The Shape is in a Trance

Man, this week flew by. I got back into a regular running routine, doing three 5-milers. I also played hockey Wednesday night for the first time in three weeks. Unfortunately, it was also game 1 of the World Series, so most of the guys stayed home. We ended up with four-on-four with no subs the whole night; I was dying out there. Good skate, though. I had a goal and four assists, although I think I had six or seven breakaways that were foiled.

Yesterday, my company held its annual Halloween event for employees' kids, so the girls were able to break out their costumes early and brought home a ton of candy. I believe for the first time in the 10 years or so that I've been there, I didn't wear a costume. I tried to think of something at the last minute, but nothing really jumped out at me. Driving to work this morning, I decided on a whim to go cold turkey on the candy and soda for a while. I certainly picked a tough time of year to do that, especially with all the candy floating around at work and in the house today. But I managed to survive for one day, anyway.

Another crazy thing I decided to do was participate in the National Novel Writing Month, which challenges participants to write a 50,000-word novel from November 1-30. One reason it's nuts for me to attempt is that I haven't done any real fiction writing since college; another is I have hardly any time as it is to fit all my interests in. I fully expect not to get 50,000 words (the equivalent of 175 pages) done next month, but I'm gonna try, dammit. The coolest part of NaNoWriMo is it forces you to just write; the organizers really stress quantity, not quality. So we'll see what happens. I already have the bare bones of an idea that I started working up several months ago, so I'll try to set aside some time every day to plug away at it. I don't have any grand designs other than to write something; I may be the only person who ever reads it. But that's okay with me.

I added a new collection of links (La Musica de la Rock) in the righthand column for bands/artists I know and love, so check 'em out. Included is the new Myspace page I created for Bea Arthur's Revenge, a band that was formed to play a single gig at my buddy Bob's house back in early 1999. There are also links for Doobs, who recently posted some great new music he recorded on his own; The Toastmen, Briggy's old Keene State College band that has been rehearsing for a few reunion shows in the hopefully near future; Me and Boris the Bull, which is the musical alter ego of Mark Campbell; and The Molenes, my friend Andrew's excellent alt-country act out of Portsmouth. Dig it!