Day Two-Hundred Ninety-Nine: Bounce back

Lookout cuz I come atcha like ball off of a hardwood floor
You knock me down take me out I bounce back cuz I gots more
Then where that came from. That guy who wrote that post before
Was poor, on the floor, but now that guy's been shown the door

I got more bounce back than a free throw by Shaquille O'Neal,
A puck rang off the post (a hockey ref'rence? Kid's fo real!)
Yo, don't you count me out, I may not be tha Man of Steel
But when I get down I bounce back, and I like baby seals

I got more rhymes than the itsy bitsy spider
I got more comebacks than the Insyderz
Got information on the sequel to Ghost Rider
And a link to how a bird shut down the Hadron Collider.

Don't be laughin, don't be hatin, don't be dissin these rhymes,
Don't be actin' high and mighty like you're Optimus Prime,
Cause I'm comin' from a night that was so far from sublime,
But guess what? It's a new day, and it's bounce back time.

*cough cough*

Day Two-Hundred Ninety-Eight: Confession

Okay.

I'm tired.

I can't come up with a way to put into words how weary I am this instant. (I've spent the last half hour trying, and I'm failing because I'm so freaking tired)

This cold is kicking my butt. I'm doing fairly well until I hit 10 p.m., and every night this week I've hit a wall after 10. I just can't do anything. Tonight, I couldn't even stand up straight.

Adding to the weariness is the knowledge that I know I'm letting people down who need me this week. I wish I could try harder. I wish I could do more.

But I am physically incapable of being everything I need to be right now.

And that feels worse than any lingering head cold.

Day Two-Hundred Ninety-Seven: Time for some feedback.

No, sadly, this post is not about this guy.

I'd like to know a few things about your childhood. If that's cool with you.

What were your favorite books as a very young child? In grade school? In middle school?

Did you like fairy tales? Which were your favorites?

What movies did you watch over and over again?

Favorite games? Video games?

Lastly, what were your favorite songs as a very young child? Grade school? Middle school?

My thanks.
*cough cough still somewhat sick*

Day Two-Hundred Ninety-Six: Bye week

Ugh.

Between sick (not swine flu) and NaNoWriMo, I almost feel like I should have just declared this a bye week for the blog.

Actually, I know a guy whose Scholar's Bowl team once lost to a bye. For those not in the know, Scholar's Bowl is where your four-person team goes up against another four-person team and answers questions. The rounds are twelve questions each (and they're divided into categories, i.e. two math, two science, two literature, and so on) and each correct question is worth ten points. If someone on your team buzzes in early and you get the question wrong, your team loses five points.

Seeding from the round-robin to the elimination round goes first by wins and losses, second by total points. (Or point differential. I don't remember) Because of this, when a team doesn't show up, rather than just letting the other team win by forfeit, they have the team play against four chairs in an attempt to rack up points for seeding.

See where this is going?

A friend of mine from highs school (I believe it was Louisburg, KS, not that anybody's keeping track) told me he competed in one SB tournament in his entire career. He was actually team captain for that day, and they got a match against the chairs. "All right, everybody," he told his team, "DON'T buzz in early, because there's absolutely no point to it."

First question? Someone buzzed early. And got it wrong. Minus five.

And then the team didn't get the next question right. Or the next. Or the next. In fact, after twelve rounds, they'd accumulated a grand total of minus-five points. Advantage: chairs.

My friend said that after that experience, he knew that Scholar's Bowl was simply not a part of his destiny.

Day Two-Hundred Ninety-Five: Sick

Bleck.

*cough cough*

Must...live....!

I'm goin' ta bad.

Day Two-Hundred Ninety-Four: "We all wear masks, metaphorically speaking..."

Of course, if we're hockey goalies, we all wear masks, anyway. And we credit this guy with being the first smart goalie in hockey history: after getting his nose broken by a shot in a game, Jacques Plante went back to the dressing room and returned wearing a crude mask. The coach was livid, but he had no other goalies and Plante refused to go in without the mask, so his hands were tied.

Actually, the first guy to wear a mask in an NHL game was this guy here, a Hockey Hall of Famer with four Stanley Cups, but he played for the Montreal Maroons, so nobody cares.

Anyway, TSN (Canada's version of ESPN) has been running a series on current NHL goalies with unusual masks in honor of Plante's historic burst of intelligence. Of note: this feature on Calgary Flames backup Curtis McElhinney. Now, I'm not going to spoil it all for you, but I will say that it is based on a staple of great western literature, and that McElhinney's description includes the phrase "we had images of people trying to escape hell" oddly juxtaposed with a paragraph talking about how he wanted to incorporate his family into the overall design.

Bizarre.

Day Two-Hundred Ninety-Three: NaNoWriMo

Time for National Novel Writing Month, everybody!

For those who aren't in the know (which should be none of you, because I know I've mentioned this before, and if you haven't been reading since day one SURELY you went back and read everything until you were caught up ;-), NaNoWriMo is an Internet-based writing project in which participants are challenged to write a 50,000-word narrative from midnight, November 1st till midnight, November 30th. Last year was the first time I seriously participated, and I ended up writing a story that I not only liked, but that I also got published, turned into a series, and made into a movie*! Plus, it was all kinds of fun, and since I work so well with deadlines, it was also a sort of creative catalyst for me. So, I'm doing it again this year. This year's novel is not one I plan to seriously consider doing anything with, but fans of the Hero Squad franchise (particularly the Princess Mystic Starfish corner of the universe) will likely get a kick out of it.

So what does that mean for you, my faithful little blog of two-hundred ninety-three days?

Most likely, nothing. There are already nights when I post nothing beyond "I'm tired. Going to bed now." Hopefully those entries won't become more frequent over the next month. Maybe I'll start posting at lunch again to my nights can be NaNo time. But, who can say for sure? You may just get links to more Aquaman cartoons for the next who-knows-how-long. All I know for certain is that 50,000 words is probably at least three weeks away (that's how long it took me last year). I'm sure I'll post NaNoWriMo updates as we go.

Here's your first one--Current Word Count: 0!




*These things have not actually happened.