Okay - so I'm very excited to say that today was very productive as far as my strange, planning thoughts for NaNoWriMo.  I realize I'm a planner; I like lists, details, plotting things into the history and seeing opportunities for the future.  Today I had a huge, enormous light-bulb moment on the aspects of magic and religion in the novel.  There are going to be a lot of things implied and delt with about our current culture in the context of the novel.  There is symbolism for Christianity, Islam, technology, philosophy, feminism, a lot of things that I've just sort of pieced together and stuck in there.  Now do I expect for people to pick these out should they decide to read them? Nope.  Not at all.  :)  I'm very excited because I've really plotted out the big picture as far as World History goes, and I've figured out why the country the story takes place in is even there.  I've figured out how the steampunk elements I want to incorporate in it will work and why some won't.  I think I have an idea for how magic and religion will play out but I'm still a little lost on how the main character will deal with it all.  I need to finish the character profile so her and I can get better acquainted; we're going to be spending a lot of time together!

I even got a little binder today; one of those five star, plastic ring things that are super flexible.  Really I just sort of got suckered into it because it's a great color of blue and has some fun kind of neon paisley stuff on the front.  I did, however, print out a label that says NaNoWriMo 2009 - The Barking Dog on it as yet more motivation.  I tend to write stuff down or have these random thought-bursts and I need a place to keep these things I write down on the back of receipts or on an index card and this binder will be it.  It'll also be where I keep all of my world-building notes because I tend to like to put my hands on papers and look at them.

I also drew maps yesterday but for some strange reason never mentioned them.  Okay, so they sort of look silly but I never said I had artistic ability.  I just needed to draw it all out so that I could figure it out on paper as far as where these places all are.  There are several types of maps too, all on my Flickr account, which show the neighboring countries, the geography, the cities, major roads and towns.  I think I've hit the big points I need to for now and later on I'll probably make more to show the movement of characters and where they all are.

All in all I'm very excited with the way this is going.  I talked briefly to a friend of mine who is in art school about thinking about designing some art for it - but of course that's nothing that needs to be thought about until like, January.  I'll have to finish the novel of course and then decide what I want to do with it, but I imagine I would like a copy nicely printed and bound for myself.  I also know people who are taking bets about how long it will be based on how much I write already; if you've never read anything I've written creatively I would say good for you.  It tends to be long.

It's homecoming season here in the south and I had a lot of fun reminiscing about mums.  If you don't know what a mum is - you're missing out!  I think it's a southern thing really.  I made one like once with my friends just for the heck of it.  I always thought they were a little silly, but they were also fun. I think I was in junior high when I made mine at my friend Carla's house... I think her name was Carla, she was a red head who transferred to our school.  Anyways, we all went to her house and made mums one year and they were huge and we were super cool because of them and it was ridiculous.  I love the memory of it.  I might have pictures around here somewhere - that I'm not willing to share.  I'm pretty sure I sharpied people out I didn't like at one point or another for some stupid reason.  Hilarious memories.

I didn't do anything on the dress tonight - and I didn't even have anyone over.  I should have done something - but I didn't.  Instead I was on my couch and knitted, watching The Office, Kamen Rider, and stuff.  I just did measly house-stuff really.  The place is still a mess but at least I have clean dishes, the trash has been taken out and the Chinchillas are clean, happy, and fed.  The Office Wedding was great.  The intro had me heaving and laughing at the same time.  The wedding was really awesome.  I won't ruin it - I'll just say it was awesome.  I'm really happy with the new W series of Kamen Rider.  I don't know if I've mentioned it or not but it makes me think of the old Dick Tracey stuff. 

Worked on my teal scarf - have maybe a foot more done.  I'm using rather large needles so the knit's rather loose - which is what I'm going for.  I want a useful scarf I can wear in the Texas winter, so I don't want it to be super thick, just something nice.  If that makes any sense at all...

I had the strangest urge to go for a run today.  It's not the first time I've had this; I've considered like jogging around the residential areas behind my apartment complex or perhaps jogging around where I work but I haven't.  Plus, jogging in converse or the other shoes I have isn't exactly pleasant - I tried that.  I'm considering going out and getting a pair of running shoes and trying out the jogging; I might just like it.  Maybe I'll look into the shoes over the weekend.