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I am amazed by the total of words I write the last days. You remember the post two days ago? Yes, the one where I said that I stopped calculating because it’s kind of distracting and demotivating me. What dit I in this post without being aware of it? Right, I calculated. But this was not for me. It was for the fellow NaNo’s who are maybe procastinating writing out of the same reason: demotivation through calculating. If you continu to calculate that the goal is not reachable, it will be unreachable. Stop doing this. Just do it like I described two day’s ago and you will be amazed too. Even if you don’t have a clue what to write about. It will just pour out of your fingertips. Believe it or not. It doesn’t matter to me.

I think that after I have written I may calculate again. And again it is for demonstration purpose only and it’s no rocket sience but just to show you, that you have plenty of time left, even though you maybe laying behind with more than ten- of fifteenthousand words.

That sounds weird, but it isn’t. When I started today my wordcounter stood on 19306 words. Today, just like yesterday, I had some distractions, like cleaning the rabbit’s cage and surfing the internet to look for virtually nothing. Just like you did. If it wasn’t you, look at somebody behind you. Yes, he was it. But don’t point your finger, as he looks a little bit stranger than you do. However, as a result I started writing pretty late, but I used the NaNo-cult-weapon ‘Write of Die’ that keeps me focused (sorry that I have to repeat myself this often). At the end of the day my wordcount is increased to 23174. That means that I wrote 3868 words today. I am sure that I would not have wrote this amount without the tool. I just have set the goal on 400 words in ten minutes and did this a couple of times. As you see on the number of words, it would be 10 times. You see? In the time of a movie, I wrote at least double as much as I would have wrote without this focusing tool.

I wish you all a good night and promise that I now will shut up about the tool and keep it short and just about the wordcount.

See you next time!

Mario

Today was a pretty tough day to write. No, not the writing was tough, but finding time to fit it in. As I said earlier this last days, I had a appointment with my coach that I couldn’t postpone because it was already postponed. But even though all the distractions today I achieved a new wordcount that I hadn’t consider possible.

I decided to make or a 50k-dance video (if I achieve this goal) or a 50k-downfall video (if I don’t). Though, there will be a video that my vidmo-fellows deserve and I make the promise today that it will come. Be warned.

Now I have to watch a movie for my upcoming wednesday-movie-review-posts, that will start soon. Just like other series I am planning for this growing blog.

See you tommorrow guys and galls

Mario

I think besides the ‘Write or Die’ tool one of the best things I’ve done zo far is not to calculate. Because when I calculate how much words I have to write every single day until I meet the 50k goal on November the 30th, I kind of paralize. It’s demotivating. Instead of this I just write as much as I can. Lucky for me in this case is the fact that here is not that much to do. You see, in New York you have more distractions. Distractions in a nice way, don’t misunderstand me. There is always something more important or more interessting to do. That is what I’ve seen.

In one way or the other the tool that all NaNo’s are talking about has made a computergame out of my NaNo-novel. Why? Easy to explain: I always choose to write 400 words in just ten minutes and sometimes I get it and more often I don’t, but it’s a funny challange to do it this way. This is much more spellbinding than playing Pacman online and it has much more result. Most of the time I come above the 350 or near the 350 in ten minutes and I just try it over and over again. If you do this ten times a day, you have spent 100 minutes, what is 1 hour and 40 minutes (the length of a movie), writing your novel. This is not that much time but in the end you have managed to write at least 3500 words. This makes in 10 day’s 35000 words. In other words: it is doable for everyone. Savvy? I am not a magican who can do this. Look at Gamwyn, SantJoi and JustJason who are already reached the 50k mark in the first two weeks of NaNoWriMo 2008.

Alas, tommorrow it will take a little longer before I am able to start writing, because I have an appointment that I already postponed one time and I can’t stay postponing it.

I hope all the participants are staying motivated. Let’s see what the next days bring.

See you soon!

Mario

P.S.: I seriously consider to use the tool for writing my posts.

Finally day 16 of NaNoWriMo is over and I can’t wait to make my next video public. Just like yesterday it is uploading to Viddler while I am sitting here and write these post. For my followers I hope they don’t read the my blog before they saw the video, because my wordcount is shown in the sidebar. I also hope that Ilaria aka swimturtle is not angry that I am further than she is. What I absolutly not want is to demotivare her, as I always think that the thinks I can everybody else can do. Ilaria you will reacht the 50k goal of November. Believe me, believe in yourself. Most of all: have fun during our wordwar that is to follow on TurtleInk.

At first my wordcount goal for today was at least reaching the 8000 words. After reaching it with thanks to ‘Write or Die’, I set a new goal for today. That was breaking the 10.000 words borders. After gaining momentum in my story I reached the wordcount mentioned in the video.

I hope all my NaNo-fellows and dear blogvisitors have a lot of fun. It’s now very late in the Netherlans, so time to sleep and dream about the plot that is growing rapidly.

Until next time!

Mario

Today I made a very short update video regarding my wordcount. The reason is that I used my sparetime today to write on my novel, like I should have done earlier this month.

I learned that for me the best use of the ‘Write or Die’- tool is when I choose to write 300 words in 10 minutes. That keeps me focused. This way I can still browse the Internet and do other stuff that has, or has not to be done. But in this 10 minutes of writing I am unbelievable focused. Nothing can distract me from doing so. When my girlfriend kissed me good night, she looked in terror on the screen that was turning to red. Before the babies began to cry or whatever had might come (you never know with this tool), she let go of me and nearly begged me to type something. No, I lied, she did not beg me, but I thought this would fit in the dramatical circumstances that I am in, regarding to NaNoWriMo.

I hope all my NaNo-fellows had a good writing day and that they will enjoy their sleep. Tommorrow the insanity continues and we all have to write a lot.

See you soon,

Mario

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If NaNo wouldn’t have been a challenge until now, than it finally would be (and is) right now. Especially when you look at the wordcounts of all the fellow NaNo-writers. Not surprisingly SaintJoi and Gamwyn have surpassed everybody else with a wordcount from hell. That would be the point of saying: ‘Ok guys, you won. I give up.’
But hey, this is not a competition with the other writers. NaNoWriMo is pure a competition with yourself. Other writers are there to communicate with and to motivate you. And yes, they do.
So, after considering not to go ahead with the NaNoWriMo novel of 2008, because of the fact that I fell behind for nearly 2 weeks, I made the decision to go ahead and win in 2008 just as I did in 2007. No doubt about it.
Of course I will not be able to catch up with all the video’s that are posted on the NaNo-group on Viddler, but from now on I will follow them closely. At last this is the most of the fun of NaNoWriMo. The community.
In other words: the challenge is now twice as big as it was and I am ready for it. Luckily I get all the support from my fellows.

If you are on the same point and you are considering to give up or go ahead with full power, here is the tool that can help you with it: Write or Die!

I wasn’t aware of how many people in the Western world are familiar with how to use chopsticks. Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not one of them. I remember that I one or two times in my life had tried to feed myself with these tools, but never brought it to the end of my meal without a fork. That is why I was amazed when I saw all this people handled this sticks as if they never had eaten with something else before. When Ilaria lead me to a real sushi bar in New York City (what is especially exciting when you just know them from the movies), I thought I could help myself with it. Ilaria told me the trick of the whole thing, what means that you just move the upper one, whilst the lower stick is resting on your fingers.
Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Now, in one way or the other I gave up too soon, because I recognized that my low speed of handling would have caused the staff of the sushi bar to make overhours, just for me waiting to finish my dinner. I’m sure nor the staff nor the owner would have appreciate that. So at last I had to ask with a shy tone in my voice for a fork. The chopsticks won the battle this time. Again. Learn from it and don’t let this happen to you. In the meantime I discovered a brief how-to-video on Youtube, made by a friendly Asian guy:

I really should have seen this before. But wether with chopsticks or a fork, I enjoyed the meal that was so well explained by Ilaria. When I look at the video I become hungry again on the spot. You should too! If you are never had sushi before and it sounds a little scarry to you, you should watch it and try it the next time by yourself. Bon appetit!

After a light, healthy meal we went to take a walk, to see some buildings I just know from the movies. Like the Flat Iron Building and The Empire State Building. Be honest, when you think about this last building you think automaticly about King Kong, aren’t you? I did and guess what: the saying goes that it was a trick. Special effects. Of course you and I know beter, we saw the movie’s.

Thank you for visiting my blog again and forgiving me my typos.

Until next time, when I’ll try to catch up NaNoWriMo nearly two weeks too late.

Mario

As you can see in the pictures and the video below, we leave the political distractions of the last few days and dive into the ‘daily life’ again. I put it between marks because it is not a daily experience for me to let someone write Chinese characters with a needle in my arm. Once reached the age of 42 not many people would get their first tattoo, I guess.

Above you can watch the 13 minute ‘torture’ video. Feel free to read the rest of the post first, as it provides additional information.

Chinese characters

There are two different kinds of Chinese characters (a.k.a. Han Characters). Traditional and simplified. For my tattoo I have chosen for the traditional, as they are in my opinion better for an artistic purpose. More about Chinese characters you can find out by clicking on this text.

The story of this tattoo

The main character of my second novel LOSER – Director’s cut (at the time of writing this, just available in Dutch) had these tattoo in Chinese Characters on his back that said: I would rather die standing than live on my knees.
This wasn’t just impressive to a Dutch journalist who interviewed me for a literal e-zine but also to me. He was curious if I had this tattoo on my body and of course he asked me if I could identify myself with what the tattoo said. I answered that I of course totally agreed with the saying of the tattoo but that I don’t had any tattoo. I also told him that I was considering getting this tattoo.
Part of the back story of this tattoo is a workmate I worked with in Germany when I was a 17 year old boy. He had this saying on his arm. Nothing special except the saying itself. He had it just as a German sentence on his arm. So it was impressive but not very attractive.
Anyway, when I came to New York and explained Ilaria from TurtleInk.org some details about my book (gosh, it has to be translated in English) she told me that she had Chinese friend who was able to translate the sentence into Chinese characters. Ching was so sweet to send us immediately 14 different artistic masterpieces of the sentence. There is a idiomatic equivalent of the sentence that is on one hand more native and on the other less painful (it’s shorter what means less characters to tattoo. Savvy?). Now it says: I rather get killed than humiliated. Pretty much the same as the one my main character has, isn’t it?

Alex Leon Sherker

This friendly bearded guy is award winning tattoo artist Alex Leon Sherker. The pictures at the top of this post showing how he is working on my arm. First of all he was able to make me feel comfortable. As I’m inexperienced with getting tattooed I very appreciated that. Especially when somebody is working on your skin with a needle and ink it’s better somebody you can trust. Alex did a wonderful job. Thank you so much, Alex!
You can take a look at his work on Ajaxtattoo as well as on EastSideInkTattoo.

Joshua Lord

As Josh mentioned in the video for the record: he don’t smokes! What you see is an exception. At least it is the last time that he is going to smoke a cigarette. Believe it. Now!
However, Joshua is co-owner of East Side Ink Tattoo and together with the other guys he belongs to a group of the friendliest people I have ever met. As a shy first timer in tattoo land their warm welcome and conversation made it easier for me not to draw back at the last minute and decide not to get a tattoo.

Joshua is a body artist too of course. You can enjoy his art at JoshuaLord.com or EasSideInkNYC.com. Even better: go to 97 Avenue B, between 6 & 7 Street and visit East Side Ink Tattoo. As they have plenty of art to do you will maybe call for an appointment (212) 477 2060.

Jen Terban

Jen Terban is a veteran in the industry and co-owner of East Side Ink Tattoo. On WorkingMother.com you can read about her experience of having a baby and open a tattoo shop.

Thank you for your time on my blog! If you have any suggestions feel free to comment or contact me.

Until we meet!

Mario

I am sure there is no American citizen who did not see and hear the speech of the elected President Obama.  As I know that there are countries (especially my own, the Netherlands) where his speech wasn’t broadcasted in its full length, I see it as my duty to include the video’s here for them. I thougth that this speech was so amazing that they should enjoy it in it’s full length rather than a few fragments of it. I know that everybody just can look it up on Youtube, but I also know that some people like it when somebody else already looked it up for them. Don’t call them lazy, I am one of them

The speech is devided into two video’s. If there are enough comments and request for it I am willing to post a version with the complete Dutch subtitles or a seperate special Dutch transcription of it.

For my dear readers that already enjoyed the speech: please feel free to skip this post and sorry for stealing your time with it.

For all the others: Enjoy just like we dit here in America at the end of the election!

As I know how timeconsuming Internet can be in these days I very appreciate that you took the time and visited my blog. Thank you so much!

Until we meet,

Mario

Additional readings:

I can’t go to sleep before I did not congratulate all the citizens of the USA and the rest of the world with the election of the new President Barack Obama. As I was for the very first time in my life in the states and had the permission to help handle the lever on a Obama-vote, this is an unforgettable day to me. I witnessed history from the home of a very adorable family in Brooklyn who gives me the privilege to be their guest for a week.
When I left the Netherlands on November 3, I came from a country who’s people hadn’t much sympathy with the American’s anymore (after 8 years Bush), even though the Dutch government tends to say otherwise. What makes my heart sing is the fact that, when I get on my plane back home on Sunday November 9, I will go back to a country where the vast amount of citizens share their feelings with the American people again. I’ll go back to a country where the people share the love and hope with the Americans. This are more than just some words written down in blog. This are two of the most important values we have: love and hope.

Yes We Can!

What else could I say more?

Thank you America.

Hugs,
Mario