30k, Behind Schedule

I've been lax the past few days on my writing. I fell behind schedule for the first time all month. Now, late on Sunday, I've reached 30,000 words, which I meant to reach on Friday. Here are the paragraphs about the witchy Mongana which took me over the 30k mark:

“Oh my,” said the blonde maiden. “Your hair is very black!”

“And yours is quite golden,” replied Mongana.

The pale goddess stepped into the water beside the maiden and stood close. The blonde girl did not flinch, but stood firm and gazed into Mongana’s dark eyes.

Apathy

Whatever...

20,000 Words!

I'm now over 2/5 through my goal of 50,000 words in my novel for November. Only slightly behind schedule, too. Here is the section which put me over the 20k milestone:

“It’s a wonderful day,” said Íkmí. “Is it not?”

Her two sisters were too busy combing their hair to reply.

Íkmí did not mind, for she was enjoying the warmth of Hahumí upon her skin from head to toe. The river water glistened upon her body, sparkling like a thousand jewels. Íkmí smiled tranquilly as the sun embraced her.

“Eeek!” shouted her sisters. “A snake!”

Happy Mirror New Year!

11-10-10 --> 01-01-11 !!!

10,000 Words!

I have reached 10,000 words this week, this month. I am approximately one-fifth of the way done with my grand story, Chronicle of the Universe.

Here are the paragraphs that put me over the milestone:

Kíngtíní, old daughter of the great mother Anuhut, floated away from Nınom, disappearing from his sight. She walked through the village, none of the folk wise to Her presense. They acted as if She were not among them, for they could not see Her.

The Old Crone searched for a man named Manguhıng. Manguhıng was an old man and a rich man. He had amassed great wealth and was the richest man in the village, by far. Manguhıng had a flock of eighty-one sheep, all healthy and strong.

Eat Up!

Today is the Feast Day of Nokí, Goddess of Food!

As such, this morning I ate two breakfasts.

Nanowrimo!

Hooray! November's here, which means it's National Novel Writing Month!

I'm 300 words into a 50,000-word novel. Good start, right?

I last participated in 2004, back in the days when I had few responsibilities...

Happy Feast of Rékaré!

Rékaré is the strongest, most skilled, most loyal, and most loving god in the universe. May He always protect us!

Blog?

It's official. Mamurd has taken over the blogging duties for the family...

Never Forget Columbo Day!

RIMMER: You can scoff, Lister. That's nothing new. They laughed at
Galileo. They laughed at Edison. They laughed at Columbo.
LISTER: Who's Columbo?
RIMMER: The man with the dirty mac who discovered America.

- "Waiting for God," Red Dwarf

Demise of the WAC

WAC, huh
Good God y'all
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Say it again

WAC, whoa, Lord
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me

Did you know that the Western Athletic Conference will be down to six schools in a couple years? There's a distinct possibility that it may dissolve and disappear. Kinda sad, really, for a conference that's been around since 1958 and had 24 members (but not all at the same time).

The charter members were, of course, BYU, Utah, Arizona, Arizona State, New Mexico, and Wyoming. The Arizona schools left in 1978 and the rest in 1999.

From six schools to eight to seven to eight to nine, where it held for twelve years, then to ten and to sixteen for three years, then to eight to nine to to ten to nine, and soon to eight and then six: Hawaii (since 1979), San Jose (since 1996), Lousiana Tech (2001), Idaho (2005), New Mexico State (2005), and Utah State (2005).

Maybe they should disband an all join the Big Sky Conference...

Beijing, part 20: Goodbye, China

Time to finish packing. Time to leave China. Time to go back to work.

We needed three more suitcases... Chunyu found a couple old suitcases for us to use. We got everything packed away.

On the way to the airport, we stopped briefly for Chunlin to get a haircut touch-up, for Chunyu to buy us some donkey sandwiches, and back home to get the couple things for Jason that we forgot. Onto the expressway and airport-bound.

Jason was waiting at the airport. Chunlin and I took the luggage in and got our boarding passes, then went back out to sit and drink tea with her brothers.

An hour before the departure time, we headed to the newstand then finally through customs and security to the gate with twenty minutes to spare. Too tight for me.

At the gate was a bus. An empty bus arrived and ours left full. We boarded the plane up the stairs in the sun. The airport was far enough outside Beijing that the air is not too smoggy.







A couple more buses after ours. A few seats empty. The door closes ten or fifteen minutes late.

Wait wait wait in line to take off.

Finally in the air. Zai jian, Beijing. I spotted Pangu Plaza in the haze. Chunlin had the window seat. She spotted the Great Wall. Our seats were over th wing, so it was hard to see down.

The map function on the seatbacks wasn't functioning.

Still over China so it's six p.m. Still sunny on the northwest side of the plane. We closed the blinds because it was too hot, not because of the grumpy sleepers in the middle seats. It was still daytime! Wear an eye mask if you want darkness. I'd suggest earplugs, too...

The sunset turned into a sunrise, Venus disappeared into the haze, the clock changed to Tuesday and back to Monday, and then the San Juans were in sight. Back in the U.S. of A.

Coming in for a *yawn* landing.



Home sweet home. It's kinda cold here...

Beijing, part 19: Shopping, etc.

One morning, Chunyu, Yüfang, Chunlin, and I went to a pharmacy. Down Chaoyang Bei Lu all the way into town -- almost to the Third Ring Road.

Shelves and shelves of Chinese medicine.

The labels on the cupboards were helpfully in English, too.



Almost English, that is.

The pharmacy had a scale. With shoes, etc., I weighed 207 lbs. My backpack that I'd been carrying every day weighed 13 lbs.

We next went to a clinic for Chunlin's shoulder and back problems. I hoped they could help, but I guessed they'd have the same efficacy as the chiropracter.

Red buckets hanging on the wall near the indoor fountain -- fire extinguishers?

Banners on the medical clinic's walls are the equivilant of certificates in frames in clinics back home. All I could read were the dates. The "0" zero has almost completely replaced the complex "ling" character (which means zero), even on these fancy banners -- completely replaced it on posters, etc. "Arabic" numerals have almost replaced Chinese numerals, in general. Chinese practacality -- use the simpler character that means the exact same thing.







A couple days later, Jason took us along with Shannon and Apple to the mega souvenir store for last-day purchases. First, though, we stopped at the shopping mall for mango smoothies and other desserts. This was in the embassy district. Tons of foreigners from all over the world.







We bought an abacus for Dad, a dragon mask for me, stuffed animals on a string for Mom (and Chunlin's boss), a silk shirt for Christina.



Out of curiosity, I asked a tshirt vendor her price for an "I Climbed the Great Wall." 80 yuan, she said. I told her the asking price on the wall the previous day had been 40 yuan, but we had talked that vendor down to 20. This tshirt vendor quickly dropped her price to 15 yuan, but I wasn't really interested. I already had one! "Why you ask me price if you don't want?" "Sorry! Sorry!" Ah. Silly American.





The next morning, our last day in China, Chunyu took us into Tongzhou (the satellite town near their home) to a big supermarket. We bought lots of candy.

Across the store, a fight broke out between a store clerk and a customer. The two women were grabbing at each other and throwing punches, screaming all the while. What was that about???