Just spotted the following quote on the NaNoWriMo forums:

“When in doubt, have two guys come through the door with guns.”–Raymond Chandler

Brilliant.

I decided my story was boring this afternoon, so started again. I used maybe half of yesterday’s work, and as of tonight am on target. 3501 words down!

Have to be up early tomorrow to pick my sister up, so I’d best head off to bed.

Random freezes / reboots today: 5. I’ll work on that tomorrow morning.

Three random restarts later, and I’m 1070 words in. Not the best of starts - I have to average 1700 words per day to hit the target now - but I had to spend much of the afternoon and evening trying to get the computers working. I haven’t even looked at the major b0rkage going on with my own machine. See, this afternoon I wrote 400 words in Writely, and it then popped up with a ‘Writely has a problem’ message. Then I saw that the rather-low-anyway wifi signal had dropped out entirely. It came back, and the next time I hit ’save’ in Writely it worked ok. 600 words and half an hour later I closed the document, and when I went to re-open it no changes had been saved since the initial error.

Wow, was I pissed off.

I then decided to boost the wifi signal with a repeater, so picked up another WRT54G router¹ on the basis that I’ll be able to use it in Stratford too, should I ever get there. I figured setting this up would be a two minute job, until I discovered that the WRT54Gs routers, as opposed to the WAP54G access points I’ve used before, don’t actually support repeating the wifi signal. It can be done, but only by using third-party firmware.

So, I flashed the firmware, and bricked a router. I resurrected it after removing the case and shorting two pins on the flash chip, then promptly bricked it again. Haven’t yet managed to fix that one. Happily, the new router is a good replacement, and actually seems to have a better range² so the signal in the spare room was passable late this evening, when I managed to get something done.

I’ve used more bad language today than I have in rather a while. And I haven’t even mentioned that I drove into a hedge…So I’m going to watch a Scrubs episode, then go to bed. Tomorrow will be much better, I’m sure.

1. which PC World didn’t have in stock, despite it being the router that’s sold everywhere [↩]
2. although it could just be something atmospheric - wifi connections are sensitive to so many things! [↩]

I’ve moved my computer upstairs so that I can work on my NaNoWriMo novel in peace and quiet. I’m in a corner of the spare room, which is entirely full of boxes and assorted junk, but it’s working surprisingly well.

I’ve set up a new XP user with a completely blank screen and minimal applications running, and will be writing using the online word processor Writely in full-screen Firefox¹. I’m not having any clocks in the room either.

National Novel Writing Month works as follows: the aim is to write a 50,000 word novel during November. It’s not so much to produce something of great quality as to prove to yourself that you really can write a novel if you put your mind to it. Here’s my pledge:

If I fail to write a 50,000 word novel by the end of November, I will donate £500 to the Institute of Creation Research.

As you probably know, I hate creationism and the subversion of education, so I don’t write that lightly. I also can’t afford to lose £500! If I fail, you all have permission to take the mickey mercilessly for the next 11 months, until next November when I’ll try again The one proviso I leave myself is the Catastrophe Clause, but this can only be invoked if something incredibly awful happens, as judged by reasonable standards. If I get attacked by a psychotic iDog tomorrow and spend the next 30 days barely conscious in hospital, the creationists are getting nothing
I start tomorrow morning. I have a few ideas for what I’ll be writing, but nothing final as yet. Exciting!

1. Opera doesn’t fully support Writely yet [↩]

The landlords…are also investigating the cost of entering into a Deed of Variation to clarify the service charge payments….Unfortunately, completion of your purchase will be delayed whilst the title is being rectified.

Aaaagghhh. I was hoping to be moved in for November so I’d be all ready for the NaNoWriMo, but that’s looking a little dodgy now. Still, I’m going to take part no matter what - moving at the same time will just make it all the more exciting Also, I’m happy because a cool teapot arrived in this morning’s post.