Momentous Occasions are Momentous

I bring tidings of great joy, and I come bearing gifts! No, it's not Christmas all over again (although there's still snow on the ground in Banff), it's the return of my blog!

Well, sort of.

I won't promise on making regular posts again, but so much has happened in the last little while that an appearance became necessary. We're gonna do this in numbered format to make things more interesting and easy to follow, savvy?

1. I've been accepted to McGill University's Urban Planning programme for 2013! I'll be moving to Montreal at the end of August, where I'll be living for about two years. After that I want to head back to British Columbia, but two years ago I would have laughed at you had you told me I'd be living in Banff in the near future, so we'll see what happens.

2. I actually finished something accomplished a predetermined goal on Protagonize! Over the last few days I've posted both a new chapter and the epilogue to the rough draft of my story Red King Chronicles. It is by no means a finished story, though, hence I amended my above statement to say I reached a goal. Close to the beginning of the year I decided that I needed to do a complete rewrite of the story: new intro, new back story for Jason, new sequence of events, new a lot of things. However, I told myself that I wouldn't start the editing process until after I brought the current draft full circle to the prologue. I have now done that and am looking for critique. So, have at 'er!

3. After a year and a half of collection dust, there's finally a new chapter in Elsie! I had to reread the entire story myself before continuing on, but my the fires of my inspiration have been stoked. I drafted a chapter outline for the latest chapter and the following chapter, possibly two following chapters. I've got the conflict sorted out, so now I just need to figure out how to resolve said conflict and eventually bring the story to a close. I'm being optimistic about this one, for once.

4. Caramel Tim Tams were in stock at the grocery store so I'm doing Caramel Tim Tam Slams! Be excited for me.

5. I still feel that lists should contain multiples of five, so...

And that's all!

photo by me

Happy Belated, Elsie!

I just had a realization: I started my story Lily Christianson on Ptag two years ago Sunday. Whoa. Just, whoa. One, it does not seem like two years ago. Two, I also realized that I have sorely neglected it. Poor Declan needs to finish his novel! Elsie needs to have her conflict sorted out! New girl needs a name! (Which she has, beeteedubs, in my notes. It just hasn't been revealed yet.)

So, why am I writing this? 'Cause I'm drafting the 16th chapter right now. Yah. I've probably jinxed the whole writing process now that I've made public my intentions, but whatever. All the more pressure, right? Right.

Who knows, maybe I'll convert this blog into a journal of my time with Elsie. Hmmm...

Haircuts for Lemmings

Yah, that's right: haircuts for lemmings. You read that correctly. And I'm serious. Except I'm the lemming.

Last year a few of my friends organized an event called Cut for a Cure, a fundraiser for the Canadian Cancer Society. Money was raised, pies were thrown, heads were shaved. It was a good time. I MCed, received no pies to the face, and didn't let the clippers near my head.

This year I'm joining in.

The event isn't until the spring, but the CCS accepts donations year round. I've set my goal as $250 (collectively, the UBCO group raised $8000ish last year), which is a pretty expensive haircut. Those of you who have me on Twitter (@jackerbie) have probably seen the link to my event profile page already, but I'll share it again for those non-Tweeters:

http://cancerevents.kintera.org/jackerbie

That's my quick schpiel. Now, have you ever been a social activist lemming? What for, why, and what became of it? I wanna know what else I can get into this year!

New (School) Year

Y'know that inane practise where people pretend to commit to things at the beginning of each new year? The whole "new year, new you" kind of mentality. Well, pointless as it may be, I'm going to try for a head start this year, start with my new school year rather than the new cardinal year. What's so special about January 1st anyways?

So my list, starting this October, reads as follows:

• send more postcards
• run, twice a week
• buy whole wheat or whole grain more
• branch out from "the staples"
• eat in with friends more often
• write something at least every other day, notes not included
• get to know people's names better
• eat less, more often
• compliment people more often

Now, why the snail? Because snails have determination. They don't go fast, but they know that. They also know that they'll arrive at their destination sometime, at their own pace. And because they are taking their time getting to that finale, they have plenty of time to think about what that finish really means to them. They can change it, modify, decide that they really don't want to end up there. So that's why I've got a picture of a snail.
So, with the inspiration of the snail in mind, is there anything you might want to accomplish next month?

snail photo by me