So, for the past 29 days I've been busy writing - just not here. November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) - an insane, yet fabulous concept where you try to write a 50000 word novel between November 1 and November 30. That averages out to about 1667 words per day.
Well, I did it. I have successfully created a children's book that is over 50000 words long. Even though it isn't finished yet, I can say I have written at least the minimum of 50000 words. What a rush. I went into this with a general idea of what I wanted to have happen, but things happened that I never planned on - characters I never envisioned.
I'd read a book about what to expect when doing this and I'm so glad I did. The author, the guy who came up with this crazy idea, Chris Baty, says to expect this will be a crappy first draft, and let it be. More important is to get the ideas down. Then you can take the time you need to revise.
So, now that the 50000 words are out of my head and in my computer, I'll have time to get back to blogging.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Monday, November 12, 2012
More Minnesota Weather Fun
Yet another occurence of extremes in Minnesota weather: Saturday was gloriously warm. We even set a new record high temperature of 69F. And that amazing weather triggered not only thunderstorms, but even sprawned two tornadoes in Dakota County! Now they were only EF0 tornadoes, but that means the winds were still around 80 m.p.h. Trees came down, branches in the streets. Quite a show.
But it gets better - balmy temps and tempests on Saturday morphed into a cold and windy Sunday resulting in Monday's wake-up call of, yes - that's right - SNOW! Looking out my bedroom window, I saw white roofs and a snow-covered street. Flurries twirled through the air and the birdfeeders were like Grand Central station with juncoes, finches, chickadees, and cardinals zooming back and forth from feeder to bushes to trees and back. It was heavyweight longjohn weather.
What a change from Saturday. But that's Minnesota for you!
But it gets better - balmy temps and tempests on Saturday morphed into a cold and windy Sunday resulting in Monday's wake-up call of, yes - that's right - SNOW! Looking out my bedroom window, I saw white roofs and a snow-covered street. Flurries twirled through the air and the birdfeeders were like Grand Central station with juncoes, finches, chickadees, and cardinals zooming back and forth from feeder to bushes to trees and back. It was heavyweight longjohn weather.
What a change from Saturday. But that's Minnesota for you!
Sunday, November 4, 2012
When technology goes awry...
As the 7th graders from Heritage E-STEM Middle School learn about the prairie ecosystem, we take time to learn about both the plants and the animals that live there. Students looked for signs of animals during their visits this past week. We found coyote scat, squirrel dreys, holes (not snake holes - see the earlier post), deer rubs, insect holes and tunnels under the bark. We saw and heard birds. And a couple of students even spotted voles dashing through the grass as they walked in the prairie looking for live traps.
We also set up two trail cameras to try to capture images of animals active at night. Last year, we got pictures of deer, coyote, and raccoons. (Lots of people, too.) This year, the camera by the bridge crossing the creek took pictures, but none of them revealed any animals. It was windy on some of the days the camera was set up and moving plants will trigger the motion sensor in the camera.
The camera by the trails had taken at least 196 pictures by the time the second class came out on Thursday. Admittedly, most of them were taken as the students walked past the camera, waved at the camera, jumped up and down by the camera. Even so, some of the pictures probably showed something other than 7th graders. But, we'll never know. When the group arrived at the camera on Friday, it had reset itself to zero. To be sure, I checked the memory card when I took the camera back to the nature center. Nada. Zilch. Nothing. No pictures.
So what went wrong with the camera? I'm not sure. I've used it in colder conditions. I've had it take more than 200 pictures before I've downloaded them from the memory card. I don't know what could have happened. But it's a good lesson that just because you have technology, it doesn't mean you'll be more successful. Lesson learned.
We also set up two trail cameras to try to capture images of animals active at night. Last year, we got pictures of deer, coyote, and raccoons. (Lots of people, too.) This year, the camera by the bridge crossing the creek took pictures, but none of them revealed any animals. It was windy on some of the days the camera was set up and moving plants will trigger the motion sensor in the camera.
The camera by the trails had taken at least 196 pictures by the time the second class came out on Thursday. Admittedly, most of them were taken as the students walked past the camera, waved at the camera, jumped up and down by the camera. Even so, some of the pictures probably showed something other than 7th graders. But, we'll never know. When the group arrived at the camera on Friday, it had reset itself to zero. To be sure, I checked the memory card when I took the camera back to the nature center. Nada. Zilch. Nothing. No pictures.
So what went wrong with the camera? I'm not sure. I've used it in colder conditions. I've had it take more than 200 pictures before I've downloaded them from the memory card. I don't know what could have happened. But it's a good lesson that just because you have technology, it doesn't mean you'll be more successful. Lesson learned.
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