WM XXV pics

Nine minutes until the granddaddy of 'em all...here we go:

• Jericho vs. legends: This is such a waste of Jericho's talent. For balance sake, Jericho to win, only to get his comeuppance after thebell.
  
• 25-diva battle royal, "Miss WM": If Trish appears, she takes it. Otherwise, I can't see it mattering much.
  
• MITB: Tempted to say CM Punk to repeat. It's a bit soon for Christian, I'm not seeing Kane get the recognition he deserves. Otherwise, there may be no stopping MVP.
  
• Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker: 17-0. Nuff said.
  
• Tag Team Unification Match: Miz and Morrison are it, and deservedly so. Sorry Colons.
  
• Brother vs. Brother: Jeff comes out on top.
  
• JBL vs. Mysterio: I'm hoping JBL retires to take back the announce position, and reuniting him with Michael Cole on SD, and fixing the divorce that never should have been, with the King and JR on Raw.
  
• Triple Threat: Cena takes the belt, Edge and Show can fight over Vicky at Backlash.
  
• HHH vs. Orton: I'd love to see Orton come out on top, but you can't have the perfect heel win the last match of the night. So Trips to come out on top and avenge the Macmahon clan.
  

No Way Out picks

Sadly, for one of the smaller PPV's that I usually look forward to, this year's lineup is just underwhelming. Nonetheless, here we go:

Jack Swagger vs. Finlay: With the returning Christian in the wings, I can only imagine Swagger coming out on top for the more interesting feud. Swagger retains.

Shawn Michaels vs. JBL: Again, I can't really be bothered with this storyline. It's a weird moment for things to be coming to a head; where will that leave either of them for WMania? Unless things somehow get "postponed", HBK s bound to come out on top eventually.

Randy Orton vs. Shane McMahon: What does it say about your top heel when the owner's son can kick your ass? Orton on top, always and forever.

SD Elimination Chamber: Undertaker's streak make him being champion at WM too unlikely. Kozlov - don't get me started. Big Show - fun but not enough. Whic leaves Triple H, Edge and Hardy. I'm always nervous that they'll hand WM main event to Trips, but my gut says Edge, with Edge vs. Hardy at the show.

Raw Elimination Chamber: Even more stuffing than the SD version. This really boils down to Jericho vs. Cena. Cena to retain, against all odds, once more.

On the Rumble

In some cases, my reasoning was totally off, but results-wise, I was pretty close, essentially calling everything but the rumble itself. So they take Jeff's belt away, but they give him the one thing he says he hasn't accomplished yet: fight his brother. Should be fun - god knows his fight against Edge was, if you exclude the presence of the Guerreros.

Melina has to learn not to sell the result of the match as she's approaching the ring. I know you're excited, honey, but take a valium.

Could someone please remove weed from the wellness program and re-hire RVD??!? His pop was off the charts, as it should be. It was nice to see MVP generate interest as well, and I thought Morrison, and the whole first 5 or 6 participants, were very interesting - fast-paced, bouncy...until of course, they decide to throw in the Great Khali and Vladimir Kozlov. Yawn.

For a moment, there, I was afraid that Triple H would once again overcome the odds and headline the 25th edition of Wrestlemania. Ho hum. But now, they've actually gone with the much-improved Randy Orton. Yay! Which reminds me - certain people have been ranting and raving about the young Debiase, seeing in him the next Randy Orton. I generally concur that he is Orton-esque, but there's one slight problem: we already HAVE a Randy Orton, and he ROCKS. On his own. No legacy needed.

Rumble predictions

Hey, I've actually made it a whole day before the PPV...not procrastinating so much is kinda part of my cleanup resolution. It's about cleaning up my to-do lists, I guess. So here goes:

• Jack Swagger vs. Matt Hardy: Hardy held the title for a good while, and Jack Swagger has been on a roll (from what I've seen - I'm still not totally on board ECW.) So I don't see anyone interrupting that push right away. Besides, having Matt "free" may come in handy in coming months, if the rumors are true. Jack Swagger retains.
  
  
• John Cena vs. JBL: Yawn. Unlike many, the whole HBK storyline isn't really doing it for me. However, I refuse to admit that JBL could walk away with the belt, especially since Cena has a new movie coming out. Cena retains.
  
  
• Beth Phoenix vs. Melina: Should actually be interesting. I'd love to see Melina coming out on top, perhaps with inadvertent assistance from Santino or Beth's new pet, Rosa whoever.
  
  
• Jeff Hardy vs. Edge: This is almost as tough to call as the Rumble itself. I could certainly see Jeff retain against all odds and his attacker revealed. Besides, Edge is so cute when he's angry and bitter. On the other hand, said attacker may well help Edge recapture the gold (7 second pose, anyone?), and it would avoid having Jeff main event Wrestlemania, just in case...then again, there's always No Way Out. Well, if the face wins this, then a heel must win the Rumble, or vice versa. Edge to win, attacker revealed, setup for Jeff vs. Cage at No Way Out. (Or Cage wins the Rumble and Hardy retains, but I doubt it, since I can't imagine giving Cage the Wrestlemania main event on his first night back.)
  
  
• Which means a face wins the Rumble. Although the Big Show could be funny, to face Edge. But it isn't Wrestlemania material. After last week's punt (nicely done, too), I can't imagine Orton's future right now. Maybe Jericho, or Triple H. I'm still seeing a major player/former champion taking it, maybe even a former winner. Dark horse is CM Punk.
  

200 posts: woohoo!

Wow, 200 posts already. yay me! Onward to bigger, better things!

By the way, I've mentioned Freecycle a few times in previous posts - if you don't know about it, you gotta check it out. I belong to the Montreal, Laval and North Shore chapters, and they are all really active. OK, some people fail to get the point and will ask for, oh, a fully-loaded P4 laptop. Duh! But people are giving a lot of good things away, and it's a friendly, generous system. It's actually been an inspiration to keep giving, as I work my way throughout the house. Freecycle on, dudes!

other people's words

As you know, my resolution for 2009 is to reclaim my house. From the clutter. From the memories of my parents (this is the house I grew up in and inherited.) For myself, and for my boyfriend. It's been a very long process, learning to let go of stuff, stuff with memories and stuff my parents bought, held, and cherished, clothes they wore and stuff they used. All over my home. And I've never been really good at expressing the conflicting feelings this stuff can bring up.

Over the holidays, I stumbled upon FlyLady, an organization-come-sisterhood to help people get, well, organized. Anyone who knows me knows my sink certainly isn't shiny yet (hell, it may be the last thing I do!), but the daily emails prompting decluttering and instilling the importance of routines to organize your time, if nothing else, have been useful.

We get bombarded by quite a few daily emails, including testimonials from other participants. The one from Monday really struck a nerve; in it, Kathryn describes lugging the sewing machine her mother bought her as a teenager as she left for college and across the country over several moves. Mind you, I've never moved in my whole life, but her words resonated:

I felt guilty -- not only because I was leaving projects undone but because, by not sewing, it felt like I was rejecting something important that my mother had shared with me. (...)

Every time I moved, I felt guilty about having it, about not using it, about abandoning my mother. (...) I de-cluttered around it, each time feeling worse when I saw it. Still, I couldn't get myself to put it in the car for Good Will. It felt like I was packing up my mother and taking her away. Never mind that my mother is still safe and happy in Wisconsin, that we now share a love of knitting, that she knows I don't sew anymore and that she's perfectly okay with that.

That's it, that's exactly it! Somehow, letting things go is a betrayal of people and their love. Now, my mother passed in 1994, so you can imagine how I've felt some of the things she describes, maybe worse, since mom wasn't around to tell me it was okay to let go (not that she would have - she was a pack rat herself.) I was stunned; I've read it several times over the past few days, and it still blows my mind how she figured me out and described it so succinctly.

I've added a list in the right hand column of things I have decluttered or given away, Freecycled or otherwise gotten rid of. (By the way, I'm aiming for 250 "items", which is a huge amount, considering a garbage bag full of clothes, or a box full of books, is one "item". I'm already behind, but that's OK.) One of those bags of clothes was part of my mother's wardrobe. Read back: she died in 1994. My father never went through her stuff before he died in 1998. I've been even worse. *sigh* But somehow, somewhere deep inside, something has clicked, and the sentimental attachment has started to fade, to slough off, to shed, like leaves in the fall. And somewhere, I've found the pleasure of giving things away that I know will be of use to someone else.

A box of mom's French books are leaving with a lady on Friday; when I spoke to her on the phone, she was just so excited at the idea of getting her hands on the three volumes of "La dynastie des Forsyte". I remember my mom reading those books, and now, someone else will get to enjoy them. And that, to quote a domestic goddess whose housekeeping and culinary skills I will never attain, is a good thing. Not to mention I get the cheap thrill of crossing out items in my OYS posts. YAY!

Edit, 30/01/09: Oddly enough, the lady and/or her daughter never showed. The box of books went to the next person who had inquired about them. She picked them up the day after I contacted her. I love it when a freecycle plan comes together.

OYS 5: the last of the French books

I believe this little batch marks the last of the French books I want to dispose of, unless there are more in my parents' old bedroom, a room which I won't dare attack until I have the other rooms under better control. So here we go:

• Mini-encyclopédie des médecines naturelles, ISBN 2-7242-2862-2
• Dictionnaire des peintres flamands et hollandais
• Goya: dessins, d'Anton Dietrich
• Rembrandt: dessins, de Bob Haak
• Le livre du chat en forme, de Terri McGinnis, ISBN 2-7107-0052-2
• Les 4 as et le dragon des neiges
• La grande encyclopédie de la médecine, tome 2 (ADO-ALI)
• Le livre des chiens, ouvrage officiel du Cercle canadien du chenil, ISBN 2-89000-284-9

Note: All the French books (in this and previous posts) have been offered on Freecycle. If anyone wants them, speak up quickly!

Edit, 31/01/2009: My big box of French books was picked up by freecycler Carole this afternoon. Woohoo!

OYS 4: culling the collection

As previously mentioned, I own a comic book collection that covers the early- to mid-90s fairly extensively. Today, I went through the eight filing cabinet drawers and pulled out about 350 (!) that could go. They're listed on Kijiji and craigslist, but if anyone knows anyone who might be interested, feel free to email me for a complete listing.

However, this means that the list of items for today is puny, since I spent most of the day hemming and hawing over old X-Men issues ;)

Speaking of which, I also have a number of trading card sets that can go (full sets of regular cards, no "special" cards):

• Evil Ernie
• Spider-Man - the Macfarlane era
• Spider-Man II - 30th anniversary
• Wolverine - From then 'til now II
• X-Men (1991)
• X-Force (1991)
• Adventures in Fantasy
• Boris 2
• WildC.A.T.S. 93
• WildC.A.T.S. 94
  

Other random items:

• X-Men: the Movie Prequel Edition comic (Toys R Us tie-in)
• Star Wars: the Phantom Menace movie program
• BOOK: The Complete Candlemaker, by Norma Coney, ISBN 1-887374-42-6

As always, there's more to come.

OYS 3: the return

All right, this evening I was doing other things, so this list isn't nearly as huge as I'd like or need it to be. Nonetheless, here are today's additions:

• Set of dominoes
• Clue game (old 60's edition)
• Frustration travel game (like Trouble, with a pop bubble...missing 1 blue and 1 yellow piece)
• WWF trivia game, 2nd. edition
• Memory foam-type contoured pillow (like new)
• Green Day Dookie-era black embroidered baseball cap
• 8" Double Bubble bubblegum machine
  
• BOOK: The Glorious Pool, by Thorne Smith
• BOOK: The Sizesaurus, by Stephen Strauss, ISBN 0-380-72849-4
• Lot of Magic: the Gathering cards (revised through to first Ice Age) - please ask for full listing

Coming soon: more books, and the culling of a comic book collection. Then, probably more books and smaller aquariums, followed by more books.

OYS: the sequel

I read something this afternoon about throwing twenty-seven things out in a bid to start decluttering a home. Now, I'm too eco-conscious to do that before at least trying to pawn things off to people. Here's another series of items for disposal:

MISCELLANEOUS

• Ikea Skaplig wooden wine rack (flat), blue
• Wrought-iron 10-bottle wine rack, black
• Tabletop (full-sized) cassette tape recorder (works with 4 D batteries or plugged in; I don't have the adaptor)
• Bialetti 4-cup stainless steel coffee maker
  

GAMES

• Springbok Twelve Days of Christmas 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle
• Springbok Miss Piggy 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle
• 750-piece Mordillo jigsaw puzzle
  
• Mille Bornes card game
  

ADULT BOOKS - ENGLISH

• The Unauthorized Anne Rice Companion, ed. by George Beahm, ISBN 0-8362-1036-0
  
• Call of the Wild, by Jack London, ISBN 0-7705-0557-0
• Memnoch the Devil, by Anne Rice, ISBN 0-679-44101-8
  
• Moon Magick, by D. J. Conway, ISBN 1-56718-167-8
• The Spiral Dance, by Starhawk, ISBN 0-06-250814-8
  
• Stonehenge Decoded, by Gerald S. Hawkins
• Twilight Hunters: Wolves, Coyotes & Foxes, by Gary Turbak, ISBN 0-87358-453-8
  

LIVRES POUR ADULTES - FRANÇAIS (ceux qui n'ont aucune mention ISBN sont pour la plupart, simplement trop vieux)

• Amour secret, de Barbara Cartland
• Angoissse, de Michael Halliday
• À nous deux, Manhattan, de Judith Krantz, ISBN 2-7242-3412-X
  
• Les bien-pensants, de Pierre Berton
• Les chasseurs de mammouths, de Jean M. Auel, ISBN 2-7242-3068-X
• Le coeur d'ivoire, de Max du Veuzit
• Le combat contre les ombres, de Georges Duhamel
  
• Comment soigner et éduquer son enfant, de Dr. Spock
  
• Courrier Sud, d'Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
• Des plaintes dans la nuit, de Delly
• Le désert de Bièvres, de Georges Duhamel
• Dictionnaire de poche latin-français
  
• Le drame de l'étang-aux-biches, par Delly
  
• La dynastie des Forsyte : Forsyte saga, de John Galsworthy
• La dynastie des Forsyte : une comédie moderne, de John Galsworthy
• La dynastie des Forsyte : la fin du chapitre, de John Galsworthy
  
• L'enfant des ruines, de Max du Veuzit
• L'été finit sous les tilleuls, de Kléber Haedens
• Frankenstein, de Mary Shelley
  
• Guide complet des travaux à l'aiguille, 0-88850-084-X
• Les Haudry, de Andrée Vertiol
• Histoire du Canada français, tome 2, de Lionel Groulx, ISBN 0-7755-0574-9
  
• Honneur pour honneur, de Marie Stéphane
  
• Hôpital de la montagne, de Henry Denker, ISBN 2-7242-3087-6
• J'ai mal à mon travail, de Monique Soucy, ISBN 2-7619-1804-5
• Le malade imaginaire, de Molière, ISBN 2-03-870107-5
  
• Le mystère de Castel-Flore, de Catherine Phrebert
  
• Nouvelles orientales, de Marguerite Yourcenar
  
• Les ombres, de Delly, ISBN 2-277-11889-3
  
• Ombres chinoises, de Simon Leys, ISBN 2-264-00868-7
• La passion de Joseph Pasquier, de Georges Duhamel
  
• Le portrait inachevé, de Magali
• Pour devenir lady, de Magali
• Pour une orchidée, de Magali
  
• Princesses de science, de Colette Yver
  
• Présumé innocent, de Scott Turow
  
• Red Fox, de Anthony Hyde, ISBN 2-7242-3281-X
• Rocambole 1 : l'héritage mystérieux, de Ponson du terrail
  
• Le roi des Andes, de Delly
  
• Le terrible secret de Giselda, de Barbara Cartland
  
• Tigre blanc, de Robert Stuart Nathan, ISBN 2-226-03096-4
• Un bateau part.., de Claire Maygnac

COLLECTION HARLEQUIN

• no 235f : L'infirmière de service, de Lucy Agnes Hancock
• no 606f : Le défi du médecin, de Marjorie Moore
• no 64 : Les survivants du evada, de Janet Dailey
• no 66 : La passagère de l'angoisse, d'Anne Hampson
• no 87 : La magie d'un été, de Robyn Donald
• no 88 : ...Et la jungle s'embrasa, de Violet Winspear
• no 100 : L'anse de l'espagnol, de Sara Craven
• no 109 : Alice s'éveille, de Violet Winspear
• no 110 : L'innocence aux yeux clairs, de Margaret Rome
• no 111 : À menteur, menteuse et demi, de Janet Dailey
• no 118 : La marque de Caïn, de Janet Dailey

Edit, 30/01/2009: 51 booka in this post, plus the 8 books in my post of January 18, plus one more I found as I kept going through the piles, were picked up by a freecycler today. Feels so good.

ONLINE YARD SALE - 2009: the year I declutter

Now that is saying something. As the packrat daughter of packrat parents, I have a house full of stuff. And it is time for it to go. So without further ado, here is the first part of what I hope will be recurring posts to list out the things I would like to get rid of.

Anything you'd like to see, or discuss, feel free! Everything is negotiable, from whatever you can afford, all the way down to free; whatever money I do make from any of this is most likely going to kiva.org (which I wholeheartedly encourage you to check out, regardless of this little virtual yard sale.)

So, here goes. I will try to categorize things as best I can, so it doesn't look quite so hopeless.

COMPUTER STUFF

• Brother HL1020 laser printer w/driver CD (needs new drum)
• La Cie external CD writer
• Canon CanoScan FB620P flatbed scanner
• Macintosh PowerBook 5300 Series - has battery but no charger - I HAVE NO IDEA WHETHER IT WORKS AT ALL
  

OTHER ELECTRONICS

• Panasonic SL-SV570 portable CD/MP3 player

VHS TAPES

• Disney's Aladdin (English version)
• Disney's The Little Mermaid (English version)
  

ARTS & CRAFTS

• Vertical loom, approximately 24" across

COLLECTIBLES

• 2 KFC Col. Sanders coin banks from the mid 70's - one white, one yellow
  

PET SUPPLIES

• 87 gal. Aquarium, 48"l x 18"w x 24"h - purchased as terrarium (no lid) - HAVE NO IDEA WHETHER IT HOLDS WATER
• Large bucket of crushed coral gravel (bean-sized)
• Aboistop citronella spray bark-deterrent collar (needs battery and new can of citronella)
  
• ZooZone2 cage for small animals (e.g. guinea pigs, rats)
  

GAMES

• Scene It, original edition
• Monopoly, Star Wars edition
• Word Yahtzee
• Atmosfear, original edition
  

CHILDREN'S BOOKS

• The Garfield Trivia Book, by Jim Davis, ISBN 0-345-33771-9
  
• Jelly Belly, by Dennis Lee, ISBN 0-7715-9776-2
  
• Meet the Munch Bunch, by Giles Reed, illustrated by Angela Mitson, ISBN 0-904584-76-3
  
• The Munch Bunch Go Camping, by Giles Reed, illustrated by Angela Mitson, ISBN 0-904584-77-1
• The Peanuts Trivia and Reference Book, by Monte Schulz and Jody Millward, ISBN 0-8050-0072-0
  
• Peter Pan, by J.M. Barrie, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman, ISBN 0-684-16611-9
  

ADULT BOOKS - ENGLISH (this will be the largest section, so it will be broken down over several posts - please bear with me)

• The Anglo Guide to Survival in Quebec, ed. by Josh Freed and Jon Kalina, ISBN 0-920792-33-2
• Anglo 2: the Sequel, Mike Boone, Terry Di Monte, Bowser & Blue et al., ISBN 1-55054-008-5
• Culpeper Guides: How to Grow Herbs, by Ian Thomas, ISBN 1-85471-067-2
  
• Giles 49th Annual, by Peter Tory, ISBN 1-874507-49-X
  
• Giles 50th Annual, by Peter Tory, ISBN 1-874507-65-1
  
• Giles at War, by Peter Tory, ISBN 0-7472-7856-3
  
• Giles Family, by Peter Tory, ISBN 0-7472-7881-4
  
• Giles: a Life in Cartoons, by Peter Tory, ISBN 0-7472-7886-5
  
• Giles 39th Series Cartoons, by Peter Tory, ISBN 0-85079-152-9
  
• Giles 45th Series Cartoons, by Peter Tory, ISBN 0-85079-232-0
  
• Giles 48th Series Cartoons, by Peter Tory, ISBN 1-874507-29-5
  
• The Guinea Pig Handbook, by Sharon L. Vanderlip, ISBN 0-7641-2288-6
• Instant French, by Jo Ouellet, ISBN 0-7701-0117-8
  
• Problem-solving strategies for Writing in College and Community, by Linda Flower, ISBN 0-15-505496-1
• Quaint Signs of Olde Inns, by G. J. Monson-Fitzjohn, ISBN 1-85958-028-9
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey, ISBN 0-671-70863-5
  
• Wild Seasons Daybook: Alexa Karstad's Canadian Sketches, ISBN 0-458-99290-9
• The Write Track: How to Succeed as a Freelance Writer in Canada, by Betty Jane Wylie, ISBN 1-55002-444-2
  

On Armageddon

Overall, my predictions were totally shaky, but in most cases, boy was I happy to be wrong.

A few notes:

I should have figured that Kozlov's undefeated streak would not end quite yet. I wonder who'll they'll bestow the honor to. I really don't care, the man consistently fails to impress me.

I didn't think I'd be so...pardon the pun...right on the nose (I warned ya!) about CM Punk's difficulty in administering a GTS to five-foot-six Mysterio. Ouch. Still, that was one of the top matches of the year, entertaining as all get out.

I am thrilled to see Jeff Hardy win the belt, finally; then again, I gotta wonder whether the WWE isn't hedging its bets by giving it to him now, as opposed to WrestleMania. Just in case he should screw up again...I sure hope not, but now the field is waaaay-wide open for the Rumble. Unless something materializes in coming weeks, I'm seeing an already-top contender, maybe even a previous winner, taking the rumble match. Dave would be nice, but now it appears he's out with a torn hamstring. Really wishful thinking? Kennedy. There's a guy who deserves a push, if only he can stay healthy.

On a side note: the Tribute to the Troops show was down to one hour, and had all of two matches. Two. *sigh*

And lastly, man was it nice to see Trish again. Makes me realize just how much work lies ahead of our current slate of divas. Either that, or it sends me running to TNA, which I can never quite stand for very very long. Somehow, I knew Kelly Kelly would not main event, and being in Toronto, right before Xmas, they had me hoping against hope that we would see our Canadian bombshell (sorry Maryse, your official title is our Montreal sexpot.) for a one-night-only return. Besides, against Beth, it could only be good. And yummy goodness it was. She could still show Triple H how to throw a punch.

Armageddon picks

Here goes:

Finlay vs. Mark Henry (Belfast Brawl): I can't imagine ever rooting for Mark Henry, or ever understanding any push he may receive in his life. Finlay, all the way.

Matt Hardy vs. Kozlov: See above. Matt Hardy.

Rey Mysterio vs CM Punk, IC Tournament: I would have picked Rey, were it not for the recent developments concerning the Tag titles. With Miz and Morrison regaining the tag belts in a most unusual manner, in a house show in nowhere, Ontario, doesn't that just pave the way to new Slammy winner Punk to regaining the IC title? I'm not sure how Rey's height will affect the administration of a GTS, though. Punk for gold.

Eight Diva match: With Michelle McCool's recent heel turn, I doubt her team will work well together. Combine that with the talent resting squarely on the official heel side, and I see Maryse the hometown girl coming out on top.

Batista vs. Orton: Orton has been gearing up since his return, and Batista's only been used to put various heels over. I don't see this trend reversing anytime soon. Orton wins. (Sorry, Dave! You know I love you anyways, right? :-) )

Edge vs. Jeff Hardy vs. HHH: Hardy is looking more and more like a Rumble shoo-in. I see Trips and Jeffro going at each other mercilessly once more, with Edge sneaking in to eke out the win.

John Cena vs. Chris Jericho: They've been building Jericho so far up lately (Superstar of the Year? Really?), it can only be to have Cena fight the good fight and conquer the not-so-big but oh-so-nasty Y2J.

On a side note, I will begin writing again, I promise. I'll even explain why I haven't been writing, and hopefully, it won't sound too much like an excuse. We'll see. But for now, there's wrestling on.

Survivor Series picks

Just over an hour to go before the WWE's fall classic. So here goes with my picks for Survivor Series:

• Undertaker vs. Big Show: I find Undertaker's impressive display this last Friday worrisome, since that is usually the prerogative of the PPV loser. I really can't imagine Big Show coming out on top. Then again, Undertaker has been working on nagging injuries and casket matches are usually how he gets dispatched into semi-retirement/injury leave. My heart is still with the deadman, though.
  

• Hardy vs. HHH vs. Kozlov: Hardy came out on top on Friday, and rumor has it the whole "found unconscious in a stairwell" is a work (maybe to bring back Edge?), so either way, now is not yet his time. I can't imagine Kozlov as champ, so HHH pulls it out.
  

• Team Batista vs. team Orton: These are tough to call. There are so many possible combinations. It would be neat to see a one-on-one final between Batista and Orton, but unlikely. It would be nice to see CM Punk outlast everybody. There could be massive infighting within the Orton team. It could be a one way massacre. Bottom line, though, this may serve to begin building momentum for Orton.

• Team HBK vs. team JBL: I hate JBL. HBK has been his old funny DX self, which is always enjoyable, but Jericho was the stronger member of their feud, in my eyes. Khali is useless. Cryme Tyme? *yawn*. I'm quite fond of the rest of the heel team, however. They could pull off the upset.

• Diva team Raw vs. team Smackdown: Let's line them up. Beth is tops, bar none. Each side has two solid wrestlers - Beth and Mickie on one side, Natalya and Victoria on the other. Which leaves Maryse, Maria and McCool vs. Jillian, Kelly Kelly and Candice. Maria is most useless, Maryse may be most improved with Kelly Kelly, so call that a wash, Candice and McCool are both overrated. I'll go with team Raw, just for the sake of better unity.

• Jericho vs. Cena: Back in the good old days, the triumphant return of the former champion would have guaranteed a victory in a cakewalk. Here's to hoping Vince is keeping up with the times, and Cena's road back won't be quite so simple. Then again, would they really have invested all that money in make-your-mother-cry promos just to have Jericho retain? Sadly, I think not. Cena wins.
  

Vista voice recognition

I have just bought a headset and I have been fiddling around with the voice recognition software that comes packaged with Vista. The results are , well , mixed at best . Just look at what it does To punctuation for example , like in the previous sentence . Or that capital T . For what it's worth, it doesn't care one way or the other whether I pronounce it nanoWRImo or nanoREEmo (although everyone knows it should be the former.) But it does yield some choice bits: when I first realized just how slow going this learning curve was going to be, I will admit that I had a few words for my shiny new microphone. The following is what appeared on screen:

Why is it that the machine understands what I’m saying except when I'm trying to write more words and my mother fought king novel.

That interrupted me in mid-rant. Funny as hell but not quite accurate. The bottom line is i need to put this away at least until December because my novel Seven new peace a sheet Is certainly not going to get written within the next century With this thing. Notice that others swear word In the previous sentence?

PS: Please don't judge me by the above disaster. It was dictated to my machine. Random capitalization, spacing and so on are not really my fault. I will take responsibility for swearing at inanimate objects, however.

day 18

And the last week has felt like the second month of a gym membership. That initial oomph has, shall we say, left the building? But I'm plodding on; after the major skid of 0 words over four days last weekend, I've pulled back onto the road and readjusted my targets to complete 50K by the 23, i.e. before Survivor Series starts.

To continue with my gym analogy, I used to use those programmable bikes that had a screen with a computerized "opponent" for you to race. No matter how high I would set it, I would always fight with everything I had to ensure I totally ANNIHILATED its results. Not just keep up with him, not beat him by a nose - no, I had to humiliate the snot out of that pixellated racer. Competitive, moi?

So now I'm out to "beat" NaNo by a whole week. That some people are up to 250K is irrelevant: the target is 30 days, and I need to reach the finish line with plenty of room to spare.

Enough about me. I just wanted to announce that my main character has finally gotten his first GIRLFRIEND. Oooh, kissy, kissy all around...

Next chapter, just over the horizon: her overprotective big brother's gonna find out ;D

day 9

Woot! Weekend target reached...just over 25K, and my main character has finally run away from home. And there I was thinking he'd have left by, oh, chapter 3!

So his childhood took a far greater place on my novel's stage, and here I am, halfway through NaNo, and he's all of 14. But I have a few side plots that got nicely developed, so future plot twists will hopefully make some kind of sense.

So, for the next week, I'm aiming for between 5-10K, depending on the amount of work waiting for me at the office. We'll see how it goes.

day 8-9

Technically, it's day 9, but my word count was updated on day 8. So there.

40% to "winning" NaNoWriMo. I'm gonna try my darnedest to knock another 5K out tonight and tomorrow, so I'll be halfway there by the time the week starts. Yay me!

The next issue raising its ugly head on the horizon is that I sincerely doubt I'll be anywhere near done with my story. Will I stick with it, once the looming threat of NaNo failure has passed? Will I manage to complete my novel? Or will I move on to those other stories that plot bunnies have been whispering to me ever since I started on this crazy adventure. No, seriously - I have a zombie superhero story, an anthropomorphic animal pirate story and a supernatural thriller all floating around my mind. (Yes, I have scribbled down my main ideas so they don't fly back off into the ether...)

Time will tell, but I really am looking forward to seeing my progress bar turn green on the NaNo site. (The one on the right doesn't change colour, I don't think, but the site says it should go from saying "participant" to "winner." Yay!)

day five

I am 37 words away from being 25% done. Wow.

It had improved very, very slightly, but most of it is still utter tripe. And that's OK. Maybe that's why this strange character came along and insisted I write this piece of historical fiction when I had never attempted anything remotely close: to make me hear my own voice. Because that's mainly what's wrong with my novel - it sounds like me, a contemporary woman, rather than the narrator of a piece of historical fiction about a young boy coming of age. Besides, I'm not overly fond of kids, so inventing his childhood has been, well, inconclusive. It would be painful to reread, but that is for another time. If NaNoWriMo teaches me that I can beat the monster that is procrastination into submission, even temporarily, and that I should write what I know, then it will have been a success, even should I choose to delete the file once December 1st comes around. I doubt that I'll do it, but it would be fitting to represent how NaNo is about the experience.

I wrote very little last night, because I was watching So You Think You Can Dance Canada, and constantly flicking to the election coverage on ABC (least nauseating and obviously biased - hell-o, Fox). Two things: if I hadn't posted it before, I've been telling my boyfriend that Nico will take it all. (I was right about the final three on the last season of SYTYCD, right down to the order. Yay Joshua and Twitch!) As for Obama, godspeed, my man, the road ahead is long. But somehow, your presence made my world feel a little safer today.

two days in

...and it's going well. Over 8,000 words in two days, albeit two weekend days after I'd been basically asleep for 48 hours. Nonetheless, I am 16% done with NaNo.

I find that highly worrisome, since starting things is generally not a problem for me. It's what comes next. It's like swimming laps; past the first dive or push off from the wall, I tend to flounder. I wane, I fluster, procrastination seeps in and things fall by the wayside. I have to keep my focus; that, probably much more than any number of words, is my personal challenge in accomplishing NaNoWriMo. (BTW, I even considered adding procrastination as a label for my posts, but that would be giving it too much power; the raging beast will remain anonymous, and I will continue to fight it, sight unseen. Right now, for some odd reason, I've become enthralled with Spider Solitaire. Yeah, I know. Actually, it would probably be Minesweeper but I don't have enough control with the touchpad on my laptop. So Spider Solitaire it is. Nuff said.)

To top it off, I had three puny but nonetheless actual freelance assignments this weekend. Add to that NaNo forums posts and blog entries, and my output has been really significant. Here's to hoping I keep it up.

Still, I'm surprised that it has gotten going with such vigour; I mean, I'm at 8,000 words, and my main character is all of nine years old. Tomorrow's text should cover the event that defines his young life, the turning point for the entire novel's plot. (I knew that plotting out my novel would help propel me forward!) Wish me luck.