ita, it's just not a competition, that's all.

Aspiring != competing. In case it comes up again.

I thing bon's Bob has a great earnestness in general

Oh, yeah. I don't have that. Instead, I manifest an alienating obsessiveness. Ah, well. Back to the computer job with dreams of bodyguarding.

(Will Ferrell can stay home, unless someone's there who can smack him every ten minutes so he doesn't get out of control. He's funny when he's reigned in, and soooooo unwatchable when he's not.)

I admit, I think he's hilarious when he plays James Lipton. (Though that impression could very well be colored by how well Alec Baldwin plays Charles Nelson Reilly.)

So, you're saying that ita isn't earnest.

No.

OMG, Jesse, you pee in the hot tub?!?

No.

So, you're saying that ita isn't earnest.

No.

I am, though. So it's all good.

(Will Ferrell can stay home, unless someone's there who can smack him every ten minutes so he doesn't get out of control.

PLEASE can I have that job? I'll smack him more often, if you like. t /farrell hater

I would be more than willing to say you aren't earnest, it's just that that wasn't what I was doing just then.

I wouldn't call 4,000 on the slow side at all. I wrote 6,500 words last week, 26 manuscript pages, and I thought it was pretty good. If I'm ever in a position to be a reallyo trulyo full-time writer, I'd like to increase my output, but in the meantime I'm happy with where I am. I mean, I started my WIP in its current form around Feb. 1. I'm over 100,000 words now, and unless something seriously derails me, I expect to have finished the rough draft by 10/31 and have it edited into respectable form by 12/31 or 1/31. That's a longish novel (I'm shooting for 125,000 words) in a year, which I think is pretty darn respectable for anyone who's not in a position to write fiction full-time.

I guess I'm just over-worrying about my typing speed. I'm a two-finger typist. Typing the way you're supposed to just never felt comfortable to me. My speed is good, but I miskey a lot because of the whole two-fingers thing, which means, of course, I'm slowed down by having to go back and fix things constantly.

On the other hand, I suppose if I were a faster typist, my "creative speed" might not be able to keep up and I wouldn't be churning things out any faster anyway.

I'm shooting for 75,000 or so words for this, as it's my first real attempt at a novel (though it's a complete rewrite/re-imagining of a book I wrote 10 years ago that was highly derivative and was never meant to be submitted for publication, so it's sort of my second attempt) though the story will be done when it's done and I'll worry more about word/page count when I go back to revise it. If I can keep up the current pace, I should be done with the first draft sometime in early December. Which is kind of daunting to think about on it's own, for me, as I've never been one for long term planning and the like.

I have no idea what the revision and editing process is going to look like. It should be scaryinteresting.

But for now I'm just enjoying writing steadily and feeling like I'm accomplishing something.

All you Farrell haters are mental in your brainpans. I don't even have words for how much he makes me laugh. I must have watched Anchorman four or five times now and it still hasn't stopped being funny. And his Harry Cary bit? Genius.

Owen rocks Wes Anderson's scripts, that's for sure. He should quit tomcatting around long enough to get back to writing.

So much good news in the morning! Have we ever had such a proptious combination of announcements?

HUGE big congratulations to Rio-the-cutest and Saget-the-suave.

Yay, for Fiona traversing an occasionally tricky pregnancy and bringing Benno a sib. Congratulations to the Family Fi.

And his Harry Cary bit?

Hee. And Celebrity Jeopardy!