When I awoke this morning, I moved my lapop back up onto my desk as I always do.

It turned off.

It's been doing this a lot lately. According to my sources, it has a broken pin that needs resoldering. Luckily, so long as I don't bump the cord, it's not a problem, so I just plugged it back in so I could turn it back on and all would be fine until I moved it again tonight.

Only, this time it decided it was really screwed for good. It won't stay powered for more than a few seconds. I have around two hours of battery time to use when I'm ready, and then it's gone until I disassemble, solder a pin on the motherboard (I've never soldered anything before), and reassmeble.

I sohuld point out that:
* Compaq notebooks have apparently been plagued with this problem since 2004 or before.
* The fuckers, as of 2005, had not yet said 'Hey, let's fix our goddamn soldering process'.
* Compaq is the devil.

So, anyway, my 500MHz Linux box is quite slow with anything graphical. Normally I wouldn't need anything graphical, but I do for Blogger. Or, Elinks wasn't working. No DOM. Makes for very limited JavaScript support.

Also, [almost] all my text versions of my NaNo were only on the laptop, so getting them to verify was a pain.

I got 49997 and had several contenders for hte last three words:
* 'The bloody end.'
* 'To be continued...'
* 'Compack bleeding sucks.'

I went with the second, but let me make this perfectly clear: Compaq bleeding sucks.

The Day's Text
Words today: 374
Words total: 50000
Target total: 46666.666 repeating

124.666 more per day or (more likely) 374 tomorrow. Plus a little bit over.

The volcano story was shorter than I anticipated. But it's cool. A short bit of Sylvia tomorrow, then perhaps some fiddling about. Hilfa's age is the only thing that I know needs fixing (beyond a few typos I've noticed), but I'd like to insert mentions of these nozzles being dragged around by the army.

The Day's Text
Words today: 728
Words total: 49626
Target total: 45000

Again, next to nothing before midnight. But enough after. This morning, I needed 411.2 words per day. Now I need 275.5. Gaining!

I discovered there's no Chapter XXXXIII. Nothing really fits in there. Maybe an additional Sylvia chapter, but at this point, I think the historic volcano will take more words than I need, so volcano+ending Sylvia+XXXXIII Sylvia = lots of words.

The Day's Text
Words today: 954
Words total: 48898
Target total: 43333.333 repeating

I believe I wrote under a hundred words before midnight, but then I stayed up really late, like, until now (4:20am here) writing. Got lots done. More than half.

In addition to getting a fair bit written, I now have a aside to write: The tale of the volcano. Lots of kissing and not enough swordfights. Turns out at the end that you can't stop a volcano with just toothpicks. (But maybe that you can with a trained military battalion.) Perhaps the volcano is Kukukillapacawowdomingobarajibjab. But probably not.

I only have two things left to write, though:
Volcano
Silvia

1 028 words each. Volcano will have to be long, because I don;t think Sylvia will be.

Also, I think the volcano aside will be inserted as Chapter XXXXVI, bumping up the other two.

The Day's Text
Words today: 2073
Words total: 47944
Target total: 41666.666 repeating

I realised that Chapter XXXXI ('Paths Cross') wasn't really finished, so I've continued from it today. Next, I think should be Leath before the final decision is made.

TODO:
* Leath decides mission should be abandoned
* They abandon missions and decided to visit the Isle of the Gods.
* Maybe Phil picks up the escaped prisoners.
* Sylvia heads north.

I'll probably also want another aside or two. You know, historic bits, fables, and whatnot.

Low wordcount again, but I'm gaining:
Words per day to finish on time, as of the beginning of the day: 721.142857
Words per day to finish on time, as of the end of the day: 688.16666...

Of course, if I did words per thread to tie up, I'm not doing quite so well. That's why I need to think up an aside or two.

The Day's Text
Words today: 919
Words total: 45871
Target total: 40000

Okay, so I didn't reach 1666.666... words for the day. I don't mind. I got some hard stuff done, tying up the Ravioli/Gar/Biscotti bit with a cliffhanger for Part II. I only need 793.5 words per day at this point and I got a fair bit more than that.

I now have about four things left to do. This makes for 1262 words for each, but I suspect the Fin-Dallywonk joint group will consume a disproportionate share of it.

A couple weeks ago, I started listing the various threads so I could look at it and pick one I could stand to write that day, and so I could see what had been ignored for the longest. Here are the threads as I see them now and what I intend to do with them (ordered by last written ascending order):

Tanenbaum Guards

FINISHED

Remember that stupid captain of the guard? He was fun, but mostly ignored. This will continue. I need not write any more about him.

Tanenbaum Region war preparations

FINISHED

Also no more needed for Part I. This is done.

Leath

He (or his superiors) should decide that Dallywonk's mission is a bad thing. This should occur after it's abandoned, though he doesn't know it's abandoned. Probably they assume it's failed

Silvia

Not much to do with this, but it's a good note to end on, perhaps. Just her continuing her journey north.

Phil

Maybe get in position to help Fin+Morris and/or to pick up the prisoners

Prisoners: Guenter and Warren

I may have Phil pick them up in Part I, but if they get ignored until Part II, that's fine too.

Fin, Hilfa, Snook, Meville Pennybrook, Sven Zoot / Morris Dallywonk, Filcher, Breck, Dudders

Abandon missions and decide to visit Isle of the Gods together. The Cheshire cat may prompt this. I don't know for certain. Zoot is opposed to exploding things, so he may also encourage it, despite not really having had zombie trouts preached to him as much as the rest of his group.

Delmer Ravioli

FINISHED

This is done. He met Biscotti and Gar in a cliffhanger. This had to be after Biscotti was accused so that Biscotti can be vindicated by the Fin-Dallywonk journey of discover in Part II.

Wartface

FINISHED

Captured by Biscotti

Gar

FINISHED

He and Biscotti met Delmer in a cliffhanger ending.

It's all coming together nicely, and with perfect timing. Shocking. (Okay, really, it's all coming together nicely because I'm being forced to split it into two parts, but the two parts split so nicely.)

The Day's Text
Words today: 1300
Words total: 44952
Target total: 38333.333 repeating

I wrote most of this in the last hour before midnight. It went nicely towards the end, though I hated writing earlier today. I HATES IT!

There was one problem: I introduced Dudders and then promptly forgot he even existed until morning. I had to go back and add a bit about him. But it's all good now.

Also, I realised about half an hour ago that BattleJesus had been right in telling me to hurry the plot along a day or two ago. I'm only just finishing up the set-up right now. I have half the plot to go and only 6 348 words until victory.

Oh well. Maybe aliens will put an abrupt end to these events when they tire of watching and drop nukes on the planet. (Oh, dang! I just realised that my stock cutshort ending won't work because no one dies in this war.)

The Day's Text
Words today: 1731
Words total: 43652
Target total: 36666.666 repeating