November Catch-up

November has been a busy month for me. Even before my Halloween candy haze wore off I launched myself into a frenzy of writing known as National Novel Writing Month. It might not have been one of my best ideas considering how busy November gets. Between Thanksgiving, my grandma's arrival from Mexico and midterms that got pushed until random times in November, plus NaNo, my month was pretty busy. Later I'll 'retcon' in some blogs posts that I never quite got around to publishing. In a meantime, my month in a nutshell.

My grandma arrived November 13 and it has been quite different around here since. I'd go so far as to say my grandma is slightly OCD when it comes to cleaning. Or else when she gets bored it's an extreme way to keep busy because the other day I saw her climb to the top of the stairs with like a little broom from a dustpan and sweep each and every step on the way down. Each step took her at least ten minutes to get to her satisfaction. That's a little obsessive in my book. Now, what keeps things interesting is that my mom hates when other people clean her house. Especially her own mother. I guess it's kind of like when my mom goes and clean my whole room- after she says she's only going to remove the one spiderweb from the corner of my room. Anyway, I get my kicks out of listening to my mom and grandma because it feels slightly like karmic justice when my grandma drives my mom crazy in the same way my mom drives me crazy.

I also started writing a story for National Novel Writing Month. For those who don't know, National Novel Writing Month is when people all over the world, in some kind of collective mass hysteria, all decide to write a 50,000 word novel. They start on November 1st and end by midnight on November 30th. This was my first year officially trying it, and lo and behold, I actually completed the task! Now, my story isn't finished, but I hit the word count so I was pretty proud of myself. Getting there involved putting off many homework assignments and word wars with a friend of mine. I had a lot of fun doing it, though!

That about sums up my November. Now to head into December and start getting ready for the holidays!

"I can't believe he's gone..."

Today the internet is buzzing with the news that the director of "The Empire Strikes Back", Irvin Kershner, passed away at his house in LA today. I know this blog will just end up getting lost amid the other blogs and websites and Facebook posts and Twitter messages commemorating him, but that's not why I write here.

It may sound odd, but when I heard (or rather, read) this news, it made me even more glad that I had to opportunity to go to Celebration V in Orlando. Sure there was a lot of general Star Wars excitement going on during those four days, but overall it was meant to celebrate the fact that thirty years later Star Wars is still going strong and to commemorate the fact that "The Empire Strikes Back" is often viewed as the best Star Wars movie. Of course a lot of that credit goes to all the people involved in its production, but everyone knows that Irvin Kershner played a huge role in its success and in a lot of ways that was one of the things that was important at the convention. Although he wasn't there in person, Kershner recorded a nice little clip that was shown before many of the panels, during which he thanked the fans and said how "The Empire Strikes Back" is his favorite movie just like most Star Wars fans. Kershner did an incredible job with the movie and I know that I for one am glad that he was put in charge of its production.

My condolences go out to Mr. Kershner's family and friends. I hope they know how important he was to Star Wars and its fans and that because of that he will never be forgotten.

May the Force be with you, Irvin. Rest in peace.



*Picture courtesy of towerofyouth.org