I am now a college junior. Finished year two of college. In a few days I will be starting spring term. My concern is getting burnt out this year.

I’ve already been in a frazzled mess over finals from this past semester. I usually need my 3 month summer break to relax and recoup, but this year I have almost no down time for that at all.

I’ve had this week off, then I’m moving right back to school for spring term, where I am taking two full Writing classes and Logic (math credit, can you believe it?!) for the next six weeks. After that, I have a few days to prepare, then I’m on a plane to England and Europe for the next month and a half or so. Then I have two weeks to get over jet lag, and then get ready to jump into the fall semester with another fun, full load of classes!

Let’s hope I can keep up with it and maintain my sanity as well! Wish me luck!

So today is the last day of 2009. That kind of snuck up on me. I’m happy for the excitement of the new year though.

One must wonder though, now that there aren’t two zeros together in the middle of the year, what in the world are they going to do for those kooky glasses in New York? Have a 1 down your nose? A 1-shaped eye piece. That would be disorienting to me.

Well, no matter what shape your glasses are this New Year’s, I hope they are all slightly rose-tinted and that everyone has a wonderful night, and a great year ahead! Welcome, twenty-ten!

“National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.” ~What Is NaNoWriMo?

So, I love NaNoWriMo. This is my 5th year participating in the madness. I began my sophomore year of high school when a friend told me about it over the summer. I idly blew it off. But then when she started getting excited for October to start when the NaNo forums open, I decided to check it out and I was hooked. I stayed up late that night, refreshing the NaNoWriMo home page on October 1st, 2005, the first available day for new sign-ups to start that year. And every October and November since have been filled with novel writing goodness.

The first two years I completed NaNo with two sci-fi novels in a series. The third year, I tried to continue the series, but I think they ran out of steam, and I was also swamped by my senior year of high school and college applications, etc. Similar story with my freshman year of college. I was simply too busy with the new load of homework and social life I was unused to. But this year I have more free time, a lighter class load, and my own apartment to escape and write in. I’m determined to finish this year with a new slightly sci-fi/adventure novel. Catch my synopsis under Novel Info on my NaNo Profile.

This year I started my free trial of Scrivener for Macs (which is recommended for large research papers and writing projects, even if you’re not doing NaNoWriMo). And there’s a special offer in the forums that gives you 50% off the purchase price if you win and would like to buy it after NaNo! Definitely a great motivator for me this year, because I love this program already and I’ve had it a week. Also, there is an offer from CreateSpace to give you one free printed proof of your book if you reach 50k. That’s right, you can hold a copy of your book, for FREE! I’m definitely doing that as well. (Keep in mind, these offers are only for registered NaNo users who reach 50k and validate it on the website.)

This year I donated $25 to The Office of Letters and Light that runs NaNoWriMo! $5 for every year I have participated. And if you’re a NaNo Participant on Twitter, be sure to add this Twibbon to your avatar! Made by me!!

So it’s been my first week back on campus. I’ve been reuniting with friends and wandering the campus again. And I’ve started a new flickr album for the many more photos sure to come this fall as I run the Photography Club for it’s first full year.