Okay, so you may have been following me (@DWongster) on Twitter and seen my updates about my progress on National Novel Writing Month, or maybe you read my earlier posts, but here I am, at the other end of November, and I can say proudly that yes, I wrote my 50,000 word “novel”. I did it!
That said, the novel is still no where near finished, not even close.
But it doesn’t matter, because you know why?
At the beginning of November, I had zero words — well, actually a handful, just some plot ideas written down with a friend a long time ago. If I had not participated, I would still have that handful of words, black toner on aging letter sized paper.
Instead, now I have 50,239 words. And counting.
How much of that will be thrown away? I don’t know, maybe half.
So how does it feel?
It feels GREAT!
Lessons Learned from NaNoWriMo
I can take away from my experience writing for 29 consecutive days:
It takes discipline to write a novel – just like any activity you deem worthwhile, enjoyable, or want to get good at or achieve — whether it’s taking great photos, getting good at golf, drawing/painting, dancing, or writing — you gotta be doing it regularly. The ultimate discipline is the daily practice. I found that with the daily requirement of 1667 words, I had to push through even during those times when I felt like I’d rather be doing something else. Seriously, there were times when I had only written 200 words over the span of 7-8 hours, and I’d still be sitting in front of the computer after the kids have all been put to bed, wondering what now? What happens next? Then maybe I’d go take a shower then, and then it hits me mid-lather! So after the shower, I’d bang out 1200 words. The writing comes in spurts, sometimes fast and furious, sometimes just a trickle.
It takes inspiration to write a novel – while I’m on the subject of pushing through, what really helped me was reading about writing tips by authors Justine Larbalestier and Scott Westerfield. I also enjoyed tremendously the pep talks that were emailed at strategic times by NaNoWriMo.org, talks that came from authors who knew all the trials and tribulations one experiences in the journey to novelhood.
It takes being prepared to write a novel – one thing about writing a story is that I can be out on errands and plot ideas would come. The trick is to have a little notebook (paper, iPhone, or whatever) that I can jot down these ideas before I forget them.
It takes time to write a novel – you and I both know that. Okay, so there’s something called work that pays the bills, there’s the daily kid duties, house duties, oh, and things that just come up, and something else…oh, right, sleep? Ha! Ha! Well, I think being a freelancer does help a bit, and really the biggest sacrifice I made was to stop surfing the web so much, and give up an hour or two of sleep a night.
Top Tips & Tricks that Helped me Win NaNoWriMo
So you probably already knows what it takes to write a novel, and what I just said is preaching to the choir. Heck, even I knew that before I ventured forth.
But why didn’t I write it until now?
I was always just…scared.
Scared of what? I DON’T KNOW!
Of the amount of work it would take, the time, and the effort, I suppose. I had my established daily routine, and starting a novel seemed as difficult as trying to change the course of a massive cruise ship. With a dingy.
Anyway, if you’re still interested in ever writing your own novel, here are the tricks and tips that helped me to win NaNoWriMo:
Do some Pre-planning – for me, having a story that’s been stewing for 16+ years may have helped, although admittedly, I changed the story drastically once I got started. However, pre-planning did mean that I had a cast of characters with names and short description (anything helps, really — height, weight, skills, etc., more on this later)
Setting a target Word Count – for NaNoWriMo, 50,000 words in 30 days works out to be approximately 1667 words a day. What I found was if I missed a significant portion one particular day, the next day is soooo much harder. So, set a realistic word count goal and stick to it. In fact, I knew I wanted to finish at least a day early — what if there was a power outage and I couldn’t upload the novel on the final day — horror! So what I did about halfway through was up my daily word count goal to 1800. That really helped to create a cushion. This kind of discipline is similar to investing in your IRA or 401K using an automatic monthly debit from your bank account. You just get used to it, and things happen! So, setting maybe 500 or 1000 words a day might be the realistic option.
Getting Unstuck Tip #1: Write Dialogue – writer’s block is inevitable, so one technique that I used quite a few times was to start a scene having the characters talk to one another. Before I knew it, I’d bang out 800 words.
Getting Unstuck Tip #2: Do an Interview – I have about three or four mock interviews that I did with each character, and I would write it all down. For instance, have your characters answer questions (that you write down as well), such as, “What was your childhood like? I hear you want to take over the world, could you tell us about that? You seem to hang out with so-and-so a lot, is there something going on between the two of you?” It was a lot of fun, and these interviews easily took 800-1000 words apiece.
Getting Unstuck Tip #3: Do a Cribs video – like the TV show, write a description of how the venue’s occupant would show and describe his or her “crib” — similar to the Interview, this gets you going on the descriptions of places: furniture, details, colors, smells, etc.
Tell People About It – in line with the NaNoWriMo philosophy that a writer may write alone, but he or she doesn’t have to be lonely. Get some friends to join you in writing — if you’ve got some so inclined. Also, announce your goal on Facebook, Twitter or your blog (I did all three). Most people were surprised at what I was doing, but all the comments I received were positive (Keep going! Way to go! Awesome!, etc.). Part of you gets inspired to continue, and part of you don’t want to “fail”.
There is No Fail - I was pretty darn sure I would make the 50,000, but even if I hadn’t it would have been okay, too. The point was to use NaNoWriMo as the kick in the ass to get going on something that I’ve often thought about. You know, something along the lines of, “Some day, I’m going to <fill in your dream project/goal>”
This is my Zero-eth Draft – I was also of the mindset that whatever I write will not even be my first draft — it would be my zero-eth draft. Having that philosophy also took off the pressure that everything must be first draft-worthy, whatever that meant.
Pep Talks from Real Writers
Oh, and last but not least, I thoroughly enjoyed the Pep Talks from NaNoWriMo – which, during the month of NaNoWriMo, strategically sends out oh-so-delectably-timely pep talk posts by actual writers. I also did my share of keeping tabs on Twitter the #NaNoWriMo tag and from there I found a bunch of great blog posts from writers, whose tips I also incorporated when appropriate or needed. Here are a few faves:
Well, one thing is I still need to finish this zero-eth draft. And the other major thing would be to start editing it, and make it to first draft land! I’m certainly not going to go the breakneck speed that was NaNoWriMo, AND I’m going to take a much needed break.
The most important thing, though, is that I have some momentum going now, knowing that within the vast landscape of wordage I created in the last month is a novel — hopefully a good one — and I’m quite a few steps closer to it than I was back on November 1.
You Can Do It!
Hopefully, you’ll find some of the above helpful in your writing projects. But the thing is, take out the word “write a novel” and replace it with whatever your dream project/goal is, and make a go of it! You can do it!
It’s based on the idea that electricity can be converted to a magnetic field that vibrates at a certain frequency. Anything that contains a corresponding electronics can be brought into that field, which causes that objects circuitry to also resonate with a matching magnetic field, which is then converted back into electricity.
Thus, electricity is sent wirelessly.
And apparently, it’s quite safe.
Of course, we’ve seen something similar in the Sonicare electric toothbrush, which has been out for quite a while, plus the Palm Pre recharges in a similar fashion. However, this new technology focuses on having a greater distance between the charging source and the chargee device.
I’m pleased to announce a recent revamp of DownHomeBluesFestival.com
Down Home Blues Festival is an annual workshop dedicated to blues dancing, and is sponsored by the Northern California Lindy Society.
Here’s the final look:
Here’s the before image:
The Initial Problem
Two things jumped out at me with the old site:
It took up a fixed amount of space – with today’s monitors favoring the widescreen format, and coming in various sizes, including large, larger and Ginormica!, we really were not utilizing monitor real estate efficiently.
It took a long time to update – The Down Home Blues Festival has been taking place every year, and it’s always taken a bit more time than I’d like to update the site with that particular year’s information partly because I was always “manually” updating and formatting each page as needed.
In addition, there are many pieces of the site revamp to wait for: logo design, updated biographies, schedules, dances, etc. And often times, I prefer to blast through a sizeable update in one sitting, instead of doing it piecemeal.
Of course, because a workshop of this magnitude requires a lot of coordination on the organizer’s part, there is inevitably a wait. Understandably so.
Still, I wanted to find a solution that would eventually make updating the site a more pleasurable experience for all involved: the organizers, me the webmaster, and ultimately, the dancers who are visiting the site to register for the workshop.
Solution
What I finally decided was to install Wordpress, and to use that as the main CMS (Content Managemen System). More and more sites are using Wordpress on their backend, including this one, and some sites, in fact, do not even look like blogs.
In any case, once I decided on that route, the next step was to create an updated logo.
Here’s the old one:
I did not have access to the original design file, so what I did was us Photoshop to trace the house with the path tool and then added in the new text, utilizing my own design sensibilities from my Graphic Communications days in my early college “career”.
The result is this:
I reduced the height of the logo to decrease the amount of header real estate that would be taken up.
After the logo was done, then it was a matter of created the pages and populating them with the appropriate content.
There you have it — a quick and dirty run-down on a “simple” website revamp.
Well, not quite. At last count, there were some 30,000+ apps in Apple’s App Store. It’s getting to the point where there are almost too many choices — I mean, how many of you have bought an app that’s now relegated to the last page, or even *GASP* removed? *RAISES HAND*
Well, never fear, DWongster’s here to help.
The following are apps that I actually use on my iPod Touch on a regular basis. Most of these apps are ones I’ve had for a while now. What I’ve found are certain apps “bubble up” to my “top screen” — the first or second page.
I’ll state my estimated frequency of use, how I use the app, and some final thoughts.
DWongster’s Top built-in iPhone/iPod Touch Apps:
I should note that the iPhone/iPod Touch already comes with a great set of built-in apps — they obviously contribute greatly to the device’s popularity.
Safari – everyday – I actually use the browser primarily for email, specifically Gmail. I also recently started using Gmail’s Tasks. All of the Gmail apps have been optimized for the iPhone/iPod Touch, and look great (for Gmail). If I really want to surf the web, then I fire up my Mac.
Calendar – everyday – I have Gmail Calendar sync’ed with my Mac’s iCal, and from there my iPod Touch, so I can enter or edit events at any location and have everything sync up. I really enjoy the user-interface on the iPod Touch Calendar. The one improvement I’d like is the ability to jump to any date (say a year or more in either direction — hard to do right now via scroll-swiping).
Contacts – 2 or 3 times a week – Interface is great for entering contact info. I love how touching an address will automatically access Google Maps. All that’s needed is a “back” button from Google Maps to go back into my Contacts where I left it.
Clock – everyday – I must say I’ve never been happier with the built in Alarm feature. You can easily set multiple alarms, choose from a large variety of alarm sounds, etc. The World Clock is great to know when international friends are (or should be) awake, and I use the Timer for various cooking tasks. Truly useful.
Remote – for parties – (not built-in–it should be, though, but a Free Download from Apple) It’s great to be able to access my iTunes music library from anywhere in the house.
DWongster’s Top Tracking Apps (Lists):
Grocery IQ – few times a week – This app allows you to add items to a shopping list. It’s got predictive typing — start typing the first few letters and you get a list of possible guesses, plus it’s easy to add items. In additional to the shopping List, there’s Favorites, History and Aisles (which I don’t use; I know where my products are). User-interface is pretty good: as you shop, you can tick off the items.
Gas Cubby – every fill-up – Awesome app that allows you to keep track of gas fill-ups and any service you have done to your car. My favorite is seeing my gas mileage at a glance. The UI is great: enter odometer reading, two out of three and the third is automatically calculated (Gallons, Cost/Gallon, Total Cost). Options include Payment type, Location, gas brand and quality (87, 89, 90+ or Diesel), tracking multiple cars, and cool graphs showing your mileage, cost per gallon, total gas expenses, automatically accessible by turning your device to landscape mode. The one feature I’d like to see is the ability to download or email the info, say for tax records. Update: The developer just tweeted me, informing me that the export (email) feature is available via tapping on the Search key, then the email icon shows up on the upper right. Cool! And kudos for their near instantaneous support!
DWongster’s Top Social Media Apps:
Tweetie – everyday – awesome app for using Twitter with a very intuitive interface for lots of Twitter-related tasks
Retweet – everyday – great app for keeping tabs on what’s popular on Twitter, specifically what people are “retweeting”. Can be set to see what’s popular from the last 30 minutes, 3 hours, 12 or 24 hours
Facebook – every 2-3 days – I normally log on via web browser, but this free app will let you access your FB account. Interface is pretty good.
Byline – everyday – this is my preferred RSS reader. It accesses my Gmail Reader account and presents my feeds in an easy to use manner. I can very quickly scan through the hundreds of posts I get daily, reading only the ones that interest me with its built in browser. The interface allows you to go right back to the reader feed. One downside: it does crash once in a while — perhaps once a week.
DWongster’s “Justs for Fun” Apps:
There are times when you’re just waiting for other people, and so here are some cool, fun apps that are interesting, and don’t take up a lot of time. So while I don’t use these everyday, I do use them when I have minutes to kill.
Rolando – a “platform” game if you need to describe it to someone, but it’s really more than that. It’s cute and quirky, with a cool soundtrack, fun premise, and awesome use of the touch interface and accelerometer. Gameplay can be as long or short as you want, as there’s autosave, plus the design of the game is such that even if don’t replay it for a long time, you can jump right in where you left off without skipping a beat. Highly recommended!
Sway – another platform game with a very good user interface. Much like Rolando, you can jump in and out of playing the game, for as little or as long as you want. This was a recent addition, so I have not played a lot, but it’s definitely fun!
Stanza – here’s a great app for downloading and reading ebooks in the public domain — and there are tons of books: Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, Swiss Family Robinson are some I’ve downloaded. Plus, a recent update now allows you to purchase ebook versions of today’s books as well. Interface is really good, with the ability to change font styles and sizes, portrait or landscape mode, and much more.
Crosswords – a great crossword app with a terrific interface. Included are Clues and Hints (ability to reveal a single letter or entire word, or just show errors). The best part is the ability to download free crosswords from various publishers.
7 Chords – a guitar chord tabulature studying aid. I’m a rank beginner very too little time, but with this app you can check out any chord, and in that chord a bunch of variations. The inteface cleverly uses gesture swiping and a scroll wheel. You can even hear the chord played out in successful single notes by tapping.
So there you have it — my top 16 apps for the iPhone/iPod Touch. They could all fit on the first screen.
Of course, I have a bunch more, but if you’re either new to the device, or just want something that will not be relegated to page 8, check out some of the apps I mentioned.
Do you have any favorite apps you think I should check out?
Today, Wacom introduced their newest line of pen tablets, the Intuos 4.
I currently use the Intuos 3, which I’m very happy with.
The Intuos 4 sounds like some extra tweaks to the user-interface, plus a pen with double the sensitivity.
What I’d like to see is a new Cintiq model that incorporates the Apple’s latest multi-touch functionality.
Imagine using your off-hand to swipe, pinch or squeeze the image you’re working on, while your pen-hand does its thing, all while looking right at the tablet! Wouldn’t that be cool?
Anyway, one can dream.
In the meantime, this would probably be a good time to get a pen tablet if you’ve always wanted one. Either get a new Intuos 4, or find a discounted Intuos 3 as those are (probably) discontinued.
In an interesting post here, author Tom Arah argues that because more and more new (and revamped) sites are blogs or other CMS (Content Management System) like Drupal, then applications like Dreamweaver are needed less and less.
How we manage content
In the end, content is king, as the saying goes, and blogs and CMS allow for the easiest way to manage content: easy to expand, to add, to make searchable — all done by the content provider.
I certainly think that this is true. Many of the “pre 2.0″ sites are simply adding a blog component to them, such as Wordpress. I still do use Dreamweaver CS4 myself, but at the same time, more and more I find myself editing the CSS of a blog template.
Of course, even THIS site use to be static HTML.
What Does this Mean?
What this means is that more and more, people will be focusing on content: creating and editing content, getting it online to blogs, social media sites like Flickr, YouTube or Facebook.
I think it’s safe to say that as the web gets more crowded with content, there will probably be new, innovative ways to find, aggregate and make sense of all that content.
I still remember the date the iPhone came out — June 29, 2007.
I only remember this because I photographed a wedding the next day, and a few of the guests already had the shiny new toys in their hands, including one at the table I was seated at.
It was sooooo cool.
I’m Not an Early Adopter
At least, not if I could help it. With technology, version 1.0 always, always have things that can be improved upon, bugs to be worked out, features as yet perhaps not up to their full potential, etc., etc.
Sure enough, soon came software updates, and then the iPod Touch.
“Cool, I thought. That might be worth getting.”
Reasons One Would Choose the iPod Touch over the iPhone
I already had a more than serviceable cell-phone
I only use the phone for talking – no games, no camera(!), no text messaging
I find I check my iPod Touch’s iCal and Contacts often when I’m speaking on my cell phone to clients, so having the phone separate made sense for me
I did not want to pay what is thus far an exorbitant amount of money for the iPhone’s monthly fees
iPod Touch 2nd Generation
In the fall of 2008, the 2nd generation of the iPod Touch came out, and I went into action, buying the 32 GB model.
Love, love, love the Interface!
To me, that is the single most important feature of the entire iPhone/iPod Touch experience — the interface!
Here’s why:
No more stuck keys – my very first cellphone, a Sprint model, developed a nonfunctional “5″ key, which meant I couldn’t call a number of people unless they happened to be in my speed-dial! At that point, I HAD to get a new phone. That’s not the case with the iPod Touch: no physical buttons to wear out!
Intuitive – the touch interface, pinching, swiping and other gesture movements all contribute to many of the Apps’ intuitive user experience.
Updatability – the fact that the Apps can be (and are) regularly updated makes spending money for them worth while, knowing you won’t be “stuck” with a non-supported piece of software.
App Store – speaking of money, I’ve never ever spent a dime for any added service or “games” on my old cellphones. However, as I’m sure the folks at Apple are happy about, I have purchased quite a few Apps for my iPod Touch. Reviews are aplenty, and purchasing and downloading the Apps couldn’t be easier.
Lower Obsolescence Factor
Unlike computers, the interface allows the device to be less likely to be obsolesced as easily as normal phones/music/pda device. In fact, while Apple just announced their revamped line-up of Mac computers today, I am sure they are busy working on the next iteration of the iPhone/iPod Touch.
But guess what, the other cool thing about the iPhone/iPod Touch is that Apple can make further improvements, add new features and such to the software, and we can just update our existing device with a new version of the software.
And even when newer models are introduced that have speedier processors or improved camera (which I hope will be added to the iPod Touch), we can still use the older model or get a new one (if something really cool is added — see below), while passing the older one to someone else, someone who’ll definitely not mind getting a “hand me down” device of the iPod Touch’s caliber.
What are some improvements I’d like to see?
I actually have little complaints, but the ones that jump out at me are:
Add a camera to the iPod Touch – I’d love to not have to carry both devices
Add GPS functionality – imagine the iPod Touch working just like a Garmin or TomTom, but with Apple’s flair for form and function
Add Bluetooth so that I can use a wireless speaker or headphones
After 6 Months
Now it’s March, about 6 months since I bought my iPod Touch. I’ve bought, downloaded, tried and use a large number of Apps. In a future post, I will talk about some of my favorite Apps.
In the meantime, however, I will say that Apple is right: It IS the funnest iPod ever.
Let me begin with a brief run-down of my own history with computers:
Radio Shack TRS-80 “Trash 80″ – first exposure in middle school
Commodore 64 – our family’s first computer
Macintosh SE – saw a friend’s Mac, with MacPaint and MacWrite. MacPaint was THE app I loved, being a fledgling artist
Amiga – my uncle bought one of these, and I fell in love with DeluxePaint — it was just like the Mac, but in color!
Atari ST – another friend had one of these, and I spent many hours over at his house, playing SunDog and Empire. Eventually, when I got my first job, I purchased my own ST.
PC’s – at work, I saw the transition from MS-DOS (green text on black field) to Windows 3.0 and 3.1. It was actually quite exciting, seeing new PC’s arriving in big cartons from the likes of Compaq (if I recall correctly). Here was the user-interface that was similar to the Mac and ST, little did I realize that Microsoft was planning to “take over the world”.
Unix – when I worked at PDI, I was exposed to the Unix operating system and
Years went by. PC’s did take over the world. And Macs were relegated to artsy folks with technical inclinations–including several of my friends. So, whenever I visited them, a good chunk of time was spent checking out what they had running on the Mac.
The Tipping Point – when I decided to switch
Fast forward to a few years ago, when Apple announced they were going to switch to Intel processors. Here was news worth salivating over. Soon, we found out we can even run Windows on the Mac under Bootcamp or virtual server via Fusion or Parallels.
After that, I bided my time, saved some money, and voila — bought my Mac Pro desktop in late 2007.
I haven’t looked back since.
The Mac Experience
I will admit that after a year and a half of using it, that the Mac does have its share of issues at times, but certainly no where as aggravating as dealing with a PC.
Here are some thoughts:
Stability – OS X 10.4 and 10.5 are rock solid. I would never leave my PCs on for extended periods of time, much less put them to “hibernate” — they usually never woke up. Now, I am in the habit of putting my Mac to sleep if I’m going to be away from my desk for short periods of time. (I’ll still shut it off completely to do my share to go “green” when I’m away longer, or go to bed).
Useful Apps – OS X comes with full-featured useful applications such as Mail, iCal, iPhoto, iDVD and Safari. I’ll admit, though, that I do use Firefox and Gmail instead of the Mac equivalents, but I get to sync my gmail calendar with iCal, iPhoto’s great, and making and burning slideshows with iDVD is much easier than on a PC. In a future post, I’ll talk about my favorite 3rd party applications.
Booting off an external drive – For me, here’s where the real “meat and potatoes” — the best reason to use a Mac. As with Windows, we have to install third party applications. That can take hours, if you add up all the time spent inserting discs and waiting, etc. One time, my Mac failed to reboot after an Apple software update — it happens, even with Macs, which is why I have a back up of my boot disc. I shudder at what I would have had to do on a Windows machine, but with the Mac, after powering down, I plugged in my Firewire external Seagate drive, rebooted while holding down the Option key. It then displays a screen asking where I would like to boot from. I select the external drive, and moments later, I’m in! At that point, all I had to do was run the back-up software and copy the contents of the external drive back onto the internal boot drive. Total time required: 1.5 – 2 hours. Now, I’m sure there must be ways to do this with a Windows machine (ghosting a disc image, or something like that), but with the Mac, it’s just so much easier.
Conclusion: More Time
There are only so many hours in a day, and for me, making the switch to the Mac was one of the best things I did for my business and my personal life. I know there will be occasional bumps in the road — for instance, I purchased Quickbooks 2009 for the Mac, but it’s still not as good as my old Quickbooks 2006 which I run on Windows under Fusion — but so far the ride has been pretty smooth and enjoyable.
If you’ve made the switch, feel free to share your thoughts.
Okay, so you may have been following me (@DWongster) on Twitter and seen my updates about my progress on National Novel Writing Month, or maybe you read my earlier posts, but here I am, at the other end of November, and I can say proudly that yes, I wrote my 50,000 word “novel”. I did it!
