It’s November 30. Time for a little introspection. At the beginning of the month, I had set out to write my very own novel. As it turns out, that was a pretty lofty goal. I made it through the first few days okay, but largely at the expense of other things I was supposed to be doing. There’s a part of me that’s sort of proud for having gotten started. But damn, I really, really hated what I had started out writing. Which, according to all the supportive emails sent out by accomplished authors, is exactly what’s supposed to happen. So at least I was off on the right foot. I guess.

Because of time constraints, I decided instead to switch tactics, and joined ranks with National Blog Posting Month. With NaBloPoMo, I was confronted with a new challenge. The challenge was not one of quantity, but quality. I had no word count to meet, but instead challenged myself to keep every post as fresh as I possibly could.

So in this month that offered thirty days to write, I wrote every single day (in my over two years of blogging, I’ve never once done that). The first four were dedicated to a novel that did not come to fruition. From the fourth until the thirtieth day, a new blog post was written daily. With the exception of one day, all were posted right here. The one post that didn’t make it remains on my computer, in its raw, unedited, and unhappy form. And there it will stay.

So as watch Gangs of New York with half an eye, I type this post. And find it really cool that, for whatever it’s worth, I at least managed to write something every single day for an entire month. And instead of feeling pooped, exhausted, or ready to take a little break, I’m finding myself ready to continue, and wanting the words to keep flowing from my head onto the keyboard. Writing has come to have a great deal of meaning for me: it’s therapy, entertainment, and frustration all rolled into one. It’s wonderful.

Which brings me to the end of this blog entry, and a stunning and totally irrelevant close:

• The part where Cameron Diaz gets in the fight and tries to bite Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the funniest fight scenes I have ever seen. Ever.

• A car commercial for Mitsubishi was just on that featured a song by The Flaming Lips called Do You Realize?. I found it an interesting choice of song for such a commercial, considering the song is about life and death. And we’re talking about a car. Not just any car, but an Ess Ewe Vee. I imagine it’s not intentional, but damn, there’s some serious subtext going on there.