I can't believe I went over a week without blogging. I try to post more regularly.

Happy belated Thanksgiving. I hope everyone ate a lot of turkey. We didn't celebrate it since Thursday is a regular weekday here. Shiro is getting very rotund these days. Not only is she getting bigger, but she's also quite squeaky. She squeaks at Kuro all the time and kicks him out of the nest. Maybe he bought her a vacuum cleaner?

Furthermore, Shiro sometimes sits on Kuro. In Japan, there's a saying that goes something like “the wife's butt is bearing down upon the husband”. It means the husband is the wife's b*tch. Here's a example of what she does to that poor boy. Sorry the picture quality is poor, but they were squirming the entire time.

This is Shiro eating her veggies. She loves to nibble on them.

This is Kuro and Shiro fighting (or something). They sometimes paw each other and squeak. The picture looks yellow because of the reflection from their cage top, which is orange.

This is Kuro debating between a bath and a nap.

On the writing side: All the King's Women as my NaNo project…it was a failure in that I didn't get to write 50k words. But I also figured out what was wrong with it. So it's not all bad.

How's everyone else doing?

It snowed in Japan. Burr. My city was saved from the horrible white stuff (I really don't like snow), but the temperature's falling rapidly. :( It's going to be colder tomorrow.

On the writing front, I realized that I set up the entire fourth chapter incorrectly. It's a shopping / planning / conflict sharpening chapter, and I know that part is right. It's the setting and how the heroine chooses to shop that are wrong.

BTW — This is something that came up on one of the online forums I lurk. One member questioned my integrity, alluding that I'd blindly defend professional associates I have relationships with (such as literary agents, etc.).

I have no patience for incompetence. If I find someone's performance less than satisfactory, I won't defend them just because. So if you see me say something nice about some industry professional, it means I really think that person's nice.

Finally — since the Big Three begging for $25 billion from the government is a big discussion topic among many (it's huge in Japan too), I'll leave you with something to consider.

The total compensation pool (that includes salaries plus bonuses) for Honda's twenty-seven top executives, including its CEO, is $13 million dollars. That's $13 million for ALL of them, not $13 million per person.

Toyota just announced that it had reduced its directors' salaries. The company stated that it is important for Toyota executives to set good examples for its workers and that the executives must sacrifice first.

On the other hand, Rick Wagoner (GM CEO) gave himself a pay raise in March 2008. He is currently receiving $2.2 million dollars a year in salary alone. Furthermore, all Big Three executives flew in their private jets to beg for $25 billion from the Senate. ABC news reported that the round trip for Wagoner alone probably cost GM $20,000.

Kuro is a male hamster. 8O I'm going to have a billion baby hamsters. Anyone wants some?

Today's progress = meh. I'm thinking about writing a synopsis for the story actually. I think I have the basic outline and the story arc all figured out.

How's everyone doing?

Not too bad for the day.

BTW — I'm like totally traumatized. I thought Shiro and Kuro were just wrestling around. But no. They're actually in heat. Kuro's been humping Shiro nonstop, and they are doing it in front of me (shameless!). Trust me, it's pretty bad since they're so small and young, and it feels like they're way way too young to be parents. I'm going to have like a million hamster babies!

Ack!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Veteran's Day! No matter how you feel about the current war, please do thank them. They've served our nation with their lives so we can enjoy our freedom.

On the writing front — I've given up on NaNo. It's not that I hate it or anything…well…maybe. But ultimately it just wasn't working for me. The current project requires a bit more thought from me, esp. because I'm dealing with a brand new world and characters. Besides, I can't write the middle section unless I'm fairly satisfied that the opening's more or less on the right track. Why? Because I don't want to throw away the entire manuscript and start over. So currently I'm trying to get down about 1,000 to 1,500 words a day, five days a week. I'm not aiming for a super clean first draft, but I want to be able to keep a big chunk of the storyline and so on. Already I cut about 1k from the opening I wrote during my NaNo attempt because it was just…bad. So I've started a new progress table (see below):

Moving on to general life matters — DD asked me about my dwarf hamsters. Shiro and Kuro are doing great. Hero Material and I spent over $100 on new cage expansions and toys for them on Sunday. They have tubes to nowhere, two wheels, a heated nest, a wooden arched bridge, a new feed box, a sand bath, a litter box, hanging wood blocks they can chew on, etc. They're so happy in their little heated nest unit because it keeps them very warm, esp. in winter. Japanese apartments don't have central heating, so it can be fairly cold at night. (May is convinced I'm going to be one of those hovering mothers who's going to spoil my children rotten.)

Some pictures —

Hamster ball:

A brand new water dispenser:

A newly decorated old cage (contains: a heated nest, a water dispenser, a toilet paper core, a sand bath, a litter box):

An expansion cage / secondary unit (contains: two wheels, a water dispenser, a wooden arched bridge, a new feed box, hanging wood blocks, an L-tube):

Two wheels (one new, one old):

Tubes to nowhere (they connect the cages actually):

A bonus pic — Kuro in her brand new litter box!

Speaking of Kuro — as much as I find Shiro and Kuro adorable, I have a small…err…issue. The problem is that I cook, and sometimes even after a vigorous washing with soap, my hands smell a lil like food, so Kuro — she's the glutton of the two — nips or just outright bites my fingers. But she climbed onto my hands last night and sat there for a bit. So for that, I'll forgive her for trying to eat me. I even wrote a haiku dedicated to my hamsters' uber-cuteness:

The haiku critiquer told me that maybe I should expand my imagination since mine only described something as it was. Maybe next time I'll write about the man-eating Kuro.

BTW — The Big Three begging for $50 billion from the U.S. government made the headlines in Japan. Japanese people are astounded that the Big Three want to use $25 billion out of the amount requested on health care.

I'm usually against bailouts in general, and I'm not sure if throwing money at them is going to solve the real reason why they're so cash-strapped: they are losing market share, and their operation is extremely inefficient.

The Big Three seem to believe it's fashionable to blame the subprime crisis / credit crunch for their cash problems, but even when the economy was doing great, the Big Three weren't raking in dough the way Toyota, Honda and Nissan did. Since Ford has just decided to ramp up its gas-guzzling F-series truck production (hey, the gas price fell!), I'm not convinced that the Big Three will use any of the money to build more fuel-efficient environment-friendly cars. Also I don't think the Big Three will be able to survive even after the $50 billion bailout. Why? Because they can't force people to abandon their Japanese and German cars and buy the Big Three cars. Legislating people to buy American cars would be the least American thing to do, and unless the Big Three can make stylish, fuel-efficient and reliable cars that American public wants to buy, they will continue to burn cash at an exponential rate and ultimately fail. There's a reason why Deutsche Bank downgraded GM target price to $0.00 / share yesterday.

Finally, I'll leave you with a haiku I wrote a couple of weeks ago in my Japanese class. The topic was seasonal joys.

How's everyone doing?

BTW — My site host is having a lot of problems with its email server. If you sent me an email requiring my response but haven't heard back, please resend later or leave me a comment with your contact information, and I'll be happy to send you a note from my gmail account.

Thanks!