<commit_before>+++
published_at = 2019-07-19T16:57:21Z
title = "Backtrack Collapse"
+++

Okay, week two. As planned, the dark launch of week one was
entirely unremarkable. Despite all the pondering on time
constraints , I still wound up spending way too much time
writing it. Writing is a skill, but writing _fluently_ to
just get words down on paper is a step beyond that.

I've attended a few [NaNoWriMo][nanowrimo] meetups where
common a activity is a "word race". Participants "sprint"
by getting as many words down as possible within a fixed
time window. The winner is the highest word count at the
end. I went into my first brimming with confidence --
surely with well-developed Vim muscles I'd run circles
around these tool-deficient artists!

I came out proudly announcing my number, only to have that
confidence turn to disbelief and then to despair. I hadn't
just lost, I'd been _demolished_, and by just about every
other racer. Not only that, but the winner had taken the
gold using pen & paper.

![Iceland](/assets/images/nanoglyphs/002-backtracking/iceland@2x.jpg)

Today's photo is one that I took in Iceland in 2007. At the
time I was shooting with a tiny handheld Casio EX-S600,
which was quite possibly the best compact camera form
factor of pre-smartphone days. _Many_ very amateur shots
were taken (and if I'm being honest, still are), but a
lucky few beat the odds to turn out pretty well. Winning
the lottery on Icelandic weather for an unlikely number of
days that trip didn't hurt either.

Like nearly all modern photography, mine tend to vanish<commit_msg>A few edits to the intro paragraph<commit_after>+++
published_at = 2019-07-19T16:57:21Z
title = "Backtrack Collapse"
+++

Okay, week two. As planned, the dark launch of week one was
entirely unremarkable in every way. Despite all the
pontificating at length on time constraints, I still wound
up blowing through all the ones I'd set for myself to write
it. Writing is a skill, but writing _fluently_ to just get
words down on paper is a step beyond that.

I've attended a few [NaNoWriMo][nanowrimo] meetups where
common a activity is a "word race". Participants "sprint"
by getting as many words down as possible within a fixed
time window. The winner is the highest word count at the
end. I went into my first brimming with confidence --
surely with well-developed Vim muscles I'd run circles
around these tool-deficient artists!

I came out proudly announcing my number, only to have that
confidence turn to disbelief and then to despair. I hadn't
just lost, I'd been _demolished_, and by just about every
other racer. Not only that, but the winner had taken the
gold using pen & paper.

![Iceland](/assets/images/nanoglyphs/002-backtracking/iceland@2x.jpg)

Today's photo is one that I took in Iceland in 2007. At the
time I was shooting with a tiny handheld Casio EX-S600,
which was quite possibly the best compact camera form
factor of pre-smartphone days. _Many_ very amateur shots
were taken (and if I'm being honest, still are), but a
lucky few beat the odds to turn out pretty well. Winning
the lottery on Icelandic weather for an unlikely number of
days that trip didn't hurt either.

Like nearly all modern photography, mine tend to vanish
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