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[description: It's a widget that shows how long until NaNo ends in my time zone, how much I've written, and how much I have left to write. It also shows how many words per day I've averaged and the estimated date I would finish at that rate (currently Jan 13th as of 11pm 09/11) and the remaining amount of words I must do each day to finish by the end of November. It updates every time I update my profile on the NaNo site.]
And just for coolness factor, the widget is hosted on neilgaiman.com!!!
The good thing about doing both NaBloPoMo AND NaNoWriMo is that on days when I don’t really have any inspiration for my blog entry I just simply tell you what my NaNo word count is and witter on about that for a while.
I have 3580 words for NaNo so far, I’ve set up three characters and mentioned a third and fourth. Other than that not much has happened other that a shit load of padding it out. Still, that;s half the fun. And I suddenly like what I’ve written this afternoon which is always good. I am slightly ahead of the curve at the moment but I haven’t written 1667 words today (wrote extra yest) so I want to get at least the 300 or so extra in to hit that - don’t want to lose my extra margin of words this early on. I’d actually forgotten how much fun this writing lark is.
Oooh and my friend Sam said my face looks a lot thinner today. I was very pleased but immediately followed that up with a discussion as to whether or not it was how I was wearing my hair (different to usual) that did it. Because, obviously, looking less fat is important. Particularly when you have an appt with a TV camera crew next week like I do…
Fireworks tomorrow, can’t wait!
…when you go up to a group of people in Starbucks and go “Either you’re going to think I’m really crazy or you’re the group of people I’m supposed to be meeting.” and one of them doesn’t so much as reply as take his t shirt off
Ok, so it was to show that underneath he had his radioactive yellow Municipal liaison shirt for NaNoWriMo as proof that they were actually the people I was meeting.
I haven’t laughed that much in a long time. It was brilliant.
How long is it until November?! I want the madness to start now… (even tho it sort of did, LoL)
And I know see that Steve has posted on the forums wondering if taking off his t-shirt got him two new members, what will happen if he takes more clothes off.
Looks like I’m going to fit in well with the other people in the Eleventh Month group (aka Oxfordshire NaNoWriMo-ers).
Oh and in another moment of sheer stupidity, I also signed up to do NaBloPoMo as well. And as for NaKniSweMo? Well, that’ll have to wait for next year.
I got an e-mail about NaNoWriMo today!
I knew it was coming up but I hadn’t really realised that the festivities kick off so soon - sign ups start 1st Oct!
I have half of a badly thought out fiction idea that I could do. Or I could write my life story. Both are projects I’ve written a few words of and abandoned time and again for more years than I can count.
So… which do YOU think I should write?
I just found a couple of poems that I wrote in January this year and thought I would share them here. I am in the mood to write poetry but not inspired so this must suffice for now.
The first poem was started on Monday 29th January 2007 and has been changed and edited today to be posted here. It’s recognisable as the poem I wrote back in January but I have fine tuned it and put “meat on the bones” as they say.
Journey: destination unknown
Always on a jounery
never stopping, keeping going
where I’m going, never knowing
I’m keen to arrive in that unknown place
Spending each day in a travelling raceHurry Hurry
Rush Rush
Hurry Hurry Hury
Rush Rush RushWhat a fuss!
Must keep going.
Such a fuss!All this frustration
Trying to reach an unknown destination
All this frustration
where I’m going no time to question
All this frustration
Trying to reach an ever changing destinationLife flashes by on my journey
Like fields on a trainNo day is the same
Life flies by as we wait
to arrive somewhere
on some far away date.My life so far wasted
For the destination
I quietly waited.Now I no longer waste my days
Now it is the journey I love and praise.~Emma Crees
This second poem was written Tues 30th January 2007. I was reading a biography of Winston Churchill at that time and a couple of lines from this must be attributed to that great man to whom we Brits owe so much. The only change I have made in transcribing this poem for posting is to add the final line.
KBO
Chin Up Chuck
I wish you lots of luck.
You can do this if you really wish
Don’t get stuck
When life comes at you
Don’t duck
Just keep going
Keep buggering on
As long as you are strong
No matter what you feel
Even if
You think it’s a big deal
Keep buggering on
And you can do no wrong
Just keep buggering on.~Emma Crees
Please let me know what you think of my poor attempts at poetry.
I was lucky enough to be asked to take part in a virtual “roundtable” on blogging and disability. It was an opportunity I was really excited about, particularly given the fact that so many bloggers took part who I admire and consider to be better at this blogging lark than I am.
The roundtable appears in the latest addition of DSQ and whilst a paid subscription is required to be able to access the content, it’s well worth a read.
Of particular interest to me was the fact that several of us seemed to touch without meaning too on the same or similar issues - one of which being Ashley X. It also allowed me to “get to know” some bloggers I’d not encountered or didn’t know well.
I’ve put the full list of everyone who took part and the links to their blogs and contributions below.
As an unrelated side note: my name and surname are now out there in the blogosphere associated with this blog. It’s kind of weird that my full name is there now but I think I like it. At least I decided that I wanted to be known by my full name in the roundtable because I am proud of my writings and I wanted to acknowledge that. I have no clue if this bit makes sense but I wanted to share that here.
So yeah, in case you didn’t know, I’m Emma Crees. It’s nice to meet you.
I’m working on a piece in word right now, not for here but for another project. And I wrote a sentence about being asked how having a disability affects certain things. Basically it goes “when I was asked how disability affects this my first thought was that my CP…”
Apparently that sentence is passive and the grammar check thinks I should instead write “my CP does not affect my disability…”
I only ran the grammar check because I wasn’t sure if it should be affect or effect and it was easier than looking it up and I end up getting into the Social Model of Disability. I really do believe in the social model but that sentence did make me laugh which I needed. Because my CP is not what disables me but it what causes society to disable me. So cp does affect my disability.
And for those who don’t know:
The Social Model of Disability proposes that barriers and prejudice and exclusion by society (purposely or inadvertently) are the ultimate factors defining who is disabled and who is not in a particular society. It recognises that while some people have physical or psychological differences from a statistical norm, which may sometimes be impairments, these do not have to lead to disability unless society fails to accommodate and include them in the way it would those who are ‘normal’. [from wikipedia]
In case you haven’t heard about it this is a link to Ashley’s parents website which explains what they had done to her and their reasoning behind it. It makes some very interesting reading.
The short version is that Ashley X is 9 years old and has profound physical and learning disabilities. Her parents love her dearly (that much is clear from their writing) and call her their “Pillow Angel”. They have taken steps medically to ensure that she remains in a prepubescent state forever.
It’s not something I agree with and it is something I am glad wasn’t done to me. However they did do what they think is best for their child and really that isn’t something we can condemn. Realistically I think this probably wasn’t the best choice for Ashley and that they haven’t considered several issues. It really is, as Jacqui said, a case of damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
I do worry about the fact that it was passed as a suitable treatment by an ethics board and also by reports that Ashley’s doctors have had requests from other parents for their children because at the end of the day this is not something that should be being done to children. Especially as doctors frequently give incorrect prognosis. What would happen if that was done to say, a two year old and then it turned out the situation wasn’t as bad as anticipated. It’s a bit of a slippery slope.
I am physically disabled and I know a lot of other people with physical disabilities. Once or twice I have been faced with people who assumed I also have cognitive difficulties but I also know a few people who have CP (and other disabilities) to such an extent that this is a regular occurance for them. I also know several people with learning disabilities (less severe than Ashley’s appear to be) and I would hate to think that they would be subjected to part of the Ashley Treatment. They are all valid members of society and so is Ashley. They and Ashley deserve to be treated as such and not reduced to permanent childhood.
Also, Pillow Angel is a horrible term but as Jacqui said in her reply to my comment on her blog (talk about a run on sentence!) some people think the fact that she calls her blog Terrible Palsy is out of line but she finds it funny and so do I and may that is the case here. It (pillow angel) works for them and whilst we may not like it not all of us can be as militant about people first language etc as I and others are. A lot of the language is offensive if you believe in people first language and some of the sentiments or facts presented are confusing or incorrect. But, you know what? Live and let live. Sometimes it’s all people can do to survive and I wonder if that is the case here.
Ashley was treated as she was treated, that cannot be undone. And whilst I do have many many issues with this I think we cannot truly condone the parents. I blame the doctors and other support agencies who allowed it to get to a stage where her parents felt they had to do this and then carried it off.
Don’t blame the parents. Yes, a lot of parents would not do what Ashley’s have done but at the end of the day sending them hate e-mail or whatever isn’t going to change anything. What we need to do is make sure this never happens to any other child.
I just found out an hour or so ago that a very dear friend had a malignant tumour removed last week. I knew he had had surgery but the mutual friend had told me it was just a “little op” and nothing to worry about.
He sounded OK on the phone but did admit to have had a few tears earlier when he received a card from a group we both belong too and he says he feels the same as before. At the end of this month he returns to hospital for follow up tests to check they got it all. He actually spent a lot of time asking how I was and when I mentioned the job interview I had last week apologised for forgetting about it. Prayers, positive energy and good thoughts etc are all very much appreciated.
And as for me? I’m doing good. Taking it slow but doing good. I might be getting a cold but actually I feel better today than yesterday. My sister came home for the weekend and it was great to see her - we had lots of fun.
NaNoWriMo word count: 14,374 - still behind but the situation isn’t dire (yet) and that almost isn’t the point.
I like being able to say that!