Round of Words in 80 Days — Wrap-up

Crap. Where did the time go?


It’s almost Christmas — I’m not ready — and it’s the end of the fourth round of ROW80 for 2011. With Christmas falling on Sunday, there won’t be a Sunday Summary this week, so we’ll call this my final check in for 2011.

For a recap of my goals, go HERE.

  1. Write 250 words per day, 5 days a week, on fantasy piece. — Mostly a success, with NaNoWriMo I managed to get about 15K shy of finished with the first draft. However, there has been some major slackage in December that not even joining Jenny Hansen’s NaNoSlackMo could salvage.
  2. Blog twice a week, not counting ROW80 updates. — Definitely a success. I even got in a guest post over on Maria Zannini’s blog (giveaways are open through tomorrow) as part of her DIY Christmas. I had some fantastic visitors here, with Jenna Reynolds talking about tarot, and Piper Bayard and Kristen Lamb here as part of their Bayard/Lamb in 2012 Campaign Tour.
  3. Comment on 3 blogs per day. — Mostly a success. Definitely had more hits than misses :)
  4. Update Twitter and Facebook 3 times a week, not counting new blog posts. — I had some great weeks. I had some bad weeks. I even had some epic fail weeks. This will continue to be an area I need to work on in 2012.

I’ll definitely be joining again in 2012. To watch for the details of round one in 2012, go HERE.

I have a regularly scheduled Tarot post for tomorrow, and next Thursday, plus a post scheduled for next Tuesday. Otherwise, I’m kicking back and enjoying the holiday.

I wish you all a very happy holiday with the ones you love!

Bayard/Lamb 2012 — Time for Change

Piper Bayard

Please help me welcome Presidential Candidate Piper Bayard and her “space-saving” Vice-Presidential Running Mate Kristen Lamb to the blog! Their campaign is a breath of fresh air in the political arena. I’m sure you’ll agree that we need this pair in the White House. To read up on their campaign, click over to Bayard/Lamb 2012 Campaign HQ.

Thank you so much Piper and Kristen for stopping by. I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedules and am honored to be able to interview you today.

Kristen Lamb

As a mother, education is extremely important to me. What are your thoughts on the current state of our education system, which more often then not, isn’t preparing students for university and beyond?

This country has forgotten that education is a privilege. We will remind them of that fact with our Assclown Exchange Program. In this program, wannabe thugs who don’t appreciate the opportunity of a free education will be exchanged with children from third world countries who can only dream of getting an education instead of walking five miles for a bucket of water every day.

Does “abstinence only” education help or hurt us?

The act of telling a person “No” is not an education. Education is an exploration of facts, and reproduction is a topic worth exploring. Social agendas and value judgements are not the business of public schools.

We advocate sex education that is an actual education; therefore, along with the mechanics, we believe there should be a Herpes 101 class, followed by Crabs Ain’t Just In the Ocean, Clap if You Love Penicillin, Pregnancy: the Gift that Keeps on Taking, and AIDS is Not a Grant of Assistance.

This intensive course work will culminate in each student being assigned a robotic baby for a month. Said robotic baby will weigh 15 pounds, cry all night, and poop and puke randomly throughout the day. The only way a student will be allowed to attend Prom is if they find a babysitter at $8 – $10 per hour at their own cost, not their parents’, or if they take the pooping, spewing, screaming baby with them. Each robobaby will be fitted with a GPS ankle bracelet so we will know if the it is left alone or tossed out a window, which will constitute an automatic fail for the class.

Is our freedom to consume what we want whenever we want worth the cost (ie environmental, social, economic, etc.)?

We could write an entire dissertation on this so we will simply say that when you dance, you have to pay the piper. No pun intended. However, if you would like to send Piper money . . .

Should we begin colonizing space?

Sure. Let’s start with the space in the square and rectangular states like Wyoming and Nebraska. And we can test our super duper moonwalk gear in the winters of Montana. People in crowded states will get more places to live, and the colonized states will get another electoral college vote. It’s win/win. But be aware that all colonists will be required to contribute to the functioning of society. It isn’t right to go to someone else’s state and act like an assclown.

We would also colonize the space in West Texas in preparation for colonizing the bare rock that is the moon. After all, psychologically speaking, if people can handle a year in the rural area outside of Odessa, they will be fine on the moon.

If they were to make the story of your life into a movie, who should play you?

I would really love that horse from Secretariat to play me. I always wanted to be able to run that fast. And you have to admit. That horse was very convincing as a horse, and it always won its races. ~Piper

I want to be played by James Earl Jones because I always envisioned myself as a large black man with a deep, intimidating voice and not a small white girl from Ft. Worth, Texas. (My husband finds this slightly disturbing.) ~Kristen

I’m from Nevada, where prostitution is legal in the majority of the state, what are your thoughts on legalizing drugs and/or prostitution? Why or why not. (BTW, we also have the first legal male prostitute. We’re an equal opportunity state.)

We would not legalize drugs and prostitution. If we legalize it for everyone, what would Nevada do for income? Besides, it wouldn’t be special any more. It would be like having birthday cake every day.

Should the federal and/or state government have the power to define marriage?

They can’t even define “debt ceiling” or “budget.” Let’s work on the small stuff first.

I recently read this article: Canada’s Polygamy/Polyamory Ruling and would like to hear your thoughts/views on the subject.

We find polygamy quite fascinating. You always see men collecting wives, but you never see women wanting another husband. Funny how that is.

There are, however, women with man harems. They’re called erotica authors. (See Jillian Dodd or Roni Loren for actual man harems.)

My son wants to know, if your presidency tanks, who do you plan to use as your scapegoat?

President Bush, of course. Isn’t he everyone’s scapegoat? If we can’t blame Bush, we’ll just blame global warming or solar flares.

We talk about the tarot here on the blog quite a bit, if you were a tarot card which one would you be? Or which card do you feel represents you best?

I’m not familiar with the cards of a tarot deck, but I would be the one that represents a person who is blessed. ~Piper

I would be The Hangman because I was the dumb schmuck lucky person who agreed to be Piper’s running mate. ~Kristen

We want to thank Raelyn for hosting us here at her blog today. It’s been an honor.

If you would like to book the Foxie with Moxie Pair for a Bayard/Lamb Campaign Blog Tour stop at your site, please contact Piper at piperbayard@yahoo.com. And remember, Bayard/Lamb 2012 – We’re Not Them.

~ * ~

Thanks again Piper Bayard and Kristen Lamb, what a thrill to have you here!

Are you ready to cast your vote for Bayard/Lamb 2012? Do you have any questions for Piper and Kristen?

Sunday Summary & #ROW80

  1. Do you have a writer on your list? If so, Jami Gold has the Ultimate Gift Guide for Writers. Psst, honey, check it out.
  2. Are you on a budget with a writer on your list? Then you must check out K.M. Weiland’s 25 “Under $25″ Christmas Gifts for Writers. Psst, wee beasties, check it out.
  3. Just a reminder: Maria Zannini’s DIY 12 Days of Christmas continues through the 22nd.
    There are giveaways :) Hope you’ll stop by!
  4. A huge congrats to Lindsay Buroker for her RT Book Reviews mention!
  5. This past week has been a huge epic failure for ROW80. I apologize for my silence! The power cord to my laptop died. My life is on that laptop, LOL. I can’t access Facebook or Twitter from the ancient — can you hear it groaning? — desktop. Trying to read and comment on blogs was a frustrating exercise I gave up on most days. Really need to spend some quality time cleaning out, upgrading the memory, etc. on this poor machine but considering it is coming up on nine years of age and still working, it has surpassed its life expectancy so I shouldn’t complain.
  6. On the writing: I can access my backups via email but can’t print from the desktop. And as the desktop is also the wee beasties’ computer, I’ve been hard pressed to get on it to work, LOL. So, I’ve attempted to do some writing and outlining by hand but even that has been more fail than success this week.
  7. So thankful I got most of my posts finalized and scheduled before I lost the power cord.
  8. And winter break has begun. My house is full of the not so quiet stomping and yelling of the wee beasties. Seriously, why can’t they WALK down the stairs? Must they slide down the banister, swing around the landing, and take flying leaps? For an example, you can check out Jenny Hansen’s When Your Baby Scares the Stuffing Out of You post, a typical banister sliding morning is in the comments, LOL
  9. Don’t forget to stop by on Tuesday when the Foxie with Moxie Pair will be here as part of the Bayard/Lamb Campaign Blog Tour.
  10. I apologize for the lack of a picture with Beastie Girl modeling her new sweater. By the time I got home Saturday from errands — I have a power cord, yay! — and Christmas shopping she was less than thrilled with me. And strangely in need of a bath.

Sunday Summary & #ROW80

  1. Tomorrow, I’m over at Maria Zannini’s as part of her DIY 12 Days of Christmas. I hadn’t realized Maria was starting her Do It Yourself 12 Days of Christmas on Wednesday, otherwise I would have mentioned it last week.
    There’s a giveaway :) Hope you’ll stop by!
  2. Have a reader on your list? Aside from the obvious buying of books and giving of gift certificates to bookstores (certainly much loved gifts), what to give? MizB at Should Be Reading introduced me to GoneReading. And the best part is that the profits go to fund libraries. That folks is a win-win.
  3. The pressure to get things done before the wee beasties are out of school for the holiday is on. The only downside to the holiday season for me. On the other hand, That Man is taking a week of vacation time so we have some quality day trips planned.
  4. Blog: I finally got my posts finalized and scheduled for most of the month. I lied about commenting on 3 blogs last Sunday but I made it up Monday :) And I think I maintained my minimum of 3 blogs this week.
  5. Social Media: Fail. I was in a bit of a funk this last week and never opened TweetDeck. Will do better this coming week.
  6. Wordage: See the above mentioned funk.
  7. Some of my above mentioned funk may have to do with my knitting focus. I blame Nicole over at Book-Wyrm-Knitsfor tantalizing me with her socks and general knitting endeavors.When we first got Beastie Girl, aka the dog, aka Roxy, I thought she’d been shaved for the summer. I’ve never seen a dog with such naturally short hair. She’s also all muscle. She has no fat stores — oh, to have that problem, LOL — and has actually been shivering with cold at night. Worse, she doesn’t want to go outside first thing in the morning or after the sun goes down at night. A house bound dog she was not meant to be!That Man said he’d pick up a sweater at the pet store. I scoffed at that. I have leftover yarn. I have needles. I can knither a sweater. Off on the hunt for a dog sweater pattern I go. It was quite the hunt too. Most of the patterns I found maxed out at a 24 inch chest and Beastie Girl has a 30 inch chest. My knitting is rusty enough that I didn’t want to try and adjust a pattern.Pay dirt. I stumbled across this Cables and Hearts pattern.

    The only real change I made was to knit this on a circular needle. I love knitting but detest, with unreasonable passion, sewing the knitted pieces together. If I do this again — and what girl is satisfied with one sweater? — I’ve noted additional adjustments. I was hoping to have a work in progress picture but ran out of time before scheduling this post. It’s a fast knit so maybe I’ll have the finished sweater next week :)

  8. Also, save the date: December 20thBayard/Lamb 2012 Campaign Blog Tour will be stopping by.

Sunday Summary, #ROW80, & #NaNoWriMo

  1. Okay, I’m not sure how to rate this, so watcher beware ;) I found this over on Sloan Parker’sblog earlier in the week.
  2. Coming December 1st, Ciara Knightis turning her weekly “Did I Notice Your Book?” feature into a blog hop.
    Be sure to stop by to see what book I choose.
  3. The Bayard/Lamb 2012 Campaign Tour will be stopping here next month. Stay tuned for the details.
  4. Congrats to Louisa Bacio for her Romance Reviews NominationThe Vampire, the Witch and the Werewolf: A New Orleans Threesome is steamy deliciousness :)
  5. We had a bit of the sad this week. Our long-haired piggy, aka the Mountaineering Guinea Pig, passed away. It came as a shock. One morning he’s scurrying around in the cage with his pal and by afternoon he was gone. We had an appropriate funeral. We’re undecided if we’ll try to find another one with our smooth coat piggy being so established.
  6. Had a fantastic #1k1hr with @Zakillian, @MaxineDuckworth, @mohio73, @Adam_Ortyl, @MMMReader, @KarenStivali, and @JuliaLizzBeth on Thursday, putting me 1113 words closer to being caught up with NaNo.
  7. This week’s word count:
    • Sunday: 1698
    • Monday: 1728
    • Tuesday: 2254
    • Wednesday: 1101
    • Thursday: 2912
    • Friday: 1341
    • Saturday: 349

    Definitely closer to NaNo standards :)

  8. I’ve continued to be good about writing and scheduling blog posts ahead. Wasn’t a ROW80 goal but I’m glad it has worked itself into one. I’ve maintained my goal of commenting on three blogs (usually more) per day and I’ve tried to make at least one of those not a regular.
  9. Twitter and Facebook…still struggling to find my groove. I’ll have a good day then a lot of bad, if not complete avoid, days. Definitely must find a balance here. So another update where I’m not sure I made my goal of three updates (not including blog posts) per week.
  10. The turkey is thawing in the fridge for Thursday :) If you want to try a new recipe, or two, Tiffany White has a delicious Thanksgiving Mash-Up.

May 2013
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