flotsam and jetsam from the mind of katster

[katster]

One of my favorite bits in NCAA football is when the announcers break the fourth wall. “Depending on what team you’re rooting for, you’re either really excited or about to hit the reset button.” Even though these days, I’m the team that’s putting up points, the line never fails to make me giggle.

Speaking of NCAA football, it’s a nice salve after my team has had three straight losses, to enter a world in which Cal dominates college football and has won the national championship for ten years running. It’s a good place, even though the game has decided Stanford is a perennial top-15 team, too.

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Places not to be in a lightning storm #56: Pumping gas. I’m standing there, and the lightning descends, and the part of me that isn’t exactly concerned for my safety thinks, “Oooh, pretty.” And then, KRA-KOOOOM, thunder splits the day, and I’m suddenly very conscious than I’m standing next to something that could theoretically explode…

That said, we had a wonderfully apocalyptic orange glow thing going on after that thunderstorm. I tried to take pictures, but I haven’t had a chance to look at them and see if they came out. I don’t think so, though. But it was absolutely stunningly *gorgeous* outside, between the fall colors on the trees (yes, my part of California actually has changing leaves — and if I knew where our rake was, I’d rake the lawn) and the orange glow…it was one of those moments where I wish I had brain to computer upload, so I could show you all how beautiful it was.

***

Got lots to do. Nano’s happening real soon. Like Wednesday night. (Okay, technically, it’ll be Thursday morning when I start writing, but the tradition in Sactown is to get a bunch of people together and start writing at midnight.) The meet and greet went wonderfully well, and I can only hope that the kickoff will be the same or better. That said, the Sactown region has really awesome Nanofolks, and it’s somewhat of an honor to be their ML. And of course, my partner in crime is *also* awesome.

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Tomorrow’s a busy day, so I’m going to put this up. I have to scan a bunch of drawings in (but the pictures are worth it), I have to get my next copy of At Ungodly Hours pasted together so that it’ll be turned in on time, which means I have to actually do some writing, and I should probably attempt to get slightly ahead in my classes before November roars in with its demands. Okay, technically, I’ve got two days left in October, but Halloween is kinda a day where not much is going to be able to get done. (I have to drive Mom to a test in the morning, get ready for trick or treaters and the kickoff in the afternoon, give out candy, and then drive out to Dixon.) But yeah, I’ve got a lot to do tomorrow, so I’ll go to bed now.

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I’ll have it known that sometimes I *really* hate CSS.

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Oh yeah, one more thing. User participation moment. If you actually come to retstak.org, you’ll see I keep a quote thing on my sidebar. I could use help in finding neat quotes to populate the thing. So if you’ve got anything cool, go ahead and quote it at me.

Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[sammyd.livejournal.com]

Lightning storms are neat if you happen to be indoors and cuddled up in safety. We took refuge from a storm under the awning of a gas station while traveling through Kentucky. Once parked in what we thought was a nice dry spot next to the pumps, I ran inside to go to the bathroom. I was soaked and standing there in that tiny room, hearing the thunder crackling/booming and rain pouring down so hard the room was deafening. I thought to myself, "I'm gonna die in a gas station bathroom??? I don't think so!!!" I ran out to the car and we left rather quickly. When we got back home to Virginia, we had discovered the storm we had been in had killed quite a few people. It was very traumatic.

On a good note: I too am doing NaNoWriMo this year, as is my immediate family. I'll be cheering you on. I still have you on my buddy list. HUGS

[archangelbeth]

Mmmm, weather!

Luck with the Nano! I'm not participating, since I'm already working on something... (And I think 400,000 words in 9 months sort of "counts" in my mind. >_> )