Especially when I had this terrible sinking feeling all weekend…

Link: 2006 Commencement Address.

Commencement address given by guess who?

Remember, you cannot be both young and wise. Young people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly just cynics. Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don’t learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. Cynics always say no. But saying “yes” begins things. Saying “yes” is how things grow. Saying “yes” leads to knowledge. “Yes” is for young people. So for as long as you have the strength to, say “yes.”

And that’s The Word.

This is a bad science fiction novel.

This 50000+ word monstrosity was written in November 2005 to accomplish one thing: Win NaNoWriMo 2005. Contained within are unresolved plots and subplots, two dimensional characters, egregious grammar, numerous spelling mistakes, extensive usage of deus ex machina and and just plain bad writing. The editing process is meant to fix those problems (a process which I intended to do for NaNoEdMo 2006 but never began). It is not a work of literary genius nor did I intend it to be. It is bad science fiction novel after all.

What is bad science fiction you might ask? I could not begin to even define the genre for you. But you know what it is. Stay home on a Saturday night and view the movies made especially for the Sci-Fi channel. That is bad science fiction. Clumsy plots, bad characters, bad dialogue and typically not grounded in science fact. If it has any redeeming quality, bad science fiction is mostly laughably bad
and always pokes fun at itself. Battlefield Earth notwithstanding. That was bad bad science fiction.

If it’s bad science fiction, why write bad science fiction then? My only answer is that it was fun to write. Trying to think up the most insane, outrageous things fueled myself past the 50000 word finishing line.
On the other hand, I’m not sure if it is a fun read. I’ve not read this novel in it’s entirety. I hope it’s a fun read because it was a fun write.

I leave this work in your hands, brave reader. I apologize ahead of time for any pain I might have caused your sensibilities. Just to be on the safe side, I hope you don’t mind and please sign the indemnity waiver before proceeding. :-)

After some gentle persuasion from pixie-bebe and kkchen, I decided to sign up for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society: Team in Training program. Our goal is to run the Seattle Marathon at the end of November.

I’ve seen the brochures in various coffee houses over the years, I’ve even picked up the brochures and thumbed through it. I’ve never thought about doing it before because either:
a) I always seem to miss the information sessions
OR
b) I can train for a marathon by myself

This year pixie-bebe and kkchen made sure I didn’t miss an information session. In fact they gave me a lift to the kick off meeting. I thought the kick off meeting may have been a bit too rah! rah! but I guess having more enthusiasm at the beginning is not a bad thing. I know I’ll be needing it towards November.

As for training by myself that’s never quite worked out so well. Why I’m taking this route this year? How is this attempt to finish a marathon going to be any better than my two previous failed attempts? My problem has never been the technical aspects of running. I do a decent job of running within my ability, pacing myself, not over-striding, wearing good shoes, eating well. The part I always fail at is the follow through. September, October, November rolls about…. the days start getting noticeably shorter, the rain starts failing, the weather starts getting colder, the work starts piling up…. and Daniel can no longer pull himself out of bed to keep training.

A piece of advice I was given really early on (which I promptly ignored) was to train with people and not to train by myself. It took awhile for this sink in. It didn’t really connect until I did NaNoWriMo with RL and MN last year, and didn’t do NaNoEdMo by myself this year. Marathons (whether literary or physical) always seem to go easier when you have a friend or two writing/running along side you. The other thing that kkchen pointed out to me was imagine not running the marathon after asking people to donate money. I don’t think my highly developed guilt complex would let me live that down.

My own flippant reasons aside, one of my new year resolutions was to be more charitable. Although fund raising is not exactly in I had in mind, it’s in the right spirit. I don’t say it often but cancer (especially in children) is pretty close to my heart. Leukemia and Lymphoma are common childhood cancers (according to this, Leukemia occurs in 25% of cases and Lymphoma is the third most common childhood cancer). It’s depressing to see children undergoing chemotherapy or radiotherapy. The side effects of chemotherapy can be brutal on adults but is much worse on children. Really quite depressing…

Writing this blog entry reminded me of fey. Funny how the aches, pains and gripes of the daily grind don’t seem so bad now…

AL donated to my cause without me even posting my donation link. I guess that’s because we are in cahoots for the Seattle Marathon.

Please support me:

http://www.active.com/donate/tntwaak/daniel42

Read on to learn about the exciting gifts your generous contribution will get you!

I guess I was inspired by the pledge drives I see regularly on KBTC / KCTS or hear over on KEXP.

Host A: Well B why don’t we tell our audience at home the fa-bu-lous gifts they will receive for their generous contributions.

Host B: At $25 level, you’ll be emailed a copy of “Conflct over Agamemnon”. A delightful little 50000 word novella. Full of drama and excitement! It’s about a ninja, a barista and a ship captains entangled in an intergalactic battle spanning the galaxy. It’s completely unedited and has never been released to the public.

Host A: That’s so exciting. I’ve read some excerpts and it made me want to hurl but in a good way. What other exciting gifts do our contributers get?

Host B: At $50 level, we’ll email you a copy of the novella and burn it on a CDR for you. Yes yes it’s all very exciting. At $100 level, we’ll get Daniel to autograph hard copies of the manuscript for our contributors. Each copy is individually numbered and sure to be a collector’s item sometime between now to infinity.

Host A: How about gifts for people who contribute above that level?

Host B: I’m so glad you asked that question.
At the $250 level, you’ll get a autographed copy of the EP that Daniel is about to start working on with his collaborators. You’ll get to hear the fine electric bass playing and rhythm that Daniel is infamous for. Along with the EP, you’ll also get an autographed hard copy of the manuscript.
At the $500 level, you’ll get to attend a party hosted by Daniel where he’ll drink 4 beers and proceed to read select excepts from the manuscript. If you’ve never seen Daniel in person with lots of alcohol in him, it’s one of the funniest things around. Unfortunately as Daniel is training for a marathon, he won’t be able to do this until after the marathon on Nov 26.
At the $1000 level, Daniel will be giving away the ipod nano and the collection of songs on it he used while training for the marathon. Yes yes this is a very exclusive offer and stock is definitely going to be limited!

Host A: Thank you B for the rundown on the fa-bu-lous gifts. If these gifts are not sufficiently enticing, don’t forget all the altruistic reasons for donating, it’s both good karma and tax deductible.