Over a Candle

It’s that time again. Another year has passed, and it’s time to reflect on this past year on Over A Candle. It’s always strange to see what has transpired (at least as far as my blog is concerned). It is sometimes surprising to see that less than a year has passed since some of these events. I suppose any year that ends is a good year. I, for one, am glad to see this one end.

January

• Israel continued its unjust (and disproportionate) attack on the Gaza Strip.
• George W. Bush finally left office.
• My favorite post of the month: What I Choose to do with Them.

February

• I spent my first birthday with my biological mother since my first birthday.
• We bought airline tickets to Ireland.
• My favorite post of the month: To Make a Grown Man Cry.

March

• The second half of the month was dominated by the flood that threatened our home and our entire city.
• My favorite post of the month: Coolest Thing Ever Said about Me.

April

• After evacuating, we got to move back into our house and start putting our lives back together, though we were still contending with the possibility of a second crest. (Thankfully, it never really threatened us.)
• The first hints of a possible swine-flu epedmic appeared.
• My favorite post of the month: Shamatha on My Shoulder (because we needed something light-hearted).

May

• Sonia Sotomayor was nominated the Supreme Court.
• A “pro-life” activist killed a doctor who performed abortions.
• The first of a great crop of video games, inFamous, was released.
• My favorite post of the month: Ethics and Democracy.

June

• The repairs to our basement from the March flood were finally completed.
• Al Franken was finally declared the winner of the 2008 Minnesota Senate election.
• To make up for the cancellation of the Electronic Gaming Monthly, I was rewarded with a subscription of Maxim.
• My favorite post of the month: Tiananmen, 20 Years On.

July

• Despite Delta’s best attempts to thwart us, we finally made it to Ireland!
• I had my four primary teeth pulled.
• In a year that was otherwise thankfully light on death (relative to recent years), my grandfather passed away this month. I did manage to make it home for the funeral.
• My favorite post of the month: The Truth in Lies.

August

• Nowhere close to the emotional level of my grandfather’s passing, but John Hughes died.
• The Health Care debate heated up with lots of silly rhetoric and bizarre outbursts at Town Hall meetings.
• Obama began talking up the Afghanistan war in earnest.
• The next installment of the year of the video game was released: Batman: Arkham Asylum.
• My favorite post of the month: Politeness Run Amok.

September

• Concerns about the swine flu (now referred to as H1N1) ramp up. All the signs suggest that I fell victim to the virus.
• Larry Gelbart passed away.
• I found my biological brothers (my father’s sons) on Facebook.
• The Beatles: Rock Band was released, leading to my favorite post of the month: The Beatles: Rock Band.

October

• In one of the most inappropriate events of the year, Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
• I discovered a new board game: The Stars Are Right. Mentioning it prompted a friend to turn me on to another great board game: Carcassonne.
• I met Peter Jurasik at the local sci-fi convention.
• One of my students dressed up as me for Halloween.
• Another great video game – Borderlands – was released.
• I’m having real trouble picking a favorite post for the month. These three seem to be the most obvious candidates: Suicide Is Painless, A Deal with God, Ideas

November

• The GOP began kicking out moderates in an attempt to become as irrelevant as possible.
• A tragic shooting at Ft. Hood, Texas became more tragic as extremists sought to blame Muslims as a whole.
• A robbery near my school caused a brief lock-down on campus, and not a little anxiety in the neighborhood.
• Arguably the best video game during a great year (and certainly one of the top four) came out: Dragon Age: Origins.
• Sarah Palin showed her determination to remain relevant by releasing the mostly fictional book, Going Rogue.
• In one of the more humorous moments of the year, it turns out Texas, in its zeal to ban gay-marriage, may have banned all marriage.
• I survived another National Blog Posting Month.
• My favorite post of the month: Love Story.

December

• Drawing together the most ironic story of the year, Obama finally announced he was upping the troop-commitment in Afghanistan just before he went to Oslo to thumb his nose at everything the Nobel Peace Prize stands for.
• The Health Care reform bill passed the Senate. It’s anyone’s guess as to what the final legislation will look like (after reconciliation with the House bill).
• As for my favorite post of the month, I think any of the Chrischanukkahwanzaamas posts are obvious candidates. Probably either the Ninjamas post or the Chummas post strike me as the best.

There you have it. Another year in the can. Here’s to the new year. “May she be a damned sight better than the old one, and may we all be home before she’s over.”

I can’t believe it’s almost November again. And we all know what that means… (You may have noticed the shiny new badge off to the right.)

It’s time once more for National Blog Posting Month.

For the third year in a row, I will once again be posting at least once a day for the whole month of November. I can’t guarantee quality posts, but barring some catastrophe or serious illness, I will be posting.

I wanted to get this introductory post out of the way before the month begins. It would seem a cheap way to begin the month of wall-to-wall posts. I’m still open to suggestions for posts (you know, for those days when I can’t come up with something to complain about).

Otherwise, check back often, or you might miss something.

January

• The writers strike in Hollywood dragged on.
• And the presidential election, that seemed have been going on for years, finally saw some people vote.
• My favorite post for the month: Memories

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February

• Lots more voting in the presidential race. I actually found myself scared by the possibility that McCain would pick Huckabee as his running mate if he won the nomination. (Now I find myself laughing that Huckabee scared me as a VP candidate, what with who McCain would choose and all.) Romney dropped out. McCain also previewed his lack of understanding of economics.
• Democrats in Congress gave the telecoms a free pass for helping the government spy on its own people.
• I found Fruit Stripe gum online!
• On a personal note, I received my very first birthday present from my biological mom.
• My favorite post for the month: 19 years ago

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March

• The personal highlight of the month was going to Missouri to visit with my biological mom and meet my half brothers.
• Speculation of an Obama-Clinton or a Clinton-Obama ticket increased.
• Not much blogging during March, but I think this was my favorite post for the month: I Miss Newsradio.

April

• The new album by Lis Harvey, Any Two Cards, was officially released.
• Throughout the month, lots of late spring snow graced our corner of the world.
• The presidential campaign was still going on. And on. And on. And on.
• My favorite post for the month (an April Fool’s joke I still feel a little guilty about, even while I feel some pride): The Deer Giveth, and the Deer Taketh Away.

May

• Several movies were released, including Iron Man, Prince Caspian, and the fourth Indiana Jones movie.
• I discovered, through comments on a blog post, that I could make cold press coffee at home.
• Ronni and I got our Kindles.
• I don’t know if it’s right to call it my favorite post, but I wrote a post (mostly quoting him) on the occasion of Utah Phillips’ death. It should be read and reread as one of the best statements of the principles that drive me.

June

• Barack Obama wrapped up the Democratic nomination. Finally.
• I actually met Al Franken during a campaign stop in Moorhead.
• I received both tenure and promotion.
• Both the best and the worst movies of the year came out. M. Night Shamylan’s The Happening wins my vote for worst movie. And Pixar’s Wall-E is the best. (Though next month will see a very, very close second.)
• My favorite album of the year (because I had gotten an advanced copy of Lis Harvey’s late last year) came out: Hiromi’s Beyond Standard.
• My favorite post of the month: Cat Frustration.

July

• The stupid presidential campaign was still going on.
• I switched from Yahoo! as my domain register to NameCheap.
• Ronni let me take pictures while visiting Central Park. (I got to give in to my inner tourist!)
• The second-best movie (and I struggle writing that… on a different day, I might give it the edge) came out, The Dark Knight.
• I finally bought myself a PlayStation 3.
• My favorite post of the month: Does the “W” Stand for Wayne?

August

• I got braces put on. Sigh.
• The Summer Olympics gave us all a break from politics.
• The Democratic Party convention was held. Joe Biden was named Obama’s VP candidate. And the biggest political joke of the year was named McCain’s running mate.
• Politics dominated my posts this month, and I’m reluctant to pick one as my favorite, so I’ll point to this post about the Olympics: Confessions of an Olympic Junkie.

September

• The Republican convention was held. And Tina Fey had the best moments in comedy during the whole campaign.
• We came to realize that free market capitalism is only good when the rich get richer. When the rich get poorer, we get government bailouts of Wall Street.
• My favorite post of the month: Coincidence?

October

• The campaign kicked into high gear with several debates, Joe the Plumber, and several high profile and principled Republicans endorsing Barack Obama. Indeed, with the exception of one post about snow and one about society in general, all the posts this month were about the campaign or the bailout.
• It’s hard to pick a favorite, but probably this post, about the whole “Real American” crap spread by Palin and other wing-nuts is my favorite (it features two Daily Show videos, too): Another Divider, Not a Uniter.

November

• I participated in the third annual NaBloPoMo.
• The United States surprised me by actually electing the person who made the better argument for electing him. The country surprised me by electing someone who ran a primarily positive campaign. We elected Barack Obama, despite all the reasons for thinking we wouldn’t.
• My brother and his significant other suffered a tragedy. (My heart still goes out to them both.)
• My favorite post of the month: Writing.

December

• I won a sock zombie for my blogging during NaBloPoMo!
• I suffered from back pain all month. (It seems to finally be getting better.)
• I continued avoiding politics after feeling burnt out from an unhumanely long election.
• My favorite post of the month: Love.

Well, that’s it. The year in review from above the candlestick. Happy New Year to you all!

My sock zombie arrived yesterday!!!

It’s the large purple toehawk throwing sock zombie. Yes, that’s blood around its mouth. And yes, that’s a skull bead on the side of its head (ear?).

You can see the “toehawk” (like a mohawk, only for the toes of the sock) in the side picture:

It’s a little bit bigger than my hand (I could hold it in my palm, but bits would be hanging off of each side).

Again, I don’t blog for prizes or money. I blog for myself and whoever wants to read the crazy things that go on in my head. But it’s still pretty cool to have gotten something for my blogging.

I now officially have to change the badge in my sidebar, as I have more than just a sense of accomplishment from last month’s blogging marathon.

If you must have a sock zombie, go to the Sock Zombie website. (I’m happy to give free advertising to people who give me prizes!) Besides, you know you want a sock zombie!

Apparently, I won a prize for NaBloPoMo. I won, it seems, a random prize of a sock zombie. While I don’t blog for prizes, I never say no to free stuff. (Well, not to most free stuff.) I guess I’ll have to change my NaBloPoMo badge (to the right). It looks like I might be getting more than just a sense of accomplishment for blogging every day last month. A picture of my sock zombie will be posted whenever I get it. For now, I’m just amused that I actually won something this year.

Today is the final day of NaBloPoMo. The last day for me to sit on my couch, after eight o’clock at night, and wonder what I’m going to write about on my blog. The last day for me to look at Ronni for a suggestion. The last day for me feel guilty for not having a “substantial” post, instead of a throw-away post.

That’s the funny thing about this month. Every other day of the year, if I want to post something, I do. If it’s a short little blurb, I don’t feel bad about it. If it’s a goofy thought, or a meaningless quiz, I put it up and hope others find it funny and take it themselves. This month, though, I feel like the posts should matter. If they don’t, it’s cheating, somehow.

But why should that be? This blog is about whatever enters my head and I decide to share. Often it’s about politics. Sometimes it’s about entertainment. And then there are days it’s just about my cats. And that’s okay. (Incidentally, if I could have gotten a picture of the way Shamatha was looking out the window earlier today… He was standing on his back paws, swaying a little, almost like a cobra… Very weird.)

I know that now the pressure is off, I will probably post here for the next several days or weeks without much trouble at all. I mean, when I don’t have to post, it’s usually quite easy.

But I think I got out of this month what I hoped to. I needed to recommit to my writing and my blogging. And this helped with that. I still enjoy doing this, and it’s good to have that confirmed by pushing yourself to keep doing it. So I’ll wear my NaBloPoMo badge with pride.

And meet me here tomorrow to see what happens when I don’t make myself post.

As the badge on the top of the sidebar should have made clear by now, today is the first day of the third annual National Blog Posting Month. I still don’t have the time or drive to do the National Novel Writing Month (maybe next year?). But I fully intend to keep up my streak of NaBloPoMo. And I felt like I was beginning to slack off a bit on the blog, with several two-day breaks between posts lately. (The last week doesn’t count, because of all the stupid political stuff I feel compelled to write.)

So this is my opportunity to rededicate myself to this odd obsession of mine. (Y’all do realize I’d be posting here even if no one read it, right? Indeed, I rarely, if ever, check my statistics on this site. I have no idea how many people are reading this thing.)

It’s bad timing, of course. Since today, the first day of this marathon, I’m in the middle of trying to grade around 100 papers. But I still plan on posting every day this month. Including today. And this post doesn’t feel like it should count.

So give me a couple of hours. I’m going to grade a bit more. Then I’ll be back with a real post. Probably something about the stupid election.

I should have posted this before. I’m on a mostly internet-free vacation this week. I may be able to post once or twice, but I may not. So updates will be spotty this week, if at all. We will return to our (almost) regular update schedule next week. Don’t be alarmed. The situation is SNAFU.

Apparently, Yahoo! TM no longer wants to be a domain registrar. I got an e-mail yesterday informing me of a huge price increase on domain renewals (more than 3x what it had been). Since I have three domains registered, I didn’t want to be paying over $100 a year just to register the domains.

So I’m currently in the process of changing my registrar. I’m hoping it won’t cause any interruption in Over A Candle’s status. If so, bear with me.

I have been using Yahoo! less and less for things. This is just one more nail in its coffin, as far as I’m concerned. NameCheap, here I come. (Thanks to uberwald for the recommendation!)

This has been a long month. Lots of difficult events and many distractions. Friends and family close to me have been going through their own crises, as I feel mostly useless in helping them. Then there have been my own little issues that I’ve been struggling with. November, even though it flew right by, has been piling it on a bit, I think. (I’m avoiding rehashing all the gory little details here. Despite some of the silliness that’s gone on, I’ve tried to keep it out of my blog for the most part.)

For all of those reasons and more, I really struggled with National Blog Posting Month this year. Several days, I barely got my post in on time. Some days, I just didn’t feel like posting at all.

And yet, I’m glad that it was going on this month. I think I might have failed to blog altogether for weeks at a time if this challenge I voluntarily took on hadn’t been here. I might have gotten out of the habit of posting at all. And, whatever else I deal with, I really do enjoy this outlet. And I think it would be a shame if I didn’t keep doing it.

This blog has always been, first and foremost, for me. I wanted, even needed, a place to have a voice all my own. And this blog has been that. I don’t want to lose it, even if I do sometimes feel tired doing it.

So despite my own struggles this month, I’m glad I did this again. My own month of months is coming to a close. I’m not sorry to National Adoption Month end. But I’m glad to have had NaBloPoMo to keep me on track.

One last thing to do. I just need to add the official completion badge to my sidebar. (No. I don’t know why the Pillsbury Dough Boy is on the badge.) Then I’ll be ready for December.