Questionaire

Anybody out there who wants to fill in one of ReEvolve's careers questionaires? Feel free to contact me to get hold of one. They don't take very long to fill out and you get to be part of ReEvolves project. Since we mention your name you could think of it as free advertising!

I visited the RSPCA Finchley Branch yesterday to talk about doing some volunteering for them. It went really well and I'll probably end up doing some marketing for them. All this is completely separate to the stuff I'm already doing for Re_Evolve, but I think it would also be a much smaller time commitment so I should be able to take it on.

I am actually very fond of the RSPCA anyway. When I was sixteen I volunteered at their Southridge Rescue Centre, which is one of the main places the RSPCA rehomes animals from. I spent most of that time cleaning out animal cages and grooming cats, but it was a good experience. Besides I like helping charities.

10 Tips for NaNoWriMo

Yes, I will keep on going on about it :)

So NaNoWriMo is one of may favourite events of the year and pretty much the only reason I look forward to November. Of course, many people many be dubious about whether they really can write 50000 words in a month. I know that I was when I first tried it. Now that I've managed the goal twice I can almost convince myself that I'm qualified to give others advice. So without further ado here's a quick list of things that I found useful.

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1) Write whenever you get a free moment. It sounds obvious but you'd be surprised what you can write in fifteen minutes if you put your mind to it.

2) Keep a running word count. The NaNoWriMo site encourages you to do this anyway and they display your results in graph form. It is incredible to watch that little graph grow as you feed more into it.


3) Listen to NaNoWriMo's podcast. It gives you focus and lots of little tips on how to write, which brings me to...


4)Sugar is your friend. Unless you're dieting or diabetic of course. Then it probably isn't. However, sugar will give you a great rush and inspire faster writing. You can also use food as a reward for reaching a certain target.

5) Don't let writer's block happen to you. Especially with NaNoWriMo when the aim is to reach a certain number of words rather than to create a master piece, writing the first thing that comes to mind can be really effective.

6) Listen to your characters. I always find that my characters evolve as the story goes along. Don't fight it; this will make you write slower and waste precious time. If your character decides that he wants to do something you didn't plan because it makes more sense to him go along with it. Just don't complain about your characters talking to you too much in public, people will give you weird looks.

7)Use NaNoWriMo's forums. You need to procrastinate every once in a while, so you might as well do it by talking to other people who are torturing themselves. They might eventually guilt you back into writing.

8) Don't watch any TV at all. Well, maybe not at all. I certainly don't keep this rule very well! What I have found is that the less TV or film I watch the more original ideas I have. But maybe that's just me.

9) Keep busy. If you have other things going on it will focus you on writing. Or drive you slightly insane. Either way you will get things done and it's more fun than sitting blankly in front of a computer.

10) Tell everyone you know about NaNoWriMo. This will help you write, mainly because once people know what you are doing you'll have to finish it to save your reputation. Remember, friends who know you failed are friends who will never let you forget it (in the most affectionate way of course). Being able to tell people that you completed your goal is the best motivation there is. Post your word count widget everywhere so that they can watch your progress.

So there you have it, my take on NaNoWriMo. Seriously give it a go, it's never too late to start writing.

The Weather Outside...

Is frightful! And I mean that in the strongest sense of the word. Sure, the snow looks all sparkly and pretty now, but in reality it's just made everything cold and wet.

Better yet last night I think it caused a power cut. The power was coming and going for an hour before it cut out completely at 9:30. It came back again around 12:30, which I was accutely aware of because I'd left the light on my bedroom on without realising it and when the power came back it woke me up. True, in the grand scheme of things that isn't too bad, but it does give me yet another reason to not lke snow.

At least the trains were running into London this morning. I was half expecting them not to be. But I'm glad that I was able to get in to work at Re-Evolve today, I don't like it when the weather stops me from doing things.

This time every year...

I think I have cold coming on, and as my title suggests it's become something of an annual tradition. Then again half of the rest of the world seems to agree with me so it's not quite like I'm in bad company.

It's also the time of year when I remember that it does get quite cold again. During the summer months I usually magage to forget how much I dislike winter and as a result I'm always unpleasantly surprised.

The upside is that during autumn and winter there are always lots of events on during the run up to Christmas. I can rely on those to improve my day! Right now The London Games Fringe is coming up, and November holds a special place in my heart as NaNoWriMo. In truth it isn't National Novel Writing Month so much as International Novella Writing Month, but I do look foward to it. The goal of writing 50000 words in a month is quite doable (I have managed it twice before) and if nothing else it is a great excuse to stay nice and warm inside with my laptop. Even my annual cold can't stop me from doing that!

Giant Database?

Does this sound slightly scary to anyone else? I really don't like the idea of the government keeping tabs on everything I do. I mean emails and telephones calls would be bad enough, but keeping track of all the Internet sites I visit? It isn't even as if I go on any that I'd mind people knowing about, I just don't want the government to know exactly how many Disney and cute animal websites I visit everyday!
The personal information they could amass is much more terrifying, and not just because it could focus on me. It may be because I'm a lit student but a Big Brother state isn't something I think we should be aiming for. Of course I'm not the first person to say it, but it does make things all the more alarming that I feel the need to repeat it. Admittedly the government spying on us is nothing new, but it used to be a little bit funny when you could trigger having a phone call recorded by repeating the word bomb. I had some friends who used to take it as a challenge to see if they could set it off. "Yeah, that party was a BOMB last night!" *click* "Hey it worked!" Maybe the answer would be to fill all our communications with rubbish so that no one would bother reading it.
Oh well, I'm sure the government allegedly has our best interests in mind, they just come over really creepy with their suggestions sometimes.

Forum3

I went to Forum3 this weekend, which is sort of like a careers fair for charities looking to find people to volunteer or work for them. Actually it was much nicer than most of the careers fairs I've been to in the past because there were far more companies exhibiting and everyone there was really keen to talk to the visitors. At careers fairs I often get the feeling that the people running the stalls are there under duress (or maybe I just felt alienated by the fact that all of the careers fairs at my university seemed to focus on careers in law and finance).

Anyway Forum3 was a nice experience and I met a lot of charities which sounded like they would like people with my skills to volunteer. Given the huge variety of charities exhibiting there if you were interested in volunteering anywhere it would be a great place to go, and from the large crowds there was obviously a lot of that interest present. If nothing else it was a great way for the charities to raise awareness about their work.