Right Now I'm Loving...

Right now I'm loving... Harrison Ford.

But honestly, I've been loving Harrison Ford since 1977, when I was the grand ol' age of three. Still love him all these um... 26 years later.

I went to see the new Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit movie a few days ago (I liked it -- it was okay. Not fabulous, but kept my attention).  I wonder if Chris Pine has enough onscreen charisma to be the next Harrison Ford. I have to admit, I like Chris Pine quite a bit. Pine has got that cocky, let-me-wink-at-you-baby-it'll-make-everything-okay-promise bit going on pretty well.

Who's scruffy-looking?

Maybe it's because of the Jack Ryan movie, maybe it's because it's cold as Hoth in Virginia this week. But I started thinking about the original scoundrel. This was going around the Interwebs today:

Which is awesome. As Harrison Ford is.

But here's the real question. How many of the Harrison Ford characters/movies can you name based on the pictures below? Answers (and my score) are at the bottom of the page.

 

One last quote from the man himself:

I, sadly, was only able to get 27 out of the 40 of the Ford movies, and most of those were only movie titles, not full name of the characters. Obviously I need to spend a little time on my Harrison Ford movies this year.  How many could you get?

Answers:

Row 1: Lieutenant Shaffer (A Time for Killing), Willie Bill Bearden (Journey To Shiloh), Jake (Getting Straight), Bob Falfa (American Graffiti), Martin Stett (The Conversation)

Row 2: Han Solo (Star Wars: A New Hope), Ken Boyd (Heroes), Barnsby (Force 10 from Navarone), Colonel Lucas (Apocalypse Now), Lieutenant David Halloran (Hanover Street)

Row 3: Tommy Lilard (The Frisco Kid), Han Solo (Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back), Indiana Jones (Raiders of the Lost Ark), Rick Deckard (Blade Runner), Han Solo (Star Wars: Return of the Jedi)

Row 4: Indiana Jones (Temple of Doom), John Book (Witness), Allie Fox (Mosquito Coast), Dr. Richard Walker (Frantic), Jack Trainer (Working Girl)

Row 5: Indiana Jones (Last Crusade), Rozat Sabich (Presumed Innocent), Henry Turner (Regarding Henry), Jack Ryan (Patriot Games), Dr. Richard Kimble (The Fugitive)

Row 6: Jack Ryan (Clear and Present Danger), Linus Larrabee (Sabrina), Tom O’Meara (The Devil’s Own), President James Marshall (Air Force One), Quinn Harris (6 days 7 nights)

Row 7: Dutch Van Den Broek (Random Hearts), Norman Spencer (What Lies Beneath), Captain Alexei Vostrikov (K-19: the Widow Maker), Sergeant Joe Gavilan (Hollywood Homicide), Jack Stanfield (Firewall)

Row 8: Indiana Jones (Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), Max Brogan (Crossing Over), Dr. Robert Stonehill (Extraordinary Measures), Mike Pomeroy (Morning Glory), Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde (Cowboys & Aliens)

Right Now I'm Loving...

Right now I'm loving... National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month is occurring all over the world, where normal, everyday people are taking the time to write a 50,000 word (200 page) novel in one month. That's 1667 words (almost seven double-spaced pages) a day for 30 days.

I've talked about NaNoWriMo before, because 1) I think it's awesome and 2) it's where I got my writing start.  Before NaNoWriMo I wrote the same three chapters of a book over and over for THREE YEARS, and never made any progress beyond that. The chapters were never perfect enough for me to feel like I could continue to go forward. So I would get frustrated and quit. 

Well, NaNoWriMo allows for none of that "get it perfect" crap. With NaNo, you write without going back and correcting or reading anything. It's difficult to silence that internal editor, but doing so allows you to get an entire first draft completed.

Was the first draft I completed in NaNoWriMo a bunch of junk? Oh, definitely yes. It required a couple of months of solid editing afterwards before I would even let one person read it. (Then more editing after that).

But getting that first draft finished was crucial. And NaNoWriMo was key for me.  I'm proud to say that PRIMAL INSTINCT was a NaNoWriMo novel (technically, a CampNaNoWriMo which is in July), and will be available in April 2014 (You can pre-order on Amazon here, supporting NaNo authors everywhere! Or, um, at least one in Virginia Beach...).

I'm not officially participating in National Novel Writing Month this year because I was already in the  middle of a book, (because, ahem, did I mention my FOUR-BOOK DEAL WITH HARLEQUIN INTRIGUE? -- oh, I did? Multiple times? My bad...) but I have lots of friends who are participating. I am going to some of the local "write-ins" where we write in groups for hours at a time -- and sometimes all night -- at local Starbucks or church halls or comic book stores or wherever will let us hang out there and be anti-social.

I found The Stages of National Novel Writing Month on Buzz Feed and loved it so much I couldn't resist sharing it because it's So. True. Stop by Buzz Feed for more of their hilarity. Without further ado:

From BuzzFeed.com

National Novel Writing Month is a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. NaNoWriMo began in 1999 and the program includes real life and virtual gatherings of participants

You might be thinking

But 300,000 writers will attempt it this year

 

Maybe one of your friends

Someone you follow on Tumblr

Or the guy sitting next to you at Starbucks

 

But basically 300,000 people have the world’s biggest term paper due in 30 days, and it’s going to lead to some stress.

 

At the beginning they’ll be hopeful, calm, full of inspiration

They’ll quote authors about the power of the written word

Jot down ideas in one of their moleskine notebooks

 

But about halfway through the month, things will start to go downhill 

It might start as a confession on Facebook

 

Or the decision to skip a few days and relax

 

You don’t have to worry until they break out the exhaustion GIFs

 

Or start taking out their frustration on their desks

 

Sometimes all they’ll need is a little encouragement

Or a lot of encouragement 

 

You can distract them with something shiny

Or offer food

 

Around Thanksgiving exhaustion will become hopelessness

 

And frustration will morph into rage

 

Dole out head pats accordingly

Use your judgment about distance

 

There will be moments of calm leading up to the end

But November 30th will be a night of blind panic. Do not attempt to approach the writers

 

Don’t worry: On December 1st, NaNoWriMo writers will be back to normal, if just a little tired

And they’ll have 11 months to recover before next year's NaNoWriMo

 

 

  Hang in there my NaNoWriMo friends! You can do it!

Right Now I'm Loving...

So every once in a while I post about random things that are capturing my attention. I used to call this segment "Makes Me Laugh" but then I realized not everything on the Interwebs that sucked me in was actually funny. Like this week.

Because this week I'm loving... my own capacity for making stupid decisions. 

Particularly my stupid decision to do an Ironman in 2014.  And just so we're clear, before any of my smart aleck friends can make any comments about how I'm not allowed to "do" an Ironman since I'm already married, we're not talking about this Ironman:

Although it's not a terrible idea...

We're talking about the Ironman Triathlon. All 140.6 miles of it. Wikipedia defines it as thus (I love how they felt it necessary to put "without a break" in the description):

So, 2.4 miles of this:

 

Followed by 112 miles of this:

And 26.2 miles of this:

Ahem, to summarize:

Doesn't that just get you excited and make you want to sign up for an Ironman race RIGHT NOW?? Cause there's nothing like almost-drowning, road rash, and heat exhaustion to make you appreciate the fact that you spent $100's of your own hard-earned money for the privilege. 

I won't be clogging up this blog with all the details of my near-death experiences Ironman training. I've got a whole different blog for that -   

Embracing the Dumb: One Woman's Journey to Ironman.

I'm not alone in this little endeavor, my normal partners in crime jumped on the stupidity bandwagon as soon as they heard about it. They're the Thelma to my Louise, let me tell you. Any cliff that we can find, we are quick to drive over.

It will be hard, but we don't turn away from hard. It'll be stupid, but we don't turn away from that either. And by the time it's all over we'll be more an Ironman than Tony Stark ever was.

Right now, I'm Loving...

Here's something to start your week off right. C.S. Lewis (novelist, poet, Christian apologist and great friends with J.R.R. Tolkien) rocks.

C.S. Lewis is most famous for his Chronicles of Narnia series, but he wrote all sorts of profound stuff. The cartoon above is taken from a quote in his book, The Four Loves. Here's the quote in its entirety: 

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless — it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.”