A very happy camper

Last November, I made the monumental (for me) decision to sign up for NaNoWriMo after years of simply watching from the sidelines. For the first time, my writing was driven with a goal in mind: to write a staggering (for me, then) 50,000 words in just 30 days.

By the time I submitted my novel for its final validation (the process by which the NaNo word counting bots verify that you have indeed written 50,000 words or more), that project had upwards of 62,000 words. I had written more than I had ever written on a single project in my life, and I was thrilled.

That project had been planned in my head for a long time – I just hadn’t found the motivation to put my fingers to the keyboard and actually write anything.

This summer, I signed up for the very first “beta” session of Camp NaNoWriMo. And today, I am again very pleased to announce my second NaNo win, with over 55,000 words in my document. This book was completely unplanned, too: I simply sat down at the keyboard and waited for a character to show up. And she did. Not only that, she brought a lot of friends and family with her.

Thank you, Muses. My next step is to write something that I might actually be able to publish…

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iPads, writing and Gadget Zen

Yes, it’s another one of those “Hey, I got a shiny new bit of kit and I’m going to bore you all to death by talking about it” posts. I recently got my grubby (if the smudges I am constantly cleaning off the screen are any gauge) hands on an iPad. Thank you, local PC World.

When I first started talking about getting an iPad, rather than just internally musing on it while staring at blogs, Bloke asked me the question everyone really should answer before buying pretty much anything: do you really need it?

With the iPad, that meant thinking up scenarios in which I imagined myself using a tablet, and asking myself whether I already owned tools that would do the same job just as well. I use a Samsung NC10 netbook – a laptop-like device designed with portability in mind, and yet I still find it heavy and cumbersome to lug around with me on a regular basis. I’ve always imagined myself getting more writing done if I could easily move about, gathering inspiration from the places and people around me. Squinting at my iPhone screen, trying to write long passages on the fly, just wasn’t working out. The iPad felt like the perfect middle way.

Of course, I considered the opposing points of view, particularly those from people like Marco (of Instapaper and Readability fame), who hadn’t found the iPad useful for any sort of Real Work.

Gadget Zen
I pitched my final usage scenario to Bloke with my new philosophy of Gadget Zen. I’m finding these days that I don’t obsessively want every single new device on the market*. I’m mellowing, somehow, and actively embracing it.

Gadget Zen philosophy states that every gadget in your life must fill a hole in your workflow. It must justify its place in your life by fulfilling a need that is both identifiable and unique.

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Freebie: Badge sign-up sheets for Brownies

If your badge tracking system amounts to little more than scattered notes in various diaries and across the backs of subs envelopes… you’re exactly like me. Before I created this sign-up sheet, that is.

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I feel pretty, oh, so pretty!

First off, an awkward admission. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve re-launched this blog, but this time I was forced to re-launch due to the unexpected deletion (by me – all my fault!) of my WordPress database. I am going to take it on faith that the Universe was looking for this site to be pretty and purposeful.

So, welcome to the brand spankin’ new One Girl Revolution, a blog about geeking, Guiding and Paganism!

This utterly gorgeous theme is my first step into the world of paid-for WordPress themes. It has been put together by the team at Elegant Themes and tweaked a teeny little bit by yours truly.

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Freebie: Cook badge worksheets for Guiding

Some badges in the Brownie badge book require a lot of at-home work, and keeping track of what your girls have completed can be tricky.

We’ve all probably had the girls who bring cakes or biscuits in to the meeting, but can’t tell you how to correctly hold a knife or pass over a pair of scissors.

These worksheets have been created to send home with girls who are doing the Cook and Cook Advanced badges. Since implementing the worksheet scheme, testing the Cook badge has been much quicker and it is easier for the parents to confirm at-home clauses have been completed.

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