The NaNoWriMo challange started today. After the usual limbo of the first three days of the week, which i spent with mostly just wishing it would be thursday already, I've finnaly setled on a plot idea yesterday evening. And today, altough I did get a bit of "writers block" early evening so didn't started till half past 7, I wrote my first few pages for a total of 1946 words.
Only time will tell, how long i will get.
Thursday, 1 November 2012
Sunday, 28 October 2012
About writing
Last week I've signed up for NaNoWriMo. I've heard about it before but never actually figured out what is about until i came across a link while browsing for language/expat blogs. Don't know if I can do it, partly because I work full time, and partly as i don't know i have enough ideas and enough stamina to keep on going. A couple years ago, or maybe ten and a half to be precise, I had a few months after dropping out of uni and finding any job or course so I was at home, doing the housework and writing and cross-stitching. I was so much into writing at that time that I actually did it in front of my mum and brother, and I'm usually keep the whole thing secret. I'd got a thick A4 notebook filled, every days entry written with a different coloured pen I picked depending on my mood.
Now, i should type it straight away on the laptop - don't think i will choose colours, but who knows. Another problem is, I have two days to figure out which one of my three ideas to use. Two is fantasy and the third utopistic. One of the fantasy plots I've always imagined as a manga so I don't know if I can or want to tie it down into a prose. The utopistic one might be too crazy and probably way too depressing to spend an entire month on it. And the other fantasy, well, it's fantasy, i might just get lost in my ideas and not get a proper story out of it. Also, none of them will be readable for the majority of my family and friends - probably my brother will have to be the guinea pig, on his own. But at least i know he will appreciate my effort!
How will I have time for all this writing and to continue studying Finnish (noun cases next - yee-ha!) and even to knit and do some Christmas-prep, I've no idea.
Now, i should type it straight away on the laptop - don't think i will choose colours, but who knows. Another problem is, I have two days to figure out which one of my three ideas to use. Two is fantasy and the third utopistic. One of the fantasy plots I've always imagined as a manga so I don't know if I can or want to tie it down into a prose. The utopistic one might be too crazy and probably way too depressing to spend an entire month on it. And the other fantasy, well, it's fantasy, i might just get lost in my ideas and not get a proper story out of it. Also, none of them will be readable for the majority of my family and friends - probably my brother will have to be the guinea pig, on his own. But at least i know he will appreciate my effort!
How will I have time for all this writing and to continue studying Finnish (noun cases next - yee-ha!) and even to knit and do some Christmas-prep, I've no idea.
Sunday, 21 October 2012
Suomi
It happened after my ex-boyfriend moved out and I asked myself where is my life heading now. I thought about a lot of things to do - changing jobs, go on a Europe-wide trek on foot or by hitchhiking, move back to Hungary, jump in the Thames... I was also free to do things i didn't do while my boyfriend was around and could criticize and mock my quirkiness. I started watching movies and to knit while standing up and doing little leg-exercises, bought food he didn't tolerated like salami, and dug out my meager collection of snowboard movies. Which are either full with finnish guys or are made (partially) in Finland or both.
I've always had a soft spot for Finland and everything finnish. Being Hungarian, i knew from a very young age that the only country where they speak a language even remotely similar to Hungarian is Finland*. I also loved the fact that they had beautiful forests and beautiful architecture, and the men are blue eyed and blond haired (which are relatively rare in Hungary so i always found them exotic ;) I ended up studying Swedish and Estonian at the university, then came to the UK to learn English - maybe i will write a post about these detours in the future. So this summer I asked myself what are the things I really want to do in my life, and staying here wasn't one of them. Going there, getting to know the country, learning or at least trying to learn the language was. That settled it. I bought a textbook and started to gather learning material on the internet, and started studying a month ago.
I haven't studied a language from the start in a long time and now remembered how hard it is. The one year of Estonian studies are helpful sometimes and a burden at others, both owing to the similarities between the two languages, since they are much closer to each other then either of them are to Hungarian, I'd say like English and German to Persian. It is also one of those languages which make me laugh all the time because they just sound funny for the unfamiliar ears, like Chinese, Swedish and English**. I also love the fact that it has a lot of words who mean something entirely different on another language, i think they are called homonyms.
These few I gathered today:
hinta - fin price, hun swing (the playground toy)
lanka - fin yarn, hun gentle slope
ovi - fin door, hun kindergarten, nursery
te - fin you (2nd person plural), hun you (2nd person singular) - Hey, we are relatives after all! :)
on - is (to be, 3rd person singular)
helmet - pearls
So, here's for me doing something crazy and too big and completely non-sense again.
Hyvaa ilta! (Good night!)
*At that time, Estonia was part of the Soviet Union and not an independent country so nobody talked about them.
** Yes, English. I remember i found it sounding ridiculous when i started to learn it at age 9 and dropped it because i felt too embarrassed to say all those funny words out loud in front of other people.
I've always had a soft spot for Finland and everything finnish. Being Hungarian, i knew from a very young age that the only country where they speak a language even remotely similar to Hungarian is Finland*. I also loved the fact that they had beautiful forests and beautiful architecture, and the men are blue eyed and blond haired (which are relatively rare in Hungary so i always found them exotic ;) I ended up studying Swedish and Estonian at the university, then came to the UK to learn English - maybe i will write a post about these detours in the future. So this summer I asked myself what are the things I really want to do in my life, and staying here wasn't one of them. Going there, getting to know the country, learning or at least trying to learn the language was. That settled it. I bought a textbook and started to gather learning material on the internet, and started studying a month ago.
I haven't studied a language from the start in a long time and now remembered how hard it is. The one year of Estonian studies are helpful sometimes and a burden at others, both owing to the similarities between the two languages, since they are much closer to each other then either of them are to Hungarian, I'd say like English and German to Persian. It is also one of those languages which make me laugh all the time because they just sound funny for the unfamiliar ears, like Chinese, Swedish and English**. I also love the fact that it has a lot of words who mean something entirely different on another language, i think they are called homonyms.
These few I gathered today:
hinta - fin price, hun swing (the playground toy)
lanka - fin yarn, hun gentle slope
ovi - fin door, hun kindergarten, nursery
te - fin you (2nd person plural), hun you (2nd person singular) - Hey, we are relatives after all! :)
on - is (to be, 3rd person singular)
helmet - pearls
So, here's for me doing something crazy and too big and completely non-sense again.
Hyvaa ilta! (Good night!)
*At that time, Estonia was part of the Soviet Union and not an independent country so nobody talked about them.
** Yes, English. I remember i found it sounding ridiculous when i started to learn it at age 9 and dropped it because i felt too embarrassed to say all those funny words out loud in front of other people.
Saturday, 15 September 2012
31
Yesterday, i turned 31 years old. I had the day off and spent it with doing absolutely nothing of worth :D Or almost nothing, as i did my food shopping and tested a telly and did opened a book...I did go out later with my cousins and a friend who's visiting them and had a quite good night in my favourite (read: the only one which i can tolerate) club, then crashed at my cousin's place.
Best part of the night was when the other club opposite the one we were in had a firedancer performing on the street :) Thanks for the show :)
Sunday, 19 August 2012
Get-together
Saturday, 28 April 2012
Still alive
Still alive... knitting, working, the usual stuff.
Painted my nails on friday - first time in years :)
Current knitting project: a striped jumper. Bought the yarn at Hobbycraft last weekend for half price. There were about a dozens colours of this yarn (bamboo-nylon blend) and i couldn't choose so my cousins wife did it for me - she picked out pale pink, magenta and yellow. I do like this combination actually but couldn't imagine it on myself - so it's good someone else deciced on them for me :)
I'm using the Incredible Custom-Fit Raglan pattern again. Did a swatch beforehand, then washed it - and it grew to twice as wide as soon as i put it under water. It went from 24 stitches on 10 cm to 19! I was a bit surprised as i'm used to yarns grow lengthwise but not sideways, but then remembered this is a bamboo-nylon blend, not the usual wool.
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