Work hard, achieve greatness

I like the message this article sends. It disputes the idea of innate talent and says that greatness is achieved through hard work. I'd like to believe that it's true, because it leaves each of us with a world of choices and opportunities to be good, even great at whatever we choose. Pay attention to the article's definition of hard work - it's not just mindless hour clocking. Practice must be deliberate to have an effect.

I need to structure my writing time with this in mind. Less mindless blogging...

Lost in the Woods

I wish it were a metaphor, but it's my plan for the weekend. E and I are signed up for four hours of orienteering (navigating your way through forest and trails using a map and compass to earn points by finding checkpoints), and we're having a side competition with friends of ours: the chicks (me and other chick L) have to be the ones doing the map reading/using the compass. The guys just follow. This should be interesting. If you don't hear from me for a looong time, you'll know why - I'll be still bumbling around Gatineau Park.

IronGirl is in

I just signed up for NaNoWriMo, and I need to put an image of myself online, so here it is. I don't actually look like that; I had my hair 'done' straight to try to look professional. My hair usually looks uncontrollably curly. Not sure why I'm so shiny, either. Odd. Look for me as IronGirl.

For the month of November, I'll have crazy ponytail hair, no makeup and glasses. Nice. Hopefully compared to E's deer-hunting compadres I'll still look good. If I don't, I'm in trouble.

Ha ha - just saw this: www.willwriteforchocolate.com/

I'm skimming through my 'how to' books before plunging in again with book 2. I'm enjoying Sol Stein's books. Here are a couple of quotes from How to Grow a Novel:

"Open your mind to the possibilites your imagination could generate."

"In our not-yet-acknowledged secret garden lie the seeds of our best not-yet-written stories."

To take the edge off the touchy-feeliness, here is the inspiring message E posted on my wall: Analyse,
Improvise,
Adapt (crossed out), Exfoliate and
Overcome (crossed out), Moisturize.

Survey

I notice that sometimes I have a prejudice against age gap (10 yrs+) couples. I know there is no reason for it, and once people are in their 30's, age becomes much less of an issue than attitude.
I am trying to gather information that I can use to create believable fiction, so I am conducting an informal survey to find out if others share this prejudice or have been exposed to it, particularly in the workplace. I am interested in older woman/younger man relationships - not pickups. If you wouldn't mind sharing your opinions/stories with me, I'd appreciate hearing them.

Questions:
1-Are you prejudiced against older women/younger men? Why?
2-Have you witnessed older woman/younger man prejudice at work or in your circle of friends/family?
3-Do you think a woman who has a younger man as her significant other is judged negatively by her work peers? At what kinds of corporate events would this be apparent?
4-Do you think a woman who has a younger man as her significant other would be held back from being promoted to a management position in the workplace?

You can be completely anonymous - create a fake hotmail account and send me your story, or say it happened to a friend, or change names/personal details to protect the innocent. Work the older women/younger men issue into conversation with your friends and let me know what they say.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Road Trip

If you have never gone for a drive through Vermont in the fall, you are missing out! The colors are amazing. Making the drive in E's freshly repainted RX made it that much more fun : )

For my first Thanksgiving as a Canadian, I went to Boston to run the Tufts 10K for women. It's a tradition! Canadians don't do Thanksgivng all out the way Americans do, so it's not like E's parents had a big feast ready with two empty chairs waiting for us.

The 10K went pretty well, considering that there were 7,000 women running and it was HOT, not warm, but HOT. Smart women has support people running to the water table, then running cups of water back to them. If only I'd known, I could have put E to better use. I had to stand in line for cups of water, losing valuable minutes. Too hot to skip the hydration stations. E and Aunt N were my support system and cheered me on to the finish in style : )

Now it's back to... reality? rain? I need to get myself in gear to be ready for NaNo Wri Mo. I have a 3/4 baked plan of my next book, but I need to get it fully outlined and planned so I can start writing Nov 1.

Back to the Routine

Now that the LitFest is over and the summer freelancing feast is over it's time to get back to my normal routine.
1-Send e. off to the train with his lunch bag and Shooter book (hey, at least he's reading. E. claims that reading a sniper book on the train guarantees that no one sits next to him.)
2-Eat healthy breakfast and drink pot of coffee
3-Go to office, check e-mail
4-Realize I have no routine
5-Search for time organization strategy from financial planner
6-Try to create agenda using Word; hit roadblock requiring the original Word CD. Try to download agenda from Internet; hit roadblock requiring Explorer instead of Firefox.
Maybe I'm not cut out for a 'routine'.