It's Official!

I am a winner.

I managed to crank out 50,000 words on another novel this November 2008.

The Show Must Go On--but with a slight delay...

Last night a security guard at MHS was apparently murdered. This means (in addition to all the sad and horrible things) that rehearsals scheduled at the MHS cafeteria (as well as all classes) must be cancelled because the campus is now a crime scene.

So THE SECRET GARDEN opening on Thursday, November 20, 2008 has been cancelled.

The show will go on as scheduled for Friday November 21 and Saturday November 22. Both shows are at Charley's Club, PIC. Tickets and other information about THE SECRET GARDEN, a musical, can be found in the post before this one, and in posts at the competitions blog.



My condolences to the families and friends of the security guard. Also to those families and friends of the three who died over the weekend in the auto crash.

The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden--a musical



Thursday November 20
Friday November 21
Saturday November 22
7 PM

Children & Students: $5
Adults: $7.50

Dessert available for $5

PIC Charley's Cabaret

Military Needs Trump Marine Life

This just in from FindLaw:

ENVIRONMENTAL LAW, MILITARY LAW, REMEDIES
Winter v. Natural Res. Defense Council, Inc., No. 07-1239 (U.S. Supreme Court)

In an action brought by environmental groups claiming that the Navy's use of a particular type of sonar during training exercises in the waters off southern California causes serious injuries to marine mammals, a preliminary injunction against the Navy is vacated to the extent requested where: 1) although the Court does not discount plaintiffs' ecological, scientific, and recreational interests in marine mammals, such interests are plainly outweighed by the Navy's need to conduct realistic training exercises to ensure that it is able to neutralize the threat posed by enemy submarines; and 2) consequently, the district court abused its discretion in imposing the restrictions at issue on the Navy.

National Novel Writing Month in Saipan

Um, make that 3 years...

But in November, we set aside all previously written prose (and poetry, and song lyrics, and scripts, etc.) and start anew.

I am not alone in Saipan hammering away on a new novel this November 2008. I'm not sure how the students at SSHS and MHS are doing (few have updated their word counts). I'm quite sure that the 4th graders at Kagman Elementary School have not set 50,000 word goals (although their personal goals are heroic for each of them!). I know that there are teachers with meager word counts to their names as they lead their students into the fray.

And then there are a few of us fools seriously aiming at the 50,000 word goal this month.

Like Snoopy, pondering the great novel yet to be written...

Joe Race, Tom Uhl, and me.

I've written over 14,000 words, which sounds impressive, until you consider that means I have about 36,000 words to go...

The good news: our region, Asia: Micronesia is AHEAD of 32 other regions in word count! That's raw word count (not per person). And to me, that is amazing!

Ahead of us is Week 2: Week 2 is the most hellish week of NaNoWriMo as shown in this illustration from Hannah K of the Netherlands.

And some of us are still grappling with our inner editors. For those who don't know what that's like, here's a Peanuts comic that gets the point across: Lucy is an outer-- inner editor.

Thanks to Charles M. Schultz, for Snoopy and his inspiration.

Now back to writing.

International Comment

There is a lot of international comment on the US election and Barack Obama's candidacy and win.

Here's one take from Malaysia.

Obama's Acceptance Speech

John McCain's Concession Speech

293. CNMI Election Returns

We're waiting on the absentee ballots. 9289 ballots cast and counted here. Election results from Vote CNMI show

Kilili the clear leader with 2279 votes,
followed by Pete A with 1919 and
John Gonzales at 1740.

In September, I had these same three at the top of my list.

Lil Hammerhead will be happy with Kilili's win (assuming, knock on wood, that the absentee ballots don't change the outcome). I hope he does us proud in Washington, D.C. and wish him congratulations and best wishes.

Face forward, the past behind us...

The other contenders:

Juan Lizama at 1611,
Luis Crisostimo at 879,
David Cing at 270
Felipe Atalig at 233
Chong Won at 219, and
John Davis in the cellar at 139.

I'd rather have seen John Davis beat out everyone from Luis Crisostimo on down, but that's my personal preference. I'm not sure if you're going to lose an election if it matters how close you came.

292. No posts...

NaNoWriMo has officially started and I am too busy to post here. All my writing is going into my novel. :-)