Hurray for me!

Allow me to congratulate myself. A few moments ago, I was awarded the privilege to display this icon on my blog:

After a couple of hours of mad typing, I uploaded my file at about 11:50, and their word counting robot told me that the crappy first draft of my novel Tiebroken now had 50,601 words. I believe that made only the third day (November 28, 29, and 30) that I had written as many words as I should have to be on pace. This flurry of writing has gotten me used to typing for both sides of a conversation, and so it is somewhat difficult to stop:

You: Congratulations, Eric, you must be so proud.

Me: Yes, I am, thank you.

You: So, what's it like? How do you feel now that you've been officially labeled as having written a novel?

Me: In the spirit of NaNoWriMo, I will speak in metaphors, poor ones. Well, maybe just one metaphor. Right now, I've just waved good-bye to the county building inspector after he signed off on my rough-in inspection. The frame's up; there's a roof that keeps water out; my dryer vent makes it outside; the pipes are laid; the wires are pulled and connected to the outlets although nothing connects the house to the main power grid. In short, it's vaguely house-like in form but no one could live in it.

You: What's next for you?

Me: Drywall, drywall, drywall. And I'd like to replace that blue tarp with a front door. And the concrete floor needs staining. And cabinets, folks, I need some cabinets.

You: When can I, er, attend your open house?

Me: Ah, yes, I held on long enough so that I can tell you to drop it, your metaphor is too extended.

You: My metaphor? You started it?

Me: Yes, but I didn't make you pick it up and run with it. You shoulder some of the blame in this, too, my friend.

You: Just tell me when I can read your damn novel, okay? I want to go to bed, and I still have an episode of Lost waiting for me on the DVR.

Me: Oh, what did you think of last week's episode? I think they may have made the error of writing themselves in to a corner and then just start adding new characters and hope we don't notice and the problem goes away.

Damon Lindelof: Hey, we've planned all this from the start!

Me: Sure you have.

You: Hey, this really isn't making me want to read Tiebroken.

Me: Oh, yeah. So my plan is to take a couple of days off and then go back and proofread, tie up the odd loose end, do some brief revising, and then serialize it by posting a chapter or two at a time. Watch this space, my friend. I'll alert you when the first installment is posted.

XIXth Nervous Breakdown

Well, it looks like the British Invasion is definitely here to stay. Last year, the Super Bowl Halftime Show was by Paul McCartney because if he were to show his nipple, no one would complain. Last night, it was announced that the Rolling Stones would perform at the halftime show for Super Bowl XL in January, a perfectly fitting musical tribute to its host city, Detroit.

While I do not know exactly how this selection of the Rolling Stones was made, I do not find it surprising, since the game will be broadcast on ABC, and the commercials for Monday Night Football this year have included a song from the new Stones album A Bigger Bang.

Let us pause to look back at 40 years of Super Bowl Haftime Shows. Here's a link to the "Honor Roll." A few highlights:

1. The first act that was not a college band: Carol Channing in Super Bowl IV. Channing returned two years later with Ella Fitzgerald for a Salute to Louis Armstrong becoming the first star performer to appear in two different Super Bowl halftime shows.

2. Most frequent act: Up With People (Super Bowls X, XIV, XVI, and XX) Two time individual performers include Al Hirt, Gloria Estefan, and Nelly.

3. Perhaps we should not just the past on what we know now, but there is something a little creepy to me about Super Bowl XXVII's halftime show by "Michael Jackson & 3500 local children."

College Football Shame Mask

I've decided to start two new topic-specific blogs in addition to this general one. The first one is now online. It is the College Football Shame Mask and can be found at collegefootballshamemask.blogspot.com. Once National Novel Writing Month is over, I should get caught up on the new blog.

It seemed drafty at the time

"After being notified of the situation and after researching the matter ... I came to the conclusion that I was not drafted by the A's."

This quote is from Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico. According to this article, Gov. Richardson, a pitcher in his days at Tufts University, has included in his biography being drafted in 1966 by Major League Baseball's A's, who at the time played in Kansas City.

The Major League draft is somewhat of a crazy thing today having dozens of rounds and at least 1500 players selected, and no doubt, there were more rounds in 1966. In 2005, the A's drafted a total of 40 players. It seems to me that if they drafted someone, it would be in the team's interest to let that person know about it, and also wonder why they hadn't heard back from a draftee. But who knows, 1966 was before the days of email.

NaNo update

My NaNoWriMo effort is coming along, but I'll take a break right now to make a couple of blog posts. At the moment, my novel Tiebroken is about 4,000 words behind schedule (I need to have 40,000 by midnight tonight to be on pace.) but I'm feeling good about making it to 50,000 because I know I've got that much story in my head at the moment. My biggest question right now is, will I actually write "The End" by midnight on the the 30th? That I'm not so sure about. If you'd like to read Chapter I, point your browser here, but please remember it is just a crappy first draft.