Day 30 of NaBloPoMo! (a look back)

Well! I wasn't sure if I'd make it this far, but I did! I managed to post every single day for an entire month as part of NaBloPoMo. My very first effort at it. Given that November is probably not a very good month to do it (with the holidays-- I imagine only December would be worst), I'm actually quite pleased that I was able to keep it up every day.

Now, I will admit that there were a couple of days when I had to pre-write a post the day before, and then schedule it to be posted the next day, simply because I knew I would not be anywhere with Internet access all day long. That was fraught with its own frustrations, as apparently Wordpress does not actually post your blog entry at the time you specify. No, it waits until someone visits your blog before it kicks off the cron job that posts the scheduled entry!

Still, posting every single day (sometimes even twice a day, as explained above), proved to be quite a challenge. I found myself becoming more alert to things around me-- from things people posted online to things that happened in the offline world (I don't like using the term "in real life", or "IRL", as the popular acronym goes. That implies that the people I interact with online are somehow not "real". And that's simply not true!) I found myself keeping my eyes and ears peeled for any interesting tidbit, and then expanding it in my mind to see if I could dedicate a whole blog post to it. It's happened a few times. Like a visit to Todd's pediatrician. Or when I saw links to NUD or to Costco's funeral section on FB. Or coming away from a particularly frustrating interview session. It was amazing to me how ordinary, mundane little things that I would ordinarily forget within the hour could develop into topics that I could craft into a post.

So, I'm pleased that there was rarely a shortage of topics, even if inspiration sometimes didn't hit until about 11:00pm, with only an hour to spare ;-)

I'm pleased that there were really only 2 times when I resorted to an "I can't think of anything to post, and I'm pressed for time so I'll just throw in some stuff" post, and even though they were both diary-like in nature (a weekend recap, and some random tidbits), at least there was something unique to tell. Like my first venture into cutting my own hair! O.O

I'm especially pleased that I was able to throw in some deeper, more meaningful posts-- a departure from my usual blatherings or rants about less important things like Paypal's sucky user experience ;-)
I had not intended to create a mini-series of sorts, but my posts on loving thy neighbor in the context of "Christian" views on homosexuality (and yes, those quotation marks are intentional) evolved from a variety of sources that all seemed to happen simultaneously: the link to the post on the little boy dressed as Daphne, a friend decrying passive discrimination, and an interesting lunchtime conversation with a friend from church. I am sure that this won't be the last time I'll be writing on such a topic.

In short, I had a great time with NaBloPoMo. It was a lot of work, but it is exhilarating to make it to the finish line. I am not sure if I will be doing it again in future years. Work and family keep me too busy to even *think* about posting, most days, and I've sacrificed what little personal time I have in the evenings, to do this. It's not really worth it when hardly anyone reads the posts regularly, anyway. But it was nice to get the creative juices flowing and keep them flowing for an extended period. I hope to be able to continue this trend on a smaller scale-- certainly not every day, but maybe a couple times a week. And I hope I continue to be able to keep an eye out for interesting tidbits that I can transform into blog posts.

In the meantime... Happy end of November! Here's to a wonderful holiday season and continued fruitfulness in the blogging world!