Memories of Snow

NaNoWriMo Day 1: Snow's Miscellaneous Meanderings (WC:2025)

Fiḍál (Grace), 18 ‘Ilm (Knowledge), 173 BE - Tuesday, November 1, 2016 AD about 8:09 AM Pacific Daylight Time

Miscellaneous Meanderings Introduction

Why is it so hard to get started on the first day of NaNoWriMo? I don't know that this is any easier this year then it was last year. The only difference this year is the topic, I'm not writing a novel or a collection of stories. Instead I'm doing some personal writing. I didn't intend to start the first day by writing how difficult it is to start writing on the first day of November. I was going to start with the Birth of the Bab and the Birth of Baha'u'llah, the twin Holy Days that I and other Baha'is are celebrating today and tomorrow.

The title of today's entry is Snow's Miscellaneous Meanderings, so I guess beginning with a why question is a good thing. I'm writing this document in Word Online so that I can correct some of the grammar errors I normally encounter. At least I think that is the reason . Another possibility is that Word Online has an automatic word counter which will tell me when I reach my word count goal for the day. I don't know if that will help or hinder, but at least I don't have to stop every couple of paragraphs to count the words. At least I thought it would, but I noticed that the word counter disappear and English (U.S.) came up.

Miscellaneous Meanderings was a good choice for today topic because I'm not writing about anything specific. It's not unusual for me to do this when it comes to NaNoWriMo writing. I usually start out with an idea of what I'm writing about, but then I get into the zone and everything I planned runs out the door. Anyway, I stopped for a few minutes to get some coffee and make a pit stop (not necessarily in that order). I now have writing.com mug of Folgers black silk coffee sitting on the wooden T.V. stand on the left side of my chair.

As I said in an earlier paragraph, I was going to start with something about the Twin Holy Days. Today, November 1, and tomorrow, November 2, the Baha'is across the planet are celebrating the Birth of the Bab and Baha'u'llah. I used to attend the celebrations at the Baha'I Center, however, that stopped when I became my mother's caregiver. It takes a lot out of a person to take care of someone else. I feel guilty because I think I could have done more for Mama, but perhaps I'm wrong that. I have to give that a little more thought and prayer before I write any more about it.

Twin Holy Days

The Bab, which means The Gate, was the forerunner of Baha'u'llah. The Bab was an independent prophet or Manifestation of God. By this I mean he began a religion which some consider a new religion. The Babi Faith was a revelation from God and a continuation of the religion of God that has been on this planet since the beginning of the human experience on Earth. The Bab called or rather referred to Baha'u'llah as Him Whom God Makes Manifest.

Baha'u'llah, the Glory of God, along with The Bab fulfilled the prophecies of the earlier religions. Baha'u'llah is the Promised One of all religions. The reason Baha'is celebrate their birthdays as Twin Holy Days is because the revelations are intertwined and one can't be understood without understanding the other. I can't say I understand everything, but there are some things that I do comprehend.

Miscellaneous Meanderings Part 1

I finished the first page, exited and renamed this document from Document1 to NaNoDay1. When I returned I turned the word count on and it read about 643, so now I can estimate the word to approximately 643 words per page. That is nice to know. It's also nice to know that once I turn the word count back on it will give me a running count. I'm not sure whether this is good or bad because I can get distracted looking at the word count. When I get distracted then I tend to lose track of what I'm writing because my train of thought gets derailed by the distraction.

I'm wondering if I should title the different sections of each day's writing. It would be easier to edit if I title the different sections with subject titles. It also might be easier for other people to review and give suggestions on the different sections. I'll think about that before I close today's writing and copy it to my writing.com NaNo book. The title of my NaNo Book is I Am A NaNo Rebel 2016. It's saved in my writing.com port under the folder Creative Echoes and the subfolder NaNoWriMo 2016.

I'm not sure how much more I can get written before I have to stop and eat breakfast. I always drink at least one cup or should I say mug of coffee before I eat breakfast. I took most of my meds this morning with the exception of the purple pill for my stomach, which I will probably take a couple of hours after breakfast if I need to and my blood pressure med (I don't take those until around 8:00 AM).

I voted early, as usual, so now I don't have to worry about it. I'm not looking at television or perhaps I should say not turning on television until after November 8. If someone else turn the T.V. on in the living room then I'll probably look at it. The problem with television is that it's distracting and the political ads are vicious. I can't deal with the political ads anymore this year. Therefore, I'm going to attempt to avoid them by not looking at television. I have enough distractions as it is, what with my creative spelling and weird neighborhood noises. All though, I suppose if I opened the door and the curtains to see who or what was making the noises they wouldn't seem so weird.

I Am A NaNo Rebel

I am a 2016 NaNo Rebel
I am writing about personal issues
This year.

I think I will use that poem in the synopsis on the NaNoWriMo website. Now all I have to do is decide what to write on the part about writing from my book. Normally, I use the first few paragraphs of the first chapter. I'm not sure I'll do that this year. I may chose other parts from the first chapter or I may use the first few paragraph from the second chapter. Maybe I'll use a poem from the first or second chapter of this book.

Miscellaneous Meanderings Part 2

A school bus just stopped in front of my apartment. One or two stop there between 7:00 and 8:00 AM five days a week (national holidays excluded). I didn't take a school bus to school when I was a child in Blackwell, Oklahoma. When I went to grade school I walked with my siblings or my friends. When I went to Junior High (MIddle School) I also walked. Between Junior High and High school we moved from Blackwell to Shawnee, Oklahoma. I still walked most of the time, but sometimes I took the city bus home. I haven't thought about my educational life in either Blackwell or Shawnee in several months. Perhaps I'll have to write some memories about that in a later entry.

I decided to take my purple stomach pill. This means I can't eat until about 9:30 AM. That's all right because I'm not suire about what I want. I'll probably eat cereal or something like that. We've got plenty of cereal in the house and every time I go to pick up my Senior commodities I get one or two more boxes. That's all right because I can always give the cereal to someone in the neighborhood who needs it. We have a lot of low income or no income families living in this neighborhood who could use the cereal for their children.

Writing of children in my neighborhood, last night was Halloween. I or rather we gave out treats this year. It felt good giving treats to children in costumes. Some of them were wearing beautiful and creative costumes. I think black and orange make good colors for Halloween costumes. I like the way black and orange compliment each other as well as the way those colors compliment almost everyone who wears them. Perhaps I will look for some black and orange blouses or dresses when I go clothes shopping again.

I'm working the general election polls this year. This means that I won't be able to writing anything in NaNoWriMo until I get back after 7:00 PM on November 8. I do this almost every year and almost every year I get behind in my word count. I'm attempting to avoid that this year, but this means I will have to write approximately 16,000 words before November 8. I hope I can do that even with the one interruption in my writing I'll encounter before then. I could encounter two interruptions and, if I do, I'll have to make up for those interruptions by making extra entries or writing more than 1,667 words a day. My daily minimum word count goal is 1,667 and the maximum is 2,000. I'm sure I can do the minimum, but I'm not so sure about the maximum. If I find that word count easy to achieve then I'll raise the goal about 500 words.

I need to clean off my desk next to my computer. I was just looking for something and come across two campaign mailers asking me to vote no on a question I already voted no on and one asking me to vote against a candidate I already voted for. Those obviously go in the trash bag I have sitting on the floor on the right side of my computer desk.

God's Manifestation:
To Baha'u'llah

Again God's Beauty appeared,
In the form of the perfect man,
Teaching us God's law.

He wrote words of eternal splendor,
Going beyond race or creed,
That speak directly to the soul.

The Glory of God revealed,
New laws for modern man,
And ancient scriptures helped us understand.

I'm sure I'll have to rewrite that because I think it would sound better written in the first person rather than the third person. I think (and this is my personal opinion) that religious poems sound better when written in the first person. I know I would rather read these types of poems when they are written in the first person. The first person point of view sounds more like an individual's testimony rather than the third person point of view. I also think I need to change the tense of this poem from present to past tense. Once I get the poem rewritten to my satisfaction then I'll probably post it on writing.com.

Miscellaneous Meanderings Epilog

I think I'm just about finished with this entry. I can't seem to think of anything else to write. I checked the introduction to my NaNo Book to see what I planned for tomorrow. According to my notes, which I may or may not follow, I'm supposed to do Dot Points. I fairly sure I won't use them for the entire entry, but I'm not sure what else I will write. I'm looking forward to see what I write on Wednesday and how many words I can write.

I just copied the above paragraph to my writing.com NaNo Book and did a word count there. The word count in the One Drive WordOnline document was 2,081 while the word count on writing.com for those paragraphs was 1,930. This means that tomorrow I will have to write approximately 151 words above my maximum goal to achieve 2,000 words. I think I can do this. The question is am I being Obsessive-Compulsive or not? This is NaNoWriMo, so perhaps focusing on the word count during November isn't a sign of being either obsessive or compulsive.