New Goal

I’ve already decided to give up on NaNo word counts. I don’t feel bad about it, though, because the words I’ve been getting haven’t been miserably bad, as they likely would have been had I kept up. (::points to NaNovel from 2003, shuddering::) Back down to a minimum of 500 words/day, 1000 gets me some kind of self-pat on the back. (::read: homemade banana sundae::)

I hate that everyone else gets Veteran’s Day off. Wildly unfair. (By “everyone else” I mean both of my housemates and everyone in the company I’m in who works on the east coast.)

Thanks a lot, Hannah

For reminding me that every step forward comes with two steps back.

Looks like California’s proposition 8 passed. (“Appears to be passing but too close to call”-> normalspeak -> “It passed, but this is such a hot button issue and it was so close that we’re not going to call it until the last 3% report in”)

::takes a moment to rage screamingly about injustice in the world::

What can I say…

That won’t echo millions of other voices? But I must say it anyway: this is absolutely the first time in eight–no, probably ten years (that’s basically my adult life!)–that I have felt such a surge of joy and pride in my country. I am overcome by emotion.

Congratulations, Senator Obama. Congratulations, America. I am ecstatic, and so is a clear majority of my country.

We live in a different world, already–a better world.

A side note: McCain, in his concession speech, made it about black people*–said, it’s time for the black people to have their moment, as if that’s all the election was about. I’d like to say that it’s not just an “African American” victory. It’s a “kick the Republicans out” victory. It’s a “we want greater change, and we will put our votes where our hearts are” victory. And insofar as it’s a minority victory…? It’s a victory that we elected a president who didn’t fit the white anglo saxon protestant male template that all of our other presidents conformed to.

*Obama is half white, remember?

No NaNo this year.

Sad, but necessary. I’m hardly going to start another novel, um, two days ago. But I will be trying to meet NaNo wordcounts this month, and except for these first few days when I’m scrambling to pull together overdue short stories, those words will all go to the Novel-in-Progress. I am on track, just. Nov. 1st: around 700 words. Nov. 2nd: 2600 ish. In a few minutes I’m going to hit cumulative 5000. (Obviously, I am only counting words written on stories. But I am also counting words I don’t end up using.)

Good luck to all of you real NaNo-ers! (NaNoists? NaNovelers? WriMos? Whatever.)