I met the 50,000 word goal for NaNoWriMo. Technically my official word count on the site is 50,229 words but Microsoft Word begs to differ with 50,236. And I'm still not done writing it. The reason I stopped at the minimum when I reached it (which I obtained on the 26th) was because I was preparing my application for the JET Programme and I had to get my forms and documents to the Japanese Embassy on the 29th of November. I also caved in and got the iPod nano.
So what do I do with my story now? I'm probably going to finish it at some point and when I do I'll probably go over it to make sure there are no inconsistencies throughout the whole novel. As for whether I want to publish it? Probably not at this point but I'll post it to my old FictionPress account and share it with people there. Just in case the nudity content of it is too much it'll also be on my deviantART as well. Might add an appendix as well just to explain the world/alternate earth. For those interested here's a brief summary:
A hunter named Giorgio has been missing for weeks and almost everyone in the town of Shamps presumes him to be dead. Upon Giorgio's return people begin to disappear and end up dead. Some townspeople blame the deaths upon the Ruta, the natives of the land, and their belief in the Earth Goddess that allows the Ruta to shape-shift. Other townspeople easily pin the deaths on Giorgio. A shepherd name Francis refuses to believe that either of them is the cause of all the deaths but the discovery of something sinister involving Giorgio may hold the key to the cause of the mysterious happenings.
I think my summary on my NaNoWriMo profile is a bit better than this but in short it involves werewolves a bit but it's not exactly a werewolf story.
I have mentioned in my earlier postings that Japan is not one of my ideal places to go to for EFL teaching but when you're experience is low there are not many places to go. I mean I could go to Turkey through some UK recruitment agency that a friend/classmate of mine is doing right now but from what I learned from her experience at that time is the people who run that department are short of staff. I was scrambling for my application for JET. I though about applying for it at an hour that I should be sleeping. What I didn't realize at the time was that I needed reference letters. This was about ten days before the deadline. I thought ten days was not enough time to get a reference letter done but I ended up with three by the time I went to submit an application. One of the reasons I was scrambling because I was picky about my references. I kind of have to be since the instructions asked my references certain questions about my working habits and leadership skills. What I was picky about was who to pick out of those who qualified or thought that did. There was one I debated on using as a reference, a university professor. I had this professor for 3 out of the 8 courses I took for my CTESL course. Sure I should have asked this professor earlier but the reason I debated asking was I hardly paid attention about halfway through the winter semester (which 2 of those courses took place). I mean I want someone who will say nice things about me. I may not know what was written in those letters but the lesson here learned is don't be too picky with referents. I'll know if I'm selected for an interview January 2014. Hopefully I didn't do anything in my application that would get me disqualified.
And in my previous post I had a technological dilemma on which mp3 player I should get. I hinted that I was leaning towards getting the iPod nano and I did. Black Friday is an event in the United States that has somewhat crept its way here to keep shoppers in Canada and not going over the border and so the stores here had some Black Friday specials. The nano was priced as $20 lower than the regular price for the weekend but I'd be hitting myself hard if the price was even lower for Boxing Week in December.
So my initial disappointments with the nano were that it didn't come with free songs and it doesn't like .wma files. I haven't tried syncing them to the nano but iTunes kept on asking me if I wanted to convert them to .aac files. My past mp3 players all came with free tracks but not the nano. Maybe it's also a good idea that I didn't tell iTunes to convert the .wma files because the majority them refused to be converted due to some setting I had on my old laptop when I ripped the songs from the CD. It's a pain having to rip the files all over again but it gives me a good reason to review my taste in music.
As for the positives so far, I think I got a hang of using the touch screen. Sound is okay and finally I can control the volume and scroll through my list of songs. It is quite light compared to my Sansa and I can use the car speakers to blast my tunes. Well technically I can't since my parents and I don't always share the same tastes in music, especially my mom whose hearing has somehow gotten sensitive to certain sounds (I may end up like that one day so I can't complain). Maybe one good reason I should get a driver's license.
So here's hoping things go well: I get my story done, hopefully get a job, and hope that my new mp3 player lasts for a long time.