So I spent, seriously, twenty hours this weekend making out with a random number generator, going through the blogs registered on nablopomo.com to find people who had updated their blogs thirty days in a row without fail so I could award them some pretty felt Christmas ornaments, or a Barnes & Noble gift certificate, or a lovely homemade scarf*. And despite the fact that I now need double-prescription reading glasses and a family-size bottle of Tylenol, the whole thing went pretty smoothly and was actually kind of fun. I’d been so wrapped up during the month of November that this weekend was my first chance to surf around and check out the blogs of people who were doing NaBlo. I am here to tell you that I have seen some of the most unreadable page layouts known to planet Earth; I have come away with a curious sense of appreciation for all the Christian bloggers who made the blogging promise and boy did they stick to it; I have bookmarked dozens of posts to go back and read later and steal all the links. Overall I’m just really impressed by the number of people who didn’t think it was a dumb idea to pour more content into the Internet, and who made an effort to make sure that a lot of it was truly worth reading. I would have liked to have seen more cat pictures, though. Get on that, Internet!
*Right from the start I made a deal with myself that no matter how wrong the prize seemed for the person for whom fate had assigned it, I would give it to them, I would not assume that a brazenly childfree blogger would scoff at being awarded a baby sling because maybe they’d been looking for months for the perfect gift for their sister’s grad-school roommate’s pregnant girlfriend and who was I to interfere with the gushing rapids of unfettered prosperity? And thus a blogger named Joe ended up winning a hand-knitted purse.
I didn’t win anything, but i sure had fun trying. Actually i won ? something for commenting everyday on The Daily Tannebaum blog.
See ya next year.
Could he also be known as Josephine?
I have to apologize, seeing as how I dropped out of NaNeeNaNeeBooBoo before it started, because the pressure…well, it was bigger than this white-head on my forehead. But, I couldn’t figure out how to delete myself off the site, so I could very well be one of those folks who gave you that headache.
I know, because it’s a giant pain in the ass, right? I think I did check your blog, momo! You could have won a prize!
So I guess this means two years in a row of dutifully posting, and no prize?
Sigh.
And yet? I’ll probably sign up again next year.
I’m such a sucker
It probably could work as a man purse. For a wussy man. Not that I’m saying Joe is one. I’ll go check him out BEFORE I say something like that.
But how smart are you for having the donors ship the prizes instead of sending the prizes to you for shipment. VERY smart, Mrs. Kennedy. What if you still had that to do?
I think that any guy brazen enough to enter this estrogen-heavy blogosphere deserves a man-purse. At the very least. Enjoy it, Joe!
You know, I have a [totally straight] friend named Joe who would probably LOVE a hand-knitted purse.
You never know.
While I didn’t win a prize (again), NaBloPoMo spearheaded a project called NaBloCleanMo. I spent all of November posting evidence that I’m a terrible slob, and I then cleaned it up. My house is never looked better!
I’m hoping I will have learned something from this torture and have to come up with a new topic next year!
Cat pics, you say? On Nov. 29, just in the nick of time, I got one in: http://storytellingnotes.blogspot.com/2007/11/new-duck-puppet.html
(sorry, can’t remember how to make that a real link).
Thanks for doing this! No prize for me, but I’ve had big fun.
Priscilla
I had no idea the participants were up for prizes. Here I thought they were just trying really hard to entertain us loyal readers
I’ve got puss pics and tales galore on my blog….
* must have been all those years on stage where most of my roles had a English accent.
if you want to see some great cat photos, check out this site:
http://www.ittybittykittycommittee.blogspot.com
it will break your heart.
Does it say somewhere why you picked November to do this craziness? First I have Halloween, then my son’s birthday, then Thanksgiving; I figure I’ll not be able to paticipate for about 25 years. This takes me into my sixties.
I’ll tell you this though, I did enjoy reading the additional 800 posts per day from my rss reader.
You wanted pictures of cats? Why didn’t you tell us. If that could have gotten me a prize, even a knitted purse obviously made for a guy named Joe, I would have posted pics of the Worthless Pet.
2 years, 60+ posts, no prizes. I have to do this again next year, huh?
NaBloPoMo ’08, I promise to post many pictures of my cat.
Joe winning the purse (maybe he has a wife? Could be a nice stocking stuffer) reminds me of a school raffle when I was in seventh grade: a boy won the doll, and a girl won the football. I don’t know what happened to the doll, but I’m pleased to say the girl kept the football.
As the lucky winner of the lovely felt Christams ornaments, I have to thank you (and your poor, tired eyes) for your effort. NaBloPoMo was fun. Looking forward to ’08! (Now go have a drink, eh? You deserve it.)
Thanks for your tireless work on our behalf.
PS – you have big feet, like me (yes, of course I had to look at your eBay listing – those are famous shoes!)
Yeah, I actually did it. And posted every day. AND signed up on the NaBloPoMo ning site. BUT… I’m just retarded and forgot to email you to get myself listed on the blogroll.
Because I am JUST that dedicated to subverting my own attempts at getting anything done properly.
Still, award or no, it was a good ride this year. Danke for all your work. It was good to nail that goal. (Also a good way to avoid other goals, which would have involved actually… you know.. cleaning things and laundry and whatnot.)
Happy End Of MoFoNaBlo. And stuff.
I have to say I did more blog reading and commenting in November than ever before. I think the exercise was a huge success!
Thanks for all of your efforts.
Hey you shouldn’t mess with fate! What an adorable purse. Every man should have one! If you need cats check out my cats
Although I didn’t win a prize, I do just have to send a HUGE THANK YOU to you for organizing all this! I think it is a fantastic idea and is such a fun way for bloggers to unite!
Rock on with your bad self!
Joe here – soon to be DIGGING my purse.
I’d like to thank the academy, God and my parents, but mostly I’d like to say thank you to Eden for all of her hard work.
I want you to know that I personally posted just as many cat pictures as I could. Our current cat is not big on holding still, and my cheapo digital camera is not always up to the challenge, so I’ve gotten a lot of images of him with, for example, no head because of motion blur. Also, kitty was in the hospital for about a week of November. Still, I managed to get in a good four or five clear shots. If you need to see them, let me know and I’ll send you the links.
I’m here to help, you see.
Meanwhile, thank you again for another good, crazy time.
Hey, I just realized I could have entered after all, since I posted at Cool Mom Picks not one but THREE times a day this past month.
Darn. Maybe Joe will give me his purse.
Congrats on a successful event and for pretty much breaking my feed reader.
Nuh-uh…cute cat award goes to my demon spawn….
http://whymomdrinksrum.blogspot.com/2007/11/boredom-buster.html
Year two…still attacking from dark corners and attempting to murder us on the stairs.