I DID IT! I’m pretty surprised at myself, considering I usually blog every 3 or 4 months.

30 days.
30 posts.
About 5 hours of staring at a blank screen. Approximately 10 hours typing without proof-reading (because it was 2AM).
Having the courage to become a commenter instead of a lurker. I’ve realised it’s less creepy to comment on a blog I visit often, because my IP address shows up in their logs anyway, and it’s nice to put some numbers to a name.
Leaving hundreds of comments. Getting loads (compared to the big fat zero I usually get) in return. People actually read what I write now!
Finding new blogs to read. Different opinions cause interesting debates in the comments.
Talking to new people.
Learning about… stuff. From terms of endearment in Russian to infertility-related medical acronyms (no links here, because there are many, many blogs)… I’ve read many blogs that I would have never come across if it wasn’t for NaBloPoMo. I’m gonna be awesome at pub quizzes. That is, if there are pub quizzes on building a family, what people did on Black Friday and butchering a cow.

Thank you!

I might try to keep this daily blogging thing up for a while. We’ll see how it goes. December’s an interesting month. My birthday’s on the 14th *cough cough hint hint*, Christmas is on the 25th, Boxing Day (and a certain someone’s birthday) is on the 26th, and soon the month will be over.

For all those I’ve ‘met’ during NaBloPoMo, thanks for letting me into your blogs. I love reading them and will continue to do so. I will also try to occasionally overcome my lurking tendencies to comment and say hi. Joining the Comment for a Comment group was the best decision I made this month.

Now, all that’s left to do is eye up the 2009 Prizes and hope my name gets drawn for something like a sock zombie or a Twitter background from @caffeinatedelf. *drools*

Whee! I did it!

November is cold, dark, and dreary – on this side of the hemisphere, anyway. I like Australian weather. Everything gets dark stupidly early, it rains more, and my tonsils give in easier to all the viruses floating about (because you really wanted that image in your head). Generally, it’s a crap month, filled with failing portable heaters and limbs that feel like they’re about to fall off.

The internet seeks to fix this by filling it with events with strange names.

There’s NaBloPoMo (30 blog posts in 30 days), which is why I’m writing a blog post now. I CAN’T FAIL ON THE 29TH DAY!
The carbon copy of that is NaBloWriMo, which appears to do the same thing. >.>
…And these two are based on NaNoWriMo, where you write a novel in 30 days instead. I didn’t do it this year, although I did say I would attempt it (and, er, didn’t).
Last week, I also made a half-hearted attempt to take part in IComLeavWe, where I attempted to leave comments on other participants’ blogs, that were largely about infertility and adoption. I do not know anything about either, which made the whole thing a major fail on my part.

Whilst these online events are fun, I wish they’d make shorter names so that I wouldn’t have to abuse my shift key so much.

A typical comment: “Hi, I’m doing NaBloPoMo too (but not NaBloWriMo)! I might do NaNoWriMo this year, but I think I won’t have time for it because IComLeavWe is on towards the end of the month…”

*flails*

I find buying presents for my friends very stressful. As I’m not creative and cannot make things to save my life, buying seems to be the only option. First, there’s the budget. Does it look too cheap? Does it look tacky? Is it worth paying that much for a present?

Then there’s the person. Will they use the gift I’ve bought for them? Or will it turn into one of those ugly presents from relatives that you never use? No matter how long I’ve known people for, I still don’t know what they want for birthdays and holidays. I hate people who say, “Oh, I don’t care what I get,” because secretly, they do, and then try to hide their disappointment when you’ve gotten them something they hadn’t expected to get. Tell me what you want for your birthday, or I’ll end up picking the first thing that looks nice.
If someone buys me something, I will always buy them something in return. This becomes even more difficult when I hardly know the person I’m buying stuff for. If I had a choice between getting lots of presents (and having to buy people things in return), and getting no presents at all, I think I’d take the latter.

Because that’ll save me from buying someone a wallet shaped like a hamburger as a birthday present.

At the end of the Darwin exhibition at the Natural History Museum, there were computers asking for feedback. Answers were also projected onto huge screens behind the computers.

I wonder if Charles would’ve approved.

I’ve been sitting here, staring at this window for half an hour now. I have places to be, and possibly a lung to cough up, but that won’t stop me from sitting here and thinking, “WHAT THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO WRITE?!”

I don’t even have the option to write about what I’m doing for Thanksgiving because I’m not in the US. I do, however, love you American companies for bringing the Black Friday tradition here. It’s kind of funny that the commercialisation is the only thing that crosses the pond.

Tomorrow, I will probably spend a stupid amount of money at an American retailer. Today, I will stuff my face with unhealthy foods… It’s all in the spirit of Thanksgiving, right?