Just figured out what it is about Chad Kroeger's singing that's so dead-sexy. It's the way he treats vowels. I'm listening to "See You at the Show" (he's the lead singer of Nickelback, FYI), and it struck me that he draws out vowels in a very unique way, like he's unwilling to let them leave his mouth. He hangs onto them a little longer than most singers would, and it just comes out all caressing and seductive.

Speaking of Chad Kroeger, I wish I had a better picture of him to put here, because he's my ideal Sirius Black. Whenever I'm reading the Harry Potter books, I always envision Sirius as a dark-haired version of Chad, all skinny and lanky and slightly sinister. Not that I don't love Gary Oldman, but he's not who I see in my head when I imagine Sirius.

I haven't posted much in the last few days because I am spending most of my free computer-time trying desperately to finish my first novel. I want to have it done by the end of October, because in November, I'm actually going to try doing NaNoWriMo! If you're not familiar with that term, it stands for NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth. The basic premise is that in one month, you write a 50,000-word novel. And considering that my first novel is at 56,000 words right now and it's taken me 3 years to get that far, I'm undoubtedly mad to try NaNoWriMo, but that's okay...I've been insane for years, and known it.

Actually, what's going to make NaNoWriMo completely psychotic for me is that I'm going on vacation on November 22, so I actually have to write 50,000 words in about 20 days, not 30. Because I'm going home, and I know I won't have the time or the inclination to work on it when I'm home. That means I have to do something like 2,500 words a day. Zounds!

So anyway, it's not that I've dropped off the face of the earth, it's just that I want to finish my first novel before starting my NaNoWriMo novel. Make sense?

I finally named my bike. Actually, I named it a week ago, but I didn't want to blog about it until I was sure I'd found the right name. Dragonfly. It came to me when I was pondering how to decorate the tote bag I'd just made for it.

See, I have this passion for making stuff. I particularly like to make new stuff out of old stuff. So in this case, I took an old pair of my jeans that had many holes in them, several in places that prohibit me from wearing them in public anymore. I cut off the top of the jeans, just below the back pockets, and sewed up the part I'd cut, making a nice bag. Roomy enough to carry 6 videos or medium-sized books, or lots and lots of dvds and cds. Since most of my solo bike trips are to the library or video store, I figure this is a good way to measure the size.

I knew I wanted to decorate it with some sort of beaded design on the front, so I started looking through my beadbox for inspiration. And inside my beadbox I have some little metal charms left over from when I was made a similar bag a couple years ago for my mom to carry her teacherly books to and from school. One of the charms was, you guessed it, a dragonfly. And I started remembering how in highschool, Freestargirl loved butterflies, Jewels loved ladybugs, and I kinda liked dragonflies. And then it came to me: not only would I do a beaded dragonfly on my totebag, I'd put the words "Fly with the dragons" on the other side. And that is when I realized my bike should be named Dragonfly.

The bag is working out really well--I've used it several times now. I attached it by the belt loops to my handlebars with pieces of suede lacing (my family calls the stuff 'yang', but I don't know if that's its real name or just another of our weird terms for things), and it's very handy. Especially all the pockets.

Quote of the day: "The job of the federal government is not to prevent idiots from making stupid mistakes; you cannot be free and still expect to be free from the consequences of your decisions."--Philosopher Poet (aka Flying Squirrel) on his blog...

I heartily agree.

Er, I mean, Arrrrrrr!

Don't forget that Monday, September 19, is International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Check out the official website for more details. Arrrrr!

I'm reading a book by Stephen King! As you probably know by now, Gentle Reader, I do not ordinarily read books by Stephen King. They scare me. I don't enjoy being scared, except by vampires, Alfred Hitchcock, or M. Night Shyamalan. Or Vincent Price. Or Christopher Lee. Or Edgar Allan Poe. Anyway, I've tried reading horror books/stories by Stephen King a couple times before, and never particularly cared for them. I've seen 5 or 6 movies based on his writings, and only really liked Secret Window and The Green Mile.

But I'm really enjoying this book! What is it? On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. He's got this great sense of humor, and his quirky musings on his childhood have really captured my attention (I'm only about 50 pages into it so far). I got it out of the library because Noumenon sent me a link to a couple pages from it on Amazon.com, in which King discussed dialogue, which is something I really focus on in my own writing.

It will be worth reading this book, for me, if only for this little section about watching mainstream movies in the 1950's and 1960's, found on page 45:

"They were boringly wholesome. They were predictable. During The Parent Trap, I kept hoping Hayley Mills would run into Vic Morrow from The Blackboard Jungle. That would have livened things up a little, by God. I felt that one look at Vic's switchblade knife and gimlet gaze would have put Hayley's piddling domestic problems in some kind of reasonable perspective."

Love it! Altho I really like The Parent Trap, the idea of pitting the bubbly blonde twins up against that menacing hood Artie West is deliciously intriguing...

Must gush for a moment about the sweetness of Cowboy! I got home this morning from work, and he announced he got me a present. Guess what he got me? My very own 1-year subscription to Writer's Digest!!! I buy it every few months, maybe 4 times a year or so, when an article catches my interest in the grocery store and I don't want to just surreptitiously read it and then put the magazine back.

Well, Cowboy decided it would be cheaper just to get a year's subscription than have me buy them at the stand now and then. Isn't he sweet? Okay, yeah, sure, he's cheap...but sweet too!