The mission

I've come to the realization that this blog has gradually veered from its original purpose - to make me into a better person. Now, I'm not saying that the blog is entirely to blame. But I'm pretty sure it's mostly the blog's fault. I mean, come on, it is the blog's mission. Isn't it?

Anyway, I'm going to use the upcoming NaBloPoMo to get this blog back on track because without the proper guidance, most blogs will deteriorate into narcissistic ramblings about how certain things suck and certain other things rock and will often dedicate lengthy passages filled with deep philosophical ruminations on the greatness of America's Next Top Model. So my first post of November will be a revisiting of the list. I will track my progress and update the list where necessary. Then I'll throw myself back at the list because I've been straying from it for a bit now. And that's what you, my deardear readers, have in store next month. Yay.

On a different note, I'm good at poker. That's not just my opinion either. I can now cite a second source for that information. So I was playing in a sit-n-go (a small tournament that starts whenever a certain number of players sign up for it) and it was down to just me and another guy. After I made a play to build up a pot for myself (I'll spare you the details), some observer chimed in with a "your good." Now two people think I'm good at poker. I'll try to forget the fact that one of them doesn't know the difference between your and you're.

I'm grateful for a random stranger's validation of my ability to do something I probably shouldn't be doing in the first place (20).

(20)

Theron, the boy with three last names, was born last night!

goodgoodgoodgoodgoodgoodgoodgoodgoodgoodgoodgoodgood

I've seen some pictures, and I think that the Barenaked Ladies may have been on to something: "What a good boy! What a smart boy! What a strong boy!"

Congratulations, piwok!

Work

Sorry about the nopost mania I've been through lately. I've been working a lot these past few days. Wait. Scratch that. I've been working more in these past few days. The problem is that I tend to blog at night. And my job, sports writing, usually happens at night because, well, that's when sports usually happen. Which means that on nights that I work, I often don't feel like blogging.

In the past week or so, the other new sports writer has been unavailable/unreachable, so I've been able to poach his hours for myself. On Thursday night I went to the game that the other guy was supposed to cover, and I was talking with my boss, who was at the game to take a few pictures. He told me that he was trying to get me more hours. Which is kind of really very awesome. He said that he really couldn't do much with me and the other guy when our hours are so limited, but that it was also difficult to get money that wasn't budgeted for the fiscal year. But he's working on it.

With this extra time working over the past few days, I've been getting a lot more ink, and that feels good. On Friday I had three articles, including two on the cover of sports. Today I had a story that was on the top left of sports. Small victories, man. Small victories.

I've also gotten a chance to get to know my boss a lot better. I'm starting to like him quite a bit. And he's a much better editor than I gave him credit for. He never piles on editorial suggestions. He tends to focus on one thing, and then tempers those suggestions/criticisms with complements. I've also recently recognized that, even though I often don't care for some of the changes he makes to the pieces I've written, his reasoning for making the changes is always solid.

I'm grateful for liking my job and for the possibility of more hours (20).

A runner's guide to writing

I've been writing a lot of words lately. Maybe bad words. I'm not letting myself go back to agonize check over what I've written until I've finished with the project. I've started a little bit early for NaNoWriMo with the hopes that by the time November comes around I'll be in the proper mindset for such an undertaking. I've also begun working on a new novel. I'm not giving up on the one I had been working on. It's just that she and I have not been getting along so well lately, and we both need some space.

Anyway, this new novel I'm working on is taking shape a lot quicker than anything I've written recently. I've only been working on it for a few days, and it already has more pages than I sometimes write in a few weeks. I think this is in part due to the fact that I've stolen a trick I use while running - I lie to myself.

When running, it's sometimes difficult to stay motivated to keep going. Often the body reacts negatively. "Why are we doing this?" It might ask. "We should stop. We're missing the Price is Right."

I try to keep my body at bay by picking out some arbitrary benchmark. "We'll stop when we get to the next corner," or "We'll go until the end of this song," or "Let's at least keep at it until we start sweating." Then, once I've reached that benchmark and my body is woooooohoooooooing I string it along a bit more. "Well, since we've made it this far, let's see if we can make it to the school just down the street."

"Oh, all right."

I've been doing that with my writing. I sit down and think, "I'm going to write 500 words." Then, once I reach 500 words I say, "Just another hundred." And I keep justanotherhundreding my way to two or three thousand words in a sitting. Which for me is really good.

Now if only I were confident that the writing was good as well. . .

I'm grateful for creamy peanut butter (20).

I'm so gonna put all my stuff in that

Today was the Pokerstars World Championship of Online Poker. 1,337 bloggers played in the tournament, and the top 81 finishers got loot of some sort. How did I do? Good. Quite good, actually. 53rd. In a field that big, I was thinking I would be lucky to finish in the top 500. And I was lucky. And unlucky. And then lucky again. And then unlucky again. And I think you get the point. It was a poker tournament. Tournament poker is like that. Sometimes you have to take risks you wouldn't normally take in a cash game, and so do your opponents. And things happen.

Finishing 53rd got me what I believe they labeled the traveler's package - a pokerstars duffel bag and two decks of waterproof cards. So yeah, I'm awesome. I totally smashed all your barrels. If I had outlasted eight more bloggers, I would've won an iPod nano. That would've been pretty cool. But I'm still pleased with my results.

I'm grateful for my new sweetsweet duffel bag (20).

November

Seeing as November is both National Novel Writing Month and National Blog Posting Month, I intend to write a lot during the time. The goal for NaNoWriMo is to get writers (mostly aspiring writers from what I can tell) to just write, to forget about their insecurities and the arduous task of being good and write a 50,000-word novel between Nov. 1 and Nov. 30. To quote the website, "It's all about quantity, not quality." If I can really get into the spirit of NaNoWriMo, it should be really go for me. And the goal of NaBloPoMo, to get bloggers to update every day, is something I should be doing anyway. So, you know, look out for the Procrastinator in month eleven.

For those of you who are interested in participating in the November awesomeness but don't have a blog and aren't interested in writing a novel, Matthew Baldwin over at defective yeti has initiated NaNoReMo (national novel reading month). This year's book is Catch-22, which is a book that, if you're someone who reads books, you should probably read. . . even if you don't like it. Just because it's Catch-22.

I'm grateful for Celia Jo (20).

Juvenile

You know, I like to think of myself as a mature adult. That is, of course, until I watch an episode of Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel and start chuckling when Mike Rowe says, "The problem is: a dirty organ in church." Damn it, Beavis! Grow up.

I'm grateful to be easily amused (20).

Bloggers and poker

Wil Wheaton's blog had a post mentioning that pokerstars.com is having a World Blogger Championship of Online Poker. It's a freeroll, and all I have to do is place an ad on my page and I'm in. So, without further ado, here it is:

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 4045295

It should be fun. It's actually a pretty good deal for all parties involved. Pokerstars.com gets free advertising dusted across blogtopia and undoubtedly just as many posts from bloggers reporting their results. And bloggers get a free chance to win a variety of poker/blogger related swag. Also, as Mr. Wheaton so aptly pointed out in his blog, the above linkage is SEOtastic and likely to draw in new readers to blogs that post it.

I don't expect to place too highly in the event itself. Freerolls of this magnitude tend to be fraught with such perils as the allinornothing bombers, the neverraiseneverfold minefields, and the undead money (bad players who become dangerous with irrational, unpredictable moves). It should be fun though. First place is entry into, travel to, and housing for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, a tournament on Paradise Island. So, for the next week, I can entertain dreams about island antics, and that'll be fun for me. I'll make sure to post my results after the freeroll.

I'm grateful for Pushing Daisies (20).

Punkass chicken or chickenass punk?

Yup. I'm a scaredy cat. So there's a job that was posted on Friday, and I didn't apply for it until just now. A good job for me. I'd been telling people that I'd already applied for it even though I hadn't. Why didn't I apply for it? Did I feel underqualified? Was I afraid of being rejected again? No. . . Actually, I think I'm afraid I'll get it. From what I can tell, it's basically the same job that I'm doing right now, it's just for a paper that will let me work 30 hours a week instead of just five. It's a small, local-type of paper that wants a reporter to produce content on the area high school teams. Exactly what I'm doing now.

Oh, and it's in Ohio.

I hate the idea of leaving Michigan for two reasons. First, Michigan is running into some serious economic and social issues because the kids who've grown up in Michigan and then graduated from Michigan colleges and universities are all leaving to get jobs in other states. It's a serious problem. I don't want to do that because this state has been good to me; it's my home.

The biggest reason I don't want to leave, though, is that all of the people who I care the most about in this world live in Michigan. Some of them I see seldom enough as it is. What happens when I add five or six hours to the drive? Maybe I've discussed this already? I'm not sure. . .

Lacing this leavingthestate fear of mine, however, is a sugary optimism that paints the new setting as the place where I will flourish and become who I've always wanted to be. I was indulging in an extended version of this fantasy (I had a book published within a year, I was a yoga instructor, I was promoted through the belt progression faster than anyone in the history of my new dojo, my phone was overloaded with new numbers, etc., etc.) when I finally sent in my application. Can't see if the fantasy will ever come true if I don't pursue it, huh?

So, I'll keep you posted.

I'm grateful for flights of fancy (20).