Harrison on Important Body Parts

Out of the blue my son Harrison said to me today:
"The most important part of your body is your heart." before I could interject, he added "Oh, and your brain. Your heart and your brain".
I was pretty impressed and interested, as I am with most of my sons non sequiturs, when he gave his explanations for why this is so. "Because your heart keeps you alive, and your brain is what you think with".
I asked him what other parts of him are important and he didn't know. I suggested the lungs, which help you breath, and he agreed.
Then I moved on to the stomach, to help you eat, and he scoffed at me!
"That's not important Dad!"
"It kind of is", I explained, "as you need it to eat".
"Well", he said after a quick ponder of the situation, "then so are teeth".

I agreed.
He agreed
"In fact", he said, "all of you is important".
"What about your little finger?", I rejoindered.
"Nah", he shot back, "not unless you need to pinkie swear".

Its times like these I really enjoy having created this little human being..

Well it is the first of November, and finally I have committed myself to taking up that famous monthly challenge that takes part this time of year.No, I will not be growing a ‘Movember’ style patch of facial hair (I lack the discipline to shave once a month, let alone manscape every day), as i have seen what that can lead to. The monthly challenge I speak of is NaNoWriMo.For those who aren’t in the know, let me explain what it is I am talking about here. I wasn’t just randomly toggling the caps lock up there, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, though it has since moved beyond the national level, which as with many things, was originally confined to the United States, but has failed to reflected its now worldwide appeal (perhaps soon it shall be WoNoWriMo?).NaNoWriMo is basically an Internet challenge taking place throughout November, whereby people try and write a novel of at least 50,000 words in a  thirty day timeframe. If you can manage to do that, you are labelled a ‘winner’: pretty easy hey?I first heard about this a couple of years back through Lifehacker, but each passing year I forgot to start on the appropriate day, and thus never built up the motivation to try and catch up.This year however it has been on my new year’s goal list, and in my Google Calendar, so I was sure not to forget. Also as this year I have fallen behind in some new year’s resolutions, I want this one to be a definite tick off the list of things to do.Rest assured I don’t think I will be writing a novel of any worth as my English skills aren’t really above par, but I think that I should be able to churn out something roughly coherent, and perhaps even entertaining. In the end however, it is probably only my beautiful wife Lizzie who will be subjected to reading it (though i will happily take requests).The best part I can see about NaNoWriMo is that there is a definite timeline involved. I am a man who gladly takes a mile if you offer an inch, so if I am given bounds which are a bit too lenient in scope, I am pretty quick find a comfy spot inside, and procrastinate the day away. However it is the Mo in NaNoWriMo that will hopefully spur me on.Not to mention that I have recently found out about this little gem, which gives you a free paperback copy of your novel, should you complete the challenge. And though I am certain that whatever spew’s forth from my keyboard will be far from a readworthy tome, I can’t help but feel it will be extremely cool to be able to say that I have written a novel, and then casually point it out on my bookshelf.So the ordeal has begun, and at the end of day two i find myself with 4677 words down (and I’m still writing). If I am reasonably confident with anything I write, you may find some excerpts on here for some comment. For the moment however, you might have to make do with the concept front cover I just designed in the last two minutes; enjoy!

Absense

To the few people out there who read my blog, you may have noticed my absence over the past few weeks.
There was recently a bit of a tragedy within my family, or at least our somewhat extended family.
A long time friend of the family, Garry Angus, was found murdered a couple of weeks ago, and I had been struggling  to write much since, as it seemed a hard thing to put down in words.
I have a few drafts I am working soon, as I want to talk about the man, and how his life meant quite a lot too our family, not to mention the experiences we had recently at his funeral, but for now I think I might try and get back on track, and leave this somewhat sad task for another night.
For the  moment however, I would like to share a wonderful photo of Garry and his wife Jenny that my wife found, which I think captures something of the wonderful person Garry was.

R.I.P Garry Angus