The SoapBoxers

The writing frenzy continues.  If you are participating in the National Novel Writing Month, we have entered the second week.  You should be at about 13,000 words.  I have fallen pretty far behind having just crested 6,000 words.  The goal is to write as much as possible, getting to the 50,000 word count by the end of November is the challenge.

If you did start writing on November first, you should be well into your story.  Even if you do not have a full outline, try to capture at least some interesting event.  If events are eluding you, try some descriptive paragraphs.  Describe one of you characters, what he wears, what her physical characteristics are, what his dream are, what she is feeling.  Short on characters?  Describe the location, the surroundings, from weather to decorations, anything to put some body behind the story.

My current effort is a science fiction story.  I just have chunks of stuff.  I have done some character development for a few of my characters.  I have described the space ship in petty good detail.  I have even done some premonition work, describing what their goal is.  I still do not have a complete outline.  I have a couple of climaxes sketched out, but no conclusion.

As I commented last week, it is hard to set aside time to write.  My Saturday was taken up helping a friend reroof his garage.  Weeknights are taken up with helping my kids with homework, housework and paying attention to my wife.  I am pretty excited about writing at the 50% rate that I have accomplished.  I hope that some of our readers are doing better.

If you are just writing down any ideas you have, you can get a lot written.  I can capture between 500 and 800 words an hour.  That is words that make any sense at all.  So two hours a night should be all I need to put aside.  My problem is that I want to concentrate on this one story, and I just can not seem to get two hours to write.  Tonight (Sunday) I have a chance.  I am writing this article first, then back to writing the novel.  I would love to be able to report that I have completed the challenge again when we get to November 30^th, but again, my goal is to write and encourage you to write.

Today’s fiction story focuses on, of course, politics 🙂  This will likely be the last political thing I write for a while.  This isn’t intended to be anti-GOP propaganda, it’s just that the inspiration was Lisa Murkowski’s Senate bid in Alaska.

On the day after her loss in the primary, the incumbent Senator announced that she would be remaining in the race as a write-in candidate. Josephine Havlicek was a moderate Republican who had come up short in the primary against a candidate with more conservative views.

“She is defying the will of the people,” declared F. George Rinaldi as he met for coffee with a colleague later in the day.

“Indeed, she must be stopped,” agreed Chad Gronstal, another heavy hitter in the party. “The Havlicek era has come to an end, and she must move aside to make way for the ascent of Bradley Jericho. She’s simply too liberal for our party.”

“Can she pull it off?” Rinaldi wondered aloud. “Can she buck the odds and win a Senate seat as a write-in candidate?”

“Write-in campaigns are a bit tricky. A lot of people just have the tendency to fill an oval and move on – they aren’t willing to take an extra minute to write in a name.”

“But she’s the incumbent,” countered Rinaldi. “She has some momentum on her side.”

“Indeed she does,” agreed Gronstal. “But we have a few tricks up our sleeves as well.”

Throughout October, polls showed Josephine Havlicek running solidly ahead of the official Republican candidate Jericho, with Democrat Sarah Brown trailing far behind. It seemed that the incumbent’s popularity was going to allow her to cruise to an easy victory.

On the last day to register as a write-in candidate, just a week before the election, Senator Josephine Havlicek was joined on the ballot by Josephine Havlichek, a retired schoolteacher. She had registered at the request of a certain Mr. Rinaldi, who offered her a small sum of money in exchange for this patriotic act.

In the last week before the election, ads supporting Josephine Havlichek – the schoolteacher – were all over the television, and yard signs were popping up on every street corner.

“What do you think,” asked Gronstal, as he and Rinadli grabbed a beer the night before the election.

“I think we may have stolen the ball from Havlicek. Our gal should be able to siphon off enough votes to allow Jericho to surpass the Senator’s vote total.”

A funny thing happened to Bradley Jericho on the way to his coronation. He lost. The last ditch effort to cause confusion about the correct spelling of the incumbent’s name caused a surge in the number of write-in votes. When all precincts had reported in, Jericho had just 25% of the vote, the Democrat Brown a pathetic 13%, and other minor candidates 2%. 60% of the electorate had chosen to write in a candidate. Schoolteacher Havlichek would not be able to help their cause by siphoning a few votes away from the Senator – it was a lost cause. Josephine Havlicek would be returning to Washington.

A funny thing happened to Josephine Havlicek on her way back to Washington. She lost. The last minute strategy of the Republicans to thwart her bid for another term had indeed worked. She was listed on just under half the write-in ballots. Listed on more than half the ballots was Josephine Havlicheck, a little known retired schoolteacher.

A funny thing happened to F. George Rinaldi and Chad Gronstal in the aftermath of the election. Their joke candidate went a little rogue in her first press conference.

“The first thing I will do as a Senator is to work toward overturning Roe vs. Wade,” thundered the diminutive woman, to roaring applause.

“The second thing I will do as a Senator is work to repeal Brown vs. Board of Education. It is time to once again ensure that every student is educated amongst his or her peers and not intermixed into some melting pot.”

The crowd fell silent, and Chad Gronstal suddenly felt sick to his stomach. Perhaps this hadn’t been the best plan, after all.

Normally each week I just make my picks, but there is way too much to talk about in the world of football in the Republic of Texas. The Dallas Cowboys were hyped to become the first team to play in a Super Bowl in their own stadium. Guess someone forgot to tell the players. The Cowpokes have struggled mightily all year long, with the last straw being the loss of starting Quarterback Tony Romo for the year. Now John Kitna gets the privilege of facing the Giants who are known to sack qb’s about 15 times a game. Good Luck this week Cowboys.

The Longhorns are in total disarray. Now I will give all the UT fans the “scoreboard” call as my beloved Huskers got smoked at home where they played their worst game of the year. Nebraska looked inept in that game, especially in the first quarter, and the Longhorns did just enough to win that game. Problem is they have not looked like a football team since that moment in time. Horrible home losses this year to UCLA, Iowa State, and Baylor must be causing a horrible uprising in Austin. Blogs are calling for Mack Brown’s firing. Offensive Coordinator Greg Davis has a variety of “Fire Greg Davis” Blogs up and running. Even the beloved Will Muschamp would be wise to look into taking a head coaching job somewhere else as I would think he would not want any part of this hot seat … maybe back to his native state of Georgia? Perhaps to LSU where he was also an assistant coach as the natives there appear to be restless with Les Miles?

Big XII Commissioner Dan Beebe must be hating his job about now. The Commish starts the pre-season by setting an ultimatum to all the universities and in particular Missouri who was rumored to be leaving the Big XII and Nebraska … “We need to come to terms with that. We’re going to head into our meetings in Kansas City and I think we need to have a very frank conversation about where we’re going and who’s going to be on the plane when we take off.” Mr. Beebe said. “I will be very direct and talk about that with our membership and want to find out. It would be a shame, given that all boats have risen with this tide that’s been created in the Big 12, for anybody to think they’re going to have a better future somewhere else.” .

Well the Big 10 said “No Thanks” to Missouri, said “Hello” to Nebraska, and Colorado bolted to the Pac 10 Conference, which frankly is a better fit for the laissez faire attitude Buffs fans.

Nebraska took their ball and went home, effectively leaving the weaker North schools scrambling hoping the Texas … errrrrrr Big 12 conference would keep it together. So far so good, but one has to wonder with the problems of the quote “centerpiece “ football program and the “all controlling university that wears burnt orange, where does the future of the conference lie?

I think that BYU going independent may be part of the future of the Big XII. BYU has a strong following much like their counterparts of the Catholic background in South Bend. I still suspect that BYU is not a large enough of a power to pull off their own TV deals and such on their own. Getting out of their current affiliation lines them up well for a future North division team in the old Big XII. The problem is finding one more team. Wyoming? Nope, Colorado State perhaps? Maybe. Quite frankly there is not a lot to choose from.

The biggest issue might be that phone conversation taking place between two folks already mentioned in this article. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Big 12 Commish, Dan Beebe. Since the Big 12 will no longer have 12 teams, they will no longer be able to host a conference championship game. Jones had recently inked a 3 year deal to have the game at the Jerry Dome in Dallas. I would love to be a fly on the wall for this phone conversation:

Jerry: Beebster, you have GOT to get two more teams in, you signed the contract for three years, I don’t give a damn if Nebraska and Colorado left the conference, get someone else in here.

Dan: The NCCA has told us we can’t have the game unless we have twelve teams in the conference.

Jerry: I don’t care! I was going to sell 100,000 seats for each of those games and think of all the booze sales! Plus those eager fans will come through and do the tour ahead of time and we charge $20 bucks a head for that as well. You are costing me a lot of money!

Dan: Have you looked at the division one football programs in the upper Midwest? Who am I going to get? South Dakota State?

Thursday

Georgia Tech @ Virginia Tech(15.5) – Do the Hokey Pokey. Va Tech 28- GT- 14

Saturday

Maryland @ Miami (-4.5) – Is Harris out? Won’t matter. Hurrigangsters 28- Freiders Fighting Turtles – 14

Illinois @ Michigan (-1.5) – Michigan has to cover sometime. MEEEEEECHIGAN – 28- Ill 21

Baylor @ Oklahoma State (-6.5) – This could be for all the marbles in the South. OSU – 35- Baylor – 31

Washington @ Oregon (-28.5) – Oregon is good every week. Ore 56- Washington – 21

TCU (-4.5) @ Utah – Frogs defense just too much…..TCU 35- Utah 17

Nebraska (-17.5) @ Iowa State – Corn wins but Cy covers. NEB 35- Clones 21

Northwestern @ Penn State (-6.5) – JoPa gets 400. Penn St – 28- NW 21

Oklahoma (-6.5) @ Texas A&M – One week wonder for A&M last week, back to reality this week. OU – 35- A&M 14

Arkansas @ South Carolina (-3.5) – one of the better games of the week. Ark – 21- SC – 17

Oregon State (-7.5) @ UCLA – which UCLA team shows up? The one that loses…..Ore St 28- UCLA – 14

Missouri (-7.5) @ Texas Tech – Mizzou stinging after beatdown at hands of huskers. Tigers – 35- TT – 21

Alabama (-6.5) @ LSU – Roll Tide, LSU is way over-rated. Tide – 28 LSU – 13

Texas (-6.5) @ Kansas State – Why would I stop piling on the longhorns now? Mack Brown circled the wagons last week and THAT went well didn’t it. Goalposts come down in the little apple. KSU – 28- Hook em – 24

Note: this is a fictionalized account of a meeting that never occurred.  While each of The Political Observers gave some input, any accusations that their words were used out of context are most likely true.

Kosmo: Friends, Romans, countrymen … I welcome you  to the opulent Castel Kosmo.  I am gathered here tonight with The Crunchy Conservative, Zarberg, The Angry Squirrel, and Squeaky.  We are discussing the aftermath of the 2010 midterm elections, in which the Republicans gained controlled of the House in dominating fashion, while the Democrats saw their majority in the Senate reduced to perhaps a 51-49 majority.

We see Zarberg begin to unwrap a candy bar, whereupon Crunchy deftly snags it from his grasp.  Zarberg quickly grabs it back.

Zarberg: Hey, nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger.

Crunchy: Ok, whatever.  Enjoy your stupid candy bar.  At least I can bask in the joy of a conservative wave election.  Cheers, gang.

Crunchy holds up a wine glass filled with the cheap swill Kosmo can afford on his blogger’s salary.  Zarberg mutters under his breath, Squirrel throws a cashew at her, and Squeaky cracks open a bottle of New Belgium microbrew (which he brought in a cooler, being wisely untrusting of Kosmo’s choice of beverages) and returns Crunchy’s toast.

Kosmo: OK, the polls are now closed in all states except for Alaska and Hawaii, and we have a lot of things to digest.  Which decision made you happiest about the elections?

Squirrel: Well, as a progressive, I really wasn’t very pleased with much of anything during this election.  I guess perhaps the high point was Chris Coons defeating Tea Party darling Christine O’Donnell in the Delaware senate race.  There was some chatter about a Monmouth University poll released late last week that showed her cutting Coons’ lead in half – but it should have been apparent to everyone that this was just a Halloween-related surge, since Christine O’Donnell is a witch.  Witches are popular around Halloween.

Crunchy: It was a great night for me, personally.  The Republicans took control of the House, Senator Grassley was elected to another term, and Governor Branstad resumes control after a (relatively) short absence.  Wonderful to see that women are voting Republican.

Squeaky: As someone who is against medical marijuana, it was good to see the sometimes irrational voters in California send prop 19 (which would have legalized marijuana within the state, even for non-medicinal uses) down to defeat.

Zarberg: Oh, yeah.  Marijuana is so evil.  Have you read the recent British study that concluded that alcohol and tobacco are more harmful than marijuana?

Kosmo: Hey, guys, tone it down.  This is a family-friendly show.  Let’s move on.  What were some things that disappointed or surprised you the most?

Zarberg: Well, most of the evening was a disappointment.  I think we’re looking forward to at least two years of gridlock.  The country is going to struggle to return to prosperity until your average Joe has a few bucks in his pocket – tax cuts for corporations are not going to stimulate demand for their products.  On a personal note, perhaps the most disturbing thing was being approached by people with partisan pamphlets on Tuesday – three times.  I was tempted to see if they were within 500 feet of a polling place.  On election day, everyone can make informed decisions – the propaganda machine can shut down for a day.

Crunchy: While not a surprise, the O’Donnell loss in Delaware was a disappointment.  She is not, I repeat, NOT, a witch.  Harry Reid hanging on to his seat?  Seriously, what are you people in Nevada thinking?

Squirrel: Rand Paul winning in Kentucky.  Not a huge surprise, but still a disappointment.  He has said that he won’t add a cent to the debt – let’s start keeping a running count of earmarks for Kentucky.

Squeaky: Probably the biggest disappointment was Kosmo’s liquor cabinet.  What is this, store brand scotch?  As Crunchy mentioned, there really wasn’t a whole lot to be disappointed with – unless Senator Michael Bennet is able to withstand the challenge from Ken Buck in my home state of Colorado.  I’m confident that Buck will prevail when the dust clears, though.

There we have it, folks – our 2010 election reactions.  Come back for more post-election chatter in 2012.

As you may have notice, we have a new theme on the site today.  I got about 18 months of life out of Drew Stauffer’s Elements of SEO theme.  I doubt Drew would have recognized the theme when I was finished tweaking it – the finished product looked nothing at all like the original.  It was a great learning experience, and I thank Drew for assisting in my development.

Recently, I kicked off a site to save Dinger, the Rockies mascot, from possible extinction.  While setting up that site, I became aware of the Notepad theme by N. Design.  True to my nature, I have also tweaked this theme a bit – adding author photos bio information, adding the logo at the top, and making a handful of other changes under the hood.  If you notice anything that looks really strange, send me an email at kosmo@ObservingCasually.com (include information about your OS and browser, if possible).  It’s a mostly complete solution (until I get restless again), although I do want to tweak things so that less information will print when you print an article.

Today is election day in the United States.  I will be making a trip to the poll with my 3 year old daughter and 10 month old son.  I’ll make a concerted effort to prevent my daughter from pulling many levers.  I urge you also to vote.  Although pundits are expecting a record turnout for a mid-term election, that turnout is still expected to be just 40% of eligible voters.  Surely there’s at least one race that’s important to you?  Bear in mind that congressional redistricting in many state legislatures – these races could shape how your state is represented in the US House of Representatives for the next 10 years.

The San Francisco Giants defeated the Texas Rangers to win the World Series.  I hate the Giants, since they are in my division, but I have to take off my hat and applaud their performance this year.  They weren’t the most talented team offensively, but they managed to get the job done when it counted (including a completely unexpected offensive explosion early in the World Series).

It was a good weekend for football in Iowa.  The Iowa Hawkeyes (located in the city where I live, and my wife’s favorite team) demolished previously undefeated Michigan State.  More importantly, my Iowa State Cyclones rode a dominant 3rd quarter to a win over The Angry Squirrel’s Kansas Jayhawks and now stand just one win away from bowl eligibility.

The Vikings waived wide receiver Randy Moss just 4 games after giving up a third round draft pick to acquire him.  I’ve been on a team boycott since they picked up Brett Favre, but recent personnel moves have made me wondering if my boycott will continue beyond the Favre era.  While I hate to say most of this is the fault of Brad Childress, most of this is the fault of Brad Childress (I hated to say it, but I still said it).

And we are off!

Today is the first day of November, and that makes it the first day of National Novel Writing Month. The goal is 50,000 words towards a novel captured over the thirty days of November. So how do you start? If you want to be part of the official challenge, then visit NaNoWriMo.org. Create an account and start writing. That site is filled with helpful suggestions and provides a word count tool as well as goodies if you succeed.

There are many parts of writing to address, and there is no specific order to do them in. Each writer will find this or her own comfort zone. What is the type of story (short story or novel), genre (romance, adventure, science fiction, historic), characters and title? Sometimes choosing one item creates one of the others. Choosing a genre, say adventure, drives character names such as Rock or Hunter. You may not even know what kind of story you are writing until you get into it. Last year, I ended up with a romance, definitely not what I started with.

This year, I am attempting a science fiction effort. I have a good idea about character names and personalities from ideas I have had in the past. Now I have to put those personalities together. I do not have a complete plot idea, just a rough outline in my head.

Now the idea is not to get a complete novel written, although that would be great. The idea is to write. The distractions will be significant. There is work, family, an election and all of the other every day events that keep us from writing. So the true challenge is to push all of this aside and write. I don’t suggest sacrificing your career or ignoring your children, on the contrary, use your specialties to make your story more complete, talk to you kids about what you are writing, they may ask the questions that give you your breakthrough. Every experience can lead to an idea.

I do not just encourage you to write, I also encourage you to let us know how you are doing right here on TheSoapBoxers.com. The only limitation is to remember that this is a family friendly site.

50,000 words is about 1667 words per day. Good luck!