groove and one day get through a second draft.  Aside from myself, this story (at this very moment) has a cheering section of one.  The two of us could either be called mad or merely early adopters.

The novel shall be what I started just short of a year from this date.  At the moment, I say it’s more akin to 1001 Arabian Nights rather than a by-the-book novel.  My joke is it’s to books what television can be to cinema: able to develop more organically and have an overall story with small moments all within.  My first draft first chapters are usually the worst things of any of my written word, but that’s just how it is sometimes.

It would be nice to have a shot at finishing this tome of an elementary school student’s story.  I do feel confidant the story has a lot going for it — and it’s closer to the end than the beginning.  In my own mind, I think the ending will be a big payoff for the whole book in general, so I really can’t wait until I get to that point.

Much of the story is on my Figment profile.  There is a lot to it since I started it for Nano 2011, then continued it during Camp Nano‘s June session.

So there you have it!  i declared.  Now let’s see me try to follow through.  [As if I have a choice?]

Zapping the Blog’s PRAM

What’s been passing as my blog of late has been appalling.  Yes, I know.  I take the blame.  So what am I doing about it?

Being all about the retcon, I will be posting more…in the appropriate times of occurrence.  Aside from articles and my writing exploits, there will be a slight increase in testosterone as I post a few “sports” articles.

Due to my dabbling in Sanrio, and other things frowned upon by many testosterone-infused members of society, I’ve tried balancing things out by participating in various fantasy sports leagues, such as on Yahoo.  This year I even decided to be commissioner of my own league: with hopes of fun over knowledge.  I hoped to post the “game of the week” here to add a little more to the blog’s breadth…and I’ll be open to names if anyone else wants to try out any of the free leagues I want to be commissioner of in the future.

My other hope is to make the place look a little nicer with added features.  Since Nanowrimo is closer than I want to acknowledge, I plan to add something extra to the sidebar so people can keep tabs on me.  I’d love to add the extra tabs and such, but time is against me (as usual).  I still plan to have something for supporters and a silly “accolades” type of page as well.  People who knew me in my defunct there is another MMO or in the online sports leagues know I love to chase medals.

Will the blog improve — cosmetically or via content?  Will my Road to Victory see a checkered flag in 2012?  Will I win the OLL Quadruple Crown?  Will I keep any of my aforementioned proposals?

Stay tuned…