More attempts

Well, I've successfully found more ways that salt etching doesn't work. Or more acurately, the toner transfer.

I tried a few variations on the dry transfer and hot iron method, but the toner wouldn't take. It either won't mount onto the paper, or won't transfer onto the metal.

I'm going to have one more go at doing a transfer with the soak method, but then infill with something (sharpie? nail polish?) to try and compensate for the thin layer of toner.

Which I'm 80% certain is the cause of my issues - the printer not laying down enough toner. I could try printing at work, but even if that proved an instant success, it would be of limited value to me. It would be a pain to have an established method that works great but then have the work printer replaced, or get sent to work at another spot where they don't have one.

If the next attempt is a fail, I might give in and drop a few dollars on proper photosensitive film and do up the transfer that way...

NaNo - day seventeen

As expected, so far nobody has asked about my progress on FB, so pretty sure I don't have too many FB friends that are into writing. No biggie, I wasn't expecting anybody to bite.

Progress report - today I'm at 32,000 words, which puts me about two days ahead of schedule. Brilliant! It's Saturday morning, so should be able to make good progress... BUT we have mud racing tonight (which means I should try and get some sleep during the day) and I'm working all day Sunday. #SadPanda

Looking at my spreadsheet, at one stage I was 4,300 words ahead of schedule, but then I had a run of bad days. On the plus side, despite the days I didn't write much, the lowest I got was 548 words ahead and never fell behind. That's with two days where I wrote zero words!

So far, looking good! :)

Writing goals

"A goal that isn't written down is just a wish."

With my writing, I need to write down a goal. And I keep telling others to use the SMART method, so I suppose I should practice what I preach. ;) It doesn't help that by about 7pm, I feel like it's midnight. Just throw that one on the 'lame excuses' pile.

So, here is my goal, written down:

Specific - to write 1,000 words each day, for the rest of October
Measurable - yes, using a word processing program, it is easy to count how many words have been written (or added).
Achievable - yes, assuming I'm not exhausted, mentally drained or off on different tasks that take up time. I can write a thousand words in about 45 minutes (faster if I'm on a roll), but it gets frustrating when I get constantly pulled away from the laptop or interrupted every 5 minutes.
Relevant - yes, this is building towards 2,000 a day during November.
Timely - yes, there's 13 days left in October, then the big one of 30 days in November. December I can coast.

I've already got a spreadsheet going to keep track of my progress (or lack thereof). I started tracking on the 8th of October but so far already have five "zero" days... so, not off to a good start. My best day so far was 1,118 words. Though admittedly, what I've written so far has all been unrelated exercises or just free rambling. November needs to be a cohesive story.

Pumpkin pie

Getting my bake on again. Had a go at pumpkin pie. The recipe was straight forward and easy to follow but the mix came out too wet.

Doing a bit of reading about common mistakes when making pumpkin pie suggests that the pumpkin I used was too wet (since I used fresh instead of canned puree).

For next time, I'll need to strain the pumpkin more or boil it after puree-ing to get rid of excess water.

Oof

Oh boy. Moving around 55 gallon drums is hard work. It's all in the technique. Considering that a full drum is around the 180kg mark, but I only weigh 73kg or so... about twice my weight.

Lucky the trucks have lifts on them.

I'll either get a lot stronger, or break something. Hopefully not my leg or something...