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明けましておめでとうございます – 27年/2015!

Another new year is upon us – 2015, or heisei (平成) 27 by the local system – so Happy New Year, or Akemashite Omedetougozaimasu as is said. (Or Ake Ome to it’s friends).

After a year off, this year I was back down to the ocean to watch the first sunrise, and whilst there was the usual numbers of people, and upbeat atmosphere to it, it was pretty much clouded over. Ah well, it still felt good and it still qualifies as ‘hatsuhi’, the first sunrise.

This year there was a little more organisation along the coastal road to stop people parking and obstructing traffic, the usual modded cars with insane exhausts, and the bosazoku on their modded motorbikes. All in all, it’s a good thing to go down and witness, and after watching the eastern horizon for a while, you can turn around, and watch the year’s first sunrise on the snow covered sides of Mt. Fuji.

Have a great year!

New Year 2015

Sun Rise

Sunrise on 2015!

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NaNoWriMo 2014: Week 1

So I’ve completed day 8 of NaNoWriMo 2014, and the best way to describe it thus far is ‘not bad‘. I came into this year’s event completely unprepared – I just didn’t do much beyond decide a concept for the story. This was certainly no master stroke, it was a combination of being busy with personal commitments and really struggling with enthusiasm to be honest. A bit of a departure from my first & last attempt in 2011, but my story idea this year also didn’t delve so much into any particular history or other real factual stance.

That said, here I am. After 8 days, I’ve done about 9,000 words – that’s fewer than the run rate of 13,333, but similar my last attempt, where it wasn’t until day 16 that I hit the run rate, which was lucky as I knew I had to finish 2 days early due to a business trip, whereas this month I should have until the 30th.

Enough of that, let’s talk about what I have done. The story is unfolding fairly well I think – I’ve established a morally ambiguous protagonist, and since this person reincarnates, I’ve already got female and male ‘versions’ on the go. There is also the mysterious and obligatory megacorp out to do bad things. Or are they? One thing I’m trying to do this time is make the morality of the various parties a little less clean cut.

So far almost all of the writing has been done on my Lenovo laptop in the beta version of Scrivener for Linux, on Mint 17 though I did do a few hundred words in the ‘real’ Scrivener on the MacMini also. So where have I been writing? Here’s a sample:

– The dining table – away from other distractions, and with a bit more space.
– The coffee table – sat on the floor, with a different view.
– The computer desk – I only did this once, at the Mac Mini, it just doesn’t seem to work for me.
– In the Kua Aina Burger Emporium – they have wide tables, and acceptable tea and coffee. Burgers are a bit expensive though so I haven’t actually been eating them.
– JR Tokaido Green Car train – this actually went quite well, but it’s too pricey to make a habit of.

trainwriting1

As far as a soundtrack, or playlist goes, I’ve been listening to the Rathole Radio podcast a little lately, and trying tracks from that  – mainly Creative Commons licensed works – specifically Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys with their “Soft Time Traveler” album.

As for a story title, I have a few in mind, which is amazing for me – I’m terrible with coming up with story titles. I’ll wait till next week to mention any, and see which ones are still with me. Right, back to the story.

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Movember 2014

It’s November, and that means it’s Movember, time to set that top lip free.  Movember aims to raise money and awareness of men’s health, especially prostate and testicular cancer by simply growing a mustache during the month. It’s a worthy cause, so feel free to donate via my link, the team I’m in, or via their website.

Movember-Man-Made-Moustaches-Pin

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Kiva Update – Two Loans!

Kiva is an organisation which works with micro-finance organisations all over the world to provide loans to help people move forwards with their ideas and businesses. Essentially, several people, sometimes many, pool their money to extend a loan to a person or group they select from the Kiva website.

I made my first Kiva loan in 2011 of 25 USD to a group in Viet Nam, the second was to a sewing services lady in Colombia, the third was to a man in Kenya, looking to build his motorbike transportation business. I won’t deny my love of motorbiking played a part in that last one. However, this has been that same 25 USD going around, so I’ve added another 25 USD (as well as a small donation to Kiva itself) and made two more small loans this time around.

The first new loan is to another Kenyan motorbike transportation chap, and the second is to a Balinese crafts family. This latter one is the first time then that I’ve lent money into a country I’ve actually been to.

This brings my money-lent level in total to 125 USD, well below the Kiva average of 333USD. One must try harder. Kiva knows this and provides plenty of statistics and badges on your portfolio in the hope it might make you want to cover that last country you haven’t lent into yet.

It’s worth remembering that this is a loan, not a donation, and many recipients are looking to build businesses, or better themselves for their communities, and unlike a donation, you stand a very good chance (98%+) of getting your money back to loan it out again, or even take it out of Kiva.

Give it a try.

 

 

 

 

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Movember 2013

It’s November again, which means it’s Movember again! Basic premise: grow a moustache, raise money for men’s health organizations. Simple enough?

I did this last year and found it surprisingly more involving than I expected. That furry top lip becomes a talking point, and people – men and women – are genuinely interested if they haven’t heard it before. Take a look, and maybe make a donation here.

MO13 Primary Logo Stacked POS

This is my first post in a while. I’ve just been busy.

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April 2013 in 30 Seconds

In what is becoming something of a tradition here now, I’m posting something I did almost 3 months ago – simply filming a second or so or video a day, and putting it together in chronological order,  which is something that I’ve seen a lot of people do, and I actually kind of enjoyed doing it myself. Maybe I’ll do it again for August since I’ll be on holiday during it.

 

1 Second a Day for April 2013 from Nanikore on Vimeo.

 

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Only a week left in Movember

So we’re over 75% through Movember and that top lip isn’t looking too bad, albeit after a slow start!

Check progress over on my Movember page.

It might be surprising, but I’ve never done a moustache before – I’ve always been more of a beard type person, preferring the full set if I’m going to be unshaven. Whilst I’ve gotten used to it, I think I’ll be shaving it off that first week if December.

Still, that gives everyone more time to donate to the men’s health programmes they support, so the next time you’re getting your prostate checked, throw some thanks to the Movember people.

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Movember Begins Tomorrow!

As I mentioned in the last post, I’m not doing the very splendid and worth while NaNoWriMo this November. Instead, I’m doing Movember, which is a charitable endeavour for gentlemen to grow a moustache and get some donations toward men’s health issues.

Movember 2012
Movember 2012

I’ll try to put some updates here, or on my Movember page, but I wont need to tell those who know me how silly I’ll look with a moustache, which is why, when I go for the facial hair, I tend towards the full set.

Of course, growing a moustache doesn’t require a lot of conscious effort, so I’ll be putting some time and energy into getting some support, or at least preparing some witty retorts for why I look like Baldrick with a slug on my top lip (sorry – very old joke). I haven’t actually decided which style I’m going for, so all ideas are welcome. On the style guide (warning: that’s a .pdf) I’m thinking the ‘Regent’, but I would love to be able to do the ‘Connoisseur’.

Anyway, please pop into the Movember website, and if you can click through to my page and make a donation to what is a very worthwhile cause.

Thanks.

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Writing in November?

November is almost upon us once more, and as many know, that’s the time for National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo. The goal: write a 50,000 word novel from scratch in the month of November. I did it last year for the first time, and ‘won’, in that I completed the 50,000 words, and I outlined my progress over each week in a blog post, which got my brain out of the storyline for half an hour.

Writing that novel, even just a first draft, felt like a real achievement, but I learned a lot more about writing during the month, and a few other things, like making sure to exercise, or you end the month feeling like a block of lard. So am I getting ready to assault NaNoWriMo one more time?

Er…no.

I’ve decided to do it every other year, but I will be doing a lot more writing in November than I usually do – I’m aiming to finish first drafts of four short story ideas, and if possible an edit of the novel I started in NaNoWriMo last year, which amazingly still lacks a title.

So November will be a big push on the writing front, but on a few projects I want to close out, not on one behemoth, if only because I currently have two novels needing pushing out now!

Anyway, if you fancy even trying to write a novel, check it out, as there’s a lot of good information, tips, support and community on there to help you out.