In interesting news, 2 of my guy friends have already jumped on the WriMo bandwagon, referencing their own version of my yearly hell challenge. My very favorite and only white friend (real friend, not white people we talk to because we have to) - we'll call him Kenneth - is renting out a nice place in Joshua Tree for a month to catch up on his Ph.D. work. I call it PhiDisWriMo.
You try typing with a band aid over your second-degree burn while coughing incessantly from the worst cold you've had in years.
Okay, time to eat lunch so I can figure out how to return my library books that are due today and then how I can catch up with my NaNoWriMo secret word count competitor who pulled ahead of me during my 3 days of infirmity. God save the screen!
Whew! I finally broke 5 digits in NaNoWriMo last night.
This year, my second and NaNo's 10th, started with a lot of setbacks. I erroneously signed up for a short story class and writing for that distracted me from starting NaNo on time. The workshop leader turned out to have quite a bit of maturing to do regarding her teaching pedagogy and self-management skills (note to self - no more signing up for classes that encourage drinking wine during class - damn midwest white people can't even get through teaching a 2-hour workshop without alcohol). Definitely not worth trying to get to Los Feliz from the west side without a car. Yup, I'm still rocking L.A. without a car. Or not rocking it, rather.
Controlling my hypo was difficult as well. On top of that, my paying job as a freelance writer/editor suddenly flipped into busy season. And my glasses hurt my eyes.
Then I got sick last week. Sniffling, headachingly sick.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
So I started NaNo with a 4-day delay. I even only started because the elections put a swell of good energy into the country and I rode that wave of euphoria into sophomore novel-writing land.
This year's novel is in the fantasy genre and is told in first-person. (For now.)
Due to a horrific eye doctor experience (yes I will yelp about this one day) earlier this year after my ex H sat on my glasses and then took me to Costco to get new ones (do NOT do this), I have been wearing the wrong prescription with astigmatism that I actually do NOT have for about six months now and lately it's been giving me headaches so bad that I lay in bed nauseous and scream at my new boyfriend, even though he's the angel who brought me to a REAL eye doctor that found out my actual problem.
I'm getting new glasses this weekend (hopefully) and then I can begin obsessively blogging again.
Aesop's message: go to the eye doctor - a real eye doctor - regularly!
Last night in Monterey Park, little Taiwan/Hong Kong for those not in the know, we had dinner and saw on live TV cops beating a protester on Hollywood and Highland:
Minute 6:44
I heard three young guys next to us say, carelessly, "What's that? Proposition 8? Did it pass?"
"Yeah, it passed."
"We're yes on it, right? We say no to gays?"
"Yeah."
Then they sat down and took out their PSP's and played each other at the table for the next hour. Four more boys joined them and took out their PSP's.
It took all I had not to sit down with them and say, "Are you religious? Is that what it is? Because I can't understand what gay marriage has to do with you."
I turned to Jifo and asked him instead, "Is it that Asian males feel emasculated in white culture and need to be overly homophobic? Because I seriously have a hard time believing that Asians are more homophobic than white people."
"Sheep," he said, "they remind me of my cousin." He thought they were religious due to the lemming-like way they spoke of issues.
It's true. The combination of Asian non-questioning of authority with imported white Christianity forms a lobotomic effect on our youth. I watched them staring at their video consoles, adding so much to society.
"Really proud of our race," I said to Jifo. We sighed.
Prop 8 is trying to take away rights from committed gay couples.
It is NOT about teaching gay behavior in schools to children, who have plenty of time to discover it for themselves. This is another misinformation campaign by our friends on the right, who by the way - for all the working class Mexicans in San Gabriel Valley who have been misled by this campaign - are rich white folk who could give two snits about you or I.
52 Faces is voting NO on Prop 8. No more ridiculousness.
