I collect a lot of things, from books and pens to DVDs, CDs, and magnets, to name but a few. What a lot of people don't know is that I also collect quotes.
What do I do with all these quotes? I put them in a book, one for each year I've been collecting them. The ones with the red spines are record books printed by Wilson Jones. The pile here runs from 1996 to 2007, with the exception of 1997. I can't find that one anywhere. There are also three more books before these, from years 1993-1995, that are similar in looks though smaller and yellow in color, which are also MIA at the moment.
I would buy a new book, usually during the month of December, and start getting ready for the new year. Each one has their own title. I would go through the current year and pick one or two (or three or four or more) favorites and toss them around. One of them would become the title for the next year's book.
At the beginning, I had a special pen I would use to write with. Over the years I've used whatever has been handy, not caring whether it was a pencil or pen, the ink red or blue or black.
2008 will mark the 16th book I've placed on the shelf.
So what kind of quotes do I collect? Some are famous, like "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus, found at the Statue of Liberty, or funny (to me, anyway), like "...and the voice of James Earl Jones." Don't ask - too goofy to tell now, years later. Some are song lyrics (usually pasted into the book instead of written down) while others are phrases from books, movies and TV shows I've watched over the years.
The older ones I no longer remember what I had been reading or watching at the time I came across the quote. Newer ones, such as those from this year's book (the open one on the Macbook, a Moleskine Cahier notebook) I can tell you exactly what I was watching or reading or which song I was listening to.
By the titles I can sometimes tell what I was writing or researching about. 1998's title of "Far seen and far seeing" refers to
Whitby Abbey on the coast of Northern England. You can kind of get a sense from the photograph if you click on the name. For more information about the abbey, check out the Wikipedia article found
here.
Here are the titles, for what they're worth. Those without a title are MIA.
1993
1994
1995
1996 The glimpse through those far off windows
1997
1998 Far seen and far seeing
1999 Imagine what you will know tomorrow
2000 The past is the past. Your future awaits.
2001 A woman's destiny, they say, is not fulfilled until she holds in her arms her own little book
2002 Believe and be ready
2003 Discover what it is you're good at
2004 Go beyond your comfort zone
2005 This is your time. Now go out there and take it
2006 ...for if I do not succeed today...tomorrow
2007 Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself
2008 ...how much you'd give up if the chance came along
2009 ?
I collect a lot of things, from books and pens to DVDs, CDs, and magnets, to name but a few. What a lot of people don't know is that I also collect quotes. 
Every year, on the first day of January, I create a list of things I want to accomplish for that particular year. Not all are writing-related. As a matter of fact, writing-related goals are rarely on the list. My goals usually involve buying something, like finding a frog cookie jar (going on the list for 2009) or obtaining my passport (which I can now remove - got it in February.)
...and didn't care who or why I killed, it would be a smorgasbord out there right now. People are rude, pushy and just plain nasty during the holiday season. 
I'm closer, but not as far as I wanted to be. I'm used to taking a nap on Sundays and today was no exception. But I at least made it this far and I still have a week to go. I need to write 2,546 a day for the next seven days to meet the word count quota. I probably need to write more during the first part of the week, since I'm the bread maker for the Thanksgiving dinner, to make up for a couple of days of cooking and not being able to write as much.
The newest addition to my cubicle at work, since I'm so fond of chalk outlines. Don't you just love Cafe Press stuff? Dangerous to the wallet. 
I've reached 25,382 words. I'm behind and need to catch up.
Not really, but here are two things, a book and three balls of yarn that could tempt me away from my story.
NaNoWriMo has turned on the word count validator!! They show me as having 24,017 - 3 more words than what I have listed.
Finally!!! I think I've broken through the writer's block. I'm still behind, but I wrote 2,490 words in roughly three hours. It's probably complete garbage, but right now quantity is what I'm going for, not quality. 
NaNoWriMo day 16 has come to a close for me and I am currently behind by 5,511 words. I still feel as if I'm in a writing slump even though the words have been flowing for past hour. But my day job awaits so I need my sleep. 
A thank you needs to go out to Alton Brown for a great pizza dough recipe. 
After taking Friday off and not quite making the official NaNoWriMo quota for Saturday, I am finally back on track. I needed to be at 15,003 and I have surpassed that milestone. 
I have surpassed the 10K word count!!! I'm so happy. 
I was also glad that I upgraded to the HD channels through the cable. I had to upgrade my Tivo to HD as well. Because of this, I have two tuners and can record two shows at the same time. The two red dots indicate I'm recording "Eleventh Hour" and "Life on Mars" so I could continue with my writing.
All I can say tonight is that I made it past the daily quota. 
If the picture looks familiar, you may have seen it on my Driving Is Murder blog. I use index cards to help me control my anger at all the stupid drivers out there. I write down the license plate numbers and toss the cards in the floor. Every few days, sometimes longer, depends if anyone rides in my car, I throw them away. Writing down the plates numbers is how I deal with my frustrations at how stupid people are when they get behind the wheel.
I had some homemade pizza today for lunch from my friend L and Alton Brown (of Good Eats fame) from the Food Network. 
