Wednesday 30 October 2013

My First NaNoWriMo Experience.

As the title suggests, this post is going to be thrown mercilessly at your face.

A few days ago, I made the rather wonderful decision to get of my abnormally large rear-end and meet up other with writers who are doing NaNoWriMo. I am so god-dam glad that I did, what was meant to be a one hour kick-off party turned in to a five hour meshing of minds, memories, travels and intelligence (I brought what little of the mind I had, but you can forget about the other three.)

It was clear that I am the baby of the group.

The writers that I met had so many stories to tell, and far too many to list here, there was someone who studied biology but then went to work for a chain of comic stores and an American archaeologist who travels, stories and world knowledge leave me jealous.

We talked about everything and anything, from our particular fandoms to politics and how politics in America is like a group of four year old's who don't know how to behave.

What surprised me is how far to the left our Conservative party is compared to The Republicans. In fact over in America our conservatives are closer in line to The Democrats. On that bases, our liberals are almost considered radical. 

One thing I did know and what was confirmed is that there is no middle ground in American politics, you are ether a democrat or a republican. I also learned that more and more people are choosing to vote for an independent representative.

I asked if one of our governments could move to an independent model? Sadly in today's world, it would come down to government by Murdoch, only those with the personality (and quite a lot of cash) would be able to get the main votes, it wouldn't even matter what there policies are. 

An example of this is Ancient Greece, imagine only the rich men at the head of the household making all of the decisions. It wouldn't matter who had the ideals to change the world and do good for other people, they don't have the money to pull in the crowds, no one is going to hear them shout.

Personally, I would love to see an election race between two or more independent candidates in which money is not involved, all that matters is the polices, and how they are going to serve the American people. 

Sadly, as a species, it seems like we are not ready for something so advance, we need flashing lights and Neil Patrick Harris type performance.

So it seem that the best we can hope for is that both our governments can work the way they were intended, on compromise. A wonderful example of this is the recent Syrian crises, both Cameron and Obama wanted to charge in there and the bomb the living daylight out of the Syrian people, but it was clear that most of us in America and Britain did not want anyone to go into yet another war.

Both Cameron and Obama knew that if they if they did to to war, they would have a one hell of a time trying to keep us all calm, I think we could all see that if we marched into Syria, Russia and China will go to defend their allies in the region and we could potently have world war three on our hands.

Thus it was put to a vote, over here in Britain we were the first to say no, clearly this pissed off Mitt Romney who later passed a remark saying that France was a better alloy then Britain. I think everyone laughed at that.

America had a vote too and unsurprisingly, they also said no. 

During that situation, our governments actually did their jobs, they represented the wants, needs and wishes of their people. I may hate Cameron and the conservatives but I will respect him for putting the decision forward to vote and possibly in effect persuading Obama to do the same.   

If your interested, in the last election I voted for the liberal democrats, next time around I am very likely to vote for Labour, even if I do think that Ed Miliband is a spineless twat.

You know something, NaNoWriMo is not about the novel (I'm still going to write the bloody thing,) it's about the people you meet, the lesson you learn and the stories you share. It is the people who get together under the common banner of a love writing that help make NaNoWriMo so special.

I sincerely hope I don't mess things up and that friends I make over the next month or so will hang around for a little while afterwards

Sunday 13 October 2013

Let's Talk About Lifts And Bouncing

Last Wednesday, I had to go shopping in Sainsbury's

The contents of what I brought are irrelevant but it was enough for four bags. (I can tell that you're really interested in this post.)

The Sainsbury that I often go to is a relatively new one, it has it's own muti-story car park and there is a cinema right next door. I parked on the top floor which meant that on the way down I could take the leaning travelator down to the shop floor.

I am unaware of how travelator's work in other countries, but over in England, where the sun is always shining, we have a voice that speaks to us when near the end. The voice Sainsbury's have installed is one of a 40-something year old dominatrix who tells us to 'push' our trollies off the walkway.

Unfortunately on the way back up, the return travelator wasn't working, which meant that I was left with two choices; the lift, or the stairs.

Do I look like I want to take the stairs?

When I got into the lift, I made a huge mistake, I held the doors open for a lovely lady, her shopping trolly and  flood of a loud 60-something (I'm being kind) dominatrix who is talking to a younger woman about how she 'bounced' on a trampoline for the first time since she could remember.

For the rest of us in the lift, this conversation, had no context.

We all looked at each other, while this woman kept talking about bouncing'

When the woman and a few other people bounced off the elevator and onto the first floor, I was left in with one other guy. We completed the rest of the journey in a awkward silence.

We did not bounce off the elevator.

Friday 11 October 2013

NaNoWriMo And Sleep Deprivation

For the more perceptive of you who are reading this post in October or November of 2013, you will notice the giant bad-ass banner that is at the top of this blog.

This giant bad-ass banner is there to inform you that I am going to be attempting to do NaNoWriMo this year. I am useless at giant bad-ass things like this, so it is a bit of a surprise that this condemned blog is somehow still floating and by some divine intervention has 5171 pageviews.

Although I suspect that it's just my mum pressing refresh 5171 times, she is my biggest fan. Love ya mum.

NaNoWriMo is a yearly event that is rather simple, write a 50,000 novel in 30 days. I have tried writing before but most of my attempts ended with something that is a akin to a cow throwing up and eating it's own vomit four times in a row.

So to help me stay on track, I've made myself a few rules:
  • Write at least 1667 words a day. (some clever person typed 50,000 divided by 30 into their phone.)
  • Update this blog everyday with my progress.
  • Get my sorry little ass off my bed and out into the big wide world, or failing that, Milton Keynes.
  • Get some sleep every night.
It's almost eight in the morning and I've pulled yet another radically boring all-nighter. I need to stop going to sleep in the morning. With the way my body clock is tuned right now, I could move to Hawaii. I hear it's lovely this time of year.

In other news, later on today I have an interview with ASDA.   

Saturday 5 October 2013

I've been a very naughty boy.

I haven't blogged in while, not something I intended to do.

So in the three months I've been away from you sexy people, I've had a couple of mental ooh-la-la's and worked out that I'm in the wrong career. I'm half-way up a mountain that I don't want to climb.

Long story short, the name of this blog (needsmorework) has some meaning now, I'm unemployed.

However it's not all bad, I have noticed that I've matured and I'm pretty cool, I might suit up

There is one thing I have noticed, there are some people among us who believe that those who are unemployed are lesser human beings. You can tell who these people are a mile off. What they seem to forget is that not many people like being unemployed, I for one hate it, so I hit the ground running, in these four or weeks, I've already had three interviews and I have another one on Wednesday (look at me showing off.)

So my message is this, your job doesn't make you who you are. To be completely honest, I don't know what makes us who we are, if I did, I could make a fortune.

Instead I ask for you to do one thing, if you know someone who is a bit down on their luck, pick them up, dust them off, pat them on the shoulder, tell them that they are doing great and stand by them. I'm lucky that i got the long straw and that I have some awesome people around me. Sadly there are those who are not as fortunate as me.

So don't leave comments saying that your sorry for me because I'm fine, I've got a entire pit crew behind me. Instead, leave a comment saying how you made someones day suck less and if you are a bit down and think you're not awesome, you're wrong. I think you're legen -

Wait for it...

...dary