It’s been three years since I last participated in National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). Originally held in November to coincide with NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), NaBloPoMo is now every month, but November’s the only time I seriously consider joining in. That’s partly because I have a traditionalist streak, but also because November is the only month that doesn’t have a designated blogging theme. I can commit to daily posting for a month, but not all on a single subject (I don’t think you have to follow the theme, but I would feel obligated to anyway).
Image by stetted via FlickrNaBloPoMo probably won’t change things all that much around here. There just won’t be any days off between now and November 30 – therefore, I’m reserving the right to go “Blogger Unplugged” for a few days starting December 1! There may be a few more meme-ish or quizzy or photo-laden posts than usual during the month, but aside from that, I’m not anticipating any big differences in the content. I just thought it would be fun to do it again.
But NaNoWriMo? I’m still not doing that one. However, my 16-year-old stepdaughter has signed up for it, so I hope you’ll join me in wishing her lots of luck! And if you’re working on a November novel yourself, I’ll pass along these writing tips from Margaret Atwood.
As you know from yesterday’s post, I’ve already voted, but I’m not done with Election-Day-related ranting:
- The amount of money being spent on campaigning gets more staggering every election cycle. The “most expensive campaign in history” threshold seems to go up every year, and that usually just refers to candidates’ own spending. It doesn’t count what private “interest groups” spend on “educating” voters about candidates and issues, frequently by means of negative ads. If all of that money were actually being used for something productive, I think it just might do more to help the economy than anyone who gets elected today will.
Image via Wikipedia- Speaking of the ads, I will NOT be sorry to have the strident commercials and the flyers in my mailbox disappear tomorrow. I’m rarely as glad that we do most of our TV-watching via DVR as I am around election time, but even so, it’s hard to escape the political ads. It really bothers me that research has shown that negative ads are effective, because that keeps them around – and at some point, almost every candidate ends up using them. And the ads that don’t come directly from candidates are usually more inflammatory than “educational.” I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m pretty sure this stuff contributes to my own lack of enthusiasm for voting this year.
- Today’s outcomes may change some of the players, but I’m not sure they’ll change much else. “Compromise,” “cooperation,” and “bipartisan” have all become bad words unless you’re talking about something mostly non-controversial (and therefore, probably, also mostly inconsequential). Sometimes, my recovering pessimism is seriously endangered…
I was gratified to discover that I’m not alone in my distaste for the phone, so perhaps I have company in this too: I’d rather return calls than initiate them, but if you’re going to leave a message, can you please give me some idea what we need to talk about? “Just checking in” or even “Where are you?” at least give me a hint; “call me back” doesn’t. Is it too much to ask to know why you want me to call you back?
What tangents are you on today? Are you NaBloPoMo-ing and/or NaNoWriMo-ing? I certainly hope you’re voting! Leave me a message and tell me what’s going on with you. :-).
